Tag Archives: South Australia

TONY’S TOURS: The Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia

30 Monday Apr 2018

Posted by in Adelaide, ART, ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA, Australia, BEACHES, HISTORY, PARKS & GARDENS, PHOTOGRAPHY, PUBLIC ART, South Australia, SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ART GALLERY, STREET ART, TONY'S TOURS - Travel Journal, TRAVEL, TRAVEL JOURNEY, TRAVELING IN AUSTRALIA, Uncategorized, VINEYARDS

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INTRODUCTION

The Fleurieu Peninsular extends to the immediate south-east of Adelaide. It was named in honour of Charles Pierre Claret de Fleurieu who was French explorer, by Nicholas Baudin when he was exploring the region in 1802. The name ‘Claret’ seems rather prophetic as this region that encompassed ‘The McClaren Vale’, one of the top wine regions in Australia. This is a short photographic record of a recent trip down to the Fleurieu Peninsula, particularly to the spectacular and rugged coastline, and the magnificent pristine beaches.

DAY 1 – GOOLWA to MASLIN BEACH

GOOLWA

P1080403Goolwa – Paddle-Steamer and Hindmarsh Bridge

First ‘port of call’ was GOOLWA, at the mouth of the Murray River. Goolwa was once considered as the capital of South Australia due to it being a major port. This included the old paddle-steamers that travelled up and down the Murray River. It was also once known as ‘theNew Orleans of South Australia’, which conjures up all kinds of hedonistic possibilities. Now, however, Goolwa is a relatively quiet country town, a popular place for tourists to visit and perhaps catch a glimpse of the by-gone time.

PORT ELIOT – VICTOR HARBOUR – ENCOUNTER BAY

IMG_3609Encounter Bay – South Australia

From GOOLWA we drove west to PORT ELIOT and to the headland, granting a spectacular view of the coastline, including Victor Harbour and Encounter Bay. In the late-nineteenth century, the connection between Goolwa, Port Eliot and Victor Harbour was quite significant. There are remnants of this by-gone ear, old sandstone houses and hotels, and even an old steam train that still runs between the three towns. The rest is very much tourists and retirees townhouses, that are not particularly attractive. The best part is the beaches and coastal walks.

KINGS BEACH

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The headland is the remains of an old glacier, thousands of years old, which accounts for the unique rock formation.

P1080425.JPGP1080426.JPGP1080428.JPGP1080430.JPGP1080431.JPGKings Beach

P1080433.JPGGranite Island – Encounter Bay

Just beyond Victor Harbour, at the western promontory, there is this wonderful coastal walk. The coastline is rugged with some startling, almost pre-historic rock shapes, and there are tales of shipwrecks and drownings that are marked along the path. It kept reminding us of parts of Cornwall in the UK, with one lonely sandstone house set amongst the hillside that runs down the coast.

DEEP CREEK

P1080435.JPGP1080437Deep Creek – Walk

We drove further west along the coast and started the walk to Deep Creek Beach, which marks the beginning of the ‘Heysen Trail’ that goes all the way to Cape Jervis. We only did part of this walk, which as you can see was rather steep, uphill and downhill. Nonetheless, the view was fantastic – and as you gazed south all you could think was ‘next stop Antartica’.

MASLIN BEACH

MALSIN BEACH in the Gulf St. Vincent was recently named amongst the ‘Top 10’ beaches in Australia. It easy to see why as it is quite unique with its impressive cliff face. We arrived at sunset and walked along the beach to the ‘Unclad’ section. Maslin Beach was the first official ‘nudist’ beach in Australia – we did not venture into that

P1080441.JPGP1080440.JPGMaslin Beach

P1080442.JPGMaslin Beach – Wedding

P1080445.JPGP1080443.JPGP1080447.JPGP1080450.JPGMaslin Beach – ‘Unclad’

P1080454.JPGOnkaparinga River –  Maslin Beach

P1080455.JPGMaslin Beach

DAY 2 – PORT WILLUNGA to ADELAIDE

We started the next part of our journey through the Fleurieu Peninsula by visiting PORT WILLUNGA. This was another old sea-port that serviced Adelaide and the Fleurieu Peninsula. The only remnants left of that ear are the weathered posts of the old jetty and the man-made caves in the cliff-face. There is also the ship-wreck 200m of the coast of the ‘Star of Greece, which went down in 1888.

PORT WILLUNGA

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P1080465.JPGP1080466.JPGP1080461.JPGP1080468.JPGP1080470.JPGPort Willunga

From Port Willunga, we drove inland to the PRIMO ESTATE VINEYARD.

Primo Estate

And then to PORT NOARLUNGA, which is a beach suburb of the City of Onkaparinga; very popular with families and tourists. We bought a couple of delicious hamburgers from a local (Thai) restaurant and devoured them on the beach.

PORT NOARLUNGA

P1080474P1080475.JPGP1080478.JPGP1080480.JPGP1080479.JPGPort Noarlunga

Like anywhere in Australia there are always fantastic and fantastical ‘street art’, which includes advertisements, murals, and shop window displays.

We returned to Adelaide and went to the South Australian Art Gallery, then walked through the Botanic Gardens before returning to the Rose Park apartment for another beautiful sunset.

ADELAIDE

Biennale – Art Gallery of South Australia

P1080490.JPGAdelaide Botanic Gardens

P1080494.JPGRose Park – Adelaide

TONY KNIGHT

‘COLOURS OF IMPRESSIONISM’: From the Musee D’Orsay at the Art Gallery of South Australia; with an ‘Epilogue’ on Australian Impressionism.

31 Saturday Mar 2018

Posted by in 19TH CENTURY ART, 20TH CENTURY ART, Adelaide, ART, ART GALLERIES, ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA, Australia, Australian Art, IMPRESSIONISM, SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ART GALLERY, Uncategorized

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Jean Renior

Currently, in Adelaide at the Art Gallery of South Australia, there is a truly wonderful and enlightening exhibition – Colours of Impressionism – that has some excellent works from Musee D’Orsay in Paris. What follows is a brief overview of the exhibition.

1. BLACK

The first colour that is focused on is black. Following traditional methods, black was used for shadows, to highlight landscapes and portraits. Black hues were used by the romantic artists to darken their predominantly historical paintings. Significantly, ‘black’ was also the dominant colour of men’s clothes in the mid-nineteenth century, hence its relatively constant presence in realistic portraiture of the time, and was regarded as very ‘modern’.

P1080248Clair de lune sur le port de Boulogne (1869) – Edouard Manet

It was Edouard Manet (1832-1883) who exemplifies the beginning of a new approach by the ‘impressionists’ in the use of the colour black. To quote from the exhibition pamphlet – ‘Manet applied thick black paint to create stark shapes with greatly simplified contrasts. Black played a key part in the balance of his compositions, a departure from its standard use in creating shadows and darkening other tones’.

