Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

"TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W. The Week in Art by Daniel Thomas STILL LIFE THE Transfield Art Prize at £1000 is Australia's largest award for a single Feuerring, an exuberant painting. It should be enough money to attract all Aus- tralia's best painters, yet it has never quite done so. Nor will any competition. This third year, how- ever, It does provide an exhibition with much to enjoy, and it is decidedly the best exhibition of the three. One reason would be the presence of Wallace Thornton as a judge with Max Harris. Previously the judges were not sufficiently ex- perienced to inspire confid- ence in the artists. A second reason for the quality of the current show could be the set subject - still life. A set subject will always deter many painters, but there is a virtue in this one. Unlike the previous landscape and figure sub- jects, still life hardly calls fora strenuous display of significant content. It offers less room for pretentions, and leaver the artist to his first responsi- bility - painting well - made pictures. Still life is not a major preoccupation in Australia. When the subject was an- nounced Kenneth Hood was the first name that came to mind as a dis- tinguished performer, and sure enough he is here with a fine example, One also thought of Margaret Preston (now dead), David Strarhan, Margaret 011ey and Desid- edits Orban. but wondered whether they would count themselves as modern- for the prize is for "mod- ern still life." Apparently they did not, for they are absent. So the well deserved prize goes to Maximilian and j o v lel all-rounder, whose quirky humor has relieved many an exhibi- tion. In the last Archibald that crimson self-portrait which leaned into the pic- ture from one side; in the Easter Show some years back, when texturology was beginning here, that rural landscape made of real grains of wheat. His still life is an ex- pressionist one, an expan- sive gesture of central European hospitality and bounty. Food, that is. The end of a meal in a warm, dark space, where nubile apples and expec- tant pears achingly offer all. Elwyn Lynn, wisely con- tinuing to 'eschew color, was highly commended. Likewise, Margo Lewers and Leonard Hessing. Gilliland and Robert in good form. but more like landscape than still life. Rodney M i I gate and Elizabeth Rooney are less frequent exhibitors who greatly impressed. and Robert Hughes displayed dangerous charm. Jaycee Prize HAVE there ever been two prizes in one week before') The 100 -guinea Jaycee Prize made Its first appearance this week ,-' Wales House. Organised in rather too short a space of time, it sensibly restricted entries to artists under 40. Guy Warren was the Judge, and Barry Gazzard, who is under 30, was the winner with one of his cloudy abstract nudes. Gerard Ebeli (is he real- ly under 40?) was highly commended, Otherwise the majority who had heard about the competition were a troupe of Feueeringettes. I didn't know he conducted art classes. ARTLOVERS Gallery, on the Pacific Highway at Artormon, is beginning a new policy of regular monthly exhibitions. Previously it handled a - of theFoldes again conservative Australian artists, and especially the dead ones like Roberts and Stratton and Gruner. Now with one-man show of new' paintings by Rends Zusters they have gone ao. modern or superfici- all Z...ters. who is also a commercial artist, gives his pictures maximum impact, and an air of modernism that remains palatable. For underneath the ar- bitrary geometric grids lurk lovely harbor views. LAST week Peter Foldes showed his moving pictures at Barry Stern's. This week there were "narrative paintings" at the Macquarie, similar to those which he recently exhibited in London at McRoberts and Tunnard (the gallery from which Brett Whiteley moved to Ma rrhiesen 's). It is all bright Ideas. It is undoubtedly interesting to see what the jaded Parisian art market calls forth. But although it is clet er and intelligent. as Just right for the I said last week, it is not boardroom reluctantly con- really art, lacking both ruling to a progressive formal and poetic coher- image. ence and inevitability. Death of Will Ashton WILL ASHTON, who died in Syd- ney last Sunday, aged nearly 82, was an artist of some signifi- cance in Australia. English born he grew up in Adelaide, and went to study in Eng- land and Paris in 1900. There he played cric- ket with a team of ex- patriate Australian art- ists at St. Ives, And he brought back a more truly French impres- sionist landscape style than was available in from say Streeton or anyone He seems to hive re- visited Europe often, and it was Paris, Spain and Venice that he pre- ferred to paint, ever. when in Australia. The only Australian landscape he often dealt with was Kosci- usko. Although he was rather backward -look- ing, and by no means as significant as the late Marge , Preston (whose holdings of ...onto in the Art -Pry of N.S.W. are ..,ow on v.ew ), he at least appreciated her quality and owned one of her pictures. From 1937 to 1044 he was director of the Art Gallery of N.S.W., or- ganising an enormous exhibition in 1938 of "150 years of Austra- lian Art." and beingrte- live in the organisation of the large Australian show that travelled to the U.S.A. in 1941. He was a member and chairman of the Com- monwealth Art Advisory Board Until last year, and was knighted in 1980. He did not pain, much in recent years. Richard, Howard and Julian Ashton are a different family. WHAT'S ON TODAY AND NEXT WEEK Art Gallery el N.S W S{ rf or. I Oltpl,yt: Paintina. by MarqarEt Parton: Ao.tatittn port end wnri Aiirtt. Wall.. °obeli (NON tomorrow). the lat. two drsprays in ton:unctron with current TV ,f110. ALL NEXT WEEK. Da Id Jen.: Trantraid API Price. WON Nowa: J we. Art Pose. allwituaric Pair, Fold., narratir. painirngs. Van dertatich, NtwtMtIt Sheila McDonald. Crane, Wollongong: May Barrie, garden sculpture.. Gordon Council Chambeist Prints by Sir Lion.' Lind..., Dominion: A Century of Auttral,ab LynENppb. Hun" E M ""41EPEIND "PAT3DIWYd Ciontonriaallb Swings N SDPI *. Martin PlarD. Kobin Hood Art Prise. OI G TUESDAY P allette MOND' Art Gallery, 137 Vklatia Manta, Chattwod: inajgblal Cahrbiticn, opanirig 6 30 p In. P ada Municipal Art Swilotes SprInd Shaw: 20 fpw. and under, Grad drat Audrtorium, Chatswood. Stefanie. 10.21. oraNINts WEDNESDAY Shay Kamen: Antelcin lithograph. by AUTOS Vi1.111: Polley, and Citribralt Sculptor. by Toro Marry Metal Kalb. , ettelem. Farmer'N Aenlrenary !fah bitten. MONDAY TV LECTURE Unhweitg of the Al,. ChannIC 2. 0.30 p , -.tromp, AA; Th. 0,0,1 Cam.'