Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

"TELEGRAPH" 19 APR 1964 Sydney, N.S.W SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, APRIL 19, 1964 91_ The Week in Art by Daniel Thomas POP ART AND THE Young Contempor- aries exhibition ar- ranged by the Contem- porary Art Society, at Farmers is easily the most interesting big mixed show of all the annuals. Amcor this year gives two prizes, for artists aged up to 23 and up to 30. This limitation is enough to give the exhibition some unity of shared alms, instead of the unmeaning mixture of numerous independent art- ists. And it promises the young beginners wall space that otherwise might be pre-empted by their more 'established elders. One notes firstly that pop art is really proliferat- ing. It Is undeniably pop art, clearly acknowledging its source material from popular culture in signs, trademarks, advert I s e - ments, comic strips. The result can be completely abstract like Ross Crothal's geometric "Red Stars,' re- lations of many stars on match boxes, oil drums. and other packages all claiming some spec I a I magic for their product. Or it can be completely fig- urative like new English arrival Michael Shaw's people from the comic strips, in which case the people are inclined to be very tough characters un- dermined by being painted in the most sentimental lollipop colors. In both cases there is a claim to inherit the main tradition of realism, for the subject matter is taken from the widely-shared everyday experience of ord- inary men and women in an era when the advertis- ing jingle has become the real folk music. One or two artists have gone beyond the mere use of this raw material, they have plainly become enam- oured of it too. One proof is the craftsmanship. Michael Brown bestows craftsmanship on the debased forms in paint or collage which he disposes happily on a friendly, fresh board, and thus retrieves These forma from their I imbs. Potent magic Martin Sharp Orally fell in love with his assemblage sculpture. "The Key to Natural Beauty." Here is a metal shop -display unit of circa 1925, for Plantol, presumably an antique beauty soap, eyes and lips of faultless beauty are .painted on Its glass front, inunaculate snow - white hands, stuffed rubber gloves in fact, dispay themselves inside, a whole life-size papier-mache body has been stood upon this "tingle' cabinet.. The message is that maybe the old "ad" man's 'AD' MEN wsurs ON TODAY AND HIRT WICK Art Gagged el N.I.W.; Special Ilahlbotlanio N.S W. Travelling Art Scholarship: complellathlai.;,t A.twaaste Decade. Farnser'w Young Contemporar.es, Amite) Nom. Tsyerry Clyne, Donald Friend, Nut p , Maly lee grown, palnll H... Robert Prim, paIntAget watercolere. =.:-Itrs":"'Ee'Rudry ACaloT. Jones: Aanyela dyne. Von Serteuell, Newsiest* M t Olive Crone, Wollongong: Sob Dickerson di ening.. I Dominion: AustrallesNING TUIISDAY OPAgarireewriglat 4900;15e0. Art Gallery el N.S.W.: Content American Paintings, 3 p.m. OA ic letiaton. Carry Sw TURSDAat Brian McKay. pYeantineo N[ ma sculpture. LIMO., Art Sacker Adyw Nail, bluds Street. a p m ; ..Th Y Dung "n"'"""".74e.324.;."1.1CTURI Set Gallery ; Art Gliery at N 11.10 p.m "Content. E porary American PintIng,.. by Charles Reddrigten. 5 incantations and cabalistic signs have more potent magic than they know. And Crothal's stars after all have an oriental ances- tor in the abracadabra symbol. In the case of Stephen Eerie craftsmanship may not have crept up on him, as an offering to his popu- lar image; he is probably craftsman -designer first of all who garnishes his palely. elegant green and gold leaf texture pieces with a spice of reality: ruck words on the printed collage, or a recognisable singlet, labelled Chesty Bond and extremely dirty, yet bewilderingly success- ful in its bland association with the cleanliness and the gold leaf. Pure color Besides the presence of pop, one notices of course a mess of art school post- impressionism; a good straightforward p a 1 nted representation of urban landscape by Julian Shook, and a lithographic one by Michael Harris; and sing- ing pure Color work in stripes by Oraeme Cohen as almost the only approach to true hand - edge (edgel.as o pposed to pop d- In this picture as in Many others, worried paint surfaces are a common handicap for young artists, only a few like Dick Wat- kins, Milgate and Em- manuel Raft having broken through to full confidence In their medium. Finally one observes that techni- cal excellence more often accompanies those who copy local gods, Their pic- tures can be seen in actu- ality (Leonard French has two disciples. Whiteley likewise). But those who reach for what is only known from reproduction may have more spiritual kick, more amibition, and indeed more promise than the former. This is a rough and ex- citing exhibition, not to be missed. The Ampol prize -winners were Em- manuel Raft, senior; and John Firth -Smith, junior. The week's other exhibi- tions are not rough but smooth. There may be no profound spiritual experi- ences for the observer, but, more than is usual in local exhibitions, there is an as- sured hedonism in Donald Friend, Mitty Lee Brown, Robert Grieve, Judy Cas- snit and Peter Freeman. They only want to please, and they do this well. Their work is for those who may not be passionate, compul- sive collectors, but who would dearly like a few de- cent originals around the house. Of those who reveal their prices Peter Freeman's paintings at Barry Stern's are the cheapest (up to 70 gns.). With their slight trace of revived art nou- veau they may be more chic than we yet realise; and their quality is highly dependable. Robert Grieve at the Hungry Horse, from Mel- bourne, has four large paintings, but the rest are all under 10Ogns. When he keeps to gentleness in his abstract Intimate land- scapes he provides a rare contribution. There are, besides, few local water- colorists to compare with Grieve, and the best oils plainly follow the white- ness of his watercolours, and the modest questing way each small-scale ele- ment develops out of the previous ones. One water- color has had a strong simple image imposed on It, unsuccessfully: those pictures that grow organic- ally, where sensitive marks float into the picture like drifts of leaves, are a quiet delight and the best things he has done. Mitty Lee Brown at Clune's also paints abstract landscapes (ins d on the Cooma d'strict), she too has never been better, but like Grieve the occasion .1 large, definite forms can be banal. Her paintings are so lovely and so experi- enced as color that one assumes the soft -edged color patches are seen by the artist chiefly in terms of their spatial position; the flat pattern Is neglect - e'. It might be best to re- gard the pictures as a new kind of sculpture, as col- ored cloud arrangements "Ringbarked Trees" and "Good Morning" are two that glow with the artist's special joie de vivre and civilised audacity. Table pieces Donald Friend's sculp- tures share the Clune Gal- lery with the Lee Brown paintings. There are a few small fountains, but most pieces are for the table not the floor. AU are made of copper sheets. rut 1W and bent to become ani- mals and little men. Like all Friend's diversions from the profound lyricism of his figure drawings, these are brilliantly witty, the highest kind of lightweight delight. If, like "The Moon" and "Menelaus," they begin to be truly sculptural instead of orna- mental, then the witty sparkle is replaced by something more lasting. But it would be a sour man who failed to welcome the swarm of men in mid air leaping out of the Trojan Horse's chest or the horse flicking his riderleis chariot up behind him, or even the flight into Egypt on a flop-eared donkey. All Is movement; drawings trapped in an airborne metal flourish. The exhibition Is a be - gulling etAtextganment. The--TaWITU Contempor- aries should ponder on this rare case of an Australian artist who has not gone stale in middle -age.