Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

IT might be helpful to say something about art reviews; how to read them, how to get the most from them. This time hut year I complained how polite nothings were too eagerly read as praise. And again one must point out that if nearly every exhibition held in Sydney is going to be re- viewed then mere statisti- cal probability requires that the majority will be unimportant, if not rub- bishy, Yet it should not be necessary to bring out big guns each week. And prac- tically all exhibited work even if inadequate, is at least terribly sincere, and may find somewhere a someone whose spirit it will, stir. So one reports on it in hope of providing any kind of lead-in, and passes on hastily. However there have been other failures of compre- hension due to ignorance For the public From "TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W. 154 SliNDAYTELEGRAPH.:4.1.ANIIARY .5:: .1964 6c*5 The Week in Art by Daniel Th mas REVIEWS, REVIEWERS good Parisian painting, and above all an anti - parochial attitude to style and subject matter, should not rankle. Though no doubt the generation that Immediately supplanted the "Charm School," and noisily reacted from it, is startled to find it cannot entirely deny its parents. However one piere of fact u a I misinformation which I am glad to correct is that Olsen lives comfort- ably by his painting alone. He assures me that all his teaching at the Mary White School and else- where is not done entire' because he likes it, bu tilao because he needs the money. The mechanics But the outraged wife's angriest piece would have been paranoic if it were, not due to Ignorance of o nalistic c h antes Robert Hughes, whose _Alsip you I things he really tares riticism cosily the MOst stimulating, has the great advantage of being only occasional and only on the The painters have one about. When he sometimes advantage to helpthemhas to deal with an amor- comprehend the reviewers: they know them person- ally, they can catch the tone of their speaking voices, read between the lines, make allowances for personal preludices. For the benefit of the general public a brief review ofthe reviewers might be heloful to finish with. Wallace Thornton, prob- ably the most read, is the least readable in the sense of being the least fluent as a writer. Yet it is worth persevering, for he is, I think, the soundest judge of quality. A painter who has not exhibited for some years, his work indicates an admiration for the later French Impression- ists like Bonnard. He is also an art teacher, and this perhaps inclines him to award the ainter good of the simple mechanics of ineorther writer whois also and bad marks when it art writing, or of journal- a painter had not only might be more useful to made comparisons between interpret the painter for Ism in general. her husband and other the public. A recent encounter with artists, but amongst the James Gleeson's own an outraged artist's wife illustrations - it was a paintings are well-known suggested all this. luxurious American maga- and often seen: their own tine-the writer's own qualities are often found in painting came first and what he pralses-elegance, was very big, while her husband's was smaller, Freudian ambiguity, ro- A discussion of the or- and ultimate devilishness, mance. and a preference To believe that such LeuriltedudpitireonicTgarieres- ganisational and political aspects of Sydney art in upside down. 1863 will be postponed till things are deliberate is of merits. One would know a future week. course ultimate nonsense. hweithollukted blieienssglingt'osld. work First of all then, before It is apparently not fully there were any really cool getting to the mechanics, understood that between a calculators about, o n e one should remind artists writer and the printed would not expect him to be that art reviews are aimed version of his writing come enthusiastic; but his en - not at them, but at the layout men and editors. thushisms are expressed in general public, In the hope They choose the size and the most poetic prose of that the public will be sequence of illustrations all. He knows how to bring helped towards enjoyment (which the writer usually in nightingales and violins and understanding, orders by remote contro1,1 (the analogy with music is It is true that In the Ab cut out occasional abstract art) and probably letter or telephone). extremely valuable for last 150 years since the wards and paragraphs, communicates his percep- Age of Romanticism (which too. Quite often this is tions more effective! ythan is still with us)-original-, necessary for space rea- the others. ity in art has been grossly overvalued. In consequence for any artist to have another artist compared with him is touchily mis- understood as an imputa- tion of plagiarism. Even such inevitable things as influences are denied, though influences have to be assimilated to provide a formal language. "The only true originality Is an originality of content,' must be repeated here: perhaps the artists who just never get started are the ones who make mys- teries of form, or on an even lower level, a mystery of technique. So to point to things In common between John Ol- sen and Cedric Flower (or Dufy or Fragonard) - of certain colors. vivacity, a love of Sydney-is to offer one way to enjoyment from an easy painter to a more difficult one. And to suggest that Olsen is heir to the "Charm School" of ten years ago, that is to a tradition of 'sons, and it shoo]d be ' known that this happens to all Sydney's art review- ers-most often to John Henshaw, least often to Wallace Thornton, though his review of last. year's most important exhibition, the British 'Sculpture -show. was cut precisely in half. Occasionally also the editors, who are kindly people, will protect their writers from angry read- ers by removing over -con- troversial references to re- ligion or sex or politics. For example I have been saved this way from the consequences of remarks on the bad influence of religion on Coburn's paint- ing, on the nature of Arthur Boyd's sexual pre- occupations, or on the dic- tatorship of Canberra about the Hessing-NIchol- son breach of contract. All these are normal and necessary practices, but evidently the painters themselves, the keenest readers of the reviews, are ,sometimes unaware of so em. Differences It Is all to the good to have extra reviewers with their different perceptions. Elwyn Lynn ls better able to discover the tragic, than anyone else. This of course has revealed more than one knew previously about his own withdrawn paintings: but it has added a valuable dimension to our under- standing of many other artists, Lanceley for ex- ample. Lynn's crisp prose is written for a Sunday paper and, like me, he has the advantage of a little time for reflection. Thornton's and Gleeson's daily news- paper reviews have to be written on the spot, in the actual exhibition, and this is another handicap which should be allowed for by their readers. phous mixed show-nobody enjoys wri' mg about. these -he is little better than the rest. Although he is a painter himself his critical views do not depend on his own paintings; if any- thing the reverse might be true. Henshaw Is an art teacher, but his writing is not frequent enough to have come to grips with. And me? I think I have made it clear whose work I personally enjoy, and need not go into that here. And if I continue alone to remind people that, say, an exhibition of etching,- by Picasso and Goya and Rembrandt in the Art Gal- lery of New South Wales print room is more worth- while than the latest local offerings from the dealers, this is because I believe it, not because I work at the Art Gallery. SCHOLARSHIP Entries close on Wed- nesday, January 8, for the New South Wales Government Travelling Art Scholarship for students. Telephone 130549, ext. 349, for further information