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liCIRCULATION
July, 1962
OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL ART
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6,000
NO. 2
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Norman Lindsay On the State of Modern Art Recently we asked artist and writer NormanLindsay for his views on contemporary art. In this article he has attempted to makea simplestatement of its present state of flux and a forecastof what we may expect it to become inthefuture:— It is impossible to makea controversial issue cept the stragglingyerts
nut ofAbstract Art, of anyotherissue which/Nerd who still practise makes artarbitrary claim which can't be sub- formulae, is bored with
i
lian art and letters, wrote this article for us. At 82he is still active in his career at his home in Springwood, sketproducing etchings, ches, watercolours and oils. He has written 17 books, 01 which many were banned by the outdated censorship lawsthat pr-...vailed inAustralia before
NORMANL I N D-
i SAY, one of the it. most outstanding of Nemesis has tantiated by factual evidence. The law come full circle with it and figures in AustraHow can onediscuss asubject whichhas in all art movements, that abolished theonly medium by which it can belaw is inevitable. What one discussed, and that is by words. Inplastic art,generation acclaims, the d. Fear will ensure that. And with an interlude of the Wordand the Formare one thing.Neither next generation rejects. canhave validity without theother. Roughly speaking it takes peace, those values in art half a century to revaluate which the Post ImpressionIfthe eye ispresented ist Movement has arrived the aesthetic products of the ist revolution sought to deswith a diagram claiming at, after having been half half century which preceded troy will be restored to its to be a formimage,but a"man' arriving there.. it, and to restore all that is eternal tradition. urch?abetsas Modems- good in them to the timewhich has no relation to 2o Already we can see that an y f tin image in the v.P0prYArt are less tradition which begot restoration in action. Its . Those re- them. No matter what vireobserver's memory cells volutionaries who set it in Rime may be done to that most significant evidence which can be defined in actionare mostly dead, save tradition, or what dark as. are the world wide lectures words, the effect isonefor a few dodderers like may disrupt it, given any of Sir Kenneth Clark on of intellectual stultifica- Picasso, waiting about for period of stability in world the whole history of art tiers. the undertaker to perform affairs, it always reappears from the Greeks down to The designer of the dia- his office on them. The and its values are reaffirmed. the nineteenth century. The status of Sir Kenneth Clark gram darkly delving into "newsrag" critics still Y.- We know the tradition ns authority eamot be the murk of the subconsci- claim it, but they did that which the Post Impressionimpugned. He is the disciple ous, may claim that it re- from the start, because it ist revolution sought to desof Bernard Berenson, who presents any profundity he was "news". Itis no longer troy. It was that late Vic. devoted a lifetime to the pleases, but that gets him news. It can on on produ• torian era which petered out analysis of all plastic values, nowhere if he can't call on ing the most extravagent with the 1914 war. What who was the accepted authe authority of words to distortions in sculpture and followed was a revolutionthority on the authenticity validate his claim. His infantile splodgings on ary violence among all or fraudulence of all works quandary is that he has canvas without raising in- peoples in which oceans of in the world's public or thrown overboard all those terest or annoyance in those blood were shed, monstrous private galleries, and who established values in the minds which have cantinu- deeds done, and a state of arts by which any =awe- ad to affirmthe iaotatilIC- threat and suspthseestafi assided Denim, the art dealer, to build up all the non of their qualities may table values of great area- tithed which made an inevigreat American collections be affirmed tine art, all through its tability of World War D. of the world's art. In short, he is talking movement. Since that war, the world Volapuk in a world which The studio world still situation has remained at Clark's lectures have been has been trained to talk in muddles along with it, as a pragmatical equilibrium acclaimed everywhere for the phonetics established on the studio world has always which has given it at least the vast relief they have the authority of the die- done in all movements, but fifteen years peace, save for brought to the world's culeven there, dissension is at a few murderings among the tural minority in releasing tionary. Putting aside any ember work. Groups of student minor nations which are of them from bothering any effort to discuss nonsense in who wish to get back to no particular further with the obscuranWe have very good rea- tism, deformations, abstracterms of sense, the problem wund plastic values are prowe are concerned with to- claiming manifestos against son to believe that the equil- tions, and outright imbeciliday is to try and define it. ibrium between the domin- ties of the Post ImpressionIn short everybody ex- ant nations will be maintain. ist revolution. where the Post Impression-
Incongru1957. ously, his "Magic
Pudding" is one of the world's classic children's books. But I have torecord a significance indicating th collapse of that revolution which has enchanted me, though it only came to m as a casual news item. And it derived, as a special pleasure, from Dali, the progenator of the Surrealist Movement. I separate Dot from all the other notable revolutionaries became he has a mind. t mean by that he has the capacity_ for ratiocination, and its expression in readable prose. And he has a satanic sense of humour. Best of all, he is a fine draughtsman: some of his pencil studies can be equalled to those of Ingres. But he has no more dignity than a slapstick low comedian.
