This session was designed and hosted by co-convenor Neville Gibb to explore a question he often asks ‘Where is the Art?’ Benalla Art Gallery staff responded to Neville’s request for works by two well-known Australian painters to be exhibited before our group, setting the scene for a talk about two greats of Australian Art Neville describes as ‘both arguably geniuses’, Albert Namatjira and Hans Heysen. Neville began the session with a thoughtfully prepared response to the paintings. His premise was that we can tell where the art is when we look at both men's work. “Both were able to produce works that are close to perfection in their capturing the spirit of the land. Not an easy thing to do”. Neville contended that there would not be an Australian anywhere in the world who would not feel identification with the work of both men. Namatjira and Heysen were contemporaries and it is not known if they ever met but it is known that Heysen admired Namatjira's work. Namatjira came to painting in his 30s. Heysen was recognised from a young age as someone within immense talent. Both had good and bad times. Namatjira suffered mightily the slings and arrows of being an Aborigine and Heysen had to lay low during WW1. Namatjira's intention was to record the land - painting came into it but getting the essence of the land into a painting was his intention. It is an easy argument to make that this was Heyson's intention also. Neville considers both men to have produced work of great worth and feels proud that we have examples of their work in the Gallery. As he sees them standing head and shoulders above most other Australian Artists, Neville hopes we see more of their work on display. Neville then invited local painter Mervyn Beamish to give his opinion. Merv made several comments where he clearly differed from Neville. Merv said that in his view, art is determined to be art by the beholder, not by someone telling them it is art, because it hangs on a gallery wall or because someone is willing to pay a large amount of money for it. ‘Your two year old grandchild's sketch stuck on the refrigerator door triggers an emotion; a memory, that, to you, is a work of art. A crack in the footpath can be a wonderful work of art and be quite fascinating because it stimulates senses, emotions even a memory.’…’If the item stimulates you senses; disgust and fascination ... the colours, the pattern, the situation, the swirl, there is something about it that takes you beyond the moment’. Merv was able to explain where he felt the strength of both painters lay and made several valuable explanations, warming to his task as the morning went on. Merv's work is on display at NEA. Merv is a well known and respected artist in the area. He will shortly have an exhibition in Krakow Poland. Neville and Merv’s follow up discussion, together with contributions from the floor by Val Dunin; Carol Perry; visitors Reuben and Hazel Frankland; Bev Lee and others concluded an absorbing and lively session. Neville Gibb
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Jenny and I recently attended a Van Gough exhibition at the NGV. We went in a trip organized by the Benalla Gallery and we traveled by bus leaving at 8AM and returning at 5PM. It was an enjoyable day. Because we already had tickets we did not have to queue for long when we got to the gallery. The bus journey from Benalla to Melbourne seemed to not take long either. Van Gough’s pictures are not his best but this is a small criticism. I would for once like seeing some of Vincent’s killer pictures but the exhibition does show how Vincent progressed. Most of the pictures are early but there is one of his very latest. As is normal with artists Vincent collected a lot of drawings etc from magazines, newspapers etc to give him inspiration and maybe they just caught his attention so he cut them out of newspapers etc and a good third of the exhibition was examples of what he had collected and maybe stacked in a corner for looking at later. But because he had collected them they were thought to be important so were kept by his estate. Some were interesting. Mostly not though. More importantly Vincent collected and was obviously influenced by Japanese wood prints and there was also a room of Japanese Prints. The Gallery owns the best Hokusai print of them all – The Great Wave and fishing boats in front of Mt Fuji - and this print was in the exhibition. The others came from all over the world and were in effect a world class exhibition of Japanese Prints. This exhibition was impressive on its own accord. These woodcuts – sometimes rolled off in great numbers for the masses are obviously of a high artistic standard and are well worth seeing. What can we discern from them? Do they give an indication of Japanese life at that time? I don’t know. Maybe. They do comply with the universal art standard – do you feel you understand the artist? The answer is definitely yes. This aspect of Japanese Art somehow made its way around the world and the world was intrigued. And still is. But this is surely because it is simply good art. You cannot help but being impressed. Vincent’s exhibition starts with his early drawings and progresses from there. No one can say Vincent suddenly appeared as a ready-made genius painter. He worked at it for a long time. He was extremely prolific. He did lots of drawings. He tried hard to get it right. Don’t let me mislead you – he did have talent – but he was hardworking as well. You cannot help but admire him. Some of his pencil drawings are exquisite and draw on your heartstrings. He did lots of drawings in pencil, pen, charcoal