Masters and Moderns: Tradition, Modernity and the Role of the Artist in Two Australian Artists' Self-Portraits from the Interwar Period

Kerry Heckenberg
School of English, Media Studies and Art History
The University of Queensland

Poetic Influence - when it involves two strong, authentic poets, -always proceeds by a misreading of the prior poet, an act of creative correction that is actually and necessarily a misinterpretation. The history of fruitful poetic influence, which is to say the main tradition of Western poetry since the Renaissance, is a history of anxiety and self-saving caricature, of distortion, of perverse, willful revisionism without which modern poetry as such could not exist (Bloom 1973, p. 30).

This paper is concerned with the problems of artists and their relation to artistic tradition, with the 'anxiety of influence' as it is played out in two Australian artists' self-portraits from the interwar period. Both Douglas Dundas's En Plein Air (1929) (fig. 1) and Douglas Watson's Self-Portrait with Flower (1938) (fig. 2) are striking but also puzzling pictures, seemingly lacking a coherent narrative. In each the artist is depicted as a solemn, questioning figure, but they present viewers with difficulties of interpretation. 'What on earth is going on?' is the query prompted by the former with its group of people, a serious young man and three young women, two clothed and one naked except for a gown draped around her shoulders, depicted out-of-doors, seemingly on a sketching party that includes a picnic. Not only the circumstances of this outing, but also the interaction of gazes both within and outside the picture motivate the viewer to seek an answer to the puzzle. However, this is not easily forthcoming. In his large self-portrait Watson shows himself striking a pose, but he is a languid figure, dressed with studied carelessness, holding a small pink flower in his elegant left hand. What is he saying about himself or his role as an artist in Australia shortly before the commencement of the Second World War? [1]

Figure 1. Douglas Dundas, En Plein Air, 1929, oil on canvas. Gift of the Society of Artists, 1939. The Howard Hinton Collection, New England Regional Art Museum, Armidale, NSW, Australia.

Figure 2. [Edward Albert] Douglas Watson, Self-portrait with Flower, 1938, oil on board. Private Collection.

Figure 3. George W. Lambert, Self-portrait with Gladioli, 1922, oil on canvas. Collection: National Portrait Gallery, Canberra. Gift of John Schaeffer AO 2003.

In this paper I want to offer an interpretation of these pictures in terms that were current and meaningful (at least to some viewers) when they were painted, but have not continued with much valence into the present. It is for this reason that they are now puzzling pictures. An important part of the answer, I will suggest, lies in the linkages between these two artists and the relationship and response of each to the work and influence of George Lambert (1873-1930), a dominant presence in the discourse and practice of Australian art in the first half of the twentieth century. [2] It involves a very masculine story of patriarchal inheritances, filial duties and obligations and also, inevitably, resistance to such authority.

All three artists were winners of the prestigious New South Wales Travelling Art Scholarship: Lambert was the inaugural winner in 1900, Dundas the fourth in 1927 and Watson the thirteenth in 1940. This scholarship (administered by the Society of Arts between 1900 and 1933 and by the New South Wales National Art Gallery from 1935) was meant to aid 'the development of art in Australia' and provide 'young art students' with 'the opportunity to develop their latent talent amongst exciting and inspiring influences, not only of the works of "Old Masters", but of those of contemporary world artists and sculptors, exhibited in famous galleries abroad' (Heffron 1956). A national art was important: Alfred Radcliffe-Brown, professor of anthropology at Sydney University, argued in a 1929 public lecture that it was an essential pre-requisite for Australia to become a nation with a 'soul'. However, because it had no great art at present, 'we should do our best to see that Australia has an opportunity to see and appreciate the arts of other countries'. Although Watson's self-portrait was painted while he was still a student and before he had won the scholarship (which was delayed in its implementation until 1947 because of the war), Dundas's picture was painted on his return from overseas specifically in order to show how his 'latent talent' had developed by contact with overseas masters, old and new. How do these twin (and potentially conflicting) aims work out in this case? What is the relationship of both artists to any tradition of Australian art that might have developed? Apart from their status as Travelling Scholarship winners, other strong links exist between all three artists: Lambert was the adjudicator for Dundas 's award and a mentor for the young artist; Dundas was Watson's teacher at the East Sydney Technical College . How did they resolve the difficulties involved in drawing upon and acknowledging their artistic inheritance while also striking out in their own direction and producing something original? What was the relationship of all three to modernism?

