Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

"TELEGRAPH" Sydnsy, N.S.W. i0963 The Week in Art by Daniel Thomas ARCHITECTURE is sometimes a r t, though not often. Most buildings are, inevitably, not works of art, but on- ly of design, like a mo- tor car or a toaster or a cigarette packet. Few buildings today are meant to be permanent. When there is the like- lihood of permanence, and more Important, the like- lihood of remaining un- altered from the archi- tect's original coneepUon, then the an hitect might attempt to create a work of art. There are one or two masters - Corbusier or Wright-whose every build- ing la a work of art, but in Australia only Walter Burley Griffin has ap- proached this condition. As a rule, then, it will be the churches and pub- lic buildings that might aspire to art. Or houses, which are cheap and where a personal short-lived work lof art can be afforded (though in past centuries houses too were meant to last and were expected to remain unaltered). Architecture can be the moat pure of the art forms, that is ti.e most abstract, Ate music. Great archi- ;tecture haa been called "frozen music." It cannot become mixed up with lit- erature, like painting or sculpture. At its best, when its be - 'comes a beautiful compo- sition of solids and spaces, it becomes Inhabitable sculpture; sculpture which can be experienced the more richly since it can be entered, not merely observed. Commercial buildings cannot be expected' to be- come art -works. They are better advised to remain clean, neat, packages for their goods and services. But the spaces between carefully arranged build- ings that are neutral In themselves can create a city that Is a work of art. Most old Italian cities. Venice above all, give this supreme pleasure even though the buildings need not be individually inter- esting. Such cities, with their variety of open plaza and narrow passage, of digni- fied peaceful use adjoining animated shops and enter- tainments. generate an atmosphere of exhilara- tion. There is a proposal to .give the Sydney Cove area this atmosphere. More than a year ago the Minister for Local Government suspended the area from existing town - planning regulations, for several property owners in the area had formed a Sydney Cove Improve- ments Committee and had commissioned an overall plan in three di- mensions for the land be- tween Macquarie, Bridge and George Streets and Circular Quay. The City Council of Syd- ney was asked to report on the Committee's plan. prepared by the town planners Clarke, Garzard and Yeomans. Last week the Commit - in the Town Hall, with another, presumably rival plan. The rival is a plan for traffic only. The streets have chamfered corners to make the spaces amor- phous and flabby: there ix,: wide boulevards to duplicate the Cah ill Expressway. and to put In islands where flowers may wilt or where unused, in- accessible park benches can be placed. It is. a limbo for lost souls to scuttle through on their way from one place to another. It will create delinquency. Of course when all Syd- ney is remodelled like this for traffic but not for longer people, exist. Sydney will no It is no use having good transport if there is no worthwhile place to go, and it is time to start making places, not passageways. Especially at Sydney Cove, the very spot where Aus- tralia was founded 115 yearsg Welted Read, in Sydney recently, when asked about our level of sensibility said he "found it difficult to think of another level low enough for comparison." The Improvements Com- mittee's scheme is based on humane principles. It should be taken seriously, if only because the desir- able and attractive kind of area it could create would also give the City Council a much higher rate value. flush watercolors belong to a different world. Neville Matthews, Bran- wyn Yeates and Adrian Linden should have been there for completeness. Molvig himself is still with the primitive. the geo- metric Adam and Eve and the wheel:lowers on blowtorch textures. Sadly, his Georges Art Prize nude. soft and lumin- ous against a warm night sky, has not been shown here. She was a most convinc- ing emanation from that dr .,way hibiscus city. WHAT'S ON TODAY AND NIKE WEEK Art Gallery Spei.1 ryh.13tuons. Old muter End, 1,7,t,,,gd minor Ausuallan linpressionisse Iron the perinanwl ALL NEXT WEEK Konen: Jon Moine and the StiOs.np School. a Fanners: Australian Fabric Design Competillen. FrancaMoos Moe., 011.t Datum by Ann Church. cameo. 14 hies Centre: Barry Tans a OPINING MONDAY Ilocritby: Inaugural Exhibition. W.14 OPIUM. POCIfic 1-fichway and Edgeworth Dond Avenue, OI Dominion: Greeting cord coNmpG eIT UESDAY llion OPENING WEDNESDAY $ilvor Darld Jena Fins Arts Dui.: Old Master Orwrinos end ontiqu. Maaaaa Fin Ralph Remo. Sorry Stem Mora Owl.. Terre Clone. P.. WA/Man Palnlors. OPENIN Vow Ilerlouth, Nwcastle: ElwyG n Lynn FRIDAY aaaaa ttttttt The proposed urban renewal scheme for Sydney Cove. tee's model was exhibited 1 -About 20 designs have been translated into print- ed terylene taffeta. In very few cases have the designer's colors been retained, something quiet- er, indeed duller, and more elderly being thought more suitable. Of the artists, John Coburn's designs were ex- cellent. He received fourth prize. Clem Meadmore, a designer after all, as Well as an artist, was second. Salkauskas' crisp black and white, surely admir- able, was not used. The winner, Veronica Noach, and most of the others were, understand- ably, trained designers rather than painters or sculptors. The lesson would seem to be that most painters and sculptors cannot be expected to enter compe- titions anyway, and if they do they will not have enough knowledge of the technical problems. The best solution may be to use trained designers, but to make sure they get out to see all thq most vital local art, ana take from it what suits their special purpose. The Brisbane School at. Rudy Komon's is a school created by the presence in that city for the last seven or eight years of one genu- inely creative artist, Jon Motels. His principal follower, Andrew Sibley, has also recently shown an aware- Exhibitions ness of Ian Fairweather. a much older man, who At Farmers are throws. lives in isolation not far tries for a fashion fabric from Brisbane. design competition, that is John Aland and Shen - fabrics for making wo- herdson, especially the men's clothes. latter, are beginners who It was sponsored by an are still good Molvig men, Australian weaver, a tex- fond of large-scale expres- tile printer and a fashion sionism, aggressively wo- house. in the hope that manisIng or speculating local designers and expect- about the Earth Mother. ally local twists not in Mervyn Moriarty's large contact with the textile still-lifes have some of the industry might be attract- same vigor, but Joy Rog- ed. genkamp's delicate Ceram- mn