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{{Short description|Australian anti-modernist art organisation (1937–1947)}}
{{Short description|Australian anti-modernist art organisation (1937–1947)}}
The '''Australian Academy of Art''' was a conservative Australian art organisation which operated for ten years and staged annual exhibitions between 1937 and 1946.
The '''Australian Academy of Art''' was a conservative Australian government-authorised art organisation which operated for ten years and staged annual exhibitions between 1937 and 1946, its demise resulting from opposition by [[Modernism|Modernist]] artists, especially those associated with the [[Contemporary Art Society (Australia)|Contemporary Art Society]], though the influence of the Academy continued into the 1960s.


== History ==
== History ==

Revision as of 10:59, 4 November 2022

The Australian Academy of Art was a conservative Australian government-authorised art organisation which operated for ten years and staged annual exhibitions between 1937 and 1946, its demise resulting from opposition by Modernist artists, especially those associated with the Contemporary Art Society, though the influence of the Academy continued into the 1960s.

History

Les Dwyer (1937). Foundation members of the Australian Academy of Art, Canberra, 19 Jun 1937. Back row, left to right: McInnes, Heysen, Croll, Harold Herbert, Rowell. Front row, left to right: D. Mayo, Norman Carter, Ure Smith, Menzies, Hoff, Eldershaw. Daphne Mayo Collection, University of Queensland

Precedents

Efforts to form an art academy in Australia were initially limited to individual States: The Academy of Arts, Australia, under the presidentship of P. Fletcher Watson was founded in Sydney in 1891, with its first exhibition held in 1892, but survived only four years. The Society of Artists, founded in Sydney in 1897, and the Australian Artists’ Association, of Melbourne, both had members from various States, but held their regular exhibitions only in their home states.[1]

Formation

Aspiring to the principles of the long-established, but independent and privately funded, and also by then conservative British Royal Academy of Arts (founded in 1768), Attorney-General Robert Menzies' envisaged an overarching, Federal organisation and subsequently, at a meeting of ten state delegates in the smokeroom of the Canberra Hotel, formed the Australian Academy of Art in Canberra in 1937 and was its inaugural chair.[2] Where long-established European art academies were teaching institutions, the Australian Academy was not, and served to present annual salons by invitation to established artists.[3] Its other role was to advise government on art administration as "a body which will be recognised as a standard reference on art."[4] It was to be the second such academy in the British dominions, following Canada's which was established in 1880 with a Royal charter, which was sought also by Australia's.[4]

Menzies declared he could "find nothing but absurdity in much so-called "modern" art,'[5][6] and the Academy continued in an anti-Modernist stance, with one member, Norman St Clair Carter, who described 'contemporary art' as a 'fungoid growth.'[7] The Academy exhibitions showed figurative realist paintings by Hans Heysen, William Dargie, John Longstaff, Elioth Gruner and Charles Mere, valued as examples of conventional academic values of draughtsmanship and technical prowess; the Modernists' innovation and originality meant they were excluded.[8] Its first catalogue announced that its nationalist, doctrinaire intent;

...marks a definite move towards the co-ordination of the artistic activities in a true Federal spirit. Hitherto there has not existed an institution which has adequately represented the whole continent. Nor has there been a body of artists who could speak with one authoritative voice on the many questions that concern the right development of the Fine Arts of this country. It is hoped, then, as the Academy proceeds with its work, the Federal and State Governments, as well as the general public, will realize the value that such an institution can be to the community, not only as a group of artists representing various points of view in their work but also as an advisory body which works in the interests of government and people alike.[1]

Influence and demise

The organisation failed to obtain a royal charter when opposed by the Contemporary Art Society and other modernist groups, so its last annual exhibition was in 1947,[9] although its influence remained through former members who were assembling national collections, writing art criticism and teaching art, in particular through those who were instructors or administrators at Melbourne's National Gallery School, who held roles as curators, or who were critics for newspapers and magazines. William Nicholas Rowell was appointed drawing master at the National Gallery in 1941 and was acting head of its art school briefly in 1946. William Beckwith (Billy) McInnes was acting-director at the National Gallery of Victoria (1935) and an instructor in its art school,[10][11] while The Age critic James Stuart (Jimmy) MacDonald supported Menzies and reviled George Bell, and Lionel Lindsay used his art criticism in the Melbourne Herald to spruik the organisation.[12]