Although recent approaches to modernism in Australian art have stressed the diversity of uptakes of various modernist art practices in the first half of the twentieth century in Australia , the dominant story or stories of the belatedness of Australian art in relation to modernism stil l h as great purchase. In contrast, I want to explore the ways that these artists responded to both tradition and modernity 'through processes of adoption, adaptation and transformation', to use the words of Terry Smith (2002, p. 9) in his recent very useful discussion of modernism in Australia and the ways in which it has been treated in art historical writing. [3] As Smith notes, modernist 'artistic practices and strategies' played a role, but also important was 'the concept of Modern Art'. The former were often accepted in spite of vehement denunciations of the latter (p. 12). The concept of Modern Art played an important role in a series of fierce debates about the relationship of modern and Australian art in the first decades of the twentieth century (Eagle 1978; Eagle 1990; Sayers 2001, pp. 121-39). Dundas 's picture was painted against the background of one of these debates, reported in a succession of articles in the Sydney Morning Herald in 1929. I am interested in exploring his artistic response to these debates and to his recent encounter with the great tradition of European art. I will also examine Watson's painting as a way of working out the 'anxiety of influence' by means of undermining and subversion of Lambert's artistic precedent, in particular ideas about the nature of the artist and his relation to tradition and modernity that were expressed by Lambert in his Self-portrait with Gladioli, 1922, (fig. 3).

En Plein Air

Douglas Dundas (1900-1981) grew up in country New South Wales and was encouraged to attend art school by Elioth Gruner. Working by day, he studied art at night at the Sydney Art School under Julian Ashton (Lambert's teacher) and Henry Gibbons, the latter formerly Lambert's assistant. His travelling scholarship win gave him an opportunity that would otherwise have been out of the question for a young man of his background. En Plein Air was submitted to the Society of Arts at the end of his travels, as required by the Scholarship conditions, after study in England and France and a trip to Italy (National Art Gallery of NSW 1956, p. 16). The picture is a large (68.0 x 75.5 cm) figure composition, painted out-of-doors the title suggests. A group of four people is organised into a pyramidal composition, set more or less in one plane, in front of a broadly painted background (the figures are on a slight ridge separated from another ridge on the left by a gully with an expanse of water with an island visible in the centre and more water on the right). The figures sit or stand among rocks and a nondescript bare tree with leafy twigs on the left is the main vegetation apart from the grassy foreground strewn with assorted objects (fruit, a carry bag, a thermos and a cloth), suggesting that a picnic is underway. On the left is the artist, dressed in a grey dustcoat, seated and staring directly at the viewer with the grave expression that has already been noted. On the right is a well-dressed young woman, seated on a rock, holding a book in her right hand and turning left to look searchingly at the artist. Between and slightly behind these two figures is a standing frontal naked woman, arms akimbo, with a yellow gown hanging off her shoulders and draped around her back. She looks questioningly, perhaps angrily, at the seated woman. Another young woman stands on the right, balancing this pyramidal grouping. She is also a frontal figure who looks directly at the viewer, sketchbook in hand and pencil poised.

One answer to the puzzle this picture presents is based on formal and technical grounds. The Travelling Art Scholarship adjudicator[s] required competitors in the painting section to submit six types of work, as follows:

(a) One painting in oil from life nude, not less than half life size;

(b) One figure composition in colour, not less than two human figures. Canvas area not less than six square feet. Subject matter left to discretion of competitor;

(c) A panel of not more than two studies which may be two paintings, each not to exceed four square feet;

(d) One drawing from life nude, on paper not less than 22 in. x 15 in.;

(e) One drawing of two hands, on paper not less than 22 in. x 15 in.;

(f) A portfolio or book of drawings which must include a draped figure (National Art Gallery of NSW 1956, pp. 15-16).

