A Grand Vision in Active Colours

KEVIN HEGARTY

copyright 2005

A Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Art Theory

School of and Theory College of Fine Arts University of

June,2005 ABSTRACT

Building on important studies of Ralph Balson (1890-1964) by, amongst others, Bruce

Adams, Daniel Thomas and Paul McGillick, this thesis argues that colour played a

central role in Balson's oeuvre. Although commented upon by a number of scholars and

critics both during Balson's lifetime and since his death, colour for the most part has

been considered relatively insignificant. As influences on his art, has often been

cited. Additionally, the literature abounds with references to scientific theories and their

impact. Parting company with these views, this thesis examines critical phases in

Balson's career and suggests how in each case an intuitive understanding of colour helped create works that occupy a (still largely) underestimated place in the history of

abstraction in . Special attention is drawn to Balson's works in pastels (1951-

59). Overlooked for the most part, these allowed Balson to develop new expressive directions; ones in which colour, as always, was a determining factor. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Alan Krell for his patience, advice and guidance during my candidature. I wish to also acknowledge support from Dr David McNeill and

Dr Jill Bennett.

In addition I would like to acknowledge the generous assistance given by William

Balson (Balson Estate), Anne Lewis (past Director of Gallery A, ) and the late

Robert Klippel. Further thanks to the research/archives and curatorial staff at the

National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales and National Gallery of

Victoria. A special thanks to Margaret Hardman for typing and Cassi Plate for

assistance with editing. Finally, I must thank Leanne and daughters Persia and Siobhan for their understanding and patience.

11 CONTENTS

Page Numbers

Abstract

Acknowledgements 11

Contents 1U

Preface 1

1. Figurative Years to 1940 2

2 1940-1955/56 38

3 Works in Pasels 1951-1959 48

4 The Non-Objective 63

5. Serendipitous Matter 86

6. Balson's Legacy 109

Illustrations 114

Bibliography 116

iii PREFACE

In 1914 stated: "Myself and colours, we're the same. I am a painter."1 This

statement could equally have been made by Ralph Balson, and if not, then it more than

adequately applies to him and his work. This thesis argues that colour played an

instrumental role in Balson's oeuvre. He was one of Australia's pioneering colourists

and abstractionists, and arguably one of the precursors of in Australia. He

doggedly reconciled the new concepts of the European avant-garde and distilled these concepts to suit himself and challenge much that was conservative in .

The thesis is divided up into five chapters: Balson' s figurative years up to 1940; his well-lmown period of Constructivism ending in c.l955; the pastels he produced throughout the decade of the fifties; his non-objective works from c.l955-59; and the so-called Matter Paintings which characterised his oeuvre up until his death in 1964. A postscript looks briefly at Balson's legacy.

1 Jean-Clarence Lambert, Abstract , Trans. Anne J. Cope. (Geneva, 1970), p.44.

1 CHAPTER ONE

FIGURATIVE YEARS TO 1940

Ralph Balson was born in 1890 on 12 August in the small town of Bothenhampton, close to Bridport on the coastal area of Dorset, England. One of six children, Balson left school at the age of 12 to work as a housepainter and plumber. In 1913 at the age of23 he migrated to Sydney. Some years later, Emily Kathleen Austin whom he had previously known in Bridport joined him there. They married in an Anglican church and eventually took residence at 4 Wark Avenue in Pagewood, New South Wales.

Balson's earliest known works were executed in about 1919; these were tentative figurative pieces copied from Rembrandt [1606-1669] and Netscher [1639-1684]. 1 Like most from previous generations, he began with an interest primarily in the figure and its tradition. As Balson did not attain his art training in the usual manner, as a regular day student at an art school, he was required, out of necessity, to copy from reproductions until 1924 when he began attending some evening classes at Julian

Ashton's Art School in Sydney; this he continued until 1925. He was in his late twenties when he began drawing, and completed his first oil painting in 1922. Balson's early attempts at figurative painting and representation contain an awkward characteristic; they illustrate his then lack of observational skills, analysis of structure and technique. But such drawbacks, as evidenced in these early works, were no impediment to his determination to develop an alternative mode of visual language. He set out to challenge not only himself but also what he saw as a general apathy in

1 Daniel Thomas, 'Ralph Balson', Art and Australia, Vol.2, No.4, 1965, p.250.

2 Australian art. This perception was expressed some years later when Balson would write about his "disgust at the general banality of current exhibitions."2

Colour was the one element in his early work that came with ease and that remained for the entirety of his career. Colour was the one consistent element and subject of his mature and most important works dating from 1940 until his death in 1964. Balson's rapport with colour was an inherent aspect of his character and hence an intrinsic quality in his work. Elements other than colour were used as 'props' to elevate colour to a major position in each work. The picture plane became Balson's stage upon which his colour notations performed theatrically, gliding over or through the often shallow field of space. Balson' s strong affinity with colour was pellucid and unequivocal even in his early figurative work of the 1930s, in which colour permeated the surface and always rose above other compositional considerations, such as drawing, volume, depth and delineation. His interest in colour was no doubt inspired by his early awareness of, and passing interest in, and Post-Impressionism. The influence of

Impressionism and Post-Impressionism had by the 1920s entered to a small degree the

Sydney art scene. Artists such as Grace Cossington-Smith (1892-1984), Roland

Wakelin (1887-1971) and others were producing work that reflected in a marginal manner a moderate understanding of the science, attitude and 'atmospherics' of

Impressionism.

Balson became a part-time student at 's Art School and a casual attendee at the school's sketch club where he was taught by (1890-1979), Anne

2 Ron Saw, 'The Words of James Joyce in Paint', Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 18 July, 1968. (NB. when a page number is not present it is because archived reviews consulted did not provide a page number).

3 Dangar (1885-1951), Julian Ashton (1851-1942), and Henry Gibbons (1884-1972).

During these early years he produced paintings depicting a range of subject matter including figure studies, family portraits, landscapes and still life. Some of these works were executed in pastels, a medium he was to use regularly throughout his career.