There are other works in this first section of the exhibition. Two works that captured my attention that also exemplify this new use of the colour ‘black’ are by Alfred Stevens (1823-1906) and James Tissot (1836-1902). 

P1080246Le Bain (1873-74) – Alfred Stevens

What is remarkable about Alfred Stevens’ Le Bain (The Bath) is the juxtapositions of ‘white’ and ‘black’ objects. The actual bath, which was traditionally done in ‘white’, is in various dark shades and hues. In contrast, the eye is drawn to the ‘white’ objects, such as pale flesh of the female bather, the book and linen next to the bath, the flowers, and the soap dish on the wall. Intriguingly, there seems to be a black ‘fob watch’ in the soap dish, which suggests that there is a time limit for this bath.

The-BallI am big fan of James Tissot’s work. He is primarily known for his painting of ‘high society’ that are generally quite crisp and vibrant in detail. Subsequently, it was great to see La reveuse (The Dreamer), which is a rather dark intimate painting of a woman reclining in a chair. According to the accompanying descriptor, Tissot was also inspired by Japanese art at the time in regards to linear portraiture.

P1080247La reveuse (1876) – James Tissot

2. WHITE

The second section of the exhibition deals with the colour white. This is exemplified by respective paintings of snow by Charles-Francois Daubigny (1817-1878), Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894), Alfred Sisley (1839-1899) and Claude Monet (1840-1926). There are others, including a most unusual Paul Gauguin, nonetheless, it was the following that captured my attention and imagination.

P1080245La neige / Snow (1873) – Charles-Francois Daubigny

Following new contemporary theories in regard to colour, shades of blue were used for shadows and highlights. Furthermore, inspiration came from Japanese artists, such as Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) and Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). Monet, in particular, was inspired by these Japanese artists, and kept a large personal collection of Japanese art.

P1080244Vue de toits (effet de neige) / Rooftops in the snow (snow effect) – Gustave Caillebotte

P1080242La neige a Louvreciennes / Snow at Louvreciennes (1878) – Alfred Sisley

DSC00811There are a number of Alfred Sisley’s ‘snow’ paintings but this one stood out for me, partly because of my own fascination with ‘pathways’ and ‘perspective’.

However, the most impressive painting for me is this section was Claude Monet’s magnificent La pie (The magpie). This relatively large painting not only exemplifies the use of white and blue, but also the vulnerability of life in winter, represented by the sole magpie perched on the rickety gate.

P1080241La pie / The  magpie (1868-69) – Claude Monet

3. PAINTING LIGHT

The third section of the exhibition is devoted to the matter of la peinture claire (‘painting light’). This involved the impressionists use of luminous colours, ‘subtle contrasts of tone and rapid broken brushstrokes to capture the ephemeral effects of light’. This complemented another developing characteristic of ‘Impressionism’ known as en plein air, which essentially meant painting in the open air.

La peinture claire and en plein air were partly due to a reaction against the conventional and academic approach to historical painting favoured by the official ‘Salon’ of contemporary Paris. The ‘Impressionists’ were also called the ‘Independents’ because of their reactionary position. The term ‘impressionism’ came from the art critic, Louis Leroy, who used this word to describe the work of Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renior and Alfred Sisley, who were the artists represented in the first Impressionist group exhibition in Paris in 1874.

There are numerous examples of la peinture claire and en plein air in this exhibition, particularly by Pissarro. However, it was the ones by Alfred Sisley that mainly attracted my attention. This included La Barque pendant l’inondation, Port-Marly (Boat in the flood at Port-Marly). Sisley lived in Port-Marly from 1874-1880. In 1876 the region was subject to severe floods and Sisley did a series of paintings, of which this is one.

 

P1080239La Barque pendant l’inondation, Port-Marly / Boat in the flood at Port-Marly (1876) – Alfred Sisley

What is remarkable about this painting is not only it perfectly exemplifying la peinture claire but also adds a dramatic element to un plein air. Even here there is the unexpected subversion of conventional ‘historical’ painting, based on real events. The two figures, as well as the whole canvas, seem rather calm and tranquil in contrast to the natural disaster of the flood.

There is also another – a ‘triptych’ that has paintings by Sisley, Pissarro and Monet, all depicting different aspects of a ‘lie-de-France’ – Sisley’s Saint-Denis Island (1872), Pissarro’s Entrance to the village of Voisons (1872), and Monet’s Pleasure Boats (1872-73).

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These three paintings were donated to the Musee de Louvre in 1923 by Ernest May and remain exactly as they were when they belonged to him. As the catalogue states, ‘Each in a similar gilded frame, they maintain their long-standing dialogue’. Whilst Pissarro’s painting centres the triptych it remains within his general preoccupation with earthy rural settings. Sisley’s and Monet’s offer a chance to discern their respective differences in depicting reflections in water. As the catalogue states, ‘in Monet’s treatment of water, the areas of flat colour impart a vigour absent in Sisley, who preferred small, juxtaposed touches to express the shimmering river.’

4. OF GREENS AND BLUE

The fourth section of the exhibition is about the Impressionists use of green and blue. Monet’s advice to a young American painter, Lily Cabot Perry, encapsulates the use of these colours and more: ‘When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you…Merely think here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint them just as you see them…until your own artless impression of the scene appears before you’.

Most of the paintings in this section are un plein air. There is one Monet, however, that is of an interior – Un coin d’appartment (A corner of the apartment), which contains a young boy in blue who is framed in different shades of green shubbery. It is a rather unsettling painting as the young boy seems like a ghostly presence in this corner of the apartment.

P1080249Un coin d’appartment / A corner of the apartment (1875) – Claude Monet

Another extraordinary Monet painting is Le bassin aux nympheas, harmonie rose (Water lily pond, pink harmony). This comes from a much later period in Monet’s life, around 1900, and is one of two studies; the other being Water lily pond, green harmony. As stated in the catalogue, these paintings ‘anticipate the long sequence of pictures that Monet painted of the pond that was built in Giverny in 1893’. Nonetheless, the ‘pink harmony’ painting also exemplifies the respective use of la peinture clair, the use of green, blue and pink, and the influence of en plein air.

IMG_3574Le bassin aux nympheas, harmonie / Water lily pond, pink harmony (1900) – Claude Monet

5. NEO-IMPRESSIONISM

The fifth section of the exhibition is devoted to the ‘Neo-Impressionists’. This is exemplified by works by Georges Seurat (1859-1891), Paul Signac (1863-1935) and Lucien Pissarro (1863-1944). These artists featured in the eighth and final Impressionist exhibition in 1886.

The critic Felix Feneon identified Neo-Impressionism as ‘a modern synthesis of methods based on science’. Rather than mixing on the palette, the Neo-Impressionists divided primary colours based on the principles of contrasting colours advocated by Michel-Eugene Chevreul and James Clerk Maxwell, as well as Ogden Nicholas Rood’s influential 1879 ‘colour circle’. As the exhibition’s pamphlet states, the Neo-Impressionists ‘methodically juxtaposed small brushstrokes of complementary unmixed hues, these responding to and invigorating each other’. This was called Divisionism, that included the sub-genre of Pointillism, ‘which refers to the technique of applying tiny dots of paint rather than adopting the principle of colour division to create more vivid and accurate tones’.

