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Id oat * the artywild
liCIRCULATION
July, 1962
OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL ART
is
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 He has written 17 books, 01 which many were banned by the outdated censorship lawsthat pr-...vailed inAustralia before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
By
2
£2 MYiLOVE CONTINUED FROM PAGE I something must be done to eliminate its undesirable running mates — medical and criminal. The most practical scheme seems to be that adopted in Paris or Brie. bane for example: legalise prostitution, thereby stoppiag much of the criminal activity associated with it, and secondly make regular medical examinations for prostitutes compulsory. Finally, increase penalties for illegal prostitution, and jump on the call girl operators and small time bludgers (a bludger is one who lives off the immoral earnings of a woman). Ostrich-like concealment from the issues will not solve the problem. Those that read this and raise their eyebrows in horror that such "things" should be published, deserve to live in a city heavily infested with prostitutes, criminals and the other riff-raff that are invariably associated with "the oldest profession." Although unpleasant, it is an issue that must be faced just like any of the other ignoble things of this sometimes sordid life. So one night take a stroll down Chapel Lane and see if it's true or not.
•
ART IS . . . Art for art's mks. —Victor Cousin
piePtitterteleqeiele.mese not be We —Emerson • •
• • • The fellow mixes A picture is a poem blood with his colours. without words, —Guido Reni —Horace (A bout Rat • • • • • Art bath an enemy called Theartist does not see ignorance. are, but as things as they —Ben Johnson he is. — • • —Alfred Tonnelle ARTY — NINE • • • It's clever, but is it I mix them with my art? brains, sir, — Rudyard Kipling —John Opie, when Art is not an end in it- asked with what he self, but a means of ad. mixed his colours. • • • dressing humanity.
(dedicated to David Sheehan) Hill Endis in, Since this year's Wynne and now is part of Australian Art. There sheep and students roam in flocks to far from home.
EI= cs r (D. FLIAL.
THE REALISTS In this issue of the arty wild oat we
provide two strikingly similar points of view on present day art, from two strikingly different sources. Norman Lindsay and the Subterranean Imitation Realists write on the state of modern art.
Power Bequest The Power Bequest is worth one and a third million pounds. This money is to be used for the benefit of the Australian Arts.
others. Creative litera- tom of a few present-day
The Opera House
The Cartoonist
t
L
merely the product of lure and the play, archi- dilettantes. There hasnever been a school boys filled with their tremendous artistic event in own enthusiasm, not that Sydney — excepting for the the enthusiasm is questionconsolidated academic thor- able mind you, but rather oughness of Dobell. Tom that it does not turn up The chairman of theSydney Opera House Roberts turned Australians anything excepting one's Executive Committee is Mr. S. Haviland. into art —since then, on one's own lack of solidity. He will "improve" on architect Uhon's original the deepest critical level, ones own lack of solidity. design for the Opera House. Australian artists, matting We are not solid — we "Black ribbings on the sail shells will improve
Realism not anti-art
Martin S
Dear Sir, I cast this article for the arty wild oat in the form of an open letter to yourself — I accept it as my privilege to do so, so please do not mind, My reason is that in order to arrive at something personal, I thereby escape the distinction of writing personally to an abstract public world — which would be a feat which I am not capable of, for fear that a public which I do not claim in advance, would disrespect my gesture.