Foundation members

By June 1937 it was announced that forty-seven artists had accepted invitations to be foundation members.[4] The initiators appear in a group photograph taken on the day of the Academy's founding, and representing five state in the Commonwealth, but not Western Australia;[1]

New South Wales

Victoria

Queensland

South Australia

Tasmania

First exhibition

By the time of its first exhibition, held 8–29 April 1938 at the Education Department's Art Gallery, Loftus Street, Sydney, the catalogue lists more;[1] Robert Henderson (Bob) Croll (Academy general secretary)[14] William Frater, and John Rowell[15]

The catalogue also names as Patrons; Rt. Hon. R. G. Menzies, P.C., M.P., Alexander Melrose, LL..B., G. R. Nicholas, J. R. McGregor, Charles Lloyd Jones, Hon. John Lane Mullins, Howard Hinton, O.B.E.; and its officers; the President Sir John Longstaff (who held the office until 1941); Vice-President Sydney Ure Smith, O.B.E., Exhibition Manager C. Parker, Secretary and Treasurer R. H. Croll, Assistant Secretary and Treasurer Vera Carruthers.

For this first exhibition, a Selection Committee was formed comprising Sir John Longstaff, W. B. McInnes, Harold Herbert, Lionel Lindsay, Sydney Ure Smith, Norman Carter, William Rowell, Thea Proctor, Margaret Preston, and Douglas Dundas.

Its Council had two 'divisions',' Northern, whose members were Norman Carter, Lionel Lindsay, Elioth Gruner, Thea. Proctor and Sydney Ure Smith; and Southern, whose officers were Harold Herbert, W. B. McInnes, Hans Heysen, Sir John Longstaff and William Rowell.

In addition to the foundation members, others who showed in the annual exhibitions hosted by the Academy were William Wallace Anderson (exhibited in the 1939 and 1943 shows), Archibald Bertram Webb (1938), Frank Charles Medworth (1939),[16] Joshua Smith (1938), Lyndon Raymond Dadswell (1938), Amalie Sara Colquhoun (1938), L. J. Harvey (1938), Isabel Mackenzie (1938) among others. Max Meldrum joined Menzies' organisation but resigned before the Academy held its first exhibition, though kept showing in early annual exhibitions. Frederick William (Fred) Leist was a foundation member but soon resigned. Rayner Hoff had died before the inaugural exhibition, as had Paul Montford.

Second exhibiton

The second annual Academy exhibition was held 5 April —3 May 1939 at the National Gallery of Victoria in Swanston Street, Melbourne.[17] The exhibitors, several of whom were not Academy members, were from all states except Western Australia;

New South Wales artists represented by 4 works each were; Sydney Ure Smith O.B.E., Lloyd Rees, Adelaide E. Perry. With 3 works: Norman Carter, Grace Cossington-Smith, Elioth Gruner, Margaret Preston, Douglas Dundas, Adrian Feint. With 2 works: James. R. Jackson, Frank Medworth, Enid Cambridge, E. A. Harvey, Ralph D. Shelley, Maud Sherwood, Lionel Lindsay, Thea Proctor, Lyndon R. Dadswell. And with 1 work: Hector Gilliland, Sydney Long A.R.E., Freda Robertshaw, Will Ashton R.O.I., Nora Heysen, Gordon Esling, Norman Cartet, Harold Abbott, Eileen Vaughan, Unk White, G. T. Williamson, Dorothy Thornhill