IMG_3569One of the most famous examples of Pointillism is Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-86). This exhibition contains a couple of ‘studies’ that Seurat made in preparation for the final painting.

Whilst there are a number of other Neo-Impressionist work in this section, there are three by Paul Signac that I found particularly impressive – Les andelys (The Riverbank), La bouee rogue (The Red Buoy) and Les chateau des papes (Palace of the Popes); and L’entree du port de Roscoff (Entrance to the port of Roscoff) by the lesser known Theo van Rysselberghe (1862-1926).

IMG_3568Les andelys / The riverbank (1886) – Paul Signac

IMG_3565La bouee rouge / The red buoy (1895) – Paul Signac

IMG_3567Le chateau des papes / Palace of the Popes (1909) – Paul Signac

IMG_3571.jpgL’entree du port de Roscoff / Entrance to the port of Roscoff (1889) – Theo van Rysselberghe

6. IDEAL HARMONIES

The final section of the exhibition involves how the colours of the Impressionists softened in the late-nineteenth century and early twentieth century. This exemplified by works from Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) and Auguste Renior (1841-1919). 

Sur un banc au bois de Boulogne / On a bench in the bois de Boulogne (1894) – Berthe Morisot; Gabrielle a la rose / Gabrielle with a rose (1911) – Auguste Renoir

As stated in the exhibition’s pamphlet, ‘The works us “fluid harmonies” of gentle tones, rather than complementary colours, to create subtle effects such as the morning mists, the pink of dusk and the play of light at different times of day. Painting the fleeting light was now, however, less about recording direct observation than the expression of a mood evoking a sense of memory or melancholy’.

Perhaps one of the best examples of this is Monet’s series of paintings of Rouen Cathedral (1892-94).

P1080223La cathedrale de Rouen. Le portail et la tour Saint-Romain, plein soleil / Rouen Cathedral. The portal and Saint-Romain tower, full sunlight (1893) – Claude Monet

The exhibition concludes with a painting by Paul Cezanne (1839-1906), representative of and anticipating ‘Cubism’ in the early twentieth century.

P1080224.jpgRochers pres des grottes au-dessus du Chateau Noir / Rocks near the caves above Chateau Noir (c.1904) – Paul Cezanne

EPILOGUE – AUSTRALIAN IMPRESSIONISM

The Art Gallery of South Australia contains some truly exceptional artworks. This includes some 19th Century paintings that exemplify the kind of ‘historical’ works favoured by the conservative academics at the Paris ‘Salon’ that the ‘Impressionists’ reacted against. This includes popular works such as The Feigned Death of Juliet (1856-58) by Frederic Leighton (1830-1896) and Zenobia’s last look at Palmyra (1888) by Herbert G. Schmaltz (1856-1935).

The Impressionist exhibition has a couple of paintings by Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863), citing his ‘experimental use of colour’ influence on the ‘Neo-Impressionists’. Australian ‘Impressionism’, which was like its European counterpart also primarily characterized landscape painting – un plein air – can trace its own unique influence with the early colonial artists, such as John Glover (1767-1849).

P1080316Baptism on the Ouse River by Rev. Henry Dowling (1838) – John Glover

One of the most impressive Australian paintings and one of the most popular in the Art Gallery of South Australia’s collection is Evening Shadows, Backwater of the Murray River. South Australia (1880) by H. J. Johnstone (1835-1907). This perhaps couldn’t be regarded as a work of Australian ‘Impressionism’, more like a precursor to twentieth-century ‘photo-realism’ (Jonstone was a professional photographer), nonetheless, its use of colour is very much sympatico with ‘Impressionism’, as well as coming from the same time.

P1080309Evening Shadows, Backwater of the Murray River. South Australia (1880) – H. J. Johnstone

The first major Australian ‘Impressionist’-like artist is perhaps Tom Roberts (1856-1931). Roberts, like his European Impressionist counterparts also firmly followed un plein air, as exemplified by his Winter’s Morning After the Rain, Gardiner’s Creek (1885).

P1080290Winter’s Morning After the Rain, Gardiner’s Creek (1885) – Tom Roberts

Other major Australian ‘Impressionists’ are Arthur Streeton (1867-1943), exemplified by his Cario Street Scene (c.1897), and Charles Conder (1868-1909) and his A Holiday at Mentone (1888), both in the Art Gallery of South Australia’s collection.

There are many others. Complementing the final section of the Musee D’Orsay’s exhibition – ‘Ideal Harmonies’ – and the more ‘fluid’ and softer use of colour and light in the early decades of the twentieth century, there is From the apartment window, Paris (1901) by Hans Heysen (1877-1968), Le Bar, Saint Jacques, Paris (1904) by American artist Ambrose Peterson, La Coiffure (1908) by Rupert Bunny (1864-1947), After the Bath (c. 1911) by E. Phillips Fox (1865-1915), and The Pheasant (c.1919) by English artist Walter Sickert (1860-1942).

Finally, to finish with one of my personal favourites is German-Australian Hans Heysen, who studio and home were in Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills, which can be visited today. The Art Gallery of South Australia has a number of large paintings by Hans Heysen – one of which is Mystic Morn (1904), which is a superb example of ‘Australian Impressionism’, as well as a painting that exemplifies ‘ideal harmonies’.

P1080315Mystic Morn (1904) – Hans Heysen

TONY KNIGHT

 

 

 

 

THEATRE: OUR BOYS by Jonathan Lewis – Adelaide Repertory Theatre

10 Sunday Sep 2017

Posted by in 20TH CENTURY ART, ACTING, ACTORS, Adelaide, ADELAIDE THEATRE, Australia, DIRECTORS, DRAMA, FILM, HISTORY, MOVIES, PEOPLE, PLAYS, PUBLIC ART, South Australia, THEATRE, Uncategorized

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our-boys8aweb-n101lvydljj1zc0idolu5n0qp1oqx8xcgdwj5j173cOur Boys by Jonathan Lewis is a two-act play that was first performed in London on 1993, and subsequently won a number of awards. The Adelaide Repertory Company’s production, directed by David Sims, is the Australian premiere of this thoroughly enjoyable, moving, challenging and unique play. My litmus test in regard to seeing theatre and films these days is whether or not it has moved me download-3emotionally. In the case of Our Boys it did most profoundly and in a way that caught me by surprise. Set in a military hospital in the 1984, we follow the trials and tribulations of 6 war veterans. On the surface, especially the first act, the play is download-2full of crude, smutty and vulgar British humour, similar to other hospital drama-comedies such as Carry on Doctor (1967) Peter Nichol’s The National Health (1969).

