Category Archive: ART
South Australia Venerates the Maestro
12 September 2016: Thirty Years of the Richard Wagner Society of SA Inc. 1986: what a year! South Australia’s 150th birthday. John Bannon was Premier – remember him? Ronnie Reagan was U.S. President; Bob Hawke was Prime Minister. Glenelg won a stirring Grand Final against the odds. And SA State Opera, eclectic as ever, staged Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, at Her Majesty’s Theatre, then the Opera Theatre, which inspired three men of letters, Professor Andrew McCredie, Malcolm Fox and Ralph Middenway (with spiritual father Brian Coghlin absent but there in spirit), to convene a hasty public meeting on 20 June 1986, in…
Continue Reading →The Narrow Mind of Genius
"Mars Destroying the Arts" by Michiel Sweerts
There are mammoth contradictions in the creation of Art. The pursuit of perfection begs the question: according to whom? The artist’s internal impulse, an objective standard set by the good and the great, or that which accords with immutable laws? We talk not so much of various arts and anti-arts movements (a mere symptom) but rather the endogenous source of artistic effect, that breathes in stimuli, imbues it with the self, and releases the product, which may be toxic or sweet or both. In preparing to assess the imminent expelled air, we anticipate relying on: Our own visceral reaction; The Critical reaction;…
Continue Reading →Bad Apple
Piet Mondrian's pointillist 'Apple Tree' c. 1908/09
The Apple had a bad rap even before the Book of Genesis. On Mt. Atlas, the golden apples grew, guarded by the daughters of Atlas, the Hesperides, who were pilfering the apples while Dad groaned under the weight of the world. Heracles (Hercules), on his 11th labour, agreed to shoulder the burden while Atlas plucked the apples from the tree. He then conned Atlas into taking up the slack again, and made off with the forbidden fruit. He was a pathological liar, that Heracles! Ironically, Heracles ended up presenting the treasured apples to Athene, who gave them back to the…
Continue Reading →Richard Wagner & Visual Art
"Knight of the Flowers" (aka Parsifal) by Georges Rochegrosse
A talk to the Richard Wagner Society of SA by Trevor Clarke, 17 July 2016 This was a marvel of learning, a sumptuous panorama of somewhat saccharine mythical paintings, presented superbly by our fraternal guest, Trevor Clarke, member of the Richard Wagner Society of Victoria (or Danielgrad, as it is apparently now known – we wish that great State had kept its original moniker, Batmania). Trevor’s two hour talk was a fascinating and wide-ranging review, dazzling, and in some ways, dizzying, in its vast construct of connections and influence. Wagner obviously drew on the visual arts in a myriad ways –…
Continue Reading →Robert Hannaford
Art Gallery of South Australia, June – September 2016 Born 1944 in Riverton, a charming little town in South Australia’s mid north, Hannaford has built a quietly solid reputation for his realist, unflashy works of portraiture. (We except the statue of Sir Donald Bradman outside the Adelaide Oval, which work is an atrocity on myriad levels). This retrospective of his many and varied portraits (including a surfeit of self-portraits – see main image and the 5th picture below – a tad narcissistic Alfie?) shows clear and consistent talent in capturing the essence of his subjects. Apart from the numerous ‘sleb’ portraits,…
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