Balson habitually bought these works to the art school to obtain feedback from his teachers. It was at this time that he began to develop a strong working rapport with

Grace Crowley. This developed into a life-long friendship, primarily based on mutual respect and shared ideas about abstract painting. Crowley became his most important professional supporter and staunch follower.

In 1927, Crowley, Rah Fizelle (1891-1964) and (1906-1992) left Australia for the obligatory trip abroad. Their mission like many before was to seek and be touched by the heroic 'deities' of the art world, past and present, primarily in London and . The opportunity to travel overseas and observe and absorb culture, to expenence first-hand contemporary practice was not possible for Balson. He was married with young children and was therefore anchored to suburban Sydney by social expectation and the prevailing moral etiquette of the period. Some would argue that

Balson's failure to travel overseas early in his career and gain the benefit of such an experience was to his detriment. On the contrary, this isolation made this stay-at-home more determined to challenge himself and his circumstances. These circumstances meant Balson was not overwhelmed or distracted; he was in control and always inspired and curious enough to seek solutions to Modernist concepts that came to him from abroad in fragmented manner. A few years after Balson's death Renee Free would remark that "Balson had learnt much about modem art from books and was

4 immediately drawn to those artists with first-hand knowledge."3 No doubt she had in mind such journals as Diagonal, Minotaure, Cahier d'Art and others.

During these discovery years for Balson there were occasional attempts by other artists to engage in more progressive practice and theory, in recognition of new concepts being explored in Europe. An important artist is . Humphrey McQueen writes that:

... Roy de Maistre (1894-1968) claimed that nine months after he joined the army in 1916 he was discharged, allegedly suffering from tuberculosis; ... In the course of his long convalescence he became friendly with the director of a mental hospital where part of the treatment involved the use of differently coloured walls, either to excite or to calm shell-shocked patients. Appalled at the crudity of existing techniques, de Maistre successfully applied his musical training and decorated the wards in colour keys, rather than in single colours. So successful were these innovations as treatments that he extended the laws of musical to all painting. He was encouraged by reading W. Huntington Wright's Modern Painting (1915) which ended its survey of recent art movements with a chapter on 'Synchromism', the use of pure colour to achieve form ... 4

De Maistre first left Australia in 1923 and returned in 1926, but again departed in 1928 because of the ridicule his abstract work had received. His contribution to in

Sydney was brief, but it added substantially to its early formation.

George Lambert (1873-1930) was another high-profile artist who supported Modernism, despite his own work not really developing any new methods of expression. Lambert gave support to the Group of Modern Painters' show in Sydney in 1926. His status and

3 Renee Free, (introduction) Raison Crowley Fizelle Hinder, (Sydney, 1966), p. 6. 4 Humphrey McQueen, The Black Swan of Trespass, (Sydney, 1979), p.4-5, Vision, No.I and No.2, p.3.

5 position helped give assistance to those artists struggling, as 'outsiders'. Likewise,

Margaret Preston (1875-1963) and (1879-1966), members of the

Contemporary Group gave solid support to Modernist tendencies. 5

The general rejection of abstract art was in marked contrast to Australian society's acceptance and embrace of new developments in technologies that promised improved living conditions. Many technological developments had their genesis at the time of

World War 11. Developments in air travel, road transport, radio, television, shipping, domestic goods, pharmaceuticals and so on, quickened the sense of advancement and embrace ofthe 'modem'.

Although some of Balson's inspiration came from abroad indirectly and somewhat belatedly, it is clear that the evolution of abstraction in his work was distinct and in sharp contrast with anything else being produced in Australia at that time. Balson's paradigm was not overwhelmingly constructed from local inheritance either, it was a synthesis of different offerings and contingencies. Overriding this was the fact that

Balson imbued all of his work with his own intrinsic values and aesthetic sensibilities, which resided primarily in his understanding of colour. An avid reader according to his

6 son Bi11 , Balson was presumably well informed about developments concerning colour that were taking place.

Perhaps Balson's most important link to European developments came vm correspondence either directly or indirectly and from artists who had returned from

5 Ibid., p.5. 6 Bill Balson, audio tape interview with Kevin Hegarty, About Ralph Balson, (two, one hour tapes). Salamander Bay, NSW, II January 1999.

6 travel and/or study abroad. Additionally, his brief period of part-time study at Julian

Ashton's would have enabled him to access the art school's publication, Undergrowth.

This regular publication contained articles from many writers including Arme Dangar and Grace Crowley, who together departed Australia in 1926 to travel and study in

Europe. They both regularly sent letters to Undergrowth, which published their correspondence. These reports provided students with knowledge about modem art developments and associated theories. Sometimes these articles took the form of exercises, which were devised by Crowley's and Dangar's teachers in . When they both arrived in France they sought out appropriate teachers with Dangar first seeking out Andre Lhote in Paris. Helen Maxwell has stated that: "She joined the school of cubist painter Andre Lhote (1885-1962) in the Rue d' Odessa in

Montparnasse. Crowley followed soon after."7 Crowley, Dangar, (1891-

1951), Rah Fizelle and others energetically absorbed European culture and the excitement of new forms of artistic experimentation. Their enthusiasm for modern theories energised their whole being as artists and inspired them to go beyond the mundane offerings from Australian art schools. Renee Free remarked "It was in Paris, at the Academie Lhote that Grace Crowley learnt the principles of ."8 The exposure to new theories from teachers with an entirely different background filtered through to Sydney's younger artists, craving to know more about that which they had little knowledge of, and were not encouraged to pursue by the majority of their teachers.

For example, Helen Maxwell writes that (1881-1953) (one of Crowley's teachers who taught in Paris and at his art colony, Moby-Sabata), declared, "Flat planes

7 Helen Maxwell, 'A Profile of ', Art and Australia, Vol. 26, No.3, 1989, p. 420. 8 Free, op. cit., p. 5.

7 were simultaneously to be set in motion and made to evoke space by being shifted across one another as if rotating about tilting, oblique axes". 9

There were some exceptions however. "In 1925 Preston lectured to art students about colour, showing scales and explaining their practical use. Wakelin had returned from

Europe in October 1924 . . . he told reporters that he was still committed to Cezanne

[1839-1906], who was both modem and eternal." 10 Bernard Smith says that Wakelin's interest in Cezanne dates back to about 1913 when he saw coloured reproductions of

Cezanne's work in Norah Simpson's possession.ll Wakelin was unable to genuinely progress beyond Impressionism, while Cubism was never really attempted either.