PROSTITUTION is, perhaps regrettably, a necessary evil. "Prostitution" is an ugly word, a word that so-called "decent" people
L2 MY LOVE A PAINTER OF
PROSTITUTES
Henri-de-Toulouse • Lau- hog with medium and the tree was born an aristocrat. interior world not seen — He fractured both his legs the world of imagination. in achildhood accident and Lautrec was part of both doctors made him aphysical worlds. He explored the deformity. Filially leaving night-life of his environshun like the his father's country estate meat. With a mocking pit plague. From the star; he cashed for the city, he found refuge [oriel stylehe showed many in en ate itiode,essinoveie Maeems', hall: of ylont cwt. of that life 'eke, But let's face it, it mrtre. ment with his todgue inhis either Immo= or saftitara couldn't bemuchmore cheek. He was his own pubAristide Bruant's Music Prostitution inteeested open. Practically every Hall, with its slangy songs him. viewed against his life. It is licity agent in the Amer:. Sydney— person in about sots, prostitutes and can Press, and played the A brisk showmanship in- impossible to consider one or at least every male degenerates, together with spired by Aristide Bruant without the other. He was buffoon for its Candid over theageof 16— many other Montmartre came through in his paint- a man who passed into the knows what canbe fleshpots, fed Lautrec ings and the "oldest pro- strange life of the underWe were glad to purchased inChapel enough material for ten pro- fession" takes on ever new world and transformed it note that cartoonist Laneor Woods Lane, ductive years of artistic ex- aspects. Lautrec suffered a into art. pression. This decade spans complete mental and phySydney's "night - life" is David Low was or a number of simi- the transition from realism sical collapse and died in without any such colourful knighted in the lar places. characters, but is nonetheto impressionism. The ar- 1901. He was 37. Queen's Birthday Step into a Iasi and ask tist now began experimentHis paintings must be less interesting . . . Honours. Whether for Chapel Lane. The driver this was a result of yb — the inclusion of his he may snigger inwardly, tfficial flowers in it. Pon- majority of cases the ans- disappear temporarily and but he will take you there. dering the significance of wer is emphatically yes. then spring up somewhere cartoon in the arty Once there you step into this I concluded that real One New Australian, when else secretly. At least we wild oat we do not know. Sir David's a dingy, dimly lit and nar- flowers would die too often, I questioned him about this, know where they all are at row lane, with small stable- and the withering blooms replied by asking me a qua. the moment." cartoon for this issue like dwellings on enlace side. depress the girls. Or one of tion. "What is there to do But that is only one side appears on page 2. There are doorways every their customers makes ar- for us? We are accepted —the open and obvious 25 feet, either closed, or tificial Mayers. few places, and very. few side—of Sydney's world of open, with whores leaning After five minutes or so Australian women will prostitutes. Camer ropera and per in them leering out at the of silence the door opens, speak to us. windily columnists. As the afternoon newscircus of men parading and depending on his degree He produced some of the papers are an fond of telling past, lite housewives in- of experience, the "satisfied" most revolting films that us in large, black type, specting groceries at a customer either staggers out, ever came out of that sink there ere the "call-girls." supermarket. girding up his loins, or nonhole, Paris. He proclaimed OUR Being a call-girl is being The lane is always well chalantly strolls out and himself to be a paranoia, CHAPEL LANE an aristocrat among prostipopulated by crowds of quickly melts into the and there is no doubt he CORRESPONDENT tutes, and call-girls, whether m, ennotably on pay-night, anonymity of the crowd. has a substratum of lunacy provided by an organisation Friday. They meander up A prostitutein, say, in his'make up. But he knew and down, inspecting the Woods Lane, must make a "Italian male migrant or by "private enterprise," what he was doing and why women like slave-buyers of large sum in a eight's work outnumber females consider aim at a specialised marhe was doing it, and that old, before making their —or pleasure, according to ably," he said. "Although ket. To get a call-girl all puts him above a dull clod choice. Some go along just taste. But unfortunately no many Italians