past,
By COLIN LANCELEY I shall begin by makinga proclamation; it is the only proclamation that I can make and the only oneI am likely to make. Critics of ourwork, or anyone's work for that matter,seemfond of The Australian Cartoonist has almost died. Magafirst looking for the antecedents to what is confronting them. It is the safe zines pay him little money. There are few road of reassurance. magazines. Nearly all of these grossly over usethe But my proclamation is any known aesthetics, selec- of which some of my paintcheap syndicated cartoons from overseas. this — Imitation Realism is fion itself is a complete ings are made, the individThus we find that there is little experiment in the not Anti•Art although many mystery to me as the cri- sal nature of the materials cartoon. Consequently cartoonists rarely have a champions of art may be feria of choice is personal is never completely lost, alchance to seek after a particular attitude in their Autt•ImItation Realises. poetry. though they become trans. This is a.quoin from.what, formed.i. the mental jourwork in contrast to artists and writers. the have no bias as far as Most Australbn newspapers and magazines- have the orthodoxy of materials I wrote In the Melbodrne ncy 61 erosion. • I workwithout wi pre- conunimaginative approachesand few arcprepared to is concerned. Itake from broadsheet: To me, crealive, five work must obey the captions and form the imme world in which I offer cartoonists the right incentives. ,,j"Yo_, imPuir se. agery that is evoked by the Included is a specialcartoonby Martin Sharp (see the materials which I en. P,fim organic will of the painting counter in living. Much of ",,,"f"; only ,'""es .`"" back page).
The Committee
ARTISTS AND AUSTRALIANA
The subject of course, is the gaps which they do not art. I have asked myself understand. what would be the most OnNor does thc critical elk. portant things that I could mom allow ,mm om — M. P. Moussorgsky Obey your artistic con- say. I consciously select, more thanthey see now. science at all times. Problems arise at lecture and ballet. it is hard to do so. even if they were capable once. —Ingmar Bergnan aad Let at hope that no Art is akind of illness. My criterion is, that I can of dojo, work The of • Which are to benefit? cramped and narrow —Gracomo Puccini only afford to say whatever Crothall, Brown .d TanLanThen marble, soften'd i. my own MM..' Already greedy eyesoutlook prevails. useful. celey, is merely the work of Art is indeed not the into life, grew warm. pears to me the most young upstarts who Abstract art will get are aregaping.The Contembread but the wine of life. —Pope. Forget our exhibition at fresh on the field. Our dil- poetry Art Society is up- a good lift, and this is —Jean Paul Righter • • • the Roman Gallery — that ammo, if we do in fact set by a suggestion that fine, but all the other Madame de Sorel pro- is, Crothall, Brown, and share any fundamental idea- the Sydney Film Festival fields of art must not If we could but paint nounced architecture to be Lanceley, the Subterranean City at all, is the fact that might benefit. Surely Mr. suffer as a consequence. with the hand as wesee frozen musk; so is statuary Imitation Realists. I have we perform in a cultural Weaver Hawkins and his The Power Bequest crystallized spirituality. with the eye! to say this in order to sue- context which is a dog's colleagues realise that must be put to afar —Balzac vive. In time our exhibition breakfast. the film is an art of great sighted aim, and not at the Komon Gallery will Let me say this — let TERSE VERSE FOR HILL END settle into the uneventful me say that our work se importance and there are used to cushion the bot-
itui\A The Imitation Realists • EDITORIAL]
LETTERS
to be indigenous. have only are like droplets of oil on turned art into Australian. the surface of water. Iknow Dobell has by-passed the of nothing solid. We slide Pitfall by being not con- and gip and swim. We concerned with it. Nolan, Boyd, not even mix with the ocean Drysdale, Tucker, Olsen, of a great tradition. We Dickerson — all the Aus- look abroad in order to see Malian painters on the cur. the Great Ones of art — tut scene which seem to there is nothing in Austras big names now, conjure lie, only confused little up precarious images to fill pieces of blotting paper
the appearance," he said, "It will be more spectacular," said Mr. S. Haviland. Really, Mr. Haviland:
LETTERS EXERPTS FROM NORMAN LINDSAY'S
LETTER . As you young people seem to be earnestly doing something to find out what is wrong with the present art world, and in a hell of muddle it is, I've written for you asimple statement of its present state of flux, and a forecast of what we might expect it to become Or the near future . . With the best regards and good luck to your paper, Norman Lindsay. P.S. I want the article I have written to reach art students and therefore 1 hand it to your paper.
