Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

"TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W. The Week in Art by Daniel Thomas A TOUR of the Sydney galleries this week was a much less parochial be. experience than it sometimes can Kenneth Hood's cubist still lifes at the Macquarie, the British lithographs at the Komon Gallery both gave us something of the pleasures of pro- fessionalism. The craftsmanship is exemplary, the alma un- pretentious, and there Is an unconcern for the high fashion of art. And although Hood cgmes from Melbourne, and the British have tra- ditions of their own, both exhibitions had a French ilavor, a respect for pure art. ,thich has always found a ready response in Sydney. Here we have always been less tolerant both of conservative pro- vincialism and of the ex - p r e salon tat avant -garde than has Melbourne. We have preferred beauty to expressiveness. which has been accused of being ugly, or of being In- excusably badly painted. The merely beautiful can decline into trivial decora- tion, and Sydney has pot been short of such degen7 eration. But Hood's firmly articulated compositions, sensuously painted in a golden ochre and white range of colors, have both of William Scott ("Barra" and "Benbecula"i, Alnn Davie I"Sleep My Angel"( and Ceti Richards ("Tra- falgar Square II") share powerful. indeed noncha- lant, fot'ma with the most sensuous approach to the Materials used: the prints are richly inked on luxuri- ous velvety papers. WILLIAM ROSE: With William Rose's exhibitiojt at the Hungry Horse we also have this Parisian Integrity and pro- fessionalism. though charged with quite intense emotion. His art. too, Is not desperately fashion- able and up-to-date. His manner of building up constructions in space was formed in Sydney in the early 50s and has not changed greatly. One marked advance is the greater painterly qual- ity, the greater pleasure in paint itself, that has ap- peared in the recent work. Another change, though not necessarily an ad- vance, is the additional color: red and yellow accents occur when once the paintings were single- mindedly blue, or occa- globally rose. The elements, too. are larger, and in some of the newest works the entire panel is activated and filled with a structure occupying a clear?), de- fined apace. These are perhaps better pictures than the compressed con- structions which hovered ambiguously in infinite apace. However t h e surreal things that those tense agglomerations became seemed in some way more interesting. They had a strangeness, a disturbing quality, into which one could read metaphors about an astronaut's ex- perience of outer space, the vibration of energy in the universe. William Rose's emphasis has perhaps shifted a little to good picture making and to the enlargement of his pictorial language. The message intended orpother- wise. which we receive from h's work is less im- portant at preen': and y Ind. r 1 b.- elem. 11,4 WILLIAM ROSE'S 'Painting No. 9,' on show at the Hungry Horse Art GOiletf. CLUNE GALLERY: The mixed show at the Clune Gallery of selections from their stock is by far the' best exhibition of its kind seen here for a long time. It Is interesting to see a small new Egyptian land- scape on paper by Nolan mid a new picture by Tuc- ker of a single vertical tree -trunk, simple as Fred Williams' used to be. There are two fine Fair - weathers and two fine small Passmores, one early and Cezannish, one recent and abstract. A large Mes- sing and a Rapotec are botn of 1960. Less familiar in Sydney are some Per - errata: an elle gomical Adatn and Eve, and sonic rollicking tugboats of 1955 and 1953. and halt a dozen of his spontaneous oil drawings life studies in fact) of angels and gods romping. The high standard. the gaiety, and the European- ness of most of these artists culminates in one new picture of great im- portance, John Olsen's "People in My Cat's Life." If one may be permitted further reflections on Ol- sen after last week, it Ls worth recalling his School of Paris background; Pass - more, Fairweather. Kmit, all in this exhibition, were the big names in local Sydney painting when he was young. From them and front his Euronean experi- ences he would have learnt much th'it co 'ributes to the excellence of his art: but not much that contrib- utes to the Australlanness he aims at nowadays. "People in My Cat's Life" is not n specifically Australian subject It has permitted Olsen to be more hi-oself, to inriulae in Fie richness of color %melt Ira can handle so well. but hich he Is compelled to deny when he is inter- preting landscape, Our landscape is, as anyone can see. subtle, but essen- tially drab. It is the urban subjects. where the vulgurity of neon lights offers a pre- text for color, that seem to make Olsen's beat Aus- tralians. And a purely pri- vate subject. like the pres- ent one, has resulted in a holy major painting. WILLIAM PEASCOD: William Peascod at Far- mer's is showing much - - WHAT'S ON TODAY AND NEXT WEEK Art Gallery of N.S.W.: Permanent collection. Australian art of all periods. 0 r I ental, European and primi- tive art. Royal Art Satiety at N.S.W.: 25 Walker St., Nth. Sydney: Autumn Exhibition. NEXT WEEK Clone: Mixed exhibi- tion. Farmers: William Pea- scod. Hungry Horse: William Rose. Komon: British Con- temporary Prints. Angus Steak Cave: Con- temporary Australian Paintings. Wales House: Drawings for Australian book Blitstrations. Von Berl ouch, New- castle: slim de Tellea. David Jones' Walk Gal - key: Posters. ' Meet the struhittet in your lie." more up-to-date paintings than anything else to br seen this week. Still, he has been busy with blow- torch and inch -thick tex- tures for several years and, it does seem to be. his personal language, not a response to fashion. He has worked in the mines. and his intimate contact with earth and rock is surely expressed ht these large textural abstractions. As paintings too they are much improved: monu- mental where once they were fussy, the surfaces now beautiful when for- merly they were repellent. THIS WEEK OPENING TUESDAY David Jones. 6th Floc-. Market St. Store: Ep- stein, sculpture. paintings, drawings. Dominion: Paintings and Drawings from Israel. OPENING WEDNESDAY Art Gallery of N.S.W.: . lattitalitttarelrirtt makers. Macquarie: Ray Coles. David Jones: Loonardo da Vinci. models of inventions. Dominion: E s k 1 m o Graphic Art, with film "The Living Stone," 1 p.m. Barry Stern: Arc Cuthbertson. OPENING FRIDAY Yon Bertnueh, New- castle: Guy Warren. TUESDAY LECTURE Contemporary Art So- ciety, Adyar Hall. Bligh St.: Mollie Douglas "Pallet y and Po' tens Today.' '