Wakelin' s contribution to Modernism was limited in practice, remaining mostly confined to quasi Impressionist landscapes. However, the shift to Modernism in Sydney was primarily by weight of numbers, of individuals receptive to information about the new art arriving from Europe.

Many of Australia's early Modernists were women. Denied easy acceptance into the establishment, they felt compelled to explore alternative themes to Australia's romance with the landscape. Mary Eagle writes that, "From 1925 a large number of modem painters were active throughout Australia. Many taught as well as painted. Adelaide

Perry (1891-1973), Roy de Maistre, , Thea Proctor, Grace Crowley,

Anne Dangar, Dorrit Black, Aletta Lewis and the quiet achiever Grace Cossington-

9 Helen Maxwell, 'A profile of Anne Dangar', Art in Australia, Vol.26, No.3, 1989. p.422, quoting Christopher Green, Cubism and Enemies, (New Haven and London), 1987, p.87. 10 Mary Eagle, Australian Modern Painters, Between the Wars 1914-1939. (Kensington, 1989), p.57. 11 Bernard Smith, Australian Painting 1788-1970. 2"' ed. (, 1971), p. 172.

8 Smith all taught in Sydney."12 Balson, no doubt, would have benefited from this diversity of interest in Modernist trends.

Gleizes and Metzinger's essay Cubism, published in 1912, was written primarily to explain Cubism in general. "The only possible error in art is imitation; it infringes the law of time, which is the law," 13 and "by a desire to represent things not as they appear, but as they are ... the object possesses an absolute form, an essential form, and we should suppress chiaroscuro and traditional perspective in order to present it. .. An object has not one absolute form: it has many: it has as many as there are planes in the region of perception."14 Gleizes and Metzinger (1883-1956) made it clear that the imitation of nature was no longer a necessity or even a relevant currency for artists.

The camera had taken over this role, and artists were required to engage in other concerns. In this context, colour now became a defining element. Additionally, the new theories draw attention to the role of geometry and gesture, as a means of 'perceiving' the world.

It is the concepts alluded to above that laid the foundation for Crowley's theories which she used in her teaching on her return to Sydney in 1930. Balson, as we have said, was a recipient. Dorrit Black returned to Sydney to establish the Modem Art Centre in

Margaret Street, and it remained operational until the latter part of 1933. Crowley taught there for a short time before it closed. As Black's Modem Art Centre began to decline, Crowley and Fizelle decided to establish a new art school. The purpose in

12 Eagle, op. cit., p.60. 13 Albert Gleizes and , 'Cubism', in Theories ofModern Art, ed. Herschel B. Chipp. (Berkeley, 1968), p.209. 14 Ibid., p.214.

9 establishing these art centres and art schools was to provide a meeting place for those interested in the progressive theories and practice in in wide use in

Europe. Crowley and Fizelle's teaching was based essentially on their theoretical knowledge and studio practice, obtained while under instruction from Lh6te and Gleizes.

Daniel Thomas has remarked that Balson's interest in modem art increased when he joined Grace Crowley, Rah Fizelle and Frank Hinder at the new art school, which was located at 215a George Street, where they also used a model on Saturday momings. 15

This weekend sketch group was very popular and became an important opportunity for

Balson to meet other artists and have others critique his work. Eleanore Lange (1893-

1990) was also an active participant, delivering inspirational lectures on modem art.

This convivial group shared their knowledge and experiences. Crowley wrote: "We

[Crowley and Fizelle] were united in one belief, the constructive approach to painting, and this insistence of the abstract elements in building a design was the keynote of teaching with both Lhote and Gleizes ... The abstract elements in line, shape and colour were introduced in order to induce the student to construct from it a design within a given space.'ol 6

Balson's works during the 1930s, like the others of the group, engaged a semi-abstract mode with the figure as a central theme. It is at this juncture, however, that Balson sought a new compositional framework driven and guided by a sense of colour relationships. Daniel Thomas has noted how Balson's early paintings revealed " ... two constants; the characteristic 'pastel' colours in which he almost always worked best, and

15 Thomas, op. cit., p.250, 254. 16 Grace Crowley, Correspondence to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 28 August 1966 and I September 1966. 10 something of the flame-like vibrancy which distinguishes his late work ... " 17 Balson's

development as a colourist strongly suggests he had taken note of not only

Impressionism but also . Although his colour schemes do not have the intensity

of the Fauve palette, they do suggest that he had gained an insight into how certain

colour relationships function, particularly as he began to develop concepts yielding ever

flatter shapes in place of form.

Geoffrey Dutton suggests that other principles were available to Balson from Lhote's

teachings on visual construction such as "the power of geometrical sections, of Dynamic

Symmetry and the Golden Section." 18 Frank Hinder's contribution to the group came

from his study in America where he was taught about developments in contemporary

European art. Hinder gained his knowledge from time spent at the Art Institute of

Chicago, followed by a period at the New York School of Fine Arts. Perhaps of greatest

importance to Hinder was study between 1930 and 1931 at the Masters Institute of

Roerich Museum, New York. There he was taught by Howard Giles and Emil Bisttram,

both associates of Jay Hambidge. Dutton states that " ... Frank Hinder. .. brought with

him from America one of the bibles of George Street, Jay Hambidge's Dynamic

. Symmetry: The Greek Vase, published in New York in 1920. Hambidge and Lhote

were united in their insistence on the use of geometry in proportioning space, and the

necessity of strict order and close relationships between the areas of the painting."19

Hinder's knowledge and teaching provided a slightly different view to that of Crowley

and Fizelle, but his position melded easily with their views on contemporary art. Hinder

took the view that abstraction was invested in inherent qualities, a self evident truth born