Some may dismiss this play as just another case of ‘men behaving badly’, nonetheless, something else is at work here. Underneath all this, and is partly the motivation for such behaviour is genuine fear – and specifically the fear of impotency. I’m finding it difficult to think of other dramatic works that concentrate on masculine impotency – a taboo topic that few men would even discuss let alone admit too. In a theatrical world that is often led by feminist ‘equality’ issue this play is a sober reminder that there are tragic contemporary male stories to be told as well; in a way it makes the play unique in contemporary theatre.

Our Boys, however, does join rather a long and brilliant heritage of other war and/or post-war traumatic stress dramas. This includes – R. C. Sherriff’s Journey End (1928) and W. Somerset Maugham’s For Services Rendered (1932). There are also William Wyler’s Academy Award Best Film winner The Best Years of our Lives (1946) and Fred Zimmerman’s The Men (1950), which was Marlon Brando’s debit film. Speaking of Brando it is an often neglected factor in regards Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) that one reason why Stanley and his buddies are so violent is partly associated with 2WW experiences. Other works include Willis Hall’s The Long and the Short and the Tall (1959), John Frankenheimer’s brilliant and unsurpassable The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Barry England’s Conduct Unbecoming (1969), David Rabes’ Sticks and Bones (1971) and Streamers (1976), Peter Nichols’ Privates on Parade (1977), Hal Ashbey’s Coming Home (1978), Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (1998), Simon Stevens’ Motortown (2006) and Stella Feehily’s O Go My Man (2006). Closer to home, there are such Australian dramas as Sumner Locke Elliott Rusty Bugles (1948), George Johnston’s My Brother Jack (1964), John Power’s The Last of the Knucklemen (1978), and Bill Bennetts’ A Street to Die (1985). However, the film that has the most immediate impact on Our Boys is the Michael Cimino’s devastating brilliant The Deer Hunter (1978).

 Towards the end of Our Boys first act, in an attempt to cheer up the wheel-chair bound character of Lee, who is often inarticulate due to being shot in the head, the men stage a beer drinking competition called ‘Beer Hunter’ after the film The Deer Hunter. The drinking game parallels with devastating and highly memorable Russian roulette game in the The Deer Hunter. It is due to this game and the celebrations that the men find themselves in trouble, facing military discipline for ‘conduct unbecoming’ and expulsion from the army. With their self-esteem and sense of potency already vulnerable this new attack on their individual security brings forward issues of class warfare and scapegoating. The resident officer is blamed for being a back-stabbing informer – but he is innocent. The actual informer is one of their own, and without giving it away, is the character who has the most to lose. He betrays his friends and lies, blaming the officer; when the truth is finally revealed the sense of betrayed loyalty becomes violent in its retaliation. Surprise, surprise – not.

 Our Boys as well as the works cited above all involve “men behaving badly”, physically and emotionally, often due to past or current war experiences. The individual stories and characters highlight struggles for self-esteem, power and potency. In this masculine rationale if you do not have these things then you don’t have an identity and viability to make positive and active contributions to society. Whilst ‘feminists’ may rage, nonetheless, masculine identity, health and well-being is still firmly tied to these issue, which are generally the domain of the work-place. Men still are (too often) defined by the work place and what they do (or not do) for a living. What does one do when self-esteem, power, potency, viability, credibility and identity is taken away by things that are beyond your control by murderous violence – physical and/or psychological? Does one resort to the betrayal of loyalties, revenge, in order to satisfy delusional prejudices and self-preservation? In Our Boys these issues rise to the surface, especially in the second act. Ironically, there are good outcomes for some of the patients in Our Boys – but by no means not all – such is life. This mixture of fateful and fortuitous endings only serves to add to the overall greater complexity of the play

Throughout this admirable and ultimately extremely moving production the voice of Margaret Thatcher (post-Falkland War) is heard, stating things like ‘we must take care of our defenses in order to prepare for any situation’. But how can you prepare for sudden and inexplicable violence? One could argue, perhaps, that these men are in the military and subsequently are trained for the violence of war. But this is not necessarily so; not all military personnel are trained for and do active service; and yet are still targets for violence. Nor do all military personnel, especially when working in a domestic and local world, necessarily expect sudden violent acts of internal terrorism. The final scene of Our Boys attempts to articulate the ‘horror’ of home-front terrorist violence. It is the most moving as well as frightening moment of the play. The harrowing experience and subsequent trauma of home-front terrorist violence is stunningly realized in the final confession by Joe, the patient who has been in hospital the longest, and beautifully acted by Adam Tuominen. Joe has an inexplicable disease that has resulted in the removal of one of his fingers. This mysterious disease, however, could be read as metaphor for HIV/AIDS – or other cancers – as it seems as if it will never be cured. Or is it the disease inside his brain, the never-ending post-traumatic disorder due to the incredible violence he experienced. Joe’s story is partly based on a real-life event in a bombing in London by the IRA. As the story unfiled I found I was gasping and shaking my head with the sheer horror of the violence. How could anyone get over such things? The thing is – like an incurable disease – you don’t.

Congratulations to the Adelaide Repertory Theatre, David Sims, and all the actors involved in this terrific production – Adam Tuominen, Patrick Martin, James Edwards, Lee Cook, Nick Duddy and Leighton Vogt. Thank you for providing an opportunity to see this truly unique and moving modern play. It has remained with me, as it did with my Asian-Australian companion last night, who is studying English here in Adelaide. Admittedly, some of it went over his head, and I was a bit concerned as the Asian imitations in the ‘Beer Hunter’ scene, nonetheless, this was the scene he liked the most. Go figure. He also, like myself, was very impressed with Adam Tuominen’s Joe and Patrick Martin’s Lee. Thank you.

TONY KNIGHT

ART: Arthur Boyd – Art Gallery of South Australia –

22 Tuesday Aug 2017

Posted by in 20TH CENTURY ART, Adelaide, ART, Australia, HISTORY, PEOPLE, PUBLIC ART, SALA, South Australia, SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ART GALLERY, Uncategorized

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ARTHUR BOYD (1920-1999) is one of the most important and unique Australian artists of the 20th Century. His range of work is extraordinarily vast in scope, size and subject matter, ranging from impressionistic landscapes to biblical and historical matters.His works are always incredibly dramatic and eye-catching. Invariably the characters in his works are somewhat devoid of emotion, reminiscent of ‘mannerism’ art in the late 16th Century. The four works by Arthur Boyd are currently on display at the Art Gallery of South Australia and are representative of particular periods of his extraordinary work.

Arthur Boyd was born at Murrumbenna, Victoria, into an artistic family. When he was 14 years old attended evening classes at the National Gallery School, Melbourne, where he met Jewish artist Yosi Bergner who introduced him to the the works of Dostoyevsky and Kafka and played a major role in influencing Boyd’s humanitarian and social values. Boyd then spent several years living on the Mornington Peninsula with his grandfather, Arthur Meric Boyd, who influenced Arthur Boyd’s particular talent and skill in landscape painting. He then moved to in the inner city of Melbourne painting urban cityscapes. In 1941 he was conscripted and served with the Cartographer Unit of the Australian Army during WW2 until 1944. His paintings of this period, of people deemed unfit for service are startling, and reveal an interest in ‘outsiders’, which was to become a major feature in his later works.