and lithe you have to have is money, like Picasso, who has the for the laughs, and often figures are available on this New Australians hay and quite a lot. dupe of his own Mownings, numbers of students can be subject. At £2 a time, and wives and sweethearts here One night, in a big Syd. and it must have been in seen tormenting both pros- handling one every 10 or many more have not." nay night club, 1 met one a spasm of self disgust that titutes and customers alike; 15 minutes (more in rush of the elite among call-girls. _Places like Chapel Lan Dali painted a horrible gar. others just look. periods) from evening until are like festering Sores This particular one is a goyle with its tongue stuck When the potential cid- midnight or after, a girl From than emanate disease stunning beauty, blonde and out and labelled itPicasso. tp a e,rh astbdecided, r he could make a quite substa. about 22 or 23. She to re. Dail has the wit to know i of hie tial amount of money. syphilis. The criminal in puled to earn 150 a night, that making a collective goat choice and furtively asks: The composition of the Wrests that have a lam and drives a recent model of the public as Picasso has "How much?" The price is =odd in the lanes intereslarge black Ford. She is ob. done, and as he also has usually 12, but can vary. If ted me. Surely. I thought, finger in this particular pi viously well-educated (at a know that they are on a done, must, in the end, re- things are lean it can go the people must represent a North side school) and the coil on the pranksters as down. When I asked "How certain section M. the com- good thing and intend to fact that she is literally a stick to it. Vice, blackmai the supreme goats of the mush?" (furtively) the tall munity. And they do, but prostitute takes some al. whole degrading business .. and rather gawky girl, still not the narrow section I and more especially, car sorbing at first. ruption go hand-ia-hand And that knowledge thought at first. I saw with prostitution anywhere, Prostitution, like SP bet. brings me to the news item much haveyrieets pligegi.) fella?" labourers, students, school- and Sydney is no exceptIae. ting, an industry, and which I referred to. It stated It was a slow night, busi- boys,a Duntroon cadet, Although lanes of prosti- reaps a very substaotial anin simple term. that Dali nesswise. sailors, businessmen, Italiwas buying up, and exAfter settling the financial ans, Greeks, Chinese and a tution are obviously evil nual profit. But, regrettably changing his own paintings arrangement, the customer, Scot in Chapel Lane in one and "a bedthing" th so for government revenue, it many ways. what can the would be slightly impracti. for, the paintings of the looking a little eager (or evening. Finch artist Bouguereau. perhaps a little apprehenWhich raised another police do? While prosti- can to put a tax on it. tution is illegal, stamping it TWO fact stand out Bouguereau represents in sive) follows the prostitute question: Do the many New out would be like trying to clearly about prostitution, France that =reed of c1=- into the room and the door Australians seen in lanes such as this frequent these soak Mercury into a floor however. One is that prostisic perfectionism in painting closes behind them. tution, or whatever you like The rooms ere regimented places because there are so by jumping on it. which preceded the ImpresOur policeman put it to to call it in its various like army barracks. Each few womenof their own sionist Movement. one usually contains a dress- race in Sydney? Do they me like this: "It mitts, and form., cannot be eradicated, In England it found exe=ryone knows it. To keep no matter what the politipression in the Preraphaelite ing table and mirror, per- seek entertainment (if it can haps a rug on the floor, a be so labelled) here be- the peace we regularly pat- cians and churchmen say Movement, The Impression chair, and, naturally, a bed, cause they cannot have de- rol places like Chapel Lane (actually it would be suf. ist Movement was a revolt and see that everything is prising if any minister ever with two pillows on it. cent relations' with other from it, reverting to the quiet. But why try and wipe acknowledged that such a But one of the things that wmen? free brushwork of Vela. stands out is that almost From my own observe- it out? We could not do so thing existed); Two is that (Cordinued topage 4) every one has a bowl of 13,noes I would lay that in the if we tried, it would only (C.d..' In pageat
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