17 Thomas, op. cit., p.250. 18 Geoffrey Dutton, The Innovators, (Sydney, 1968), p.32. 19 Ibid.

11 from the residing structures in nature, and an artist's search for truth lay in seeking to

.understand this and convey this realisation using geometrical methodologies. According to Free, "Hambidge's theory was based on ancient geometry. He claimed that it was

1 discovered in Egypt, and was used by the Greeks in the 6 h Century, supplementing static symmetry ... Dynamic symmetry in nature is the orderly arrangement of members of an organism such as we find in a shell or the adjustment of leaves on a plant."2° Clearly

Hambidge's ideas contained common accord with those of LhOte and Gleizes; the common area lay in their respective acknowledgment of the importance of nature. The notion of building or constructing a painting where design considerations were to override natural or organic qualities, however, was guided by ideas developed m

Hambridge's Dynamic Symmetry, and realised in an abstract form by geometric means.

Supplementing and inadvertently supporting the work of this group of Modernists was an exhibition of British Contemporary Art, which was shown in Melbourne and Sydney in 1933. McQueen remarks " ... the 'Forward' to the catalogue promised 'virility, emotion ... intellectual stimulus' from 'the most significant artists of the last forty years who have refused to continue paraphrasing their art on traditional lines ... of... naturalistic representation' ."21 Sydney modernists, trying to foster an enlightened attitude towards the arts, would have been delighted to read such encouraging words that strongly promoted a break from tired traditions. But such exhibitions were not always reviewed favourably and often the general public expressed hostility. Such responses polarised the community and had the effect of strengthening the art establishment's position and hold on conservative taste, while also claiming the moral high ground. It had always been

20 Renee Free, Frank Hinder Marge! Hinder, (Sydney, 1980), p.IO. 21 McQueen, op. cit., p.21.

12 easier to defend the already codified modes of thinking about Australian art and notions of 'good art', against foreign impositions. Australian audiences largely preferred to remain passive, wishing to stay secure with a static attitude about their relation with the arts. Australians, generally, still patronised the rural image as an icon filled with heroic and metaphors about wealth, ownership and space. Society's expectations were based on a need to have 'their' art reflect 'their' notions of who they were. If this failed to happen in an art work then the art was viewed as a betrayal; this partly explains the rejection of Modernism and Balson's difficulty in having his early Constructive work in particular accepted. New and challenging art as observed in large exhibitions from abroad was more often than not antagonistic to local taste. But the local group of modernists struggling to gain a foothold in both Melbourne and Sydney would have enjoyed these exhibitions because they would have helped legitimise their activities as proponents of abstraction.

Despite the push toward a new modernist paradigm by a group viewed as peripheral, the

Australian public generally, still identified with an art that was informed by local and nationalistic issues. Australians understood themselves as a young nation, relying heavily on rural activities for econqmic wealth, for example, the wool and mining industries. To some extent such activities naturally enough, were expected to be introspective and conveyed by artists. Australians identified with its backyard and did so with a passion because it was yet to construct alternative icons. This was changing and could be observed through such achievements as in the construction of the Sydney

Harbour Bridge (1924-1932). Australian painters of the 1940s and early 1950s though, generally continued to foster a status quo with regard to subject matter, thus maintaining a thirst for the "chocolate box" and "charm school" image.

13 Balson and his artist friends did not support that position. The polarity was clear and both establishment and Modernists were as defiant as each other. However, as time passed, the move to within society was inevitable but the arts establishment remained anti Modernist until the late 1950s. Survival then for the Sydney group was dependant on them staying together as a single cohesive body to repel the neglect and robust influences ofthe conservative art scene in Australia.

Further ongoing support for the group came from Anne Dangar who had returned to

France in early 1930 to work and live at Gleizes' art commune Moby-Sabata. Bruce

Adams writes that Dangar regularly wrote to Crowley throughout the 1930s, which helped keep the group in touch with happenings in Europe. More often than not, this correspondence was tinged with Gleizes' theories. On occasion, Dangar mailed out exercises for students in Sydney to attempt, and on completion they could return them to her so that Gleizes, the master, could comment.22 Crowley was not in total support of

Dangar's less than enthusiastic view of Lhote's teaching, especially as it was Lhote's theories that were the basis ofFizelle's and her own teaching methodology. The Sydney group then was leaning progressively toward a geometric method of construction. It was

Balson, in fact, who took the lead by being the most experimental in his use of colour and gradually became less reliant on conventional drawing and three-dimensional space.

His best late figurative work of the late 1930s expresses a Fauve-like quality, except that his palette tended to favour a tinted pastel schema.

22 Bruce Adams, 'Metaphors of Scientific : The Theoretical Background to the paintings of Ralph Raison'. In Australian Art and Architecture: Essays Presented to Bernard Smith, eds. Anthony Bradley and Terry Smith, (Melbourne, 1980), p.l86.

14 By all accounts, Balson did not partake in the exercises suggested in Dangar' s letters, nor did he totally succumb to the advice offered by Crowley, Fizelle, Hinder and others.

Balson seemed to have been somewhat indifferent to the notion of 'oneness' with the theoretical offerings on hand, rather, he appeared to have intellectualised the many options and possibilities available.

Mary Eagle has suggested that the paintings of Balson and Crowley from the 1930s foreshadowed the direction they would take later, by saying:

In a remarkable way these lessons prefigured the calm abstract paintings which from the mid 1940s marked the climax of Balson's and Crowley's search for expression. The very form of the 1940s and 1950s paintings was prefigured in diagrams of overlapping, transparent rectangles that came with one of the lessons. There were lessons in abstract form, colour transparency and advice about achieving a 'soft, even, matt' paint surface.23

It is not at all clear whether Balson obtained a copy of these diagrams because his only contact with the group was on weekends when members of the sketch club pre-occupied themselves with working from the model.