The painting, Figures by a Creek, from this period of Boyd’s life is relatively disturbing and turbulent, almost apocalyptic. A range of human expressions are evident in the painting, including love and grief. It is however, the soulless vacant eyes and naked abandonment in this prison like terrain that is unsettling.

P1030160 - Version 2Figures by a Creek (1944)

In the 1940s he became a member of the ‘Angry Penguins’, whose aim was to challenge conventional art and literature in Australia. and introduce a new radical and modern perspective. In the 1940s and 1950s Arthur Boyd traveled extensively through outback Australia. He was profoundly influenced by the landscape as well as indigenous culture. His series of The Bride, a half-caste who was also an ‘outsider’, was painted during this period and became his most successful works.

The paintings Persecuted Loves and Bridegroom going to his Wedding date from this period.

P1030255Persecuted Lovers (1957)

P1030162Bridegroom going to his Wedding (1958)

In 1959 he was a founding member of the ‘Antipodeans’, which presented figurative work rather than abstracts that were the dominant form at that time. Other ‘Antipodeans’ included John Brack, John Perceval, Charles Blackman and Clifton Pugh. He and his family then moved to London where he remained until 1977. Boyd’s work during this period reveal another evolution. His Nebuchadnezzar series of painting are his responses to the VietnamWar, whilst overall there is recurrent theme of ‘metamorphosis’. He also worked within the theatre, designing sets for opera and ballet. Boyd’s Lovers under a tree with weeping head (1963) is a work painted on a ceramic tile, and aspect of Boyd’s work in the years he was living and working in London. The subject matter of ‘lovers’ and a ‘metamorphosis’ that is apparent in the work and exemplifies his artistic concerns in this period.

P1030161Lovers under a tree with weeping head (1963)

Boyd returned to Australia and he and his wife Yvonne bought over 1000 acres of property in Bundanoon on the Shoalhaven River, not far from the town of Nowra, New South Wales. They later gave this property to the Australian Government for the use of artists. He also gave the copyright to all his work to the ‘Bundanoon Trust’ that was set up to care and manage the property.

A truly great Australian artist.

TONY KNIGHT

ART: Australian Fashion – Linda Jackson

18 Friday Aug 2017

Posted by in Adelaide, ART, Australia, FASHION, HISTORY, PUBLIC ART, SALA, South Australia, SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ART GALLERY, Uncategorized

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Linda Jackson is one of the pioneers of Australian fashion. Born and raised in Melbourne, where she studied art and design, and then through the 1960s travelled extensively through Asia and Europe. In 1972 she met fellow Australian fashion icon, Jenny Kee, and together they opened Flamingo Park,  a boutique fashion shop in the Strand Arcade, Sydney. This proved to be extremely popular and successful, complementing a kind of Australian Renaissance in the arts throughout the country. Numerous influences have played their part on Linda Jackson’s body of work, most notably the artists Peter Tully and David McDiarmid. It is, however, her travels and experience in the Australian outback with aboriginal communities that has made her work so dazzling unique. Currently on display in the South Australian Art Gallery there are a number of dresses and fabrics designed by Linda Jackson. They are all wonderful and exemplify her beautiful work.

(top left) LINDA JACKSON & DEBORAH LESER – Desert Rock top, Sturt’s Desert Pea tunic, and Desert Pea Oz map scarf (1980); (bottom left) LINDA JACKSON – Sturt’s Desert Pea outfit (1990); (top centre) LINDA JACKSON – Red Centre Textiles (1995-97); (bottom centre) LINDA JACKSON – Red Centre Standley Chasm outfit (1995-97); (right) LINDA JACKSON – Indigo gold-eyelashes textile (1999).

P1030231LINDA JACKSON – Santa Teresa outfit (1997)

TONY KNIGHT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ART: Australian Colonial Art

17 Thursday Aug 2017

Posted by in Adelaide, ART, Australia, ENGLISH HISTORY, HISTORY, PUBLIC ART, South Australia, SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ART GALLERY

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The South Australian Art Gallery has a broad and diverse collection of Australian and international artworks. This article focuses on seven selected works and artists from the Australian Colonial Art section of the gallery. Most of the pieces are associated with the history of South Australia. They are representative of the how Australia was first realised and essentially romantically portrayed by English and European artists during the 19th century. Many of these ‘travel artists’ had colourful and adventurous lives, leading them to explore ‘brave new worlds’ and creating works that stand as unique in the first appreciation of this new ‘great southern land’ we now call Australia.

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AUGUSTUS EARLE – Barnett Levey (c. 1825)      Augustus Earle (c. 1793-1838) was arguably Australia’s first major artist. Born in London, Augustus Earle was a member of a prominent American family. He trained at the Royal Academy and was exhibiting at the age of 13. From 1815, when he was 22 years old, Earle began his many and extensive travels throughout the known world. He was able to finance his travels through the sale of his art work. Augustus Earle came to Australia in 1825, arriving first in Hobart and then up to Sydney. Earle remained in Sydney, with excursions to its outer regions, as well as New Zealand, until 1828. One of his first commissions was this wedding portrait of Barnett Levey (1798-1837). Barnett Levey was the young colony’s first Jewish free settler. He was also the person responsible for building, creating and operating Australia’s first professional theatre, the Theatre Royal, which opened on the 26th December 1832 with Douglas Jerrold’s burlesque Black-Eyed Susan. Unfortunately, Barnett Levey’s fortunes and efforts were not successful. He died in 1837 leaving his family in poverty. Nonetheless, as the Sydney Times (21 October 1837) wrote, ‘to his spirit and perseverance are the public indebted for the introduction of theatricals into New South Wales’.

JOHN GLOVER – A View of the Artist’s home and garden in Mills Plains, Van Dieman’s Land (1835).P1030106

John Glover (1767-1849) was born at Houghton-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire. He had a highly successful career in England, although never a member of the Royal Academy. In 1830 John Glover decided to move to Australia, arriving in Hobart, Van Dieman’s Land (now Tasmania), on 18 February 1831, which coincided with his 64th birthday. John Glover has been called ‘the father of Australian landscape painting’. His work in Australia is noted for the first realistic impression of the Australian natural bright light and unique flora and bushland.

