Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

THE PLACE OF WOMEN ARE women's paintings different from men's? This week Thea Proctor is given a small survey of her career at Wales House, and five women are exhibiting together at Terry Clune's. The answer is yes, some- times. But there has never Yet been a really great woman artist to test the difference on the highest level. Obviously when women draw directly upon their everyday experience one senses the femininity of domestic activity. I have mentioned the extra femin- ine something in Margaret Preston's still-life of cups and saucers and table- cloths, that men never have. Similarly one can speak cf masculine paintings when there la the strong sexuality of, say, Jon Mol- vig's nudes, or when the subject matter Is strong masculine labor, as with Courbet's peasants. This leaves a vast middle ground where masculinity and feminity are irrelevant. There is. however, the question whether certain forms, say Len French's, might be considered mas- culine, but even this is doubtful when one sees Wendy Paramor's large - scaled abstract landscapes in the Clune show. In a sub -Whiteley man- ner these are deliberately uningratlating in nicely muddied greens and browns. Likewise Frances Smith, the most professional of the five, in her Fair- weatherish figures and landscapes sent from Dar- win, is not especially feminine. Nor is Hllde Sto.ssel, with her little surrealist mon- sters, whose irrationality might preferably be ex- pressed in less arbitrary forms or colors. Susan Wright and Val- erie Strong, however, do have a clearly feminine air. The former exhibits open landscapes populated with an occasional building, or with children at play. Pretty charming and softly olored as they are, they 'ill show an aspect of Australian landscape that only a woman might emphasise, the friendly In- timacy of our Victorian buildings, in a domesti- cated countryside. Simply by virtue of being John Olsen's wife, Valerie Strong deserves notice. Inevitably one sees his linearlsm, though her lines become naturalistic twigs and grasses. Though his sensitivity to environment could hardly be matched in Australia, she has an undoubted talent of her own, and a sensitivity that allows ex- perience to creep more softly upon her, and which limits itself to close-up in- timacies of plant forms bathed in delicate light. "Afternoon, Yarrama- long" has a special air of mystery, and her water- colors land Wendy Para- mor'st are the best "little gems" seen around for some time. Thea Proctor Thee Proctor first exhi- bited as long ago as 1897. The exhibition of water- colors, drawings and one or two lithographs and woodcuts (apparently there are no oils) begins with decorative Conder-like fan designs of 1906. These were done in London, where for 20 years "TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W The Week in Art by Daniel Thomas she lived on close terms with 0. W. Lambert and his family: they modelled for her. she for him, and one of Lambert's ballet dancers occurs in some of her drawings. When she (and Lambert) returned to Sydney in 1921, they both did much to encourage post -impres- sionist developments, and helped form the Contem- porary Group in 1926. The artistic climate of Sydney was consequently much more tolerant and advanced than Melbourne's at the time, and for her part in this she will always have her niche in the his- tory of Australian art. Historical significance is one thing, though, and aesthetic achievement an- other. Although the cleaning up and the discipline which she added to local art then was a good thing, her dis- cipline now looks like stiff- ness, and the entirely fancy dress subjects are too artificial for today's taste. There are echoes of Augustus John; much looks like drliberate de- coration for the then fashionable neo-Georgian houses. The later work is far better; and constant im- provement Is. Incidentally, a certain indication of an authentic artist. Stiffness relaxes into easy assurance, flat decora- tion gives way to space and light, and Georgian costume pieces disappear in favor of her real world -that is, studio interiors. artist's models-a large part of her real world after all-and portraits of her friends (her child portraits are perhaps Sydney's best). Such watercolors as "Girl In White." 