Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

"TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W. The Week in Art by Daniel Thomas 'NEW kind of A business patron- age of the arts was demonstrated this week at the Clune Galeries. The "Viscount Collec- tion" shown there consists of seven "recent paintings of the Australian scene" by seven leading artists. The paintings w ere bought or commissioned by a tobacco company, God- frey Phillips International. They will be shown in all the State capitals; no doubt they will be used for various prestige adver- tisements (once upon a time they could have been made into cigarette cards); and eventually they will be given to the State gallery of the artist's choice, though since there are only six State galleries, the Commonwealth collection at Canberra must be in- tended as well. This sort of operation is far less wasteful of artists' time and energy than the competitions, where sever- al hundred paintings must be transported around the country, a few of them eventually exhib- ited, and one only event- ually given a prize. Forming the Viscount Collection may have need- ed more time and energy from the patron than a competition, but then this is only proper; ally should business patronage be so Mil llllllll at llllllll RIM WHAT'S ON TODAY ONLY Art Cathay ea N.S.W.-Special tahitt.z7 ,tiustratiart Pa , no I.rda,. prior to European LAST war -.. -411-y, Special eartaition, Austretian and New Zealand ptery. LAST DAY. Lecture In Sydney especi- ally the cast-iron face. The book for which they are intended will no doubt remind us that here in Sydney we have a unique 14 Har Str. Paddingten.-Mitheel Grown. th Nine oar and infinitely delightful. architecture, unlike any - ALL NEST WEEK Rudy Ketovern,-Aonlversary Mow. thing else in the world, OW. OW, - t'4":"";:li7lACC'11": 7:14:17114!1121?i:10. tartan and Darwil Lanri Ova, 2 David Jena.-Trin Cline. and under. 1 Artiomrs. Artrnam.--Srnall palm o.,. TAA Olflem Illealleth SI.-.-1,14. Coin., Nati. on. Wilk Collins. Piramby.-Cohn Naar. paintings, Douglas Rim Fernot, hand printed labrice. Chathertom.-AborioinI Ad horn the BennettiCompbeil Twat. Marry Otemet.-Arn00 Corignika Ceramic. nd Sc..tplume. i pieces. Chac Nool is there. if OPENING WEDNESDAY Terry Clum.-Sydney Printm , Dam oriolmie Id lllll olm-Yronn F r onc.I tasi Chratma. Show David Mom Fin Art Otpartment-Lenka Fold., Hanger. n S captor. THURSDAY LECTURE Mary Whit. School. p --Modern Art the New Freedom r, heavily subsidised by artists as it is with the competitions? With a competition the patron has little oppor- tunity for creative patron- age; he cannot make any choice, he leaves It to a hired jury to make a choice from what is submitted. Here one might guess that the Viscount men made the choice of subject -the "Australian Scene"- for few big businesses ex- cept the Rockefellers have learnt to like abstraction. And they might well have made the safe choice of artists, Boyd, Drysdale, Nolan and Tucker. Olsen and Williams are more en- lightened choices though by no means unsafe (and the Olsen Is near enough to being abstract). Only James Wigley is a sur- prising choice, and as it turns out, a very unhappy one. Indeed, nobody thinks much of Wigley except the Australian Galleries, art dealers in Melbourne, and they it seems were much concerned with the for- mation of the collection. Wigley is poor man's Drysdale, except that he can never articulate a co- herent space, and has tile drabbest sense of color. It is a pity therefore that the Drysdale acquires a slight illustrative taint In this company. The Tucker has a metallic antipodean head oddly inlaid into Gippsland greenery. Williams, Nolan. Olsen and Boyd were all nt their familiar best, and the spacious hanging of a very few outstanding pictures that the Clune Gallery is becoming addicted to is a habit to be applauded. Rudy Komon The Komon OallerY's fourth anniversary show is a mixed bag of 28 old and new pictures by the gal- lery's usual artists, plus a few others seldom seen there. Among the latter, excellent pictures by Olsen, Rose, Reddington and Fra- ter; from the familiar sta- ble a very lyrical Molvig nude. Some early works by big names: Boyd, 1939 ordinau i m p essionism; Nolan Gymple. 1948, ordi- nary Nolan. Most eaditing of all, three small bronzettt by Norma Redpath, the Melcourne sculptor, whose rim one -woman show at Gallery A a few weeks ago sold for many thousands of wands, and whose emerg- ence, with Klippel's return, marks 1962 as the greatest year for sculpture. The bronzettl, no bigger than paperweights, are monu- mental as the Acropolis. rocky. massive and ancient looking. Barry Stern Barry Stern has 20 pen drawings by Charles Hewitt of Victorian archi- But as drawings they are distinguished by insensitive line. In the sculpture garden are sandstone carvings by Anton Murre, and a few in wood. They are mostly derived from famous Aztec And maybe a Greek carya- tid For their size, though, they are marvellously cheap at up to 55 ans. Mike Brown Don't in iss Michael Brown's Nine Day Wonder Show, in his own studio, 14 Hargrave Street, Pad- dington, till Saturday. Even if only half good, It should be new and exciting and rude. Nobel winner to buy Aust. art STOCKHOLM, Sat. - Sir John Eccles, of Can- berra, said yesterday he would devote part of his share of the Nobel Prize to buying Australian paintings. Sir John, director of the Neuro-phystological Insti- tute In Canberra, shares the prize with Britain's professors Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley. They will jointly be pre- sented with the Nobel Prize for medicine at a ceremony next Tuesday. The three scientists won the prize for their dis- coveries about the trans- mission of nerve impulses. They share the prize of about 622,850 Aust. which will he presented to them by King Gustav Adolf, of Sweden. Sir John who arrived in Stockholm today for the presentation was accom- panied by his wife.