Page 52 - Studio International - November 1965

Commonwealth artists and uncommon luminists

London Commentary by G. S. Whittet

Each time we visit a one-man show by an artist whom us the full range of his work dated from 1932 to 1963.
we know, it is to be conscious of an adventure. How confined largely to portraiture. but containing also
much will he have changed, if at all? Will the movement miniature divertimenti like The Dead Landlord with the
be forward or back? And will our own reactions be plump widow brushing her hair and having a touch of
identical to those on the last confrontation 7 The first humour in the knotted bow surmounting the deceased's
exhibition under review this month is. strangely rotund waist. Recollections of his stay in London when
enough, the first comprehensively direct acquaintance he studied at the Slade are plain to see in the coster
London has had with William Dobell. brought to Bond 'pearly' dame of Derbv Day, 1940. Mrs. South Ken­
Street from Australia by the Qantas Airline to fill their sington of 1937 is a famous satiric study that might have
gallery. Strange, because although we have never been from life. The Cvpriot of 1940 is observed to the
before had a one-man exhibition here we know him last detail of posture. the sleeve bands and the young
well from his representation in all Australian exhibitions moustache. Of one year later, the sweatered figure of
that have arrived on these shores with any claim to com­ Capt. G. U. 'Scouv· Allan is obviously a character whom
pleteness. Back numbers of The Studio are evocative of Dobell sees with affection and so. thanks to him. do we.
his unique talent for portraiture. questioned in his home Helena Rubenstein is portrayed in a semi-Oriental
country where a famous law suit decided that he did splendour. resplendent in jewels and colourful dress.
paint portraits and not caricatures. The law suit sad­ fancy applied to fact. Fanciful fiction was apparent in
dened Dobell. though he was not embittered by it. Lvdia with Hair in Pins. which it is claimed was not
1 /2 Now thirty-seven of his panels and canvases bring based on a person but on the artist's imagination. This

slim woman holding a fawn in her lap has all the
dramatic possibilities of a character invented by Sartre.
The Australian slant is in Dobell's attitude to his sitters;
they are all painted with unflattering honesty yet the
painter's style gives them a keen concentration of form.
Forty years younger. Brett Whiteley is another
Australian artist showing two series of paintings and
1 drawings concurrently at the Marlborough New London
Donald Hamilton Fraser
Seascape 1965 Gallery. The first. devoted to the zoo. contains the
Oil on Canvas obvious elements of the giraffe (tallness). and of the
40x40in.
Gimpel Fils Gallery chimpanzee (a clasping hand). that become isolated.
2 almost gestural in poses of arrested movement, in all
William Dobell cases off centre of the canvas. Squirrels. platypus and
Derbv Dav 1940
Oil on Cardboard baboons are also modelled in sculptural compactness.
8 X 7 in. But the second series devoted to Christie, the
Qantas Gallery
murderer. raises the hackles of horror. Not only is the
3 murderer portrayed in distorted drawing but so are his
William Scott
Figure divided 1965 victims. In the larger canvases the scenes are equivocal
66 X 78 in. yet unmistakably carnal; necrophilia is suggested
Hanover Gallery
214