Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

Variety spices spring showing THE SPRING exhibition at the Yellow House is still the most stimulating art event in Sydney, but it's worth remembering what varied fare the city offers. Robin Wallace - Crabbe, .for *maniple, has a dhow at the WAITERS GALLERY, where one of the paintings drew highest praise from Andre Emmerich, the New York dealer, Emmerich has handled such great artists as Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland and Anthony Cam. Wallace-Crabbe is ambitiously attempting to keep landscape paint - lug viable. He wants us to share the excite- ment he gets from looking at clouds MO valleys and skies, but at the same time he knows that a swatch of color notes, In radiant colors, or of tone notes, In subtle grey -scales, are all that painting need be about. His odd shapes, like seven feet high, three inches wide. are an assertion that he is making art, not imitating nature. yet the ascent of horizontal color bands is also something that lifts the spectator's eye as if to light -drenched skies. Alan Oldfleld at GALLERY A, is also making a stand for old- fashioned art. His paintings are presented as "Three traditional themes," ntunely landscape, portrait and still life, Only instead of wanting to involve you with his subject maUer as well as with the art object, he distances YOU. They are artificial. they are paint- ings abou. naintings. either fine art paintings, s: pep art magazine -style images. They are clever, and amusing, perhaps even intelligent, and they look like the English painter David Hockney. Phillip Cannixso, at RUDY KOMON, Ls a very young sculptor who lives at Shepparion, Victoria, and he makes very old-fashioned, glossy bronze statuettes of Italian eeeleslasnes. The gallery's walls have been painted black to dramatise the glittering hordes of bronze people. There is nothing to indicate that It is a knowing, ironic reference back to 1890, and one can only assume that he is a genuine pro- vincial survival, fully convinced of Aihe relevance of his activity. He has paid his work the com- pliment of considerable technical skill, and loving care. Jeffrey Makin, at the MAC- QUARIE, shows pleasant, near - abstract landscapes, not too differ- ent in approach to Louis James, whose new work appears at Bony - then this weekend. Unk White, also at MACQUARIE, shows drawings for the various little gift books of Australian architee- Una! topography that have been published i t recent years. He mers with reality a bit, and faintly echoes the story -book illus- trations of Arthur Racicham. David Jones shows baroque fund - 4 'e from their stock, with luxury paintings by Sam Fullbrook and Jannis Spyropoulos. In addition there is a large paint - at his death. A color reproduction baa been published, and its color is a little too red by comparison with the original. Adrian Feint, a Sydney painter of landscapes and flowers, died recently. His collection of paintings by fellow artists was remarkably well oilmen, and is now on view at the AILTARMON GALLERIES. Margaret Preston, Orace Ceasing - ton Smith, Horace Trenerry, Charles (knitter are among them. art ( by daniel thomas Contemporary English tapestries will also be showing on the North Shore from Thursday, at DENIS CRONEEN'S, 67 West Street, North Sydney. They are by Tadek Beutlich and Peter Collingwood. Both have had minty public commissions in England. Rooms on View, an exhibition for charity, at FARMER'S BLAXLAND GALLERY, from Tuesday onwards, has rooms prepared by a number of interior decorators. Marion Best's will include wild technological pieces, well worth seeing. HOLDSWORTII GALLERIES has paintings by John Penoeval, prints by Barry Thomas and Alexander Butler, not uninteresting. THE CONTEMPORARY ART SOCIETY GALLERY has the society's annual "Young Content- poranes" competition. The avant-garde is less interesting to look at than it used to be. The moot avant-garde of the exhibits aren't even there to be looked at. Ian Milliss simply circulated a letter to those whom he knew were interested, saying he deserved the $400 prize because he had given the CA/3 at least $400 worth of publicity with his past exhibits. Nell Evans announced he was going to do yet another digestive piece within his own body, this time by eating threadwornia. The prize went to Terry English for an attractive pattern of shadows cast in windows during the passage of time. 01 INKIBORDRESS erry English has had a complete exhibi- tion on the passage of time. Visitors clock in, by poking a card into a small machine which grabs it and stamps the time; he then makes a chart of visitors' frequency in the gallery. Another exthibit was a wall pasted with laborers' time -cards of several years ago. It didn't make one very aware of the time they had spent at work or off work. The workers' names wore more Interesting, they alone made you aware of inunigration policies, alienation and loneliness. GARRY SIIEU) at 5 and ti p.m. today at the THIRD WORLD BOOKSHOP this painter -filmmaker premieres his now film "Inititnion." "TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W.