EUGENE VON GUERARD – Early Settlement of Thomas and William Lang, Salt River, Port Phillip, New South Wales (1860)SA ART GALLERY - COLONIAL ART - EUGENE VON GUERARD - Early settlement of Thomas & William Lang, Salt River Port Phillip, NSW. March, 1840

Eugene von Guerard (1811-1901) was born in Vienna, Austria, and came to Australia in 1852. Guerard was a prolific and influential landscape artists in a particular style known as stemming from the  ‘Dusseldorf School’ of painting. This relatively ‘romantic’ style involved a new realistic approach and realisation based on empirical observation of nature. Eugene von Guerard initially came to Australia to try his luck on the Victorian Gold Fields. He was not successful, but did produce numeros drawings and sketches of the life of the ‘diggers’ on the Gold Fields. By the 1860s he had established himself as the country’s foremost landscape painter, mainly working by commission for wealthy pastoralists. In 1870 he was appointed the first Master of the School of Painting at the National Art Gallery of Victoria, a position he was to occupy for the next 11 years. During this time he taught future important Australian artists such as Tom Roberts and Frederick McCubbin. He also assisted another German artist from the ‘Dusseldorf School, Louis Tannert when Tannert came to Australia in 1876. Eugene von Guerard  returned to Europe in 1882, but his fortunes rapidly declined after his wife died in 1891, and he lost all his money in the 1893 Australian bank crash. He lived in poverty for the rest of his life, dying in Chelsea, London, 17 April 1901.

NICHOLAS CHEVALIER – Memorandum of the Start of the Exploring Expedition (1860)P1030111

Nicholas Chevalier (1828-1902) was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and studied in Lausanne (Switzerland), and Munich (Germany). He moved to London in 1851 where two of his paintings were shown at the Royal Academy. After further study in Rome he came to Australia in late 1854, and by August 1855 he was working as a cartoonist for the Melbourne edition of Punch magazine. He also worked as an illustrator for the Illustrated Australian News. This relatively large oil on canvas painting shows the start of the ill-fated ‘Burke and Wills’ expedition from Melbourne on the 20th August 1860. This was a relatively large expedition comprising of 19 men from different ethnic backgrounds – English, Irish, Afghani and one American. They had 23 horses, 6 wagons and 26 camels, and their departure was witnessed by over 15,000 spectators. Chevalier’s celebratory painting with it’s finely observed detail of the backers of expedition in the right-hand corner, gives little indication of the tragedy that was follow; although the disproportion of the man on the white horse at the central front of the painting in contrast with what is behind him does give a hint of the miss-match of respective personalities that was to play its part in this epic disaster. Nicholas Chevalier worked in Australia until 1869 when he returned to London. He remained in London, constantly having work exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1871 and 1887. Thereafter his output radically decreased and by 1895 had virtually given up painting. He died in London on 15 March 1902.

JOHN MICHAEL SKIPPER – Corroboree (c. 1864)P1030121

John Michael Skipper (1815-1883) was born in Norwich, Norfolk, and was a solicitor as well as an artist. He was always a rather free-spirited and rebellious individual, preferring to work as an artist than a lawyer. This was evident as early as 1833 when he abandoned his legal studies and went to sea for the East India Company. However, he used his legal skills and knowledge to finance his artistic and adventurous achievements. In 1836 he decided to migrate to Australia and arranged to be appointed as an article clerk for Charles Mann, the advocate-general for South Australia. In 1840 he became an attorney and practised until 1851 when he joined others in the Victorian ‘Gold Rush’. He returned to Adelaide in 1852 having not much luck finding gold and worked as a court clerk at Port Adelaide until 1872. Throughout all this time John Michael Skipper also produced numerous drawings and sketches, as well as a few paintings, that reflected his personal experience at sea as well as life on the gold fields and the early history of Adelaide. He retired in 1872 to his farm in Kent Town, Adelaide, where he died 7 December 1883. This spectacular large painting is an exception to John Michael Skipper’s overall canon of work. The painting has a theatrical nature with a small group of wealthy white colonists being dazzled by an aboriginal corroboree under a full moon in front of what may be Mt Abrupt in the Grampians mountain range. Whilst the white colonials dominate the front of the painting, particularly the lady in black riding side-saddle, nonetheless, the eye is drawn to the fiery phalanx-like army of indigenous warriors – two different worlds lined up in juxtaposition with one another.

CHARLES HILL – Georgetown (1877)SA ART GALLERY - COLONIAL ART - CHARLES HILL - Georgetown (1877)

Charles Hill (1824-1915) was born in Coventry, England, into a military family. Charles Hill, however, did not follow the path expected of him but became a relatively successful  artist. He studied at the Newcastle Fine Arts Academy and at the Government School of Design. He emigrated to  South Australia in 1854 where he taught art at St Peter’s College and Adelaide’s Educational Institute. In 1856 he opened his own School of Art in his own home on Pulteney Street, Adelaide, and was instrumental in setting up the South Australian Society of Arts. When the South Australian School of Design was founded in 1861 Charles Hill was appointed at its first Master. He moved to ‘Alix House’ 100 South Terrace in 1866. He eventually retired from the School of Design in 1886. Charles Hill painted numerous landscapes and cityscapes, including this one of Georgetown in 1877. Georgetown is a small town in the mid-north of South Australia, 196 kilometres (122 miles) north of Adelaide.

H. J. JOHNSTONE – Evening Shadows, backwater of the Murray River, South Australia (1880)P1030109

Henry James Johnstone (1835-1907) was born in Birmingham, England, and studied at the Birmingham School of Design before joining his father’s photographic firm. He came to Australia in 1853 when he was only 18. By 1865 he established in Melbourne, with Emily O’Shannessey and George Hasler, the photographic company of Johnstone, O’Shannessey & Co., which became Melbourne’s leading portrait photographers. Whilst Johnstone may mostly known as in influential early photographer, he was also a successful artist. In 1867 he joined the Melbourne National Gallery School of Painting, and 1871 he became a member of the Victorian Academy of Arts. In 1876 he left Melbourne for South Australia where he remained for the next four years. He then toured extensively throughout the USA, and finally ended up in London in 1880 where he remained for the rest of his life. He regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy until 1900. He died in London in 1907 at the age of 72. The above painting is one of a few he painted whilst residing in South Australia. It is truly an extraordinary work, prefiguring ‘photorealism’ by nearly a century. Hardly surprising considering H. J. Johnstone’s knowledge, skill and talent as a pioneer photographer.

I hope you enjoy this brief journey through Australian Colonial Art. They are amongst my personal favourites and give a hint of the many marvellous works that are on display in the South Australian Art Gallery.

TONY KNIGHT

ART: Hans Heysen

15 Tuesday Aug 2017

Posted by in Adelaide, ART, Australia, HISTORY, South Australia, SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ART GALLERY, Uncategorized

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Hans Heysen (1877-1968) is one of Australia’s greatest landscape artists, and is a personal favourite of mine. He was born in Hamburg, Germany, and came to Australia at the age of 7 when his family migrated to Adelaide, South Australia. He left school when he was 14 working in a hardware store whilst studying art part-time under James Ashton. One of his earliest works is At Friedrichstadt, Hahndorf (1897). The small German village of Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills was to become a place synonymous with Hans Heysen.