In other words, various categories that were chosen in order to show the young artist's skill in depictions of the human figure, both nude and clothed, isolated and arranged in a composition, traditional academic concerns. The scholarship seemed to be aiming therefore to develop a different type of national art than the landscape tradition that had prevailed hitherto in Australia.

The pictures that Dundas submitted in order to satisfy these requirements included a Portrait and a Group, which were illustrated in the March-April 1927 edition of Undergrowth, a progressive magazine published by students from Sydney University. Nancy Hall, one of the editors, praised Group suggesting, 'It is an altogether delightful picture, in spite of its very good technique' because 'Mr Dundas has managed to infuse some of the mystery of human beings'. In contrast, 'The painting of his nude study is terribly unsympathetic, and his portrait, though a worthy attempt, is not entirely interesting' (1927, n. p.). [4] In En Plein Air Dundas shows how much he had learnt from his time abroad, developing his skills in mastery of the figure, both clothed and nude, improving his composition and handling while, in this painting at least, retaining an air of mystery. He also provides an example of portraiture in his own self-image along with still life in the objects in the foreground, but the landscape is rudimentary.

However, the picture is in marked contrast to most of the works that Dundas exhibited in a one-man show held at the Macquarie Galleries in Sydney in October 1929. A Sydney Morning Herald review gives an overview of their style and content (and their generally favorable reception):

The pictures are varied in style, and they show that he has given hard study to the fundamentals of his craft, as expressed in drawing, perspective, atmosphere, and the quality of the brushwork. The majority of the pictures have been painted in Italy , although the environs of Paris , the Alps , and the English countryside have contributed subjects also. Mr. Dundas is particularly fond of the solid, square-cut Italian houses, which nestle in groups amid spreading vineyards. A good example of such a theme may be seen in 'Chianti Country.' . . .

There are two figure studies. One, a portrait, shows a keen feeling for character. The artist has represented his subject as gaunt and angular, yet her face possesses remarkable spiritual beauty. The light values and the representation of flesh textures are skilfully expressed. The other figure study, 'Morning in the Studio', is stiffly and quite unconvincingly drawn. The one still life on the walls, 'Nasturtiums', is very attractive on account of its feeling of vivacious, airy lightness ( 30 Oct. 1929, p. 14).

Landscapes dominate rather than the figure compositions seemingly encouraged by the Travelling Scholarship requirements.

Another answer to the puzzle is prompted by reflection on the artists whose work seems to have influenced Dundas. In letters from overseas, published in Undergrowth, he writes excitedly about the experience of visiting galleries, which he describes in one letter as 'treasure houses that surpass my wildest imaginings' (1927a). A fairly eclectic group of artists is singled out for praise in this letter, but it includes Early Renaissance artists such as Botticelli and Filippino Lippi along with Rembrandt, Hals (who 'comes near to being my best loved master') and Augustus John. Other artists mentioned are Lorenzo Lotto, Moroni , Holbein and Velasquez. The monumental arrangement of figures, clarity of form, and the simplified treatment of landscape in En Plein Air recall examples of Early Renaissance painting, [5] but the subject (a group of clothed figures plus a naked woman, picnicking out of doors) suggests the influence of Manet's Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe (1863), perhaps seen during a visit to the Louvre Museum in 1927. ( A visit to the Louvre is eagerly anticipated in a letter dated 29 August 1927 [Dundas 1927b].) Like Manet, Dundas provides a contemporary interpretation of the work of past masters. But the example of a more immediate master, George Lambert, is probably vitally important. The brief entry on En Plein Air in Douglas Dundas 1900-1981: A Retrospective Exhibition of Painting and Drawings (1982) suggests that the painting is 'an allegory of inspiration in which the artist seems to be making reference to Poussin and Lambert -and the fact that he had just returned to Australia' (Art Gallery of NSW, p. 34). I agree that the notion of allegory is necessary to an understanding of this painting and identification of the various figures depicted in it, but I would widen the sphere of influence to include the artists noted above. However, rather than inspiration per se, I would argue that Dundas is pondering on the role of the artist in contemporary Australia and, in particular, what he should paint.

