Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

2 11*ELEGIUSPH" Sydney, N.S.W. 16 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH; -DECEMBER 22; 1963 The Week in Art By DANIEL THOMAS AN American sculptor recently settled in Sydney has expressed astonish- ment at his fellow - artists' reaction to the Michael Brown case. Brown's picture "Mary Lou as Miss Universe" was re- moved a fortnight ago, by the artist, from the big exhibition, Austra- lian Painting Today, just before its Sydney showing had finished at the Art Gallery of N.S.W. The exhibition, ar- ranged by Mr. Laurie Thomas, Director of the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane. la touring Aus- tralia before being sent overseas. It was reported as re- moved by order of the CAAB (the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board); five or six men who for 80 years have advised the Prime Minister's Department in Canberra on purchases and commissions for the Com- monwealth Collection; and who very recently have also begun to pay the costs of promoting Australian art abroad. The grounds for removal were not made clear, but presumably it was alleged indecency. For the picture, In attacking the drab taw- driness of spirit that enjoys the pin-ups found in bar- bershop magazines, uses many pasted nude cut-outs from these magazines. The threat of withdraw- ing the CAAB's financial support if the picture stay- ed In the exhibition was clear enough, however. And It is this which my 2 jailed for sale of book NEW YORK, Sat. - A bookstore owner and his clerk were sentenced to Jail today for selling a copy of the controversial 18th century navel Fanny Hill to a teenager. Irwin Weisfeld, the book- store owner, was sentenced to 90 days' jail and fined X229. John Downs. the clerk, was given 10 days' jail. Weisfeld and Johns were convicted last month under a State law forbid- ding the sale of "sexually immoral" books to persona under the age of It Several months ago, the State Supreme Court ruled that the book, officially titled Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, about a pros- titute, was not obscene. THE MICHAEL BROWN CASE American says should have had all the artists up in arms, especially those who were also in the exhibition. Instead, the reaction has been deathly silence. So though the story is now a fortnight old it still seems worth describing what happened. In the first place the CAAB does not seem to have ordered the picture's withdmwal. In the second place the CAAB would have been at- tacking a phantom. The exhibition organiser, Mr. Laurie Thomas, had al- ready decided to withdraw the picture. At any rate he told me this decision in conversation three days after the exhibition open- ed in Sydney. His reason being that its new, altered version was not as good as the old. Thirdly, nobody at all or- dered the removal of the picture in mid -exhibition while the show was still in Sydney. If Michael Brown him- self decided at the last minute to move it across to his own studio exhibition (in whose catalogue it is not listed) this is under- standable after receiving notice that it would not be shown interstate or in Europe. "Inertia" of artists Now, if all this had been publicly known, and I think it was not, then the inertia of the artists might be understandable. Al- though there appeared to be censorship by threaten- ed loss of financial support, In fact this was not so. How, then, to explain the inertia? It would be too easy to say that within the past year many of Brown's fellow -exhibitors had gained considerable success with their own painting, and did not wish to antagonise their friends in the CAAB and elsewhere by making a stand on prin- ciple. More likely an explan- ation, more creditate, la that designed by Mrs. Lowers. they did not like his art It is the Rotary Club themselves, and therefore War Memorial, and is to did not feel willing to make be found in Burns Place, a stand for it. beside Oosford Railway But it should be possible Station. to separate the principle of censorship from the nature of the art itself. It is easy for an artist to dis- like work unlike his own. and Brown's was unlike nearly everybody's; con- centrated in its imagery, with one message ham- mered out loudest and clearest, it is different from the usual soft roman- tic jumbles which Sydney does so well. It Is a pic- ture that has been tink- ered at for over a year, it Is big, and one can see how at the moment he ART RECORD thinks it his major work. But, the concentration of LONDON, Sat.-Sothe- content is not matched by by's announced yesterday concentrated unity of form. a new record In the fine- There is an uneasy pic- art auction world. tonal balance between the The turnover in their elements now, and as well salerooms between October as being a different sort of 14 and December 20 was picture from the usual 10- E4,131,810 sterling (15.184,- cal stuff it is not a very 774 Auct.) - almost double good picture at present. the comparative figure for (The concentration was last year. fully achieved in certain hard-edge pictures In Brown's one-man show: "East Coast Plower," or the sewing-machine illustrated last week-upside down. Their decided merits in- cluded unexpectedly good color. And one's conclusion was that it's very difficult for disgust to generate a good work of art. Some fondness, or respect for the subject, works better for moat people, even if it be- comes a matter of even- tually realising you love what you thought you hated. Brown i5 only 25.) So a relatively unsuccess- ful picture in an unfamiliar style was admittedly not the easiest thing to all fight together for. But it is rather shameful that the noise was so small. A "basic puritanism" The indecency. if that was the trouble, is no sort of issue. During the Lady Chatterley trial, a good case was made for the book's basic puritanism; and the same is true of "Mary Lou." Another issue is how to choose an exhibition. "Mary Lou" was not in the exhibition's Inaugural showing in Brisbane; it does not figure in the printed catalogue. It and Lanceiey's "Ethos" were added in Sydney after certain suggestions-sen- sible ones-had been made. But nobody heeded the ar- tist's warning that the picture they knew was vastly altered, and it was permitted to enter the ex- hibition without the organ - later having seen it. Moral: trust nobody, always see for yourself. Gerald Lewers Fountain A new fountain designed by Gerald ',ewers before his death was opened last week at Oosford. Carried out by his wife and daugh- ter, Margo and Miran' Lewers, it is in copper on a l5ft. x 10ft. mosaic wall