Victorians with 4 works: H. Septimus Power, William Rowell, A. D. Colquhoun. With 3 works: Violet M. Mcinnes, John Rowell, James Quinn R.O.I.. R.P., Harley Griffiths Jr., Harry B. Harrison, Harold B. Herbert, Dora L. Wilson. With 2 works: Dorothy Whitehead, W. Beckwith McInnes, W. D. Knox, Wm. A. Dargie, A. E. Newbury, Polly Hurry, Amalie Colquhoun, Arnold Shore, Norah Gurdon, William Spence, John S. Loxton, Alfred Coleman, John W. Elischer, Orlando Dutton, Raymond Ewers, Stanley J. Hammond, W. Leslie Bowles, Geo. H. Allen, Ernest Buckmaster, Aileen Dent. And with 1 work: Alexander Colquhoun, Edward Heffernan, William Frater, John Farmer, Norman B. Cathcart, Ethel Wardle, Max Meldrum, Lance J. Sullivan, Charles Hills, W. Prater, Geo. H. Allen, Wallace Anderson

South Australians with 3 works: Hans Heysen. With 2 works: Ivor Hele, F. Millward Grey. And with 1 work: George Whinnen, Max Ragless, T. H. Bone, John C. Goodchild, Gwen Barringer

Queenslanders with 4 works: Vida Lahey. With 3 works: Kenneth Macqueen. With 2 works: Noel Wood. And with 1 work: L. J. Harvey

Tasmanians with 3 works: John R. Eldershaw. And with 1 work each: Joseph Connor, Ethel M. Nicholls

Opposition

When the Academy's exclusion of modernist art from its officially sanctioned exhibitions became clear, opposition to the Academy was led by George Bell,[18] a spokesman for 'modern art'. His argument with Menzies was very public, pursued through the newspapers and in The Australian Quarterly.[19] The avant-garde Angry Penguins first three issues published in Adelaide also reflected these bitter tensions in what C.P. Snow regarded as "the last flowering of a 'national' modernism that a completely internationalised world of the arts was likely to see".[20]. In July 1938 Bell issued a leaflet, To Art Lovers, which led to the formation of the Contemporary Art Society,[21] of which he became founding president,[22] with Adrian Lawler as secretary.[23] Others who declared themselves against a conservative, outmoded 'Academy,' were Isabel May Tweddle and Norman Macgeorge, while Rupert Bunny, Sydney Long and William Lister Lister publicly refused Menzies' invitiaton to join, while James Quinn was in conflict with Menzies over his open support for modern art.[24]

The first CAS exhibition was held at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1939,[25] in contrast to the Academy's venue for its first show, in Sydney's Education Department gallery. It presented young artists including Sidney Nolan, Albert Tucker, Joy Hester, Russell Drysdale, William Dobell, James Gleeson, Eric Thake, Peter Purves Smith, Noel Counihan and new arrivals from Europe, Yosl Bergner and Danila Vassilieff.[8] William Frater switched allegiances after the first Academy exhibiton and showed with the CAS.

Legacy

The controversy and confrontations between the modernist and antimodernist forces spilled into politics, as Herbert Vere (Doc) Evatt, largely at the prompting of his wife Mary, sole female trustee of the AGNSW,[26] championed the modernists during his leadership (1951–1960) of the Labor opposition to Robert Menzies' Liberal Party.

As Sarah Scott argues,[6] even after the collapse of the Academy, Menzies’s views continued to impact Australia’s modernist artists in his second term as prime minister from 1949. The ‘conservative old guard’ of which Menzies was a part continued its influence due to the government’s monopoly in selection of works for official overseas exhibitions. Twenty years after disputes over the Academy, the conflict erupted again over what art should be Australia’s first official representation at the 1958 Venice Biennale; the Commonwealth Arts Advisory Board sent outdated examples of the Heidelberg School and a few Arthur Boyd landscapes. A consequence was that Australia rejected an invitation to exhibit at the 1960 biennale and did not show in Venice again until 1978; the country was absent from the world’s showcase of international art for twenty years. The ramifications for the nation’s artists, and the cultural presentation of the nation through art, were profound and deep divisions emerged between nationalist values represented by the heritage of the Heidelberg school versus the internationalism of those aligned with European modernism.