Dundas's work lacks the flamboyance of Lambert, but his picture belongs to a genre which Lambert explored in a number of paintings, modern allegory (Gray 1996, pp. 58-59, 63-66). The re-interpretation of tradition, the shallow pictorial space, the tableau-like arrangement of figures and the painting of figures out-of-doors all recall Lambert's practice. Indeed, the tree on the left with its residual leaves seems to point explicitly to Lambert, recalling the trees included in a similar position in Portrait Group [The Mother], 1907 (Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane) and in Holiday in Essex, 1910 (Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney) (see Gray 1996, p. 73 and p. 61). Particularly significant is Important People, 1914, (Art Gallery of NSW) with its pyramidal group of disparate people (a mother and baby, a boxer and a gentleman), chosen for their symbolic rather than their personal role (Gray 1996, pp. 65-66, illustration p. 84; see also Galbally 2004).

Although Dundas's picture includes a self-portrait, the notion of allegory suggests that in his picture also identification of the individual figures is not important; rather it is the type of person denoted that is of significance. A symbolic rather than a realist approach supplies the key to interpretation. Thus we have the nude, a favorite traditional subject for artists; the woman with the book suggests that literature or history is being invoked as a source of subject matter; while the young woman with the sketchpad can be identified as a student who awaits the direction of her master. The artist pointedly has his back to the nude who turns to the literary woman with a disgruntled expression, perhaps seeking to enlist support. However, the lack of interest of the artist in both suggests that his future lies elsewhere. The direction of the artist's gaze, and that of his student, is outwards from the image. They could be looking intently at the viewer, or perhaps, in spite of the subsidiary role that landscape plays in the painting, at the landscape. Portraiture and/or landscape, the traditional strengths of Australian art are invoked while the irrelevance of history painting is argued in a painting that, paradoxically, conforms to the structure of history painting. Hence it is unsurprising that Dundas's one-man exhibition focused on landscape.

Modernism versus Tradition in Australian Art in 1929

I have suggested that Dundas was trying to build on the tradition he had been able to experience at first hand in Europe , reinterpreted for his own time and culture, particularly under the influence of Lambert. In terms of the modern art that was debated and criticised in often confusing terms in an ongoing discussion reported in the pages of the Sydney Morning Herald [SMH] in 1929, Dundas probably thought of himself as injecting a contemporary note into his art. However, he eschewed the approach that was criticised for its disruption of form, the extreme modernism that Howard Joseland was against for its 'distortion' and 'jarring' effect (7 Aug. 1929, p. 14). Another difficulty was the fact that his former teacher, Julian Ashton, reacted to the inclusion of some modernist works in the 1929 annual exhibition of the Society of Artists by condemning such work, describing it as 'scum', even though he did also acknowledge that new approaches in the past that now seemed perfectly acceptable had initially met with criticism (SMH, 12 Sep. 1929, p. 10). The Director of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales, J. S. MacDonald, also condemned current modern art, which 'reflected', he argued, 'a world getting over a very bad illness' (SMH, 21 Sep. 1929, p. 16). [6] However, Radcliffe-Brown offered an alternative reading of what constituted modern art, an interpretation that was compatible with Dundas's approach: he suggested that 'modern artists . . . hated vagueness', 'smoothness' and 'sentimentality'. Post-impressionist painters 'appealed to the spectator's intellect, rather than to his emotions' (SMH, 19 Sep. 1929, p. 12). [7]

But, as many commentators have noted Lambert's relationship to modern art was difficult to pin down (see for example, Eagle 1990, pp. 72-74; Sayers 2001, p. 125; Gray 1996). On the one hand, he was one of the founders of the Contemporary Group, which began as 'A Group of Modern Painters' in Sydney in 1926. However, in a lecture delivered in November 1927, Lambert argued for the necessity of building on the art of the past while rejecting only 'eccentricities' in new developments (SMH, 19 Nov. 1927, p. 18; also Lambert 1928; note Underhill 1991, p. 114). Furthermore, in 1929, in an article entitled 'Some Contemporary Australian Artists', the critic and director of the Macquarie Galleries, Basil Burdett, in an effort to educate the public appreciation of contemporary art by pointing to its basis in the art of the past, denied that there was any modernity in Lambert's work. He notes, 'The last decade has witnessed a number of developments in Australian art, which, although not modern in the true sense of the word, have differed sufficiently from the accepted modes of expression to appear so to very many people' (Burdett 1929a). The reception of Lambert's work is a case in point: he is considered 'modern' and 'viewed with suspicion and disapproval'. However, 'Since he is entirely traditional, the reasons for this could lie only in the superficial unfamiliarity of his work.'