1057. have the same quality of well-bred well-being that Matisse or Dufy give us In their interiors with figures, though the style Is nearer Cezanne's, (Their sympathy with another fine Sydney water- colorist prompts the ques- tion: what's become of Enid Cambridge?). The even more recent pen and wash studies from the nude are almost monu- mental. Only the drawings in cranes done this year halt the progress, but it is astonishing enough to find an artist experimenting with a new medium at the age of 83. Carl Plate One welcomes the op- portunity s -eportIng that she still La', in real life, the same supreme, rather adventurous, elegance of dress and bearing seen In I Lambert's 1903 portrait. One must not believe ) the mousey lithograph self- portrait that she herself has offered the public. Carl Plate's small oils at the Hungry Horse would surely be identified as masculine even if his name was concealed. This is as much from a sense of ambition as from the forceful thrust of his painterly abstractions. A woman, perhaps, would decide upon her own Ilmi- ations, and work within 'them. Plate makes one con- stantly aware of the struggle and the difficulty involved in the search for a truljapersonal expression. Some of these paintings will presumably be de- veloped into larger works: not all have Justified their existence. A general impression from seeing so many (43) together is that the bush and rock landscape en- vironment penetrates his work more than one had realised, and that those with landscape colors and light are the best. Alex Leckie Alex Leckie's ceramics at the Macquarie Galleries are less troubled and searching flan. Elate's paintings. Leckie, 'iorn in Scotland In 1032, and working in Adelaide since 1955, ex- hibits In Sydney for the first time. Ills wo.% is botsterots and extrov. rt in a way that pottery settlers is, and he may not now tw .;cs,cing much any more. Certainly he has arrived at a quite exhilarating art with much momentum In it. He likes bouncing globu- lar forms, plump Incas - sold owl bottles, stem cups or bowls with heads modelled or painted on them. Best of all are the seven "Three dimensional paint- ings," great pumpkin -sized jars with minute peaked mouths (though one Is a detachable lid) some slightly squashed and bul- gey, all textured with rich graffiti, and glazed with deep subtle colors. His color is particularly good, especially the browns and purples and oranges painted on the little bottle vases with Eve and the Serpent. Besides the sculptural ceramics there are also some uncatalogued bowls. beakers, and salts and pep- pers. A very welcome new- comer indeed. Mixed Shows THE DOMINION GAL- LERIES ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION offers Aus- tralian figure painting from Tom Roberts to Wil- liam Drew. One Tom Roberts Is a typical small portrait head: the other of a girl on the sand is probably by some- one else. One would need much stronger evidence than verbal tradition to contra- dict the evidence of one eyes. A Phillips Fox 'lid asleep in the garden is fine example of Frew i ini presaionism. Lambert is brightly styl- ish, next come Arthur Murch and Norman Lind- say whose heavy-handed airless oils never approach the ouality of his water- colors. There is an excellent early Drysdale nude, a Donald Friend watercolor exemplifies the brilliance of the 1640s and a resur- rected Dalgarno shows the period's social realism. Dobell is embairassadbs three trivialities. Dmin. and Meskenas are Inter- estingly similar to each other; two good Basalt NO11105, 1949 on glass, and a 1956 Greek drawing pre- cede the deep descent to Hooper, Drew and Yvonne Francart. The FIVE YOUNG SYD- NEY PAINTERS at Barry Stern's are Shane Sweeney, Barrie Collins, Michael" Oalamansky, Ch els tine Herman and Barry Gaz- zard. The first three are vary young indeed, and ko doubt their art teache0., know best what potential they have. Sweeney at least is spirited. Christine Herman is back with heavy textures: one preferred the lumin s figure subjects like "Mo ent of Fulfilment." If were derivative what ma ter at this, stage. Barry Ciampi, who near thirty than twents7 and has studied in London for some years, dominates the exhibition with his five abstracts, lust legible a. the nudes in interiors which their titles proclaim If they were done England the studio m have been very warm a light, and filled with flow- ers, for there la a strong landscape feeling In the broad patches of yeual and brown. He is another very welcome newcomer. WHAT' ON Dom lllll I lllllll huh TODAY AND NEST Wall( 7: i Art ,f141:117. .4 al .11.WSpecial Exhibition: Helena Rubinataln 4 I, .....d.,. A.,,,s.g..,-;:g;,,r,t4,1 tggv.,1,;oz.:.":, rgx,Artg. ii.en H....-Carl Pck XII' Vi iii" ii a Tor, C lene.-Fire Worn n Painters " """' F garrg.Steni.-Five Young Painters. i iDemi len.-Annivemery show. Wale. Meuse, Put and O'Connell 5w...16bute ta Thea Proctor Maggerene.-Alm Lacing, gallery and ceramic muiptter Yee ,Moot., Nowcastie.-Croup show, mein' Sydney oXinlers. 1 Cereal,, 65 Keira Street, Won Faroe Wollongong painter.. a OpgMIN6 TUtlDAY .1 2 pang ass., row Ana Department. Market Strut step. Sculpture :. 1 trattltg:nraramalltd..-3.R.C. Art Extion. Strom Arnellffe.-botlidale An Prim. mg Ceramic. of Thailand. F.: OPENING WKONISDAY 3 David ,ttes.-Y4 mail el. 0. Wills Art Prin. 1 VIVO VI.674'67-riTe 1Tgir and Kenneth Cask. MK lllll IMINIOrentmenorme llllllll 111 1