References

  1. ^ a b c d Australian Academy of Art First Exhibition, April 8th-29th, Sydney : Catalogue (1st ed.). Sydney: Australian Academy of Art. 1938. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  2. ^ "Academy of Art Formed at Canberra. Royal Charter Sought". Sydney Morning Herald. 21 June 1937. p. 10.
  3. ^ Berryman, Caitlin Stone and Jim. "Australian Academy of Art - Organisation - The Robert Menzies Collection: A Living Library". www.menziescollection.esrc.unimelb.edu.au. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
  4. ^ a b c "Academy Of Art : Formed at Canberra". Sydney Morning Herald. 1937-06-21. Retrieved 2022-11-03.
  5. ^ Ashcroft, Bill (2004-10-01). "Reading Carey Reading Malley". Australian Literary Studies. doi:10.20314/als.d5ed90e35f. ISSN 0004-9697.
  6. ^ a b Scott, Sarah (January 2003). "Imaging a nation: Australia's representation at the Venice biennale, 1958". Journal of Australian Studies. 27 (79): 51–63. doi:10.1080/14443050309387887. ISSN 1444-3058.
  7. ^ Lindsay, Frances, "Carter, Norman St Clair (1875–1963)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2022-11-01
  8. ^ a b Strecker, Jacqui (2021). "Angry Penguins". In Allen, Christopher (ed.). A Companion to Australian Art. United Kingdom: John Wiley & Son. pp. 326–7. ISBN 9781118767580.
  9. ^ McCulloch, Alan; McCulloch, Susan; McCulloch Childs, Emily (2006). The new McCulloch's encyclopedia of Australian art (Fourth ed.). Fitzroy BC, Vic. ISBN 0-522-85317-X. OCLC 80568976.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ^ Findlay, Elisabeth (1992-01-01). "The Liberal Teaching Philosophies of William Dargie: The National Gallery School from 1946 to 1953". Australian Journal of Art. 10 (1): 66–79. doi:10.1080/03146464.1992.11432810. ISSN 0314-6464.
  11. ^ Haese, Richard, "McInnes, William Beckwith (Billy) (1889–1939)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2022-11-01
  12. ^ Lindsay, Lionel (1940-04-11). "Academy Art At Sydney". Herald. p. 20. Retrieved 2022-11-03.
  13. ^ McGrath, Joyce, "Buckmaster, Ernest (1897–1968)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2022-11-01
  14. ^ Serle, Geoffrey, "Croll, Robert Henderson (Bob) (1869–1947)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2022-11-01
  15. ^ Mackenzie, Andrew, "Rowell, John Thomas Nightingale (1894–1973)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2022-11-02
  16. ^ Sparks, Cameron, "Medworth, Frank Charles (1892–1947)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2022-11-01
  17. ^ Australian Academy of Art (1939). Australian Academy of Art : Second Exhibition, April 5th - May 3rd, 1939 : National Gallery of Victoria : Swanston Street, Melbourne : Catalogue. Sydney: Australian Academy of Art. Retrieved 4 November 2022 – via Trove.
  18. ^ Helmer, June (1985). George Bell : the art of influence. Greenhouse Publications. OCLC 707445575.
  19. ^ Bell, George (June 1938). "The Australian Academy: Its Influence on Australian Art". The Australian Quarterly. 10 (2). Australian Institute of Policy and Science: 44–48. doi:10.2307/20629531.
  20. ^ Hayward Gallery. Angry Penguins and Realist Painting in Melbourne in the 1940s. London: South Bank Centre, 1988. ISBN 1853320218.[page needed]
  21. ^ Sayers, Andrew (2001). Australian Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 155.
  22. ^ Williams, Fred, "Bell, George Frederick Henry (1878–1966)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2022-11-01
  23. ^ Fry, Gavin, "Lawlor, Adrian (1889–1969)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2022-11-01
  24. ^ Fraser, Alison, "Quinn, James Peter (1869–1951)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2022-11-03
  25. ^ Dixon, Christine; Dysart, Dinah; S.H. Ervin Museum and Art Gallery (1986). Presenting Australian Art 1938-1941 : Counter Claims. N.S.W.: National Trust of Australia. p. 22. ISBN 9780909723798.
  26. ^ Boyde, Melissa (2005-01-01). "Art and Advocacy: Mary Alice Evatt in the 1930s and '40s". Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive).
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