i. vo mhyich in In arn ivom in. vot!ved, this isjunk,objects rileieu' oreke l ee' doeue"elie bed eliew ve dbin ue an tbye this carded by our society as it w lives itself out; most oh- Ideas of """°.".... n' complete and entire and a ".sficii.",,rd painting or sculpture is jects bear the scars of liv- fated to life 1 ". art finished only when it is full ing, their usefulness seem- 'ff own „rem.. ingly having been exhausted the tradition of European of and they possess a strange culture is irrelevant to me, muse 01 pdtannony and or jo any frill omit, of .I would to make the poin t hen, mat Inave no materials. character. However, ail of me Crewe in the relevance of A personality which only t i ve effort, ofmankind are the tradition of art, to what
Sir, Thank you very much for sending up some copies of your journal. It is a very interesting job and I shall have pleasure in passing it round to artists and others here and telling them of your willingness to accept articles. I wonder if you would be good enough to put the Gallery itself on your permanent mailing list. ' With kind regards, Yours sincerely, Laurie Thomas, Director. Oland Art Gallery.
exists in the relationship concerned rn with making or. conc.", me o mod.m between me and the object rer outof chaos,forchaos artist. The most vital work and I value them as material has nobeing,pro.rorr, I have encountered exists
r with which to work. . idIse,,anthis'o'rhe' - Printed by the NorthernLine Printing Co._ I owe no respoosibility me leher' r naLerP eeeobf triebjeec e.tsTgOseut'' to ideas of art, aesthetics oromolif000f,andmy concern outside of art, where I feel - Hornsby,for the Publishers, N.A.S.C., East . tradition and my creative aaan artist is with a poetic at home. - Sydney Technical College. altitude is thus free, and esperieo . I would wish to be us. " Address all correspondence to The Editor,' deeply roofed in my eusir. I live within a cerebral aware of art as I sometimes arty wild oat, National Art School, East Sydney , onment as I experience it in collage of objects and semi- em, for there is very little Technical College, Darlinghurst. Irving. meats, and within this col- to sustain me within the I don't give a damn about loge of incongruous objects frame of reference of as
yourself, with pretty wide interests a couple of editors like this are O.K. But you must remember that there and plenty of science students who haven't any interest in art or music or philosophy or abstract writing or poetry. To these people a.w.o. would hold no interest. Similarly there was nothing to interest the sportsman, or the budding political thinker. In fact, to put it in a not shell, a.w.o. caters for only one class — (artists, and those interested in the five categories) of people. Now whether a.w.o. iS meantto do this I don't know. The numerous references to the fact that the paper contains much that presumes to be arty, and the title itself, would lead sorne• one to think so. But if the editors want a well balanced paper, then 1 don't think it very wise to use the April '62 edition as a model. As to the cmbroyoic part, well at least th eedifors were able to re. cognise that. I like it when people realise their own faults and limitations and if the editors continue to be so perceptive then I think the paper has a future.
I'd like to comment on something I've noticed not only in the a.w.o., but in hoot soil and tharunka. Dear Sir, Whenever writers try to be Lord Snowdon has asked funny, or smart. or normme to thank you for your tic or witty. they use long letter and the arty wild oat. words. I think this marks one down m an embryonic Tows sincerely, (to use that word again) H. r .Ryan, journalist, writer, etc. Secretary to The Earl of Snowdon. Many of the articles conSUNDAY TIMES" tain arather narrow disEstablished 1822 tasteful pro •Australianism Thomson House, which appears in all the in200 Gray's Inn Road, terviews published. I think London, W.C.I. these violent efforts at beTelegrams: Sunday Times, ing exclusively Australian Westcent. London. are rong. Telephone: Terminus 1234. It's as bad as this all. • Our pleasure, Tony American bully-boo that the —Ed. Yanks go on with.
• Certainly —Ed.
oar
IMITATION REALISTS*
here, no Picasso, no Miro, no Dubuffet, and from abroad we can only borrow artistic habits. Our only reliable chat. lenge is, that we must not delude ourselves into thinking that we are better than we arr. Our critics — by their soft pedalling approval — invite us to the band wagon of Art-Australiana, to leap thereon. It is to your generation that we turn our eyes for comfort. Without you, we are lost. —ROSS CROTHALL Dear Sir, I am a working girl and am studying art at the Brisbane Technical College as night. Last Monday night I was introduced to the arty wild oat and found it rather exhilarating. If possible I would like to subscribe to your periodical. In anticipation.
