Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

1M IM "TEL GRAPH" 6 JAN 1963 Sydney, N.S.W. The Week in Art by Daniel Thomas 1962-the answer to artists' pleas TODAY I might as well consider the year in art, instead of the week, for the commercial galleries have all closed. It should, however, be remembered that the Art Gallery of N.S.W, remains open seven days a week throughout the entire year, and that even in this holiday season it has provided a new exhibition - a very gay and colorful small show of lithographs by such favorite modern masters as Picasso, Matisse, Chagall and de Steel. And, of course, in two weeks it will have the an- nual Archibald, Wynne and Sulman competitions again; a huge exhibition held at a time when all other Australian galleries take a siesta. Looking back on the year, the first thing, nat"- rally, that stands out fur me as this column, which I started for the Sunday Telegraph In May. I have enjoyed writing it. but it has set me one problem: polite nothings about unimportant things have been too readily con- verted by others into praise (out of stupidity or dishonesty I do not know). It should not be neces- sary to put out big bombs each week, unless, of course, pretentiousness creeps in - as when a near sell-out of low-pric- ed paintings, dependably saleable in subject matter, is publicised as an unusual event, and a sign of re- markable talent. It is neither. In this the Barry Stern Gallery has been the chief offender. The Stern Gallery op- ened at the very end of 1961; in 1962 two other new galleries opened, the Dominion and the Hungry Horse. New galleries, new news- paper columns (others have appeared since mine)-these indicate a greater public interest in art, an interest also stimu- lated, one must admit, by the £80,000 Schureck auc- tion in March. More books than ever The Bulletin's covers in color, taken from Austra- lian paintings, began in 1962 More books than ever before have appeared (though they were all planned some years ago), the most important by far being Bernard Smith's his- tory of Australian painting. The Georgian house Mono- graphs and Omyflower's programme both were launched, and Longman's booklets continued. Perth joined Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide with an Art Gallery Bulletin and a full- scale commercial quarterly art magazine is promised from Ure Smith in Feb- ruary. There were new films on Dobell, Nolan, Perceval and S. T. GUI. It has been a year when communications between artist and public have im- proved enormously, and this Is, I think. the main significance of 1962. It Is what the artists themselves were asking for two years ago. The moat important event of the whole year was also in the field of communication bet wee n artist and public. This was the Power bequest of nearly two million pounds to the University of Sydney to in- crease understanding of avant-garde art. Besides new galleries and publications and films seve- ral new art competitions were created, especially in N.S.W. country centres, and whatever one may think about the proliferation of competitions-the moat re- cent list showed over 60 throughout Australia - there is no question that they are an educational force in the country centres. But not, of course, as effective as the travel- ling Art Exhibitions Ser- vice which the Government abandoned six years ago. There is even an aware- ness now of Australian art overseas. In 1962 small of- ficial exhibitions were cir- culated in South Africa and in South-east Asla. The former, of "traditional and contemporary" paintings, was a fiasco; the latter, of modern paintings, sculp- tures, prints and pottery, was well received, There was also Australian partici- pation hi the international Print Biennale in Tokyo, and in the exhibition "Commonwealth Art To- day," now showing in Lon- don. In a few weeks a large exhibition of Australian painting will open in Lon- don at the Tate Gallery. It is worth reminding our- selves that it is only Lon- don that is greatly inter- ested in Australian art. Nolan Is one of the three or four best known artists in England, and Boyd, Blackman, Whiteley and Daws are names that are occasionally dropped in London art writing (not Dobell or Drysdale or Fairweather, who still live in Australia). Outside England there is less Interest. "Art News" gave only half a dozen rude lines to Nolan's New York show early In 1962. a Continental magazine, gave Blackman one line, and spoke of his affectation. "Art Interna- tional" liked Hodgkinson's abstract show in Los Angeles. Even in England the response is variable. The Manchester 0 u a r d la n, writing of the "Common- wealth Art Today" exhibi- tion, mentioned "Austra- lia, represented by some of the feeble paintings of David and Arthur Boyd, d Lawrence D a w s, a n Charles Blackman , with 'In the You Beaut Coun- try No. 3; by John Olsen, as the pleasantest sur- prise." Only the good re- views get widely reprinted out here. What about the year's exhibitions In Sydney? They have been more var- ied than usual - more masterpieces, old and new, have been seen. The most perfect was the first, the Dutch exhibition with its Van Goghs and its Mon- drians. More modern mas- ters came in the Mendel collection, whose still life by Braque was my picture of the year - or else it was the Claude Lorrain landscape in the Bedford collection. The Bedford old masters (Poussin, Rem- brandt, Van Dyck) were a rare treat for Sydney. The nearly -old masters in the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition made the beet .,,looking roomful of the year, and another exhibition which created a special world of its own wee the "Rebels and Precursors," the angry artists in Melbourne around 1010. "Modern Japanese Prints" was another per- fect small exhibition. From current production by local artists Ian Fair - weather's one-man show was the event of the year. The headlined statements that he was "now Aus- tralia's greatest living artist" startled the general public into an awareness of a man admired by an informed public for years. Fred Williams (who should have won the Wynne and the Transfield prizes) had the only other one-man show of painting that I re- member with great plea- sure-Molvig's though good was not a big-time affair. Advances in sculpture Sculpture, with Mead- more's, Walker's, and Kna- pe's shows, has made more advances than painting In the past year. So has pottery, with the ndded variety in the Potters Society exhibition, and so has printmaking with its excellent show at Farmers early in 1962. The nature of Sydney painting has dunned a little. Abstract expression- ism is marking time, or in- corporating figurative ele- ments, or its techniques are being used for figura- tive purposes. Olsen has added extra grinning faces, Hughes and Reddington have exhibited erotic abstracts with hints of the figure, others like Guy Warren have return- ed to a figuration in which they seem happier. The "charm school' has revived a little too, not so much with Bell and Dunlop but with the return to Sydney of Donald Friend, Strach- an and Jessup. The principal new devel- opment was the neo-dada- 1st assemblage introduced in May by the "Imitation Realists." Here there was figuration (remember ryLou meansy first article?) by of the texture and collage tech- niques which Elwyn Lynn pioneered In Sydney in 1959. New names? Early in the year I would have suggest- ed Emanuele Raft as the young painter to put your money on. Then came Jahn Firth -Smith, and finally I would recommend Dick Watkins as the most like- ly to succeed artistically. There are other artists, many of them more im- portant than those I have mentioned, who have con- tributed to the vitality of a very lively art commu- nity. In particular I should like to mention Co - burn's "Forest of the Night"" Lynn's "Verte- brate, Hessing's Rubin- stein entries, E. Smith's and M. Lowers' Easter Show pictures, Ross Mor- row's bigger Rubinstein en- tries, Rapotec's "Experi- ence in the Far West," and Olsen's ceiling as a ran- dom selection of other pleasures for me in 1962.