Page 64 - Studio International - October 1970
P. 64
5
and sculpture towards less well-defined,
reputedly less inhibiting genres; an international
not just a national ground swell of course. The
hoary philosophic debate of determinism v.
freedom rewritten in terms of today's art:
Greenbergian determinism v. post-fine arts (to
coin my own jargon), orthodoxy v. heterodoxy.
What, if anything at all, was specifically
Australian or 'autonomous' about them all
remained undefined.
Vapid generalizations temporarily aside;
instead, concentration on just seven of the more
interesting and mainly Melbourne-oriented
provincial parallels of metropolitan problems
—basically the post-fine arts one—from
Szeemann's generally uninteresting, avowedly
`very subjective' and 'non-representational'
selection of some twenty-two young, mostly
unproven artists. At best, potted introductions,
samplings; at worst, a hodge-podge of the
original hodge-podge. Fortunately, Donald
Brook's February list and my present do not
coincide. Unfortunately, though, Szeemann's
choice of inferior efforts by certain artists such
as Tony Coleing precludes their appearance
here. One could in fact quibble and prevaricate
endlessly about inclusions and exclusions in
such imprecise surveys, but not here. I certainly
don't claim the following are great stuff; next
time, perhaps, something meatier.
Gunter Christmann (born Berlin, Germany
1936, to Sydney via Canada 1959) was initially
associated with the now defunct CENTRAL STREET
GALLERY gathering in Sydney, principal bastion
of 'post-painterly abstraction', 'minimalism'
and similarly related Greenberg-derived values
of the time. The gallery is now the new
headquarters for the active Contemporary Art
8 Society of N.S.W. Christmann then did
5 Guy Stuart Pigment catch 1971 initially gentle, ultimately tenuous simple
Nylon net and rubberized plastic, 7i x 18 ft
Collection : Gallery A, Melbourne `fiat' abstracts of sorts. Now they are just as
Photo: Brian Adams tenuous but rather more complicated in their
6 Ross Grounds Untitled 1970 production: minutely speckled, aerosol or
Wood, nylon and charcoal 8 8 ft pointillist fields, again without ostensible
Collection: Pinacotheca Gallery, Melbourne
Photo: the artist subject matter, held together by conventional
rectangular frames. Very pretty and wide open
7 Gunter Christmann Overcast 1971
Acrylic on canvas, 66 x 69 in. to quasi-mystical contemplation and
Collection: Chandler Coventry, Sydney interpretation. The 'beautiful painting' or
Photo : Rennie Ellis
`lyrical abstraction' bind overseas in other
8 Warren Knight Photoscript 1971
Collection: Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne words, fairly mindless in conventional terms
Photo : the artist in other words. In fairness, though, some other
16o