Imo imam Imo I ■ is --e /111111111111111111160.111
A CRITICISM OF "THE ARTY WILD
OAT' Sir.
doubt if you will find the following criticism very helpful. If you dare to pub. lish it I'll horse-whip you. and if you dare to publish it under my name I'll kill you I think that the feeling of Yours sincerely, the Editors towards a.w.o. can be summed up in the Yvonne Stanley. • last paragraph at the ediSir, torial, namely "We have Congratulations. As you presented what we feel to said, embryonic, but just bun well balanced but what the doctor ordered. embryonic vehicle of ex. pression".They are right in Bit more theatre') Best wishes, C. Arnold. the well balanced bit. Now. I myself. enjoyed it, and to St Andrew's College, University of Sydney. sctence student, such as
Yours sincerely, Elizabeth Bethel!, Arts I, Sydney University. Sir, I heard you onAndrea's session onWE and was most interested in your ideas. I agree most emphatically with your views on the Art Gallery — and also with Mr. Robert Hughes' criticisms published in your last issue. Andrea acquitted herself less honourably, but it was eted
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Simon Toctts, Bellevue Hill.
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FANCY PRESS. 30.A FROM THE TROG. OR THE N•A•S STOkE
the arty
4
4
wild oat, July, 1962
Lawrence Beck . . .
THE INTELLECTUAL AUDIENCE
sateeoteranotrna.m.-voketrolAtO,
Poetry
Wander down to
the Angus Steak Cave, situated in down-town Sydney, near Wynyard, underneath the offices of Stott and Underwood, right next door to the Bulletin Building, near Bridge Street.
This body isold and life. It is why you must die. ready for the dead. What do All is behind you as all is II' EFER1111 before me. Before you go Iseethesun'slight you see planted beneath this wrinkled dry earth, youth? feed me a slice of life, for I theshadowsof theday When the ship had crossed the Tropic of Cancer and with Old man, I see you are hunger, and only you have devoid of joy or sadness the northern winter in the Red Sea we could smell Europe. wise and know the answer to food. of short or long The Egyptians and I could smell it — the Germans had to rely on The force of the crowd Your hunger La ...jogto things of weight, Radio Free Germany to become sentimental' athousand lies of life easily seen. Let me ending in confusion and my pushed me forward until I was at the feet of the dancTo me itstank like at an open porthole from tralia's mold-coloured sa nds. satisfy it with some of tuningto Him for hetp. hung in solitude. wa ndered er. I looked closely at the decaying rubbishy his d ,?i:nra,ttrag Inat rot,:nddow: My discoveries of Eager asthisrevelation Summerdays, winter nights we of my life, and at its dif. face of my problem-solver tory books people. When I was Which I climbed, up theside road sour wotking by and I save pain in his eyes. fleet the world like childlike my naive fermice when looked upon His tears fell and crushed really stank, and I of the ship. Super Beck does hand. .bettio vf. ly, , I prePw ared , mywanted to turnaround a long dream eyes save a city of tan o me. He was naked and At 11 a.m. going through immediately intothe stately buildings, then nos„.,,:l . tha, dancing and singing with of season'schange All the previous week the a big army camp we desWorld of the present and time took my eyes purser had been arranging termed into the Nile Val. must go out into the pain in his eyes. Still the go back down towardsa tour by coach from Suez Icy, which may sound int- and taught them, used world once again and cou- few laughed. I felt pity, so the blossom the Equator. to Cairo to meet the ship at pressive but we didn't even I shown a city of time my search, for to each sorry for him who was in the flower Europe is ridden with Port Said when it left the notice it, it was to shallow, and ugly shapes. This atasisoneanswer, un- naked pain. thefruit mental oppression, oom canal, at f5/10/.. a time. until our taxi driver who, 1 fell into deepest deprescity was the some city, found even by breaking the pieties collide with each A Hungarian bloke told me as soon as the bargaining sion sure that the world journey and taming to Gad. swiftly it dies but I did not know my other in the very air — that you could go by taxi was over turned out to be had discarded me, left beeyes for they were to fall again. everyone knows his place for 81/10/- each if we had a good bloke, pointed it e'we'ewa'.....