It is conceivable that Balson was never totally subservient to theories offered by others; despite what some have suggested, he steadfastly remained his own person and believed in his own correctness when making decisions about his own work. Crowley claimed

Balson "knew more about Modernism than she had learnt abroad: All the week whilst house painting he would ponder his problems and realise them at weekends when at last

23 Eagle, op.cit., p.139. 15 free to paint."24 A similar view is expressed by Adams when he states: "According to

Crowley, Balson did not seem greatly influenced by them [imported theories ]."25

Balson's development then was not so totally directed by Lhote, Gleizes, Ozenfant,

Crowley, Fizelle and others, but by his steely independence and firmness of purpose.

His solitude was an imposed factor, created by the necessity to earn a living to support himself and his family. His contact with other artists during the week was minimal, and painting at home was an ongoing difficulty due to the lack of work space and family interruptions. So Balson developed a method of visualising his ideas and means for executing his painting many times over during the week; solving critical problems and considering alternative solutions to take the imaginary image to a hypothetical resolution before he got anywhere near the easel on weekends. Balson then meditated on his ideas for a considerable time in order to solve any compositional problems, rather than seek out an instant solution from his colleagues Crowley, Fizelle and others. Balson felt he couldn't depend on their intermittent information, even if it was provided sincerely. He may have thought that their suggestions might compromise his ideas, direction and use of colour. Balson's determination was substantial, he " ... was not merely a distant rec1p1ent. . o f secon d ary sources firom ab roa d ." 26

Despite the suggestion by many that Balson was a Cubist, or at the very least heavily influenced by Cubism and the persuasive ideas and teachings of Gleizes and LhOte, such claims are countered by statements from Crowley herself. She said that Balson was "not

24 McQueen, op. cit., p.22. 25 Adams, op, cit., p.l84. 26 Ibid.

16 very patient" with what he heard regarding the theories of Gleizes and Lh6te.27 The best evidence though lies in his paintings of the 1930s. Paintings from this period display virtually no evidence of Analytical Cubism; only a few works show just a hint of an awareness of Cubism or interest in working in that mode. Adams likewise discounts the value of others contributing to Balson's ideas when he stated," ... most of his [Balson's] ideas about abstraction were to come from his own reading ... "28 There is doubt however, that occasional items from Dangar proved to be useful for Balson. For example, Dangar stated "it does not matter at all whether a work of art has a subject or not"29 and "The surface is our fundamental truth and is two-dimensional, we ought as much as possible to eliminate all three dimensional effects which break the flatness of the surface. "30

Such succinct and yet challenging concepts meant more to Balson than a lot of other woolly notions about how to paint and what to paint. He was able to grasp the intent of such statements as indicated above and recognise them as invaluable sign posts. They were ideas sufficiently devoid of prefigured knowing or conclusions, which might have trapped him into a mimetic repertoire. It is the very openness and the non-confirming intent of these concepts that permitted a genuinely creative individual like Balson to develop a personal visual lexicon. For the most part, it is fair to say that if Balson was not intellectually challenged by an idea he quickly dismissed it; he was concerned with the unlmown, he had little time for ideas or activities that had already been explored, or bought to a conclusion elsewhere, or at another time. Balson's interest lay in speculative ideas that ignited his esoteric side and provide him with the necessary platform to paint

27 Thomas, op. cit., p.254. 28 Adams, op. cit., p.l86. 29 Eagle, op. cit., p.l43. 30 Adams, op. cit., p.l86.

17 not about scientific concepts but about colour; colour was his subject. Such ideas are developed further in the late 1930s when Balson came into contact with Eleanore Lange and Ethel Anderson. A final refutation of the generally accepted idea that Balson was a

Cubist is demonstrated when we compare a Balson painting with a Gleizes/Metzinger description of Cubist methodology; they say: "Then the fact of moving around an object to seize several successive appearances, which, fused in a single image, reconstitute it in

31 time ... " • Balson' s paintings do the opposite; they work at negating three-dimensional space, whereas Cubism tried to compress three-dimensional space into a two­ dimensional surface.

Balson never attempted to capture the stated characteristics of Analytical Cubism (1909-

1912) in any of his paintings. The nearest Balson came to using Cubist characteristics can be seen in a 1938 painting Figure Design, (p.19) in which he vaguely alludes to the use of geometric planes to portray the human figure. This painting was perhaps influenced by Picasso's Le Demoiselles d'Avignon of 1907, which can be classified as a pro-cubist work. Balson's colour scheme is similar in its boldness and clarity of intention. The painting is constructed with large flat planes in a loose geometric manner, in contrast to Picasso's rather organic planes. Balson's paint application is less expressive, it is flat and aims to eliminate reference to form whereas Picasso in Le

Demoiselles d 'Avignon retained a sense of form through tonal work across the planes. In

Balson's work he has presented the figure so that it sits forward creating the illusion of spatial depth and hence a background. Interestingly, this compositional arrangement is similar to that found in the Picasso work. The figure in the Balson composition is solid, static and rather rigid, it has no fluidity or animation of the surface.

31 Gleizes and Metzinger, op. cit., p.216. 18 Figure Design, 1938, oil and charcoal on cardboard, 86.0 x 56.1, National Gallery of

Australia.

19 The Sisters, 1939, (p.21) follows a similar path, but departs marginally from the previous work by tackling the issue of how to make the large flat planes more interesting and functional. He achieves this by modulating particularly the large shapes with a restive or irregular application of different colours within a shape. The two figures in the picture are treated in open form, that is, there is a sameness of surface treatment to both figures and Balson's only demarcation between them is created by an arm. Both figures bear little in the way of three-dimensional form, and what little there is, is suggested by the contrasting structure in the background. This is composed of smaller shapes, mostly of narrow rectangles running vertically which work in unison with the vertical brushwork on the figures. Although the shapes in the background are generally flat, together they are suggestive of a landscape. The overall flatness of the previous painting discussed has given way to a textured, modulated surface, yet there remains little in the way of depth. Still the work falls short of the flat picture plane characteristic of Cubism. As in the previous work, Balson here is not concerned with multiple views of an object or in the limited range of Cubist colour; he remains fixed on his personal use of colour as the prime means by which to express himself.

