Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

"TELEGRAPH" 6 4111 Sydney, N.S.W. SUNDAY. TELEGRAPH,. JUNE 16, 1963 The Week in Art by Daniel Thomps TWO EXHIBITIONS OF JOHN COBURN on -I Arthur Boyd e a c h have important one-man mA j 0 rz ;rigs. Both are major Australian painters, and There v;as a pre -Darwin- - Ian theory of the promis- we have not had a good catty of animals. The look at either for two or giraffe. i'or example, could three years. o,ujinbe ll ofy explaincameed by l and the sna el. And when Boyd is the senior of the mating the two, a Melbourne artist It- who has been painting i Australia was discovered, since the late 'thirties. the platynus, the kangaroo Now, like so many of the "IS and other paradoxical ani- figurative Melbourne paint -gave the theory a era, he works in London. newtheo rylease of life. If the designs ballets for Covent is imaginatively Garden, and with his true anywhere R Is true wildness and woolinebs may well be conjuring up for Australia, and Boyd generally delights the Lon- this epoch in Australia's don art world. exhibitions of new paint The present show at tile ings and drypoints, some Terry Clime Gallery has observer, an architect of course, admitted that at least the paintings were a nice shape. And Indeed they are -83 by 72 Inches is a pleasant proportion. It is true that his darkly romantic subject matter is not always embodied In significant forms, but, like paintings. Chagall, with whom there In the past it often are many parallels, he can seemed that the seldom at by the exhibited watercolors were strength of his poetic better than the oils. They I imagery alone. had the Immediacy and He is not, like Coburn, spontaneity that is so a colorist. Nor does he. highly prized by contem- worry about a balance of Iporary taste. light and dark tones; the It may be that the paintings are uniformly watercolors still have a dark, with chalky lights' slight edge over the olls as regards perfection, but it is a whole year since Ills entry in ;he Helena Rubin- stein Scholarship revealed a great liberation, a spaci- ousness, which contradicts the remarks in last month's "Art and Australia" that he was in danger of self - strangulation. And there have always been occa- sional "action paintings" ("Chasm" was ono like the splendid, broadly slap- The Betrayal, by John Coburn. not en much like . One of them based on the paint inrs. (1) John Coburn superimposed. They are preimpnxisioniat; think of Piguenit, or other mid- Victorian painters of gran- diose scenery. Nor can one admire his urgent mark- ings from the point of view of draughtsmanahip. However, there Is one quality tnat has been over- looked. His handling of paint is almost always marvellously sensuous; he will modulate an entire surface and bring it to life as irr the very fine "Figure with Beast, No. 2." The exception Is a hand- ful of unusually thinly painted, slippery looking pictures. Perhaps he has been looking at Francis Bacon, perhaps even, in the "Figure on a Couch," with an oppressive dog crouching above, at Fus- ell's Nightmares. His subject matter, how- ever, is the main thing. What are all these naked women doing out in the more tangled parts of the Dandenongs, or Mount Donna Huang? Why are some of them making love to giant atoasnmui? Why do torsoea leaving only four conjoined limbs (one of the successes Is Dr "Figure "l? Tttrning Into agonfly Presumably he Is saving that there is something primitive, even bestia about the act of love: that It can be desperate as well as happy. Such subjects first ap- peared In his work 20 years ago, In urban set- tings. Now the bush land- acape, which remains un- deniably Australian, may Itself have demanded that these primeval creatures be found by an artist. WORKS 1)4§ere are also 92 etch - T the Hungry Horse Gallery John Coburn Is showing 15 oils and 15 watercolors, some of the latter being studies for the pad down landscape here titled "Desolation." Another picture with some of the same freedom is "Mount of Olives.' With these we find the beautiful color that has always been his most immediately se- ductive quality-he has few equals as colorist-and It could be significant that these are landscape sub- jects. Ten of the pictures, In- cluding "Mount of Olives," are a religious series, con- cerned with the Passion.' One of them, "Golgotha," is a crucifix, but most have little figuration, and one could ray that the explicit' crass that enters "Via Cruets" disturbs, and' spoils, a very fine compost -I 11on. If, however, the relief -I ous subjects raise extra problems for the artist, and are less markedly suc- cessful as pictures than the others, they are sell better -as art and as religion- than almost any other re- ligious art found In Aus- tralia. Architecture THERE are two Impor- tant architectural ex- hibitions which will be finiihia-in a week, but which I hope to say some- thing about next time. At the Education De- partn.ent Gallery there are all the entries for the competition for a Great Hall at the University of Queensland. In the Town Hall vesti- bule is a model of a pro - owed master plan for the Sydney Cove area, WHAT'S ON TODAY AND NEXT WICK n Gallery ol N.S.W.: Sim., a.nibl.ows GefId Le ,ers Memo. at ;,let..re LAST WEEK. Recent S A Pr.ntmas ea ed L Ger ze for stu draw nes. LAST DAY MOM,11.,x1R yal Art North Sydow. AS young ...Me. ALL MIXT WICK Heavy H.., John Coburn. Tony Chow Ant,,, eloyst. Yon Illerlausfs. Newcastle: Guy Wane, Seattle 1113. Pottery nd Po. e.O.es We 1Ho°s: wRumor,o.d uGao y.o f 11,not . t p n,n 0 .ra .!tZ._a et r.r) chlenuet mode,. Sydney Cove redere,on OPINING 'TUESDAY CInalnlee: K lytle Pots. pony, nd pa.ntines by Per Germ... V OPINING WEDNESDAY Manquarle: Ka,'. Back , ne It" and ,,, ros Larry Stern Joan / Jon Molvle and 11,,ban 505001 THURSDAY LECTURE Mary While Scheel: ill Now Soon Itead Pd, EL,play ' TUESDAY LECTURII Contemporary Art %WW1, go,so, s, , Yen " by Dowel. Annan,. _45