Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

11 re ) 11 stall's two new color films were not shown. They deal with John Perceval's c eramic sculptures of "angels" (small children, in fact) and with S. T. Gill's watercolors of the gold rush period. Two Festival toms were concerned with works of Australian art entirely for their own sake: "William Dobell" and "Approach to Sculpture."' Thls is far more difficult. The William Dobell film (made by Geoffrey and Dahl Collings for Qantas) is first rate public rela- tions for Australia. It is not about Dobell the man, though there Is an excellent opening sequence showing his lake- side home, with the artist at work In his studio. This Is accompanied by the artist's own voice, and an extremely sympathetic and pleasant one he has. The rest is a long run through the paintings themselves, with a com- mentary spoken by a pro- fessional narrator. The comprehensive sur- vey of so many widely scattered pictures Is the film's great virtue. Con- sequently it is a pity that it began only with his Lon- don work, for before he left Sydney he had won a large prize with the 19211 picture now hanging in the State Theatre. The question is how well are the paintings present- ed? One never, of course, expects color to be com- pletely accurate. A more serious objection is that no paintings are ever eeen in their entirety. Is there a cinematic regu- lation that no frames or walls can be permitted, but only Painted surface? Screens being the shape ,hey are, this meant that ysdale's horizontal land- scapes again had an ad- vantage over Dobell's up- right portraits. Approach to Sculpture In "Approach to Sculp- ture," by David Muir, the ':arks of art scarcely suf- :ered at all. Indeed sculpture, water- color and drawing always seem to survive filming better than painting. With sculpture the movement possible on film emphasises the three - dimensional form, whereas in painting the movement often be- comes irrelevant. With watercolors and drawings there is less subtlety and variety of sur- face quality to be lost Muir's camera in any ease moves much more slowly and respectfully over the obJects than did most art films at the testi- val. I SeiffatikAIn Lit# ,bolirne A delaldr and SAI7' ney GnilerleA, by Rodin. Henry Moore, Hepworth and others, have seldom looked better. In particular the intentions or Margel Hinder's "Revolving Con- struction" were brilliantly demonstrated. These works and certain prehistoric and historic The Week in Art by Daniel_ TM:6as More art on film THIS year's Sydney Film Festival had more films concerned with Australian art than ever before. Even so Tim Bur- examples were shown in the first part of the Mtn in order to explain very clearly and simply the aestoetics of sculpture. Then a final sequence, not sufficiently well related to the preceding, allowed the Sydney sculptor Clem- ent Meadmore at work. Such sequences are al- ways fascinating; one sees the, mysterious transmuta- tion of ideas and materials into works of art. In this case one saw a workman- like use of sheet metal, cut and welded into abstract constructions of a fine masculine elegance. Portrait of an Australian This black and white film be Rhonda Small for the Commonwealth Film Unit was also beautifully photographed by David Muir. It traced the develop- ment of various ideas of the typical Australian, from the convict, the pas- toralist, gold-digger and bushranger to the soldiers of World Wars I and II. Most of the material came from popular prints and illustrations in the Mitchell and National Libraries. The inclusion of more consciously artistic recent work, such as Lionel Lindsay's etchings of swagmen. or Ivor Metes paintings of soldiers seem- ed questionable. Magazine illustration, of which there is a wealth, could easily have given a different image for the twentieth century, and What's TODAY, 2-4.30. Art Gallery of NS.W. temporary exhibitions: "Visionary Arch! t e c ture." FINAL DAY. ALL NEXT WEEK Art Gallery of N.S.W.: Le Gay Brereton Pnze for students' drawings. Loan collection of an- tique English silver. Wales House: Wake- lin retrospective. Kornon Subterranean Imitation Realists, Hungry Horse: New Gallery. paintings from Major Rubin's collec- tion. Hours 11-7. OPENING MONDAY David Jones: Georg Jensen Silver. 4111. One nearer the folklorish evel of the earlier ma- terial. Other Australian films . . . "AU in a Day" was made in color by the art teacher John Morley at Bradfield Park. Th.; com- mentary was scarcely aud- ible above very noisy music, but it appeared to say that painting and dancing in a centre there helped the children' come to terms with their rather squalid environment. They all seemed ex- tremely happy and healthy, and a credit to the system. There some arty shots of pretty little girls amongst the squalor. -Gateway to a City" is a well made public relations film for proposals for re- developing The Rocks. Their slumminess is exag- gerated, but the general awareness of town plan- ning principles is welcome in a big development cor- poration. The history of Sydney Cove is illustrated from prints and paintings in the Mitchell Library. A number of animated cartoons came from Ade- laide. made by the artist Dusan Mi.rek. They illus- trate several classic nur- sery rhymes in bright col - THIS pointing, to be auctioned next Tuesday, is from the collection of the late Miss Florence Kate Geach. ft is purported to be by French artist Nicholas de Lorgilliere The auction will be at Coleman Page, Castlereagh St. on? TUESDAY AR7' FILMS Art Gallery Society, 8.15: Images Medieval, Van Meegeren s forger- ies, etc. OPENING WEDNES- DAY Farmer's Illaxland Gallery: N.S.W. photo- graphers. Chine: Primitive Art. Melanesian and Austra- lian. Barry Stern: Francyn Fuller paintings. Macquarie: Old Euro- pean Prints. Holloway Studio: 11 Parker Strest, Memorial to late Joe Holloway, ors and a faintly surreally style. Tne voices might alarm children, but It is all very suitable for adults. . . and some foreign films "Sculpture of Today," made at the Dokumenta II exhibition at Kassel, Ger- many, surveys the world's sculpture since the war, It is all excellent color film with exciting electronic music. "Two Rococo Churches" is by Charles and Ray Eames the is the famous American furniture de- signer). Vierzehnheiligen and Ottobeuren's colorful. gilded well stocked with cherubs. jump around like a red hot fugue. The Eameses must have read the definition of baroque and rococo: "Movement at all costs," Yet the apparent frivol- ity merges into an intense spirituality. "Delacroix." made from drawings by this artist In the Louvre. shows that drawings are practically film-proof. Here one tomes very close to match- ing the intimate moments of artistic creation. From Yugoslavia there came a short comedy about a millstone mis- takenly delivered to a sculpture exhibition. The art critics have no trouble In erecting a new art theory around it. which is fully accepted by artists and public. "Millstonism" becomes quite influential before the stone goes home. Poland's color cartoon. "The Little Western,"a charming satire on Ameri- can Westerns, is Interest- ing as the first cartoon I have seen carried out en- tirely in the style of ytion minting. The Power bequest The Vice-Chancellor's reported statement that he hoped to use some of the Power ocquest money for the Sydney Film Fes- tival, which is Beth an- nually at the University of Sydney, is, I hope, mis- reported. In the terms of the be - be quite uest it Illegal. would appear to Books Last week I suggested the architectural photo- graphs shown in Sydney recently would make good. picture books. +1 eta) ho* infdrIned that the Royal Australian In- stitute of Architects plans an enlarged version of the illustrated guide to Syd- ney's buildings published by O.S.R. Building Materials. This guide was compiled by the Public Relations Committee of the Institute.