and ink and they are all good. Sometimes he is obviously copying to a certain extent other great artists or is giving his version of their paintings. Probably just to see if he could I assume. Or to work on his style. When he started using colour you can see how he was influenced by the Japanese woodcuts. In one or two he more or less recreates the previous Japanese woodcut or he transposes the subject of the Japanese print into a local scene. The exhibition does not have many of what I call Vincent’s killer paintings. Only one – maybe two. This does not lessen the value or enjoyment in any way however. Vincent experimented with many styles before he settled on his own distinctive way. He was of course well known in Art circles when he was alive. He was respected by other artists. He knew all the Impressionist painters and he tried to set up an Artists Colony in Arles. Unsuccessfully unfortunately. Some of his early works are extremely commercial. He tried to produce paintings that would be attractive. Some are obviously set up to be attractive to the viewer. eg The Shepherd and his sheep. As he progressed he was able to bring into his paintings the essence of the subject landscape without giving a complete reproduction of the image he was painting. His landscapes around Arles completely show the viewer just what the landscape looks like. Of course he could do portraits as well. And he would have abandoned or painted over any painting that did not come up to scratch. As we know he was extremely prolific. This exhibition emphasizes how Vincent liked the seasons. It also shows how he could experiment. Eg. The Green Vineyard. This is almost a recreation of a Japanese print done in impressionist style. In fact it is exactly this. He even has Japanese women parading through the vineyard with their parasols. The question is: why do we like Vincent’s paintings? Why do we think he is a genius? Why are his paintings so valued? The short answer is that they are valuable because they are so good. We recognize their goodness immediately. They are attractive. We understand them. We are drawn to them. Our heart goes out to his paintings. We agree immediately that this is the painting of a genius. I also think that good painters can organize paintings to fit on the page in a way that the eye finds attractive. This is their genius. It looks easy to the eye. It pleases our brains. There is a balance to the painting. Our eye travels round the painting in a measured way – slowly and happily – without stress. Vincent learned how to put paint daubs on a canvas that depicted images we understood and sympathized with. No matter what his emotional and mental problems were they did not interfere with his work. He kept on producing no matter what his circumstances. He was hard working and prolific. He had a fight with Gaugin and in a fit of jealousy and disappointment he cut off his ear. But what else did he do? - he went home and painted a self portrait. Nothing interfered with his work. He knew what he was doing. Good on him I say. When I went to France I went to Arles because even though I only had a limited knowledge of Vincent's life I knew he had lived in Arles. And I must say I was not disappointed. There are no paintings of Vincent's in the Arles Gallery. There are no blue plaques in the town. But when you move around the country you keep turning up in Vincent's paintings. Suddenly you look around and you are in the middle of a painting. You recognise it immediately and totally. Its both amazing and thrilling. We love what he did. Our appreciation of his pictures are our belated judgment of his work. How he would have handled our uber fandom is hard to say. Doug Moran National Portrait Prize Finalists at the Gallery
The Gallery currently has on exhibition the 30 finalists in the 2015 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize competition. U3A Art group held its monthly appreciation meeting in the Gallery and were privileged to listen to a short lecture by Catherine Bennetts-Cash discussing some of the portraits. Catherine’s lecture concentrated on a small number of the portraits with which she had some familiarity and was able to provide a greater understanding of both the artists and the portraits. Her favorite was The Hat Maker-Rosie Boylan by Evert Ploeg. Catherine explained the concept behind the winning portrait and handed out Photostat copies of the 16th Century painting under whose influence it had been painted. The 2016 winner by Warren Crosset is entitled Self Portrait after St Jerome Flanders. Warren Crosset is a Commercial Artist who won the prize with his first ever entry. It is fair to say it is one of the small number of standout portraits amongst the 30 finalists. It has elements of both Caravaggio and Da Vinci in it and it depicts the artist pointedly resting his left forefinger on an envelope with him looking pensively off to the right. He is dressed in modern dress but his surroundings except for the envelope are from the Reformation. The original painting on which it is based is attributed to as being in the Style of Joos Van Cleve who painted in the 16th Century and this painting is in the NGV. It is not often that modern painters can successfully include past references in their paintings but in this case Warren Crosset has it spot on. The envelope representing the skull has a modern stamp with a skull instead of the Queen and a fly is resting on the envelope. There is Cyrillic writing on the envelope which I presume makes mention of a skull. Instead of placing himself in his own house he has placed himself in St Peters in Rome or somewhere