Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

"TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W. ' -SUN The Week in Art by Daniel Thomas THE week produced an auction sale and some new Australian art books, but was most unusual in having no new exhibitions. The sale, at Geoff K. Gray's, of paintings and drawings from the collection of a Mr. Russell Walker and other sources, was not meant to be as 9Cri.- satIonal ab last year's Schureck and Voss Smith sales. There was the only -to - be -expected Dobell business of higher prices for worse pictures. Top price of 1200 tieas was for a pleasant London park scene (un- catalogued), closely follow- ed by 1100 guineas for an- other small early work from his London days, a "Don- key and Cabbage Cart" 1931, measuring 71 by 91 inches. The latter, a quite poorly organised painting, is illustrated in color in the sale catalogue. If these prices seem a bit high the 300 guineas for a china doll of a ballet girl drawn by Dobell in an autograph album in 1929 was even less understand- able. Another Instance of a a artist fetclight sketchhing an am by a popular ingly high price was 200 guineas for a 6 by 10 -inch "Wading Birds" by Clifton Pugh. The biggest surprise was 700 guineas for a small un- catalogued oil by John Passmore, one of his "The Argument" series of 1953 or 1954. This certainly was a fine example artist's work, but it is a sensational.increase on the Schureck sale, where his more recent abstracts were under 100 guineas, and larger pictures, similar to this week's were around 300 guineas. Two bargains were a good Lloyd Rees South Coast landscape at 120 guineas and a first-rate Jon Molvig from the 1959 Rubinstein exhibition at only 90 guineas. Nothing else in the Aus- tralian section was very surprising, unless perhaps that a late Streeton, of Venice, can still fetch as much as 340 guineas. to Augustus John and Cez- anne went for 30 and 40 guineas when genuine examples fetch several thousand guineas in Lon- don. As usual, the dubiously authentic foreign work was treated with sensible cau- tion. Drawings attributed Drawings attributed to Gauguin, Degas, and Tou- louse Lautrec brought little more. Three minor oil paintings, however, attrib- uted to minor Dutch and Flemish 17th century art- ists, went to 475, 825, and 400 guineas, but even then had to be referred to the seller. The only other notable feature was that exactly half of the 150 items were bought by one dealer, Rudy Roman, and that, accord- ing to published reports. 8000 guineas' worth was for one collector-inevitably, of course, Major Rubin. New books Three new books and two pamphlets relating to Australian art have ap- peared since lest I men- tioned such things. The pamphlets deal with contemporary mat- ters, the books with the past. Elwyn Lynn's "Contem- porary Drawing" is the latest addition to Long - man's excellent series of booklets on "The Arts in Australia." AL 8/ one does not expect good color re- production, nor does one get it. Percevai, Plate, Olsen and Passmore, who have the colot plates auf- fer a little in consequence, especially the two last. The remaining 27 artists have half -tone plates though even these do not always carry the tone through to the edge of the sheet on which the draw- ing was made. Molvlg's standing figure of a girl, for instance, has tone only within the outline, and thus gives the uncomfort- able Illusion of sunburn. The choice of artists Is divided between those who use sketches and drawings as peeliminary to paint- ings end those who draw for Its own sake. These latter are not likely to ap- pear in the usual books on Australian art and It is good to see them here. Sal- kau.ska.s. J. Hester, H. Gil- liland, Salgeti come Into this category. Jne omission is Ray Coles, but since he seldom exhibits more than one of his enchanting drawings in a year he can hardly expect people to remember him. There are brief biog- raphies and a statement of each artist's aims. Some are fine specimens of the dark jargon by which art- ists protect themselves from being understood. Tucker attempts "to reach those numinous emblems which lie above and below the individual ego." Sal- kauskas (intelligibly enough) has lines to "rep- resent creativity ruminat- ing over or being ecstatic about water, earth, sky and cities." Passmore says: "There is a great force- an ambient sense mass." However intentionally obscure, these statements cannot help but Illumin- ate. And when some simple