Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

"TELEGRAPii" Sydney, N.S.W. 12 "h/t SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, JANUARY 12, 1964 77 The Week in Art by Daniel Thomas PROGRESSION MARKS THE LOCAL SCENE AYEAR ago I decided that 1962 was less significant for Sydney art itself than a sudden in- crease in the channels of communication. The art was there, and getting along very nicely, but in 1962 the public begun to know it was there. The newspapers sprouted new art columns: for the first time in years books on Australian art became freely available. Even short movie films were be- ing made. In 19e3 the films had quietened down. Except, for the innovation of Alen McCulloch's pedestriar history of Australian art in University of the Air. television continues to pre- fer imported programmes w grappling with the local scene. When it does re- port briefly on a local ex- hibition it invariably pre- fers the gimmicky -pictures that move, pictures by prisoners-to the good. Book publishing In - work; the other by J. D. Pringle was as misleading in its easy glibness and more irritating in its di- vorce between text illustrations. Nor did it live up to its title Australian Painting Today for it drew its illu- strations almost entirely from an exhibition held as 'far back as 1061: and the final irritation was the illegality of using these illustrations without con- SUlting artists or copyright owners. Booklets From Australian pub- lishers Virginia Spate's John Olsen, from Geor- gian House, was outstand- ing! Longman's excellent booklets seemed to be appearing every month; but there were many others. But a really major event In 1963 was the birth of the luxurious quarterl magazine Art and Auystral ia. Its third Issue redeemed It from the decorative coffee - table publication towards which it was tending: we are now seeing a lot of the current art, but more im- portant the writing has become positive instead of tamely inoffensive. The magazine besides has very useful directory of forthcoming exinintions and art prizes and of auction sale prices. There can be few cities s'aose art gets such a good ress as Sydney's Chicago, rbourt irtaanr Cold niTc}:asal, r - larger Wally no public interest In its own art. One side effect N the mushrooming of new gal- leries here. In 1963 Wol- longong and Newcastle be- came the first provincial cities in Australia to main - I tain an art dealer. The Von Bertouch Gallery at Newcastle is now very firmly established; the city Is a rich one with some traditions of its own, but more relevant is the presence of an active pub- lic gallery there for the past Six years, with its widely respected director, Mr. Gil Docking. Inexperience But in Sydney Itself it has meant too many deal- ers chasing too few paint- ings. There have been sadly inexperienced ventures like the Louis Gallery In Dar- linghurst. And the outer creased If anything and suburban new arrivals like 1063 found two rival Lots- the Walk at Hornsby, the don publishers simul- Cameo at St. Ives and the taneously issuing - miry s Palette Masters at Chats- ofw ood (none of which I Australian painting with have seen) would surely do identical cover pictures. of beat to re -exhibit work One by Finley wag full from town instead of hop - clumsy textual errors, but ing for the metropolitan showed some unfamiliar treatment they will never get. Even a well -established dealer in better quality conservative painting like Artlovers at Artarmon does not easily join the routine circuit for exhibitions of new work. In fact Artlovers' normal practice of selling from stock and not worrying much about exhibitions has become the concealed prac- tice of galleries like Terry Chine's and Barry 'a and Rudy Komon's which actually do have exhibi- tions. Many more Interesting pictures pass through the dealers' hands than are ever seen publicly, and therefore one was grateful for the sight at Clone's of a few Drysdales and Nolans that had recently been sold there. Perhaps a sign of under - capitalisation (or of small store-rooms) was the marked tendency for deal- ers. especially Barry Stern and the Dominion, to con- sign a lot of their stock to the art auctions held so much more frequently in 1963 than ever before. The most publicised auc- tion was the dune Gal- leries collection of Euro- pean paintings. Obviously if the supply of new one- man rxhibitons is too low for tho ex,qting dealers inure; ON TODAY AND MITT WINS Art Gallery I Pernunrnt coilect.on : Ayelre,an aad 1190,0Dcain n,inp.11i Scu,ptufe, Aborw nI 0ri, Orlntal 0.5. Newcastle City Art Gall., tionnt ar,llrll Scoliptur. WHINING 11.1 AAAAA G,I.7. 192 Czaitga. VANCiggror ,,,,, Chirw,a Palitt.no., M., 10 Gliery. 19 Aligh 5i,t Leonia , Stem Galiory, 20 51%.1.4,,,ve.,,;:z;,... a del PAM Farmer's 110.1041 GIlergpiz.;,..z Ar .m.L.CAil,%1 An (UAISCO). Art Gallery el N. S.noch Man: ch .bald, Wynn. and ;Oman anrwg petae competAlont there is another solution besides intelligent invest- ment in a good stock of paintings which can be profitably sat on for a few years: one can import from elsewhere. Either minor Melbourne painters or contemporary Formosans as the Domin- ion do (the promised Poles did not arrives, though the commercial tourist views from Israel, or the mysti- cal incompetence from In- dia scarcely deserved house room. Or else something better but necessarily more expensive like Clune's French and British paint- ings. The trouble was that the extremely ignorant Sydney buyers golly paid far too much for the flimsy lightweights in Use collec- tion-say £000 where the rice should have been £200-and refused to go up to the V000-310,000 level for the Renoir. A minor picture is not infected with the merit of its better fellows, though the absurd rarct4 paid for Bradt In this auction can only be explained this way. Values The auction offered plenty of craftsmanship, but not a great deal of art. that is it offered fur- niture - paintings rather than works of the imag- ination. Now there is nothing wrong with furni- ture -paintings as long as they don't pretend above their staion, and as long as they don't cost too much. They never really lose all value; but they never increase greatly either. Sydney has plenty of people able to buy in the L.5000 -E10,000 range. If these people really want European work they should hoist their sights, if they continue to operate in the junior league of under £2000 they will make much better investments in Aus- tralian art than in any- thing that can be imported from Europe at that price. Except the most avant- garde, which they would find too risky. of