But Burdett also notes the 'potent' influence of Lambert on the younger generation and their treatment of form, in particular on the last three Society of Artists scholarship winners (including Dundas). He goes on to suggest that contemporary Australian art could be characterised as post-impressionistic in its renewed concern with form and structure. So it seems that Lambert's work might after all have some modernist characteristics or, at least, be the source of one type of modernist art. And Dundas's work could be included under the rubric of 'post-impressionism'. The flattening of depth and strong design of his composition were modernist characteristics.

Although Dundas's one-man show was a success, his future was uncertain in late 1929. Burdett wrote an article for the Home detailing the sort of dilemma he was facing:

The return to Sydney of Douglas Dundas, the winner of the Society of Artists' Scholarship three years ago, renews the problem of the effective absorption of the younger men of promise into their chosen profession. . . . We hear a good deal of romantic nonsense about the value of struggle, neglecting, in the limelight shed upon the few who survive, the many of equal promise who perish. Economically, at any rate, provision should be made for the difficult period which follows a student's return to Australia . It might be a good thing even if those responsible for the award of scholarships extended the period for at least a year in Australia , to help the student in settling down and adapting himself again to the country where it is hoped he will continue working. As it is, we give them two years (or the Society of Artists does) in Europe , sufficient to uproot them from their old habits and set their artistic conscience in ferment, and then leave them alone to face the arduous task of readjusting themselves. Materially, their hope of survival rests upon the patrons of art, and experience has taught so many of those patrons caution that they will often prefer a mediocre picture by an artist of reputation to the work of a younger man, however promising (1929b).

A pragmatic man, Dundas avoided the fate of the struggling artist, particularly uncertain in a time of economic depression, by accepting the offer of a teaching position at the East Sydney Technical College in 1930. He commenced a long and productive career as a much-valued teacher, art writer and painter (Art Gallery of NSW 1982; Turnbull 1947, p. 27). By 1949, the revised edition of the Ure Smith publication, Present Day Art in Australia, noted, 'Douglas Dundas is noted for his presentation of the Australian landscape, which he interprets with charm and vivacity (Ure Smith, p. 38). Although En Plein Air is a workmanlike and worthy demonstration of his ability to emulate the various masters noted above, and while he does adopt and adapt these predecessors in this picture, transformation, the creation of something entirely new and original, eludes him, further suggesting that his heart and skills lay elsewhere. Its status as an 'achieved anxiety' (Bloom 1973, p. 96) remains all too evident.

Self-Portrait with Flower (1938) and the End of a Tradition

Edward Albert Douglas (known as Douglas) Watson (1920-1972) was one of Dundas's first students when he began to teach at East Sydney Technical College, a valued student judging by the beautiful pencil portrait Dundas drew of him, illustrated in Art in Australia in 1940, the year that Watson won the Travelling Scholarship. It is also noteworthy that he was also one of the few male students at the college at a time when art had ceased to be an attractive option for many Australian men. [8] In 1938, Watson was only eighteen years old and his self-portrait is the work of a promising student, a response, I want to argue, to the same tradition that we have seen at work in En Plein Air. The large format, the mannered pose and direct gaze at the viewer, and, in particular the small pink flower he holds, all echo Lambert's Self Portrait with Gladioli. The latter was very visible in 1938: it was the first plate encountered (and one of only two coloured plates, the other being Arthur Streeton's Fire's On) in the catalogue for the exhibition, 150 Years of Australian Art, held at the National Gallery of New South Wales between January 27 and April 25 in that year. In his review of the exhibition, Lionel Lindsay described the portrait as 'incomparable' (1938, p. 23). He also praised Lambert as the one artist whose example the student should follow, particularly in relationship to the strong drawing and design that would counter the 'easy contentment with surface and formula' of current 'second-hand modernism' (p. 25). Later in 1938, in another encomium to Lambert's greatness in Art in Australia in what was ostensibly a review of Amy Lambert's book about her late husband his usefulness to students as 'a source of sturdy emulation' was noted (Barker 1938, p. 31). [9]

