Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

r "TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W. SLIGHTNESS THE question of slight- ness in art is raised 131 some of the week's new exhibitions. When does It cease to be an objection when does It become an Illusion? One answer is when it Is the work of a great mas- ter. The drawings by Rem- brandt and by Tiepolo at the Art Gallery of New South Wales only prove that the truly great can acutely ever do wrong.. Large problems tit weight and thrust and ten.ston are being tackled by Rem- brandt In his postage - stamp sized drawings; he Is physically Identifying himself with the drawn man. There, are no mean - incites& flourishes, no decor- ative conventions remote from the artist's experi- ence, The fourteen old master drawings- at David Jeoes' Fine Arts Department - Italian, 16th to 16th cen- tury-Include nothing of this quality. Vlinon. Tes- ta and Gaminess) are the best known names: some of the drawings are unattri- buted. 0 A. PellegrItirs study is one of the freshest. And We today is the desirable quality In old master draw- ings. Very few were done as ends in themselves: they were fresh, spontaneous, exploratory studies for paintings that might even - IN ART tually be quite mechani- cal, Since today we are In- clined to marvel at the fact of creativity-at the artist himself-as much as at the artist's .nlshed product, then h- r, where we can watch t e very process of creation, Ind follow the artist's vet v hand, we can adnitre drawings by even the moat minor old mas- ters. It Is no accident that the new fashion for old master drawings among American_collectors (prices have dem; here they are 33 to 200 guineas) has fol- lowed after the success of abstract expressionist painting, in which many of the same qualities were sought. Finally, a tradition It- self can have such strength that for a little while minor artists can partici- pate in the vitality of its forms. Camblaso, a late 16th century Italian of some interest has a draw- ing here which still con- tains the Renalesance ex- citement about solid, sculp- tural forms; a search which led him to a kind of Re- naissance cubism, where figure e were constructed out or rectangular blocks At David Jones there are also two Indian miniatures. two Greek icons, and some 16th century British Silver Moya Dyring IVIOYA DYRING'S oils and watercolors of landscapes in France seduce, of course, by their subject matter alone. We see it partially through our memories of the French Impressionists and their glamorous masterpieces. But this, like the Ital- ian Renaissance, is a pow - The W ek in Art created. Only compare Miss Dyeing with the utter fals- ity of those familiar pic- tures where Macleay Street becotnec a sub -impression- ist Champs Eiysees. Her French subjects, in a French style, are based on intimate and genuine experience. And this is why, though small and un- pretentious. her works can- not be called slight. Be- sides. slightness goes with facility, completely absent here: indeed an emceeing note of clumsiness enters WHAT'S ON TODAY AND NEXT WEEK All Gallery 0 tI,S.W..-Spectal dismays Avid. Olen Impressionism, on Old Master Drawing if 0,11 Ilia watm.tnmIt collection, Morquarle.-Ralph Pelson.A LL NEXT WEEK Barry Sterns-Maya °Wine Enid,.../xteso Ar,0 Ines t. 2,,s,pzi.rnaC.v.,IVIorkat Street SW... -01d Yon Earloork, Lynn Demtnlon.-W. J. cry., oNflp.00NN Frances Jones Studio-Ann Church. BENIN DeLans, OPENING TUESDAY Hungry None.-Cari Piste, small pointtnos Preamone.-Hns Attlasera, Artarrnon.-Robert Johnson and G. K. Townshend. IN An Gallery et te,S.WOPENG .-Helene WEDNESDAY n Ttsivellir. Art Scholar. lor 1961. Doors open 2 P Wtona, ',Cad p.m, Terry Clutte.-FITI Woman Patnters OPENING FRIDAY Params.-PAcdorlalon, Hotline Melbourne ono Sydney VI, 15r 0501 THURSDAY LECTURES Art Gallo., Saclety.-11.13 Pm.: Penal doszt.N.on . tlPsInting: Hon andGlatart. John Ooburn. John tionNmor. DAry Whit. Soh..l.-6 III Nth an ss erful tradition, perhaps by' the more architectural, now at the end of Its life. less mined:monist corn - but apparently, on the evl deuce of the -esent es - Whitton, still capable of coming to life in the coun- try for which it was positions. "Larchant," "St. Tropes;" "Brievee, and other paint- ings show us a modest but authentic French Impres- sionist, who happens to have been: born Aus- tralian. and who happily retains contact with us by her exhibitions. Ralph Batson 1 LSON at the Mac- quarie Gallery is one of our senior abstraction- ists. Twenty years ago he was a pioneer of geometric abstractim. Today his art is just as pure, but it is now a completely painterly expression. The paint It- self dictates the forms: by Dethiel Thomas enamels are poured and intermingled to produce something very like giant panels of marbleised pagt rs.they are much more than this. One remain(' very much aware of the hand of God, and of the artist behind the paint. Color would be a distrac- tion, and although there are in fact delicate colors present the general Im- pression is of black or grey and white, This is a inain over Bel - son's previous exhibition, and so is the greater or- ganisation (harking back maybe to his geometric days), sometimes like Rio- pelle's or in rne or two instances, e.g. No, 11, with a hint of a Fautrier tab- let. The purity of Balson's art, not unexpected in an older nian, la rare among the busy fussiness of much Sydney painting. Hugh Ramsay MELBOURNE U.tiver- sity's graduate re- search projects on Austra- lian artists have been of the greatest value. The only one in progress this year is on the painter Hugh Ramsay (1877-1006). If owners of paintings, letters, etc., have not al- ready been its contact with Miss Patricia Gourley she would be gratsful if in- formation about them could be seat to her O- titis Department of Fine Arts, University of Mel- bourne. Parkville, N.2, Vic- toria. Meadmore film AT this year's Sydney Film Festival the most interesting new film on an Australian artist dealt with the sculptor Clement Meadmore. Made by Bruce Beres- MAN KNEELING, a drawing by Rembrandt of the Art Gallery of N.S.W. ford in color (13 minutes) selves-less respect for It must inevitably be corn- them-than David Muir pared with David Mums excellent black and white film, "Approach to Sculp- ture' seen last year, in which Meadmore's sculp- ture was a subsidiary theme. Beresford conveys the aims of the artist clearly, simply, and imaginatively, and for this reason alone It should be sought out by film groups. But there, Is less of the slow, searching inspection of the works of art them - gave. Beresford is as much in love with his camera as with the sculptures. How- ever, he does think visu- ally; he knows how to eli- minate superfluous words. The Tony Curby Quar- tet's cool jazz background, supervised by Horst Lle- polt, was exactly right. It pointed up the faded, palm court quality of the over- descriptive music. In the now well-known Sidney Nolan film watch immedi- %tells followed,