Wieneke Archive Book 4d : Artists - Australian & Other Presscuttings

3 1976 it n it 11 e. to 1 c. .t 114 a e e tn, es rot 1st JOHN CONSTABLE'S painting Salisbury Cathed nil from the Bishop's Grounds. Right, Self-portrcit 1806. Constable country MAX HOLLINGSWORTH in London reports .on the Britons' great unease . . . does Constable really deserve their affection? picture to a stranger at the age of 37, he habitually annoyed what patrons he had by trying to get back and rework a picture he had alelady sold. Just as Constable's reputation (he is "loved") lags behind that other great British painter J. M. W. Turner (he is "genius") so follow their bicentenar:.zs, A similar Turner exhibition brought out vast crowds and the Tate is to open on Sun- days for the first time to handle the masses expected for Constable. The men (both widely regarded to be eccentric) shared a rivalry too bitter to amuse either of them. Art politicians and chroniclers of the time revelled in it, regaling each other with tales like the terrible prelude to the Royal Academy ex- hibition of 1832. Constable had chosen his boldly -colored Waterloo Bridge from Whitehall Stairs, depicting the bridge's opening ceremony In 1917 as all pomp and stark skies and flag-tzaring, decorated city barges. Opposite hung Helvoetsluys, one of Turner's beautiful, quietly colored sea pieces. Three days before the opening, Consta- ble stood before his picture adding lashings of extra vermilion and blue. Turner glanced from Waterloo Bridge to END music varied m the near -sub - of the Sydney Quartet at a dis- fly under-populat- anniversary con - the NSW Con- rium on Friday, to turkily ridiculous astralian navy (!) 1.! Napoleon at the Borondino with le cannon and the his own picture, withdrew briefly, then re- turned with a large blob of red lead on his brush which he threw into the middle of his grey sea and left. It made the effects in Waterloo Bridge look silly. A few momenta later Constable looked around at Helvoetsluys and said: "He has been in here and shot It" The blob sat there, mocking its rival for two days until, in the last minutes al- lowed for painting. Turner came back and transformed It Into n nent, apt buoy. The unrelenting stance of sons critics is enshrined nowhere better than in The Times reaction in 1831 to the appearance of Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows, now one of his most popular pieces. Bor- rowing some of the man's own sarcasm, the paper said . . . "a very vigorous and masterly landscape which somebody has spoiled since it was painted by putting in such clouds as no human being ever saw, and by spotting the foreground all over with whitewash. It is quite impossiVe that this offence can have been committed with the consent of the artist Constable, the son of a bro3pereas corn -merchant and farmer, was born in So/ band of IIMAS Penguin, at the last night of the Prom concerts at the Sydney Town Hall on Saturday. But bliss first, Following the Sydney String Quartet's swift upward climb toward the summit of chamber music - making is the sort of thing that renders a critic's life worthwhile. Every concert now starts from a rung further up at a higher best: camp. Life, fire, passion, color leap out of every work they touch, be It Bartok's No 5, Mozart's K575 D major or Seulthorpe's No 9. Their Bartok especially was brilliant, from its shattering rhythmic intensity to its rich lyricism. establishing such rapt communication with the mll- enca that when the Ironic barrel -organ theme broke Into the last movement, shocked gasps echoed right around the hall. And the ensemble was scarcely less impressive in the completely different stylistic sonic territory of the Mozart, where Nathan Woks' cello shone without overshadowing' Even our own Peter Sculth- orpe's atmospheric new work snowy ILO. Is, t!-Itt. 1776 at Eastbergholt not far from the banks of the Stour In Suffolk and the im- mediate area remained Ills domain throughout his life. While Turner set off to wonder at and record France and Italy, Constable refuse ' to leave England eve:'. even when the 1,ench granted him a kind of honor and recognition that he wits never allowed at home. According to his first biographer end friend C. R. Leslie, "His nature was pe- culiarly social and could not feel satisfied with seenzry, however grand in itself. tha: did not abound in human associations. lie required villages, churches, farm houses and cottages and I believe it was as much from natural temperament as from early impressions that his first love, in landscape, was also his latest love." It threatened to become an obsession for not only did he paint constantly in Constable country but he painted It at the same time of day in the same season Sa Id John Fisher, his greatest friend: "People are tired of mutton on top, mintan at Innen mutton at the sale Constable broadened his ranite of sub- jects but remained less than popular. He longed to be accepted and absorbed into the establishment - an artistic Ornery Insults a political, moral and t znsperamental high conservative. It didn't work. ins eventual election to the Royal Academy in 1829 came too late to mean very much to the artist Today even 'he bulk of hits professional admirers are it little afraid to call clown unqualified praise on his work. The hiscitit-tin beauty on II seems just too stispieleas too obvious II was lite same bailey and yle that appalled his contemporaries. The lushly compiled catalogue to the Tale exhibition says: "What Was the mat- ter with the pictures? Constable rejected without, compromise the current theories of picture -making, l'aa stuck firmly to the principle that the painter's task Wart to im- itata nature rather than other men's pic- tures. "Constable captured the sparkle, the freshness, the wind in nature - not the memory of some romantic nr antique world. His people are part of the country- side barges, farm laborers, not :ter front elassieal mythology." Constable believed that nature noble and that idea was revolutionary. myth. The oft-repeated one that polished renditions are net possible, sometimes not even aimed for, within this series. That lack of rehearsal time can only allow for a quirk hit-and-miss turnover. Because suddenly this Prom offered something more than a lick and a promise. It proved that its the right hands even good performances are possible here too. It could be a hard act to follow. ROCK COLTNr TALBOT tours around the country, because he has a real edge id pathos around hint noW not that he isn't hinny. Tut that he has ,onus Aow .1. back front the hoe, cy of the Clam:. liken friendly in a Ili) tip in Yorkshire Wie laugh you are almost .curial a last MIlligoon L a gh Ina with a r, rnembrance. It's a bit ilk, recent Barry Ilutophetrs: edge. Thr show takes place in tli. intervals between what thy used to call "folk :tinging" from one called Francisco, Remy, who isn't so mach bad as inntfenshe ,:eive: glee:: the liemre..,,,Mn that he IS 1, e.it lilt tu.s.ond oils, and sort of IA.11111:411 playing with the Item. Hitt only It e::11.1 would .hipline the !uteri- tais n tile te,rieuettr,, of .,,fopla night blow I in .111 :WM but I. .1 o fell 'hey Conte come first ICI IAEI Perth prizA, is showing lianidogral and cons( ri for Mare.' Brisbane. This is a ye lot to say drawings, ais of his a u complicated and interpret The drawing': technically es quite manai.. the illustrati: you with a re - List's skills r insights. The crowd. of objects, pro Weds are i incongruities zi in most cases e be more Imp business of I situations in memorable w. At Ray Hue Withers is paintings and more recent plays a more . usual, but es.. I stance of oil :. most valuabl, There ore- structivism, Saint. logic 01 position. This Muth and emphasis. place Wither, rent plater: moment, bus 'minter cape', form as a own vision work °stabil... I henticity. Withers w. 1970 when had its far Russian cob this has clew rive influence Perhaps, arresting q paintings is color which self steeply I I seems to fin t surface. The Instils is showing a Gold Coast which has through the must prize. 2 it is tie Una secure... Wet lain:, some conspi collections Australian enter their lions. John l: Here. Weil, splendid re. Is Janet Die, It pow' pa ted bravely talc, :able, a refi Anong so Ilia Ith an alre