Although Watson's pose and facial features recall Albrecht Dürer's Self-portrait (1493) (Panofsky 1955, ill. 30), and despite the suggestive presence of other artists' self-portraits on the wall to the left, one perhaps by Van Gogh, my argument is that the Lambert is the dominant reference. While both the Dürer and Watson paintings are portraits of the artist as a young man, there are major differences in their intent. Most notably, Dürer's picture is also a marriage portrait - the Eryngium flower he holds in his right hand symbolises 'luck in love' (Panofsky 1955, p. 6), - whereas Watson's picture is a more personal exploration. And although he may be making a statement of his dedication to art, he is also questioning current ideas of the artist in Australia in his self-image, which is an inversion of the one created by Lambert. While emulating the pose and size of Lambert's self-portrait, he uses details of dress and composition to actively undermine this precursor. Instead of an elegant dressing gown and silk scarf, Watson is carelessly attired in a shabby shirt and scarf and wears a straw hat with holes, suggesting that the future for the aspiring artist in Australia was most likely an impoverished one (although Watson's own background was comfortably middle-class, his father a prominent public servant). Most significantly, a tiny pink geranium blossom replaces the luxuriant gladioli, otherwise known as 'flower of the gladiators' or sword lily (Lehner and Lehner 1960, p. 117). In Watson's picture it is the size and colour of the flower that are significant, not any symbolic associations.

In opposition to Lambert's energy, flamboyant artifice and suitably masculine floral accompaniment, which combine to produce an image that was described by one commentator as 'amazingly virile' (qtd Sayers 2004, p. 18), Watson presents himself as a serious, questioning, gentle and rather delicate figure (the latter evident in his gestures and demeanour plus the fragility of the flower he holds). A different style of masculinity is invoked. But the painting also suggests that the tradition inspired by Lambert had reached a dead-end. It is an argument against the propositions of critics such as Lindsay. Lambert is no longer a source of inspiration, and the artist can no longer aspire to the hero status that he enjoyed. The widespread lack of interest by young men in an artistic career in the interwar period, exacerbated by the militaristic ideal of Australian manhood encapsulated in the Anzac myth, also points to the demise of this idea (Williams 1995, pp. 230-232). As the painting also hints with its spatially confusing flat-patterned background, Watson's own work was influenced by the more decorative modernism derided by Lindsay, particularly the approach of Boudin and Bonnard (Bush 1973, p. 235), a style that was not easily assimilated into nationalistic ideals of art.

Epilogue

En Plein Air was exhibited in the large survey exhibition, entitled '150 Years of Australian Art', organised by the Art Gallery of NSW and held in 1938. The catalogue notes that the painting was 'Lent by the Artist' (National Gallery of NSW 1938, no. 140). In 1939 the Society of Artist gave it to the Howard Hinton collection at the Armidale Teachers' College and it is now part of the collection of the New England Regional Art Gallery. The Hinton Collection was an appropriate place for this picture; the collection aimed to present the student teachers with an educative experience, in particular one that detailed the history of art in Australia. John Fountain argues that:

[Hinton] wished to make his collection representative of the best Australian painting by all schools from Buvelot to the present day, and it is in the work of minor artists and in the total effect of the Collection that the main interest lies. Time and again one has the impression that Hinton has picked every work of importance by any artist, however obscure; and the collection as a whole, selected by a man of English birth and a broad and profound knowledge of European art, demonstrates how magnificent an achievement is the total of Australian painting. There arises, above all, from this collection, the sense of assurance; of stability; of a cultural achievement on the major scale -rich, varied, permanent (1951, p. 26).