Long before Balson attempted the paintings discussed above, he was aware of the contribution to new art theories and practice by (1866-1944) and

Piet Mondrian (1972-1944). Kandinsky wrote of the two different art forms; the arts of today and those of the past as being in opposition to one another and that, "The first, being purely external, has no future. The second, being internal, contains the seed of the future within itself."32 As Balsori's interest in the external world metamorphosed into the internal, it is easy to appreciate his disinterest in the local arena that was still

32 Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art. (New York, 1977), p. 2. 20 The Sisters, 1939, oil on canvas, 110.0 x 85.5, Art Gallery ofNew South Wales.

21 consumed with the landscape and its appended values. Balson's quasi-abstract paintings of the 1930s still contained remnants of the figure but anticipate the directions his work will take.

1932 was an important year in Balson's life. In August he held his first solo exhibition at the Modem Art Centre, 56 Margaret Street, Sydney. The exhibition consisted of paintings in oils and pastels from the period 1922 to 1932. For Balson, this first solo exhibition was an important public statement of his intent to be a serious artist despite some of the works in the show being from his student years. The exhibition was reviewed in The Sydney Morning Herald, titled 'Mr Balson's Paintings'. Favourable and balanced it gave Balson mild support and little in the way of negative comment. The author referred to Balson's works as "Modernistic" in that there is a departure from conventional in drawing. 33 The reviewer's support of Balson's approach and results was contingent on him achieving an "effect that is definite, individual and sincere. "34 The review also alluded to some of the work being influenced (directly or indirectly) by the school of Cezanne and crayon drawings that are "aglow with the most delightful impressionist vibrancy of colour". 35 The reviewer clearly describes two paintings and provides a basic analysis of their construction, giving full meaning and weight to descriptors like 'planes', 'balance', 'simplicity', 'hardness', 'smoothness', and

'harmony'.

Such favourable reviews were rare, especially after 1940 when Balson turned to a total

Constructive mode of working. The 1932 writer then, was remarkably well informed

33 Anon.,'Mr Balson's Paintings', Sydney Morning Herald, 3 August, 1932. 34 Ibid. 35 Ibid. 22 and the review bears little of the antagonism that the majority of responses to modernist art aroused. In addition to the solo exhibition, Balson was a participant in a group exhibition, Progressive Art, at the Modem Art Centre in March of the same year.

Participants in this show included Dorrit Black, Roland W akelin, Ruth Cox, Mabel

Green, Gwen Ramsay, Jean Ramsay, Eveline Syrne (1888-1961), Isabel Huntley, Enid

Cambridge (1903-1976) and Eleanore Lange.

Clearly Balson's activities in 1932 increased his profile and elevated his standing amongst his peers. He had identified himself publicly as a 'Modernist' and further established his bona-fides by exhibiting with a number of other artists of the same persuasiOn ..

Throughout the 1930s, Balson began to see colour as the major element in his work. The biggest issue for him, however, was how to jettison 'subject matter'. The transition was gradually achieved by negating academic drawing while only hinting at a subject.

A painting of c. 1936 of no formal title but referred to as Study of a Woman in Veiled

Head Dress36 (p.25), shows Balson firmly involved with the figure as subject. The drawing is strong and boldly delineated, in contrast to the flatness throughout. There is little in the way of tonal modelling but nevertheless it manages to convey an illusion of form, a woman resting by a post or wall soaking up the bright sunlight. It is the atmospherics, the sensation of bright light that finally delivers the work. The palette is a restricted one which does not hinder the work but helps add to its immediacy. The most

36 In Bruce Adam's catalogue Ralph Balson A Retrospective. (Heide Park and Art Gallery, 1989 ,page 11) shows this image, however it is titled Studio Sketch. Emily in contrast with the slides and accompanying information sent to me by the National Gallery of Australia.

23 engaging quality in this figure study is the manner in which Balson has applied the paint; the brush work is expressive and free flowing giving the painting a sketch-like feel, a sense of spontaneity and vitality.

In contrast to the above painting, another work from c. 1936 of no title but referred to as

Studio Sketch, Emily, (p.26), shows a figure subject, but that is where the similarity ends.

This work is flatter and Balson makes no attempt to render the figure in three dimension.

In this painting, he has moved to a reliance on colour with shape and not form as the key structure. Shapes are left flat and their outlining are not forced as was the case in the previous painting. Balson tries to work colour and flat shape into a composition that is less reliant on other elements of construction. His concern is not whether the drawing looks right or is correct, but how effectively he could negate the reliance on draftsmanship and yet have the painting operate as an 'idea'. The omission of a nose, the rounded form of the torso and the arc of the shoulders are contrasted with arcing bands of a garment to provide a counterpoint in a balanced design. This painting is far less reliant on 'sound' drawing and relies instead on Balson' s sense of design and colour. The subject merely became a prop for his far more important concern, that of colour.

A third painting of the same year, Holiday, 1936, (p.28), is less abstract than the previous work and depicts a seated figure located close to the edge of the foreground. It is reminiscent of Fauvist painting, due mainly to the manner in which Balson has used colour. The palette is bold rather than the pastel hues generally associated with his work of the period. The compositional structure is set up by the diagonal line of the shoulders

24 Study of a Woman in Veiled Dress, (verso), 1936, oil on cardboard, 55.6 x 32.8,

National Gallery of Australia.

25 Studio Sketch, Emily, (recto), 1936, oil on paper-board, 55.6 x 32.8, National Gallery of

Australia.

26 which is reinforced by the turn of the head to the upper direction of the line of the shoulders. The whole figure is tilted diagonally in the opposite direction; these diagonal lines intersect at the pit of the neck. In addition, the arms are linked with the line of the shoulders and form a distinct larger shape which sits in the middle ground. The figure is strongly drawn and the modulation of the parts or shapes provides a suggestion of tonal values which allude to three-dimensional form.

