Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

From "MORNING HERALD" Sydney, N.S.W. 74 MAY 197 Tracing sightlines If a paitititii-Sovi: ever blank, stresses its own uprightness, then it has to refer to the human figure,,Similarly, if it stresses its own horizontality it must re- cr to another tradi- tional art -category, namely landscape. John Firth -Smith's paintings at Gallery A (opening Saturday) are ex- tremely extended horizon- tals, sometimes 4ft by I I ft and landscape, though not what they are about, is still a ghostly presence. Not he did paint landscapes, burnt forests of upright trees, or harbours whose surfaces were sliced by yachts or sharks. Last year, after a visit to New York, Firth - Smith's art took off. Always an individual painter, he now looked really gOod. Of course, there were points of com- parison with the great Americans, like Newman or Noland: his paintings had become equally direct, I equally c..:tain of what they were doing. They were, I think, about the way one's eye explores space. One of last year's paint- ings is in the new exhi- bition; a straight narrow band runs diagonally across a plain colour-field, and at one corner it dis- appears into sonic loosely painted Or does them? I ter. for t immediate* hart of look at erience planes. left to right. has a dark-tight gradation. e from Firth -Smith's new paint- The effect of sv, elling. the lat- ings have abandoned dia- flickering sound, intended e most gonals for horizontal if the organ-stop titles arc iceable ' bands running across the anything to go by (Dian- e. You centre of the extended son,Strider), is nicely sl, ex- horizontal canvases, and achieved. Watercolours onfusion, they run from left to right: 5150, paintings $250 to y, and - out from under the lively $750. zoom -WO eye travels confusion, level and * * * along the -dew highway of the narrow bttuh short,_ Diagonals 'emerging He from the botihni ccrners total) of a horizontal c invas c...nnot he i doIr,letc. perspective 3,;:thcs an- th ii dent pictoria ' device for t,.,, -,-. *colours of representing space and dis- cei tance. But if there is onlync, .ritItings arc less the one diagonal, not the two often Ai, tially am- biguous ' ecn com- binational. harmonics of "natural," earth colours, brown stan-hotigs.. It is' it reVersion to Australian landscape colours; maybe some countries have red -green landscapes, hut we don't. And since all Firth - Smith's new paintings have titles like "On the Way." "From Here to There," he must feel that tracing a line of sight across an une- ventful, flat world is just as exciting as tracing it across the more dangerous kinds of space that exist iahn Armstrong: Up - outside Australia. stairs at Wattens, above * * * the David Rankin exhi- Lesley Dumbrell, at 38 bition, arc some new sculptures by John Arm - H Street,. ' strong, small inaquettes bourne painter of semi- i hard-edge and one of the large pieces period, by Eugen von with which he will repre- Guerard, often gain extra I grids,SIghtlyilted bonds sent Australia later this tension by strong, tunnell- are placed over uprights, 1 year at the Sao Paulo ing recession from right to and sometimes the ground , Biennale in Brazil. left instead of the usual which normally Intersect at a vanishing point inside the picture, then one's ex- pectation of travelling into ucep space is startlingly reversed when the line finally reaches the oppo- site side of the canvas. Space is created by ex- pectation, but at the same time the flatness of modern pictorial structure is restricted. Even more interesting a reversal of expectation is the way Firth -Smith's dia- gonals usually ran from bottom right to top left, w. hen the normal way of looking at a painting (or at anything else in Western culture) is from left to right. Australian landscape paintings of the Romantic pping lust site edee. ways been orward and aps feels space of livings was toc, artistic. Tim Johnson has put. out another new hook. $4 this time, available from the artist, 54 Alhcrmarle Street, Newtown. Called "Disclosure." it provides photographic documenta- tion of thin' like "Fit- stlinsgps os(iotine one pair) itisn7d, s(imx "Erotic ants in art -vi g toyeuristic. position V Vr:Y ti vt ic t s in - on ," or trodu.,.. cs that all art is n t all The to are literal demo tr. ' t of this in- sight, pu to an ex- treme. Like his lit evious books, th' ' one of the most sig- nif ocuments in Australia rt, and is, for once, truly avant-garde. * * *