Wieneke Archive Book 4f : The Arts in Australia Presscuttings

grants f pro - given coun- should is pur- r, ecom- of h the t Se- ) mil - liable at - is for dical, ex - feels, con- rning edu- lent iond noes don Ime im ie- ed Is Adams leaves Film Board Mr. Phillip Adams has re- signed as chairman of the Film, itadio and Television Board of the Australia Council. He said yesterday his main reasons fur resigning were that he considered eight years was enough and he was finding the work "too much". Mr. Adams. among other things, runs an adyertis- lpg agency and writes a bi-weekly column for 'The Age". "I might have felt differ- ent about staying on if we had a different Min- ister fort the Media." lie said. Mr. Adams said he thought a lot had been achieved during his time on the council. "We were nowhere in 1968," he said. "One couldn't have wished for better treatment by Go- vernments, both Liberal and Labor. "The Australian filmmaker is now probably the best funded in the world. But you could say that our efforts have been ob- structed by the nega- tivism of the McClelland regime." Mr. Adams resigned from the Australia Council two months ago but he was persuaded to stay on un- til the end of June. His successor has not yet been appointed. Mr. Adams was appointed as an adviser to the Go- vernment on films by Prime Minister John Gor- ton in 1968. Since then he has held a variety of positions; on Government advisory committees. Soon after his first appoint- ment. Mr. Adams wrote a report which resulted in establishing the Experi- mental Film Fund, the Film School and the Aus- tralian Film Development Corporation. After the election of the Labor Government in 19,2. Mr. Adams was ap- pointed chairman of the Film and Television Board of the Australian Council for the Arts. now the Australia Council. Our films win awards CANBERRA, - Two Aus- tralian architectural films won awards at the vorld congress of the Interna- tional Union of Architects in Madrid last week. Tomorrow's Canberra w"n a bronze medal and Job No. 1112, an engineer- ing film stn the construction of the Sydney Opera House, was awarded a silver medal. A curtain raiser to a $70m show By HELEN THOMAS An art exhibition, estimated to be worth up to S70 million, was being set up at the National Gal- ler yesterday but the man be- hind It refused to discuss it in dollar terms. never talk In dollars about paintings - it's much better to look," said William S. Lieberman, (pictured), director of the Mod- ern Masters: Mane) to Matisse exhibition due to open In Mel- bourne front Tuesday to June 22. Head of the Department of Drawings at the Museum of Mod - Dame Barbara Hepworth Woman sculptor dies, 73 LONDON, May 21. - Famous British sculptress Dame Barbara Hepworth, 73, died last night in a fire at her studio home at St. Ives. Firemen said they found Dame Barbara's body in a ground floor room leading to the garden. The cause of the fire Was not known. Dame Barbara had lived in the Cornwall town for about 25 years. Recently she was badly handicap- ped by arthritis. The height of her inter- national reputation came in 1964 when her 21 -foot -high memorial to U.N. Secretary General, Dag Hammers- kjold, was unveiled in New York. Her abstract works have been shown in exhibitions all over the world. In 1920 Dame Barbara Was a fellowstudetti of lienry Moore and she work ed in association with sculp- tor Brancusi and painters hke Mondrain, Braque and Picasso, ern Art in New 1 ork, Mr. Lieber- man arrived in town yesterday and headed straight to the gallery to oversee his display's prepara- lion. Born in France and raked in Paris and New York, Mr. Lieber- man joined the Museum's De- partment of exhibitions and publications after graduation from college In 1943. But he was never fired with the spirit to become a modern master himself, he said. "As a child, I painted... (but) no, I've had no ambitions ever to be a visual artist." Ensemble's sights set too high In Sydney, some 200,000 people saw the Modern Masters exhibition - many of them wait- ing In long queues - and orga- nisers. expect an etc!' greater response here. Indeed, over 6500 students have already booked to attend. Yesterday, however, the collec- tion looked anything but a multi- million dollar affair. The works of Mattel, ' Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec (to name but a few) leaned casually against the walls on green foam pads, lust waiting to be hung. The Christopher Martin Chamber En- semble gave its second recital at the Assembly Hall last night. The programme opened ' with Keith Crelkin playing the Hindemith Solo viola sonata. It was a smooth and persuasive performance, even convincing when one acknowledges the dullness of the piece. He has a warm tone and strong clean fingering. Par- ticularly noteworthy in posi- tion changes and sudden descends to double stop - pings. There Is a subliminal depth and spiritual strength about the Mozart string quintets which puts them out of the range of the ad hoc societies, Christopher Martin Is a natural and effortlessly sensitive musician with a sure intellectual grasp of music making. I was sur- prised, therefore, that he allowed his charges to at- tempt the G minor. the performance had it, moments at Dresden Nina level but, on the whole, the alchemy that flist.s was lacking. Technically, too, the bowing - particularly in the allegro's - was undis- ciplined and the articulation lacked subliminal spanning of the phrasing marred by sudden attacks. There was little lead or direction from the first violin in matters of them- atic or emotional matura- tion and the group would be better off at this stage of its development to stick to Dittersdorf or some of the minor composers of the Bach school. Big bids open art sale A jammed crowd paid more than $215,000 tar paintings at the opening of the three-day. Joel's art auction last night. There was standing room only at the auction at Mal- vern town hall and 220 lots were sold. All were Australian paint- ings. Tup prices were paid for two late 19th century paintaings. Australian Pion- eers, by James A. Turner brought $19,500 and Wil- liam Charles Piguenit'a The Hawkesbury River was sold for $10,000. High prices were also paid for paintings by Sir Arthur Streeton, Norman Lindsay, Walter Withers, and deorge Edward Pea- cock. The auctioneer, Mr. Graham Joel, said prices were higher than he had anticipated "considering the economic climate." Ile said he was very pleased with the sale. Mr. Joel enlivened the three-hour auction by prompting and chiding bid- ders for being slow and, at times, indecisive. But bidding generally was brisk and each lot sold in slightly more than a minute. The auction will continue tonight and tomorrow night. There are 660 lots yet to he sold.