The bmshwork provides a degree of texture and fluidity across the surface. The dynamic thmst of the composition is upward and this is created by the flatness of the skirt, its narrowing toward the waist and moving on up through the red blouse to the head. Like the previous painting, this is more concerned with colour relationships; the anonymous figure is a convenient prop, less a subject in its own right. These three paintings show a gradual shift towards a negation of a conventional, external subject and an increased interest in the importance of colour as subject in its own right. This move by Balson to recognising the primacy of colour was shared to a degree by his fellow modernists. Balson believed that the new art needed to find a new aesthetic out of the inherent qualities of colour. His knowledge of the French Fauve artists no doubt provided some impetus for future direction. Daniel Thomas has remarked that:

... Henri Matisse [1869-1954] was the first to offer a new system of order, that is of composition, in replacing the vanishing point by the pictorial plane. Each colour in a neo-classical picture is determined in its area, tone, value, hue, by its power to interpret third and often fourth and more dimensions, in their direction to the pictorial plane ... the endeavour to arrange colour relations and spatial values into an ordered whole is the subject of a modem picture. Such intelligence about painting was previously unknown in Australia. 37

37 Daniel Thomas, Outlines ofAustralian Art: The Joseph Brown Collection, (South Melbourne, 1973), p. 60.

27 Holiday, 1936, oil on canvas and mounted on composition board, 77.5 x 58.7, National

Gallery of Australia.

28 Balson's early paintings showed a high level of empathy with colour; how it was capable of expressing a multitude of concepts and personal realities; and how it could elicit a range of responses. The open-endedness which colour offered Balson enabled· him to realise he could express freely a range of concepts, especially those that were speculative, and use that platform to explore colour as an entity in its own right. Balson was now beginning to see just how an art without realism, representation and subject matter could exist. He was slowly moving toward what Kandinsky referred to as 'pure art'. Paul McGillick writes that "Lange [Eleanor] regarded Matisse as perhaps the most important painter of the time - and it is interesting how often Balson reminds one of

Matisse."38 Very few have made this connection between Balson and Fauvism.

Needless to say, we are here far removed from Cubist aesthetics.

Balson resisted the need to do preliminary sketches or studies, preferring to work directly onto the support, but only after a long and careful consideration about his choice of colour and placement. His reliance on colour meant his work took on an increasingly minimalist appearance, a quality identified in Modernist terms as 'reductionist'. The development of this extreme position certainly put him at odds with the art establishment from the late 1930s onwards. Gleeson writes, "For him, [Balson] colour is not only a science but a sensuous delight, and there are times when he flings caution to the winds and uses it in a revel of Gauguinesque luxuriance. He is a lover of colour, not an administrator of it."39 Balson's masterly use of colour gradually saw him take a leadership role, by default, of the Sydney group. The ease with which he was able to

38 Paul McGillick, 'The Importance of Ralph Balson', Aspect, No. 22, October 1981, p. 12. 39 , 'A New Father Figure of Art', Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney), 29 October, 1967. 29 construct complex colour arrangements set him apart from his colleagues who were left to admire his virtuosity and begin learning from him.

Balson's painting, Girl in Pink, 1937, (p.31), provides a good example of his Fauvist­ like colour scheme and subtle flattening of the compositional components. The colour scheme is essentially a high key pastel tint ( desaturated pigment) arrangement, suggesting bright light that bathes the figure and contributes to the flattening of the work. Balson's application of colour is modulated and broken, and often the small patches of colours run in the direction of the larger predetermined shapes. These are curvilinear in nature and he reinforces them with a small, patchy, punctuated surface treatment. The modulated brush work has the effect of loosening up the surface and giving the work a sense of movement and fluidity. The more one contemplates this work, the more one realises Balson was dealing with a range of contrasts; the drawing partly exists as a correct anatomical structure while at the same time he dealt with design possibilities derived from a need to simplify the shapes and provide a directional dynamic to the work. Many may have incorrectly concluded that this work shows poor drawing skills, but he was not concerned with academic drawing; his investigation into colour was the driving force in his work, likewise the need to situate a subject within a defined setting or environment was also becoming less important. Once again, the anonymous figure serves as a pretext for his overriding interest in colour. Daniel

Thomas described this painting by saying, "It's very beautiful and delicate colour is

Balson's own; the rather strange shapes probably reflect an interest in Dynamic

30 Girl in Pink, 1937, oil on paper-board, 70.5 x 55.0, Art Gallery ofNew South Wales.

31 Symmetry, a theory not of the symmetrical but rather of asymmetrical balance, with

'dynamic' the key word and 'static' the dirty word."40

Eleanore Lange arrived in Australia in 1930 and played an important role in helping the

Sydney group formulate their theories. Balson in particular took advantage of some of her suggestions. Lange was something of a zealot in regard to the advocacy of

Modernism and worked hard to promote its theories and practice among the

Balson!Crowley group. Paul McGillick articulated Lange's position when he wrote,

"Lange argued ... the major feature of which was the replacement of composition based on perspective with composition based on the picture plane. She also argued for the primacy of perception, for the anatomy of art and for colour relations as the keynote of contemporary painting."41 To what extent, if any, Lange extended her promotion of modern art to include an advocacy of the work of Kandinsky, Mondrian and Malevich

(1878-1935) is not certain, but it would appear more likely than not that she did.

Lange's promotion of Modernism was partly supported when in 1939, the media magnate Keith Murdoch financed the Melbourne Herald Exhibition of French and

British Modern Art, an exhibition that consisted of Post hnpressionist, Cubist and

Surrealist Art.42 Shown in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, the public generally responded with bemusement and frustration; there was however considerable debate in the press. For Balson and his fellow Modernists, this exhibition contained work that had already been canonised.

40 Thomas, op. cit., p.255. 41 McGillick, Joe. cit. 42 For further information regarding this important exhibition see: Eileen Chanin; Steven Miller with Judith Pugh. Degenerates and Perverts, The 1939 Herald Exhibition ofFrench and British Contemporary Art. (Melbourne,2005).