technical procedure is described there can be revelations like Szigetl's "so I draw with closed eyes in order to be de- tached from outward in- fluences." This is a valuable book Which brings the reader very close to the artist. Bernard Smith Bernard Smith's "Aus- tralian Painting Today" (University of Queensland Press, 7/6) is two lectures which he delivered in Brisbane in 1961. At the time they were reported as an attack on Robert Hughes and his introduc- tion to the exhibition of Australian painting at Whitechapel, London, 1961. Now that they are printed we can see that this IS scarcely true. The first lecture "The Myth of Isolation, com- plains about the London critics of that exhibition who nearly all took up one of Hughes' statements and explained the vigor of Aus- tralian art as a conse- quence of our isolation from the Renaissance tradition. Dr. Smith main- tains that we were, on the contrary, isolated from what was new, and that the Renaissance tradi- tion persisted here in the use of perspective and Mustar...in, and in the categories of portraiture and landscape. It did not disappear until the swing to abstraction in the mid 1950$. Moreover, Australian artists all travelled abroad enough to be fully aware of the Renaissance tradi- tion. The second lecture. "The Rebirth of Australian Painting," traces develop- ments since the late 1930s, and specifies Dobell's por- traits, Drysdale's land- scapes and Haefliger's criticism as the major achievements in Sydney during the war and post- war years. This, of course, reinforces the Renaissance argument; and reminds us that painters like Justin O'Brien and Jean Bellette exist, even though London remains unaware of them. Dr. Smith ends up by agreeing with Hughes major point that London prefers to interpret Aus- tralian art as an exotic growth. The past Joan Lindsay's "Time Without Clocks" (Cheshire, 30;) has been out some time. Lady Lindsay is Sir Daryl's wife and the book is an account of their life in the 'twenties and 'thir- ties before he became Director of the National Gallery of Victoria. A necessary addition to the library of all who are in- terested in the gifted Lind- say family and its legends. "Drawings by William Westall" (Royal Common- wealth Society, London, 7gns. sterling) weighs about a ton, but contains highest quality illustra- tions of nearly all the work done by the landscape artist who sailed round Australia with Flinders from 1801 to 1803. He copied earliest recorded aboriginal rock paintings and there are views of early Sydney and of Wreck Reef. Most of the drawings are slight, and the very young artist was not so con- fident with the figure as with landscape. Some oil paintings worked up many years after the voyage are the most romantic and the most successful. Will Verge's "John Verge, His Ledger and his Clients' (Wentworth Press, Sydney, 47/6) is a careful analysis, by a descendent, of the work of Australia's leading colonial architect of the 1830s. He built all the im- WHAT'S ON TODAY AND MIXT WEEK Art Gallery of N.S.W., Permanent coltort.on, A1111,11111111 fa PI II periods, modern forolon painting and scuiptura, Orlontlal art. Aboriginal att. WEEK Glum, Maclow StroatALL John NEXT Oltan, p .rags nd drawings Roman 114 Jersey Road, Woollahra 0.51d11,114 Orban, paintings and Wads. Wales House, Pitt and O'Connell Straits: Austral,an child art. P roarnam, 31d Gaorga Strew: Lolly CompbII. painting. Studio 153, 153 Haw South Hand Rood. Edgeolirl, Pottary, mint lng. Jewallant. OPENING TUESDAY David Jaws: E1001.14, Plna Arta. DI11.110011. 142 Cmtlarmgh .trawl: Avant ord. Chinas* art. Hungry Hon., 47 Window Stoat. PaddInglon, John Firth Smith and Ion van V".".";PrIZInGrY;EVAIWBV Macau. 10 011oh 51,1,41 Osvld Rom painting, and print,. B arry Stern, 15 Giant... Road, Paddington, David Newbury, pa inting` CLOSING TUESDAY (4 O m 10 r Mot Photograph, or hIsldr.c New South Wain buildings oh r I. THURSDAY LECTURE ArtGallevy Si 11.13 pan., Mr. J. W. Overall, "The Building 0 Nattonal Cap.ctsia Von Nonsuch, 50 lamt.EVritill. FNNeiwpala, John Ogburn. CHARLES BLACKMAN: Cockfight at St. Kilda, in the pamphlet -eeanteniptiraryl tittcheing9tieek.414.0.64w.L, portant mansions of the time: Camden Park, Eliza- beth Bay House, Tuscu- lumn, Denham Court, Subiaco, Tempe House, as well as Cobbity Church, some of the houses In Lower Fort Street (Syd- ney's only intact early colonial street), and may have built a castellated privy on the present site of the T. & 0. building.