similar and he has a mediaeval bible on his desk. The value of this painting is that these influences are not readily apparent on first viewing and when they are obvious they do not look out of place. The central point of the painting on which the viewer’s eye is drawn to is the artist’s hand which is both resting and pointing to the envelope. Hands are often featured in portraits and this painting captures the hand completely. The other 29 finalists are all of a certain standard with 3 or 4 standouts. One or two of these are exceptionally well painted and only the classical references in the winning portrait set it apart. The following rate a special mention – Sacrifice of the Model, David Bichard of Carpathian, On the Verge of a Sudden Realisation and The artists Mother. If you visit the Gallery I would advise close viewing of all these paintings. Benalla has been fortunate to get this exhibition and a special effort to visit the Gallery is recommended. We thank Catherine for her interest in U3A and look forward to her next lecture on Monday 4th August. The World is not a Foreign Land
The February Art Appreciation activity was a lecture given by Bryony Nainby on Aboriginal Art currently on exhibition at the Gallery. This lecture was attended by an enthusiastic audience who thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Bryony was able to bring the exhibition alive with her well-presented lecture and knowledge of aboriginal art. The artwork in the exhibition is art from three distinct regions and a number of artists and whilst some of paintings do have images and styles that could be classed as similar the three regions all have separate styles. Some are semi figurative. The Bungle Bungles are obvious in one artists work. Others have symbols that are obviously meant to produce images in the viewer. Some have images of totem animals that are distorted into surreal shapes. Others have symbols that are not meant to convey any meaning at all but have been produced simply for arts sake. Some show figurative images depicting everyday human activities. This particular collection prompted me to question if any of the artists were at any time thinking in terms of more than one or two dimensions. Or maybe more than two dimensions. If the artist is thinking in more than two dimensions does this explain the dream like influence that aboriginal art implies? Congratulations should be extended to Bryony Nainby for her entertaining and educational lecture even if the acoustics were not good. Benalla Art Gallery 5.10.2015 Presently at the Gallery there are 4 art installations. These installations have been presented by 3 artists from the Gertrude Street cooperative art studio based in Fitzroy. The studio enjoys a good reputation and has exhibited at several Venice Biennales. The art is interactive and the public are encouraged to participate. Indeed three of the art pieces rely on the public taking part. An installation of musical instruments built from metallic refuse collected locally relies on the public touching the installations for musical notes to be produced. Each artistic piece produces an electronic sound which is fed into a central speaker and music of sorts results as the artist who is also a musician intended. Another installation is an audio installation that runs for 6 hours where the artist reads out the total catalogue of art works held by the Gallery. Another installation is of several large garments resembling aprons which have quotations and slogans attached. The public are encouraged to put on the aprons and have their photo taken standing in front of artworks on the wall behind that have inspired the artist in making the garments. There are also helmets made of the same cloth so you can be photographed and retain your anonymity. The most accessible installation is a display of ceramic vases and pots that have been deliberately smashed. The fragments have then been repainted in colors of works of art taken from the Gallery Storeroom and which have been placed on the largest wall in the room opposite the ceramic display. The presenting artists were allowed access to the Gallery Storeroom and the pictures chosen are displayed in the Paris Salon method without any identification attached. The repainted ceramic shards in the colours of the paintings opposite have then been reconstructed and rebuilt into vases and pots which resemble the original objects. One does not immediately see that the vases and pots have been rebuilt until closer inspection shows they have been put together like a jigsaw. The total project encourages interaction and tries to involve the viewer. Hopefully to understand the creative urges of the artist. This exhibition however provokes the constant conundrum that is always present with any new art form – what is art and how do we recognize it? If we are told something is art should we accept it as art? There is no doubt that the artists themselves believe their installations are works of art. They themselves work industrially at producing art and want the public to share in their creative process. It is unfortunate that the paintings taken from the storeroom and placed on display are undoubtedly works of art. One’s preference is to look at the paintings and to try and recognize each artist rather than to become involved with the interactive installations. Most of these paintings have either not been seen before are only displayed intermittently in the open gallery. This begs the question whether there are many other good paintings held by the Gallery we do not see. |
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