32 In the same year, 1939, Lange provided guidance and support for the exhibition known as Exhibition I, held at the newly opened David Jones Gallery, Market Street, Sydney. It included work by Balson, Crowley, Fizelle, Hinder, Frank Medworth (1892-1947),

Gerald Lewis (1905-1962), Marge! Hinder (1906-1034) and Eleanore Lange (Lyndon

Dadswell (1908-1986) was listed in the catalogue but did not exhibit). Collectively, the show displayed a commitment to work that took its cue from abstraction and an insistence on geometry and colour.

Lange articulated a raft of ideas that gave rise to a consideration of painting about

'ideas' in themselves, that is, 'ideas' as subject matter. This had the effect ofliberating and freeing art practice from the necessity and convention of relying on the external subject matter; usually expressed with representational realism. Ideas like these provided Balson with the impetus to consider how he might utilise colour to express his aims without external subject as a prop.

Lange was not the only person to give Balson and other Modernists clues to future directions. Ethel Anderson in 1929 declared Modernism was an attempt "to reconstruct our Universe in terms of to-day" through "a technique in harmony with value-symbols that are incongruous to life."43 Somewhat warm and fuzzy sentiment, however, these ideas added to the increasingly pro-Modernist considerations being mooted at the time within the art world. McQueen noted the contribution Alleyne Zander made when he wrote that she concluded, "This is a mechanical age; ... artists ... have never before felt so strongly the influence of science ... , [while] Gladys Osborne's 1935 essay was concerned with the impact of science on art ... but is it possible that art is aiming at

43 Anon., Australian Quarterly, March 1929, pp. 104-108. 33 becoming a pure science?'>'~4 These types of ideas and imaginings about the world of science hinted at the fallibility of many conventional beliefs, and suggests a new era of great discovery, one in which the modem artist could participate. Balson absorbed these ideas and purposefully set out to develop a way in which they might enable him to paint about colour.

For Balson in particular, the 1939 Exhibition I, which the Balson/Crowley group, with strong guidance from Lange, put together, symbolised the closing of a chapter which identified with figurative and/or quasi abstract work. Exhibition I was a group manifesto that displayed to the public a forceful conviction in the concepts of Modernism and its independence from old habits and attitudes. The exhibition was opened by Mr Justice

Evatt, and Lange wrote the foreword for the catalogue. In it she promoted new concepts and laws for modem artists to use in an attempt to navigate their way to a higher plane of awareness concerning metaphysical notions that were now stimulating broader discussion among artists. Lange also stated in the catalogue that: " ... painting to-day is abandoning the representation of objects in order to establish a new realm of visual experience." 45 Such public statements about future artistic directions signalled a beginning for many, but Balson saw it as a phase that was coming to an end. He stated just prior to the exhibition that he hoped to "interest the public and more progressive artists in certain problems which have arisen from the researches of scientists and philosophers and which await the cooperation of the artists to be given visual form."46

44 McQueen, op. cit., p. 103. 45 Daniel Thomas, Editorial Letters. Art and Australia, Vol3, No.!, June 1965, p.27-28. In this volume Thomas presented a copy of the 'Introduction' by Eleanor Lange for 'Exhibition 1 '. 46 saw, op. c1t. .

34 Perhaps Balson's most celebrated work from the late 1930s is his painting Portrait of

Grace Crowley, 1939, (p.36). It may best be described as a Fauve-come-Impressionist work constructed with a lively application of patches of colour forming an animated complexity of complementary colours. Balson's drawing is firm, but there is little reliance on a need to delineate the figure at the expense of colour and shape, as they are the prime elements in the structure of the work. Both the figure and the background almost merge together. This is achieved by breaking up the background into fractured shapes similar to the treatment used on the figure. Balson has located the figure in an interior setting, one filled with light which is depicted coming from the top left hand comer, creating an atmospheric impression that is primarily suggested by the use of pale hues in the background, which progressively deepen on the figure. The figure itself is statuesque and beautifully poised, revealing a person at ease with her surroundings.

Without doubt, it is colour that makes this painting the success it is.

However, the negative response to Exhibition I was not out of the ordinary, and clearly showed Modernism as remaining problematic for the wider community. Daniel Thomas stated: "There was quite an uproar in the newspapers about 'freak art', 'poached egg art', 'blotto damsels', led by Howard Ashton [1877-1964], critic for Sun, who was firmly against 'scientific theory' and was particularly upset by the 'colour phenomenae'

[sic] and the 'third or more dimensions' evidently mentioned in the foreword."47

The damnation of Modernism was swift and total; the artists were fair game for harsh criticism. For example, Ure Smith was one who promoted negative attitudes about modem art. Nancy Underhill writes: "Exhibition !was the first serious public challenge

47 Thomas, loc. cit.

35 Portrait of Grace Crowley, 1939, oil on canvas on cardboard, 108.8 x 64.3, Art Gallery ofNew South Wales.

36 to the Ure Smith-dominated society of artists and its claim to be Sydney's forum for progressive art ... abstract painting was not part of the Greco-Roman tradition [according to Ure Smith], and so it never appeared in his publications."48

As the 1930s decade closed, Balson painted his final figurative works and commenced the journey to paint what was to become a truly outstanding body of modem art in

Australia.

48 Nancy Underhill, Making Australian Art 1916-49: Patron and Publisher, (Melbourne, 1991 ), p. 22.

37 CHAPTER TWO

CONSTRUCTIVISM 1940- 1955/56

As the 1930s decade drew to a close so too did Balson's figurative work. Over the latter years of the decade one could assume that Balson intellectualised his practice by asking himself, 'where am I going'? 'how is my painting to develop'? To this end, he laid the finishing strokes to his last figure work: the beautiful painting Portrait of Grace

Crowley, 1939, (p.36) which we have already discussed. From this point on Balson is consumed with the non-representational.

Balson celebrated his pioneering move into the uncharted area of abstraction by staging a solo exhibition in 1941 at the Sydney galleries of Anthony Hordem and Sons Limited

(29 July to 9 August). In this show he displayed twenty-one works. The exhibition was not reviewed favourably; a review in the Bulletin declared "He [Balson] makes designs in flat colour