Watson's experience is another aspect of the diverse picture of Australian art suggested by this passage. In 1942 he was described in Art in Australia as promising, 'a capable technician' who 'at present lacks a personal approach' (no. 6, 4th series, p. 7). In the same year, aged only twenty-one, he commenced work as an official war artist. However, in spite of great early success (he won the Wynne Prize in 1942 and 1945), his work developed outside the mainstream of Australian art, never quite fulfilling his early promise. At the time of his early death, he was as much a great collector of art as a producer of it (Bush 1973, p. 235). His early self-portrait is the work of an artist who was neither a prominent rebel nor a precursor, unlike other more successful modernist, and more overtly masculine (and therefore 'Australian') artists such as Sidney Nolan and Albert Tucker. [10] It nevertheless provides an interesting insight into the ways artists respond to, and comment on, traditions of art in their own work. Furthermore, in its own thoughtful way, as I have argued above, this picture does record an act of rebellion. Most recently, all three pictures discussed in this paper formed part of the exhibition entitled To Look Within: Self-portraits in Australia (2004) which provided a valuable opportunity for experiencing the rich diversity of Australian art and its artists, with their contradictions and ambiguities, their influences and anxieties, and ways of dealing with this anxiety of influence.

NOTES

Thanks to Wendy Dundas and Lex Watson for background information about Douglas Watson, and to Margaret Maynard for useful comments.

[1] My interest in these pictures was prompted by their inclusion in the exhibition of Australian artists' self-portraits, To Look Within, held in Brisbane between 15 April and 20 June 2004 (later traveling to the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, and on show between 9 July and 19 September 2004) (see Searle and Sayers 2004).

[2] Lambert's Self-portrait with Gladioli, 1922, was also a dominant presence in the exhibition in Brisbane where it was one of the first pictures to be encountered.

[3] See Smith 2002, pp. 9-12. Smith describes three main narratives utilized in discussions of modernism in Australian art (the idea of modernism as 'a succession of styles' [10], the emergence of various types of modernism in Australia at different periods in relation to this succession, and the denial of modernist influences because of the dominance of local content in Australian art) along with three conclusions that are commonly drawn from these stories of 'evident mismatching and strangely delayed matching' [11] (the insipidity of Australian modernism, local modernism as a distinctively Australian development to be judged on its own terms, modernism as irrelevant to Australian concerns).

[4] An earlier Undergrowth review of Dundas's work in a Sydney Art School student show notes that the artist is 'aiming for the high goal of absolute technical efficiency, and certainly obtaining creditable results: 'Students' Shows', Undergrowth, 1926. n. p.

[5] Basil Burdett (1930) also notes the importance of 'the masters of the early Renaissance, Piero della Francesco, Benozzo Gozzoli, Botticelli, and the Venetians, Bellini and Mantegna' for Dundas's work. See also Rees 1938 and Wilkinson 1945.

[6] See also A. Dattilo Rubbo's criticism of 'extremist art' while defending moderate modernism: SMH, 7 Oct. 1929, p. 8.

[7] But compare SMH, 28 Sep. 1929, p. 21. This article reports a defence of modern art in which M. Barbier argues for the unimportance of subject matter and the overriding importance of 'the personality of the artist'.

[8] See Art Gallery of NSW 1982, p. 50. The portrait is illustrated in Fig. 78. John Williams notes that 'between 1926 and 1945, [the National Art School in Sydney] graduated 109 students, of whom only 5 were men' (1995, p. 231).

[9] For a critical discussion of the Lambert myth, see Underhill 1991, pp. 86-120.

[10] For the more radical tradition in Australian art at this time, see Dixon and Smith 1984, Haese 1988, Dixon and Dysart 1986, Merewether 1983.

References

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Burdett, Basil 1929a, 'Some Contemporary Australian Artists', Art in Australia , no. 29, Third Series, n.p.

-- 1929b, 'Our Scholarship Winners', Home, vol. 10, no. 12, p. 33.

-- 1930, 'Douglas Dundas', Art in Australia , no. 31, Third Series, n. p.

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Dundas , Douglas 1927a, 'Letters from Abroad', Undergrowth, Sep.-Oct. 1927, n. p. (letter dated 1 August 1927).

-- 1927b, 'A London Letter', Undergrowth, Nov.-Dec. 1927, n. p.

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