SA ART GALLERY - HANS HEYSEN - At Friedrichstadt, Hahndorf (1897)At Friedrichstadt, Hahndorf (1897)

His talent was soon recognised and in 1897 he was sponsored by a group of wealthy South Australian businessmen to study in France for the next four years. When he returned to Adelaide he continued his growing success and acclaim, winning the Wynne Prize in 1904 for his painting Mystic Morn.

P1030138Mystic Morn (1904)

He won the Wynne Prize again in 1909 and 1911 for the watercolour Summer and the painting Hauling Timber, respectively. In this period he also painted A Pastoral (1907).

SA ART GALLERY - HANS HEYSEN - A Pastoral (1907)A Pastoral (1907)

In the years prior to the 1st World War Hans Heysen’s popularity and finances substantially increased, allowing him in 1912 to purchase a property called ‘The Cedars’ near Hahndorf. This was to remain his home and main studio until his death in 1968. Paintings in this period include Approaching storm with bushfires (1912), and Red Gold (1913), which subsequently became his most popular work.

P1030146 Approaching Storm with Bushfires (1912)

P1030140.JPGRed Gold (1913)

During the 1st World War (1914-18) due being German born, Hans Heysen was considered an enemy alien. This is despite the fact that he had lived in Australia from the age of 7, and achieved considerable national and international acclaim for his Australian landscapes. He was placed under house arrest for the duration of the war. However, due to his reputation many national and international artists from various domains travelled up to Hahndorf to visit him. This included Dame Nellie Melba who sang for Hans Heysen and his family on a little make-shift stage in the living room of ‘The Cedars’ that is still intact today. One of Hans Heysens most beautiful works, Droving into the Light, dates from this period. He commenced the work in 1914 but did not complete it until 1921, possibly due to the psychological pressure of being regarded as an enemy-alien in his own country.

250px-Heysen_Droving

However, he continued to win awards and acclaim for his work, including the watercolours Toilers (1920), The Quarry (1922), and Afternoon in Autumn (1924), and the painting Farmyard, Frosty Morning (1926). One of his most interesting works from the late 1920s is Patawarta: Land of the Oratunga (1929).  Not only does the painting reveal Heysen’s interests with indigenous tribes in the Flinders Ranges and surrounding region, but also his evolution as a major Australian landscape artist. The painting resonates with some of the works by Albert Namatjira, even though it pre-dates by 5 years any of the major works by Namatjira. It is possible, however, that Heysen’s work influenced the young Albert Namatjira due to Namatjira being raised at the German founded Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission. The German-Australian influence on some indigenous art and artists is exemplified by what came to be known as works deriving from the Hermannsburg School, Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory.

P1030148Patawarta: Land of the Oratunga (1929)

Hans Heysen continued to work throughout the rest of his long life. He won the Wynne Hans_Heysen_by_Harold_CazneauxPrize in 1931 for his watercolour Red Gums of the Far North, and again in 1932 for his painting Brachina Gorge. Collectively he won the Wynne Prize 9 times, which remains an unbroken record for this prestigious art prize. In 1935 the Australian photographer Harold Cazneaux (1878-1953) took a portrait of Hans Heysen. Both men were contemporaries and extremely influential on other Australian artists in their respective fields of art. Hans Heysen’s daughter, Nora Heysen, was also an important ‘modern’ Australian artist.

In 1945 Hans Heysen was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE), and in 1959 was made a Knight Bachelor for his services to art. The 1,200 kilometres long-distance walking track, from the Flinders Ranges to (via the Adelaide Hills) Cape Jervis on the Fleurieu Peninsular is called The Heysen Trail in honour of Sir Hans Heysen. There are other landmarks and objects named after Hans Heysen, such as the Heysen Tunnels that cut through Mt Lofty and the Adelaide Hills.  Many of Hans Heysen’s work are on display at the South Australian Art Gallery, as well as other major galleries throughout Australia. However, one of the joys (of many) of living in Adelaide is being able to visit Hans Heysen’s home ‘The Cedars’, just outside of Hahndorf. Not only is the house and studio fascinating but also the grounds. You can go for walks through the surrounding bush land and with specially curated signs posts and guides you can actually see some of the respective landscapes that inspired Hans Heysen. Truly wonderful.

TONY KNIGHT

OLD TIMES by Harold Pinter

01 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by in ACTING, ACTORS, Adelaide, ART, Australia, DRAMA, HAROLD PINTER, LITERATURE, PEOPLE, PLAYS, South Australia, THEATRE, Uncategorized

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OLD TIMES by Harold Pinter was first produced in 1971 and went on to be performed around the world. Since the beginning of the 21st Century it has been consistently revived, the play’s dark and mysterious content and subject matter seemingly striking a resonate chord with the modern zeitgeist.

The play has been interpreted in many ways. Pinter never really offered any concrete explanation; he once told Anthony Hopkins who when he was playing the character of Deeley asked Pinter to explain the ending, ‘I don’t know. Just do it’.

It is the open ambiguity of this play that fascinates me. I am mid-way into rehearsals and just letting it unfold as I work with the actors. I have some idea where I am going with it,of course, but I know that it is a journey – and where I am now may not be where I finish. That is part of what makes this play so marvelous. I want people to talk about it afterwards and discuss their own interpretation, rather than me and the actors signposting it, and simply leaving the theatre immediately forgetting the piece as if it was some sort of fast-food rubbish, and ‘where shall we go for drink?’

Currently, I see the play as a kind of power-struggle in regards to memory. Who controls memory? We will all have different perspectives and interpretations about the same experienced event. How many times has that happened to you? That you get surprised by what another person remembers about a mutually shared experience.

Pinter wrote, ‘The past is what you remember, imagine your remember, convince yourself you remember, or pretend to remember’. This is explored in OLD TIMES.

He also wrote, ‘A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false’.

I am reminded of other ‘memory’ plays that seem to connect with OLD TIMES; such as Sartre’s IN CAMERA, and Tennessee Williams’ THE GLASS MENAGERIE. THE GLASS MENAGERIE opens with the character Tom stating, ‘The play is memory. Being a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, it is not realistic. In memory everything seem to happen to music’. This is true for OLD TIMES, with the importance of music from the 1930s playing a significant part; however, it s not ‘dimly lighted’ but rather glaringly bright as if one is in kind of surgical waiting room. In regard to it being ‘realistic’ or not, Pinter wrote about his work, ‘What goes on in my plays is realistic, but what I’m doing is not realism’. Delightfully ambiguous.

This production is the launch of a new professional company in Adelaide. It is only a short season, playing 6-9 APRIL in the SPACE THEATRE at the ADELAIDE FESTIVAL CENTRE. I would like to thank the FESTIVAL CENTRE, CARLA ZAMPATTI, as well as the STAR THEATRE Adelaide, for their generous and kind support. Like the play itself, my business partner and myself are taking a leap into the unknown. Our intentions are good, we are doing this for the art and for Adelaide actors – hopefully you will come along and support us – BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW!!!