`e'ewwe'ew?”.. hind only to die. And then new. "d y" change enough people, so we out. Then we came in God walked up to me, un- Wechanceawhile By SUE WOODS Thisnever ceased to it you have had it. It reeks searched about and got through the suburbs to He nottio ceo dk bay bil osoek c fr om iceate gh. wi of Kafka and T. S. Eliot Chinese nod Caine. maghiggha,i amaze me yet I put it aside wor,...me.mtyymeraemie tolinger but tae while 1 slept and ate through end "Y"ehltedan Indonesian and five Gervery high eye brows With the church doors Half of Cairo seems to will not stay geoeealien after g life until one day 1 found closed behind me I set out and enera" . and put it in my hands,
Like many famous overseas Bistros,
-
the entrance is from a lane, off George Street, at the sign of the black bull.
—man it
mans who wanted to try in the old buildings because the exotic brothels inhave mat been built within the myself seated in a cinema. uild_ six maaum. The b people think that truth and Cairn, Around me were the choice ings factory, offices and reality are hard things and few. I saw a film that made two storey flats are all built therefore having unpleasantme laugh, but the choice on the basic utilitarian mud ness does you good, for all few were scornful and but shape only made in men seek truth; but they are mocked the clowns that Egyptian cement — Eve completely wrong and permade me laugh. never seen such fabulous verted, and that's why per use of cement — it looks This made me wonder, governmentsare as if it's just been wildly and bowing to my curiosity, respected all over Europe thrown on in four ton slabs I found myself following now, for Truth and Reality to make a good shape, but this few, calling myself one are Bliss and nothing but. it's extremely cool — far of them, watching them, We anchored at Suez the more practical than any- trying to discover why I next night at dusk, the ship thing any Sydney architect should laugh but only they had to wait until 9 a.m. ever did and with the soft could scorn. for its tarn up the canal cemeaty colours they have They led me to the very and from out of nowhere arc terrific in the desert. seat of learning. and into a 50 bumboats with sails, shot We went to the Cairo large room. Here they sat at at in a flock and within museum which is easily in their multitude, all watcha minute 300 Egyptians had the hest In the world — and ing a man standing before scampered aboard up the got the best guide them. He spoke, and stole masts somehow our "j ""a n ,r,"h a We had toask the purser in the world to take us my gaze away from the baskets "" suitcases p,—" h''15 times before he would around. He was a dirty little fabulous Egyptian goads select few. His wise words to letting us go by screwed-up bloke, with tem made my head spin with the and spread them over toe th e ourtelvm. He said that desert wisdom — he thought of newly acquired decks, crazy! many times people did not most have spent centuries knowledge, I looked to the The ''GYPos" (Egyptians) corm back alive, etc., CI, aonaning on a rock is the few to see if at last I was were friendly as hell so I So we told the Egyptian mad Jig, watching ma sun the same but they aver, hopped from one boat to immigration official what he go over and sink laughing, with their heads mother moored right along had said of Ms country and down Moms back in gay mirth, the length of our ship, look- be be let us go ashore in the First he whirred as round Quickly I mend to the roan ing at the goods in the tiny pilot boat about 9 a.m. for an answer but he was to all the obscene statues, holes with men clambering Our was gone, and all was as lost an in and out and all over the tiara. mai made— to have because we were all blokes, before. decks. a bit of bargaining power some of which were terrific, Now, knowing there must I assed one if he could over the taxi drivers. but our sails of laughter must pyramids, be an answer, Men the few have rocked the gam from t he w„a change some Ceylonese and went to a church, to cash. "Sure! Give me a look start — there were 30 taxi Then"'ea us to the show laymy problem before my tombs, at it sir," with an obliging drivers all awaiting us and of Tutenkhamens which shook me, and spiced God. He smiled on me, and smile. I showed it to him as soon as we landed the was pleased to