Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

From "TELEGRAPH" -7ydney, N.S.W , I\ Welcome to... Sunshine Country AUSTRALIA'S most sacred emblem, the Anzac badge, is a sunray design, and sunray designs are one of the most characteristic features of the Art Deco style. Art Deco Is a new name for the style of the 1920s and 1930s. It used to be called "Jazz Modern" or "Modernis- tic" or, in America, "Moderne." But now that quite a few books on the style are appearing, the name seems to have been settled as "Art Deco.' Deco is short for "decorative," and It is used because the style was launched at a big exhibition in Paris in 1925 of "Les Arts Decoratils et Industriels Modernes," It was not an exhibition of paint- ings and sculptures except if they were architectural decorations or murals. Mostly it was furniture, ceramics, glass, textiles and metal work. The newest book on Art Deco is by BevLs Hillier, and it Ls based on an exhibition held last year at Minneapolis. Hillier thinks the sunray is the dominant motif of Art Deco. HLs exhibition included sunray Imokends, bowls, vases, jewellery, dress materials, men sunray shoes. I think he could have added some very interesting Australian Items. The Anzac badge, a sunburst of swords. would have been one of the few exhibits containing great emot- ional and patriotic significance; the majority were frivolous, luxury ob- jects. Among the architectural photo- graphs lie should have included Sydney's Anzac Memorial, as a near unique example in- the world of a serious Art Deco building. Mostly Art Deco architecture is frivolous, like cinemas, nightclubs and shops: consequently it is tran- sitory, too - not much Art Deco architecture survives. Perhaps the Anzac Memorial in Sydney and Lenin's Tomb in Mos- cow are the two important Art Deco buildings in the world which might stand for centuries. The Anzac Memorial's architect. by the way, was Bruce Dellit, and its date is stout 1936. art (by daniel thornas Another Sydney architect who did outstanding Art Deco work was Emil Sodersteen. Their buildings should be cher- ished. The Australia Hotel's Martin Place entrance is gone, with Its black mirror circular staircase (though there is a chance it might be re -erected in the new building on the same site). The Mayfair Hotel at Kings Cross is gone But the C.M.L. office building at Hunter .and Bligh Streets remains, and it is probably the best after the Anzac Memorial. Anothei Australian item, for the costume section of the Minneapolis exhibition could have been a bath- ing costume from a Bondi surf carnival. It's hard-core Art Deco design, with sunrays. Hillier's book accounts for Art Deco's proliferation of sunrays sim- ply by pointing to the then modern cult of sunbathing. Nobody enjoyed sunbathing before the 19'20s. Previously the Riviera had been a winter resort for old people. In the "twenties there was a "Solar revolu- tion." The French Riviera (and Aus- tralia's beaches) filled with sun- bathers: sunshine clinics were open- ed in the Swiss Alps. It wasn't only a matter of sun- shine for health. It was also a re- turn to nature. The same people that pioneered the Riviera also set up desert col- onies in Arizona and Mexico - D. H, Lawrence, Huxley, Scott Fitz- gerald and so on. Today's hippy farming com- munes arc an extension of the same back -to -nature movement. The desert art -colonies of the 'twenties would have been well aware that the Aztecs of Mexico had been literal sunworshippers. It is no accident that Aztec art was another major influence on Art Deco - nor is it surprising that in Sydne's artistic back -to -nature bush suburb of the 1930s. Castlecrag, harmless Aztec pageants to the sun were organised by the Burley Grif- fins, who had developed the suburb. Walter Burley Griffin's archi- tecture would of course have an im- portant place in an Art Deco ex- hibition, especially his now - mutilated Capitol Cinema in Mel- bourne. Obviously, Australia Is a very significant source of Art Deco, and especially of Art Deco sun-worship. Let's hope the next books or ex- hibitions include some Australian material. Ken Russell's new film version of The Boy Friend in a treasure trove of Art Deco. Don't miss it. Some of the musical numbers are as abstract and perfect as those of Busby Berkeley himself. Indeed the film is packed with affectionate references to classic musicals. The camera journey through an arcaded tunnel of legs is copied from Footlights Parade, Twiggy does a Carole Lombard scene, the final number is a reprise of the final girls -on-a -biplane number in Fly- ing Down to Rio. When I was idly checking where Ken Russell's borrowings had come from, I was startled to find a still from Broadway Melody, 1929, the first M.G.M. musical. Behind- the dancers and singers of Th. Wedding of the Painted Doll the main decorative feature is an' Anzac rising sun. Was the design in common use before Australia took it up? Did we use it first? Who invented it? When? I'd lite to know. forth