 

TONY’S TOURS: PUBLIC ART: ADELAIDE 1: The Three Oldest Statues in Adelaide

12 Friday Feb 2016

Posted by in Adelaide, ART, Australia, HISTORY, PEOPLE, PUBLIC ART, South Australia, STATUES, TONY'S TOURS - Travel Journal, TRAVEL, TRAVELING IN AUSTRALIA, Uncategorized

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PUBLIC ART: The Three Oldest Statues in Adelaide

After spending a large amount of this morning in a dentist’s chair, and feeling a bit numb in the mouth, I walked back to the Adelaide CBD from North Adelaide via the Torrens River. Once again – a fabulous discovery of just how exquisitely beautiful Adelaide is. showing off this lovely sunny February day, and reminding me of certain English, American and European towns that have a river running through it. It also gave me chance to further my file re public art. As mentioned in a previous blog – PUBLIC ART: SINGAPORE – my definition of ‘Public Art’ is basically anything that is in and for the public eye, which can include statues, graffiti, sketches, advertising, memorials, etc. Here are some photos I took on this walk.

I had no clear itinerary worked out, just ‘went with the flow’ as to where I meandered. I walked past the ADELAIDE OVAL, which is a large stylish modern building – with a number of statues of classical heroic athletes, such as Hercules, as well as modern Australian ones.

THE STATUE OF HERCULES, also known as The Farnese ‘Hercules’, sits in Pennington Gardens in front of the Adelaide Oval. It was the second public statue to be erected in Adelaide; given to the City of Adelaide in 1893 by William Austin Horn (1841-1922). W. A. Horn was a prominent South Australian businessman and politician, of whom it was once said that he was ‘one of the most generous public men‘ in South Australia.

Whilst it is a copy of an original, dating from 1892, nonetheless, it is rather unique, presenting a rather reflective and melancholic older-Hercules.

William_Austin_Horn.jpgI should add that in 1892 William Austin Horn in had already donated what was Adelaide’s first piece of public art; a  classical statue, a beautiful copy of Canova‘s VENUS. This statue was rather controversial at the time. The controversy was possibly inflamed as well as ignored by the fact that one of old Adelaide’s most popular ‘Gentlemen Club’ of the 1890s was directly across the road from the statue which lay on North Terrace in the CBD. Members of the club could go onto the balcony, enjoying their evening brandy or port and cigars, whilst list-fully gazing at this beautiful Canova ‘Venus’. The statue, as well as the building that hosted this club are still there on North Terrace – long may they be so!

The other statues that I noted as I wandered through Pennington Park was a rather impressive one of Sir Donald Bradman (1908-2001), and somewhat perversely one of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith (1897-1935). What ‘Smithy’ has to do with sport and the Adelaide Sports Oval I’m not quite sure? Nonetheless, as it may be that younger (and older) Australians have no idea who Kingsford-Smith is (or rather, was), nor of his heroic importance to Australian and World-History, better that he is there smack-bang right at the entrance.

On the other side of the main road there are a number of gardens and war memorials. I didn’t go to all of them, but the ones I did were excellent and somewhat surprising. I’m starting to appreciate the unique quirkiness that one finds in Adelaide, as often as not expressed in it variable range of ‘public art’, which can sometimes be placed in somewhat ironic modern day position. For example, this beautiful stone cross that is right next to speed sign; I call the pix ‘Stone Crucifix in a 50km/hr zone’ (haha).

Attracted by one that had a plethora of petunias, I discovered a statue dedicated to WWI Australian Gallipoli hero John Simpson (1892-1915), of ‘Simpson and his Donkey‘ fame.

Just a little further on was another war memorial shrine, in a classical pagoda with a very unusual life-size statue on the steps.

From here I just walked straight down to the banks of the River Torrens – the vista speaks for itself – marvellous!

I walked towards the city along the bank footpath and under the bridge…..

….continuing my fascination with ‘pathways’, what they look like, and where they lead. The path under the bridge was no exception; plus I discovered a piece of ‘public art’ that I’m pretty sure most people passing through this ‘pathway’ would never really notice – a series of large blue tiles with black drawings and silhouettes.

Emerging from this tunnel, you get a fantastic view of the city of Adelaide, the River Torrens and the Festival Centre.

I then went up and crossed the bridge that becomes King William Street, one of the main roads that travels through the CBD. There are parks and gardens on both sides of the road, but the biggest is the open park in front of the Festival Centre, looking directly across the Torrens to the Sports Centre.

I continued walking up King William Street until it meets North Terrace. Just next to the Festival Centre, on the other side from the park and the river, there are a number of examples of ‘public art’, modern and those from a more distant time.

Was particularly taken with this one; playing with the reflections….

And this lovely drawing near the entrance to the Festival Centre Car Park….

Finally, at the corner of King William Street and North Terrace there is rather impressive War Memorial statue, of a soldier and his horse in action. What is wonderfully intriguing about this terrific bronze statue is that it is dedicated to those South Australians who served in the Boer War in South Africa (1899-1902); the same war that saw the court martial and execution of  Lieutenant Harry ‘Breaker’ Morant  (1864-1902). Morant’s name is not on any of bronze inscription panels that are places around the statue’s pedestal, which list the names of those who fought in the Boer War. However, the name of his comrade, Lieutenant Peter Handcock (1868-1902), who was also courtmartialed and executed at the same time as ‘Breaker’ Morant, was added in 1964 after a family and public campaign to do so.

The statue was designed and created by Adrian Jones (1885-1938); another of this English sculptor’s work, his ‘public art’, is the The Peace Quadriga that sits atop of Wellington Arch in London. After a vigorous competition involving public opinion, The pedestal was made by local firm Garlick, Sibley and Wooldridge, the granite coming from nearby Murray 200px-Quadriga,_Wellington_ArchBridge. The statue was offical unveiled at a big civic function by Sir George Le Hunte (1852-1925), Governor of South Australia from 1903-1909. The date, 6 June 1904, was chosen carefully, coinciding with the birthday of the then Prince of Wales, later King George V (1865-1936).

From the time of it’s unveiling up to present day, this memorial statue, placed right in front of Government House, has been central to any Australian war meorial function, including ANZAC Day. The statue has been known by a number of names. Initially it was the National War Memorial, a position it held until 1931. Today it is called The South African War Memorial and/or The Boer War Memorial.

What is simply wonderful – well I find wonderful in my own romantic way – is that The South African War Memorial, as well as the Canova ‘Venus’, and the Fernese ‘Hercules’, have all witnessed and played a part in the history and evolution of Adelaide. For many Adelaidians over the centuries these statues would have been, as they are now, part of the background for contemporary life and lives. They may not have been directly and regularly noted and commented upon, but was something buried in the conscious and sub-conscious, particularly in regard to memory and place. A common reference point for a number of people from Adelaide, the surrounding region and South Australia. A Collective Memory – what we see now other also saw in the past. Something to treasure!