help me. 1 taxi it with suitable VIIXZYX a and he took it and scuttled Germans jumped into was alone in His place, and over the boats. It was five and shot all together. After dynasty, which would befit H time was mine, no one His minutes before I realised a half hour of yelling (the a Pah"l journal of such else seeming to have need high moral, social, intellecthat he wasn't corning back. Egyptians hate English of it people) we got it down to seal, academic and regal All of a sudden the group standing such at ours is He showed me a book, was on separated 81/16/- each and climbed commonly regarded. of boats I and I was surprised to see from the rest and began to I could have spent a year that it was my life. He We drove the 80 miles sail towards the shore — showed me how I had only I dashed towards the ship due west to Cairo in two in that place II will one and climbed up a mast that hours. I was freezing cold. day, and sleep in a golden considered cats and dogs and games and laughter. only went half way up to The desert is lamp — just sarcophagus at night), but Then He showed me how I the open deck on the khaki coloured dirt end- we had to leave after a had been searching for a Oceania, made a flying leap lessly — nothing like Aus- roaring two hours.
to find than which caused my confusion as I felt my answer still lay with them. I found the choice few in a dark room filled with pipe ash and wine fumes. Revelry was around me and soon I was drawn into their ;pity. Now I was sure that I had ended my search, for they were laughing at a boy who was dancing in the centre of a tightly packed circle. He was singing • Mr.y song, making himself a figure of ridicule, and at last I could laugh with them all.
That was yesterday, the day before this day, the day I shall die.
IMAGE Patterned by sunlight filteredthrough trees falls onthe earth dancingand leaping I weirdshapes that fancy are figures beforeme
live for amoment thentransformed bythe light are reborn intoimage. Dancing and leaping over and over increasing, expanding
composition as rhythm intireless ascension suddenly bursts in crescendoes of sound then fades.
Patterned by sunlight filtered throughtrees. We saw a preview of the paintings of John Firth Smith and Ian Van Wieringen in their studio at Darling Point. Their work i3 exciting and will be on show at the Chine Gallery from I I th July.
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gum. Goya and Delacroix. In landscape, it generated from Constable and the analysis of the spectrum. which split light rays into their colour sequences. In subjection to that law of a flux between generations, which takes half a century to revaluate the works of the century that preceded it, we can now forecast with some assurance the movement which will follow the collapse of Post Impressionism. That will revert to perfectionism in draughtsmanship and painting and the analysis of light values exploited by the Impressionist Movement, As that astute fellow Deli has foreseen, by collecting the works of touguereau just as he cashed in on the Post Impressionist market. because the are dealers were boosting its works, now he is cashing in on the sort of works it will be boosting when those of the Post Impressionists go down the drain, including his own works. But for myself, I think Dells best works will survive this aesthetic cataclysm. Surrealism, as exploited by him, will be a valuable contribution to the new movement, because it gives a wide range for imaginative form imagery. For that matter, tubers
—JOANNE STAPLETON
LITTLE
IWENVON
(Continued Irons page I)
—JOANNE STAPLETON
Old man! Tell me what the book said, was it the Bible, was it an encyclopaedia of knowledge, what was the book??
All) IwM TtlIBUtitiC Tlibs TfiEllt ARE CERTAINTtlittbs
I MI THE TIME I Core lb TELL THE
Norman Lindsay
on everon timewaits not nor can remain.
saying that this is the answer.
The book was two covers with the pages all torn out but for one which had my photo on it And the book had my name on it, and the book was the answer, and the book was myself.
anntteeyy..619,11. ■■ •■•••••••••••••Ort
used it freely. And Rubens, who is to painting what Shakespeare is to poetry, will take a big place in the Renaissance which we hope is coming. If it does notcome,tee can write finality tothepreepisode ofcivilisation.
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