Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

"TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W. The Week in Art "Schoolgirls with a Dog" . , . lithograph by Charles Blackman. Poland cherishes POLAND is a country which has for several centuries cherished its cultural links with Paris, and the eight contemporary Polish painters whose work has been bros.ght to the Dominion Gal - :cries reveal the enthusiastic embrace of Paris fashions which immediately followed the Commun- ist thaw in 1956. Until then official social_ 1st realism I. id been firmly enforced in an art world which in the twenties had been devoted to geometric abstraction. and In the thirties had fallen almost entirely under the spell of Bonnard. The best of the eight, Tadeusz Dominik, perhaps gains strength from that Bonard colorist tradition in his seimiously painted, but muscular and firmly Jointed abstract composi- tions. The most recent of his works, of 1963, begins to show a pop -art influ- ence. being a private bulle- tin board with his favorite Tintoretto and Rembrandt paintings included in it. Ignacy Wits is another but less lyrical colorist, whose semi -abstract figure subjects ("Waiting Room" is the best), are Interest- ingly parallel with the manner that Emit im- ported to Sydney from Poland with great acclaim fifteen years ago. The decorative surrealism of Kasimir Mikulski also has its roots in pre-war art: doll -like girls with big empty eyes stare back from windows where little birds and other cutenesses populate open space grids. It is the remaining five non - colorist, monochro- matic abstractionists who employ the standard ?vast styles of tachism or of Tapies' tex- tures (there is no trace of American Influence at all). Tchorzewski and Alfred Lenica are the tachists, frolicking in the shallow manipulative pleasures of what is close to finger painting, but Just achiev- ing a surrealist presence of cosmic, zoological or bot- anical forms hovering in space. Helena Walicka's warm red brown and green col- or patches would seem to be fairly routine abstract landscapes of a type corn - its Paris links *......1.00.041. WHAT'S ON showing at the Art Gal- lery of N.S.W. is the first official exhibition ever de- voted to these art forms. It thus recognises the con- siderable revival made 1st the past few years, when there has been more ac- tivity than at any time the whole war-tornPolishl since the etching boom of the 1920s. The increased activlty nation and Its eternal capacity for recovery. This is an interesting owes much to certain New 1 exhibition, showing a cross Australian artists, often section of art in a small. German -trained, who have , brought a strong tradition country like Australia; tle-1 ic art with them. pendent like Australia too There have also been Aus- on Paris for its language; transits returned from but like any country pro -.European study where the TODAY AND NEXT WEEK Art Gallery el N.S.W Special exhibIllond Eskimo Arty Au.. al ten Ptint Surrey; La Gay n pries, tor etodents drown.. Re., brndt's echnque., PnorignIx707vatil ooer Rudy Keaton: Eric Smith, paintinos. Dminln: Contemporary Polish Painting. Clone Galleries: Strom Gould. paintings and patties Wield Jpnes: European palnOngs nd scoip, ore Oncl Plette Masters. Chttwood: Workshop Art. Centre T11,14.6, WP,1"1,,. Arts seem, Willoughby: Six Women Pointers. yen dertouch, Newcattla Mixed show. Crane, Wsllongong: Feasted. Connor. Lynn. Grieve. OPENING WEDNESDAY Hungry Nene: Sculpture. by painters. aceliaric Drawings and ow prints. Marry Stem Mixed sh nd pottery by Ben Collins. Farmers: Anthony Underhill TUESDAY Cnterneturary Art Society, Adyer 1LECTURE,1, Efigh Stre.1 g o liren Amer./ en Panting- by Fran Cater*, 0. mon enough Australia, clueing sometigrilarqiie Marian Bogusz animates in its subject matter. Per - grey canvasses with very haps only Dominik's art Small-scale, even, knife shows really high quality, marks, and in one case in- though there are many vadat this fragile delicacy other important Polish with a large yellow wound, artists not included here Ziemski's torn, scabby-tex- ILebenstein moat notably) tured upright forms on tnd comparisons of merit dark grounds are invariably' between Poland and Aus- coupled as if also to en- tralia cannot therffore be close a healing wound, made. In these pictures the, Prices are very reason - Interest in texture Mil able at 30gns. to 200gns. well be a result of 11. rag The survey of nearly all amongst such war- Australian artists currently destroyed cities as War- printmaking (plus a brief saw, where for a time the look at the recent past) absence of any other In the exhibition now beauty could have focused attention on the subtle visual pleasures of ruined walls, and of rubbish de- caying in the streets and fields. And with his imagery ol healing wounds Ziernskl bet teaching facilities were available, when until recently Australia's, especi- ally Sydney's, were ex- tremely poor. And it could well be that rising prices for paintings have persuaded some artists to make original works which are cheap (be- cause they are repeatable to a limited extent); and that contemporary paint- ing styles which are best for big paintings have re- minded artists that, If small pictures are wanted, original prints are happier , when small than are paint- ings. There are 87 prints by 70 artists. The best are probably by those artists who are also outstanding painters, like Arthur Boyd and Fred Williams, but there are many artists who come Into their own In their prints rattier than their paintings, for ex- ample Earle Backen, The main surprise how- ever is not the Varied and often brilliant techniques but the concentration of art content, This is partly because prints are email, but many artists (Boyd is an example again) seem to distil more of their essen- tial imagery into one print than is found In a whole series of Paintings.