Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

"TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.SAN igr Designed not to upset anyone DECORATIVE art is art that deliberately Craft objects are almost always decorative, too, though they are less aloof than a decorative painting: like a prostitute, they often invite the spectator to gratify his tactile sense. Art objects that act on the spec- tator are more important than pas- sive ones. Whether you prefer one to the other perhaps depends on your own sexual tastes. There's always a lot of passive, gecoraUve art around. JANNIS SPYROPOULOS, at David Jones, an internationally known Greek abstractionist, is one of the best decorative painters there is. We have seen him at David Jones before, and his lights floating in blackness are as elegantly adjusted as always. KIT BARKER launches the Vil- liers Gallery's new premises at 37 Gamier Street, Paddington. Cool air-conditioned luxury, It's like a Bond Street gallery, and these blue and green landscape paintings come from London, too. They are no more than decorative souvenirs of Europe, and they don't pretend to be otherwise at prices from $200 to $1000. The Villiers Gallery's policy will be mostly European art. It is a brave venture here in .ts- t,ralia, to be heartily applauded for there are heavyweight artists pro- mised In the future. JOHN MASON (Holdsworth Gal- leries) makes decorative reliefs of nail -heads. They are swirly and slightly psychedelic. He also makes colored fibreglass goblins with lights inside. LEONAS ITHBANAS (also at Holdsworth) is a more acceptable decorative artist. No longer a painter of brown abstract -expressionism, he now does what looks like blow-ups of an- atomical sections, but also, more Interestingly, his Slavic origins make other works look like the decorative romantics of 1910, Ciurlionis, Bakst, Vrubel. Decoration seems better when there's a hit of tradition behind it. THE COMALCO PRIZE, an an- nual award for "Sculpture in Archi- tectural Environments" (now at Bonython Galleries) is by intention an award for sculpture-as-architer- tunil-decoration. This year, however, it didn't ask for a screen, or a wall -piece, but in- stead a "free-standing sculpture suited to small foyers and reception areas." So for once the sculptures had a better chance of becoming art. The prize went to George Baldes- sin, whose piece pleasingly mocked the values of architecture by, setting up its own warped beams, columns and slabs. avoids a rt by doniel thomas) ( disturbing the spectator. William Gregory also commented on rectangular volumes with his excellent set of suspended planes labelled "Inside-outside." Bill Clements, Tony Bishop and Noel Hutchison all activated the proposed small spaces by branch- ing and thrusting. Michael Kitching's piece just sat there and glowed in shiny alumin- ium, and I guess architects might have liked it best. ELAINE HAXTON (also at Bony- thon) has always been a frankly decorative artist. Recently she has taken to etch- ing and woodcut as well as paint- ing and these prints are a perfect vehicle for her new Oriental style. Delightful. ACTIVE VORTEX: The religious art prize in St. Itbi,'s Cathedral crypt was won by Weaver Hawkins with an immensely powerful picture of Christ carrying the cross to (iiii- gotha. It was an ugly event, and it still reverberates today in this relent- lessly spinning composition where Christ's figure becomes a kind of swastika form. There is no indecision, nothing unresolved; everything on the can- vas has formal necessity. Weaver Hawkins is not young. His career began in London around World War I, the period of the Vorticist movement; and he must be the world's only Vorticist still at work. POWER. Richard Larter (Waiter* Gallery) is tough, like Weaver Hawkins. That is, his subject matter is as ugly as the killing of Jesus, and his pictorial forms have a relentless logic and power; like a motor run- ning; or like any calculated cam- paign of political, social or sexual exploitation. I don't think Larter either loves or hates the people in his paint- ings. Mao, and L.B.J., and the ladies from German porno magazines are all old friends from his previous exhibitions. By now they have little shock value, so it's easier to admire the confident powerful structure of these paintings, and to realise that the figures are simply symbols of real - life power. He uses them for his own pur- pose, which is Art Power. This is the best show he's had. it looks as if it came easy and sure, COPPING. Today, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Bruce Copping will set up in Charks Street, Woolloomooloo, outside the Inhibodness Gallery, the rejected piece which he entered for the Contemporary Art Society prize. It Is polystyrene blocks dissolving in turps. YELLOW HOUSE. This weekend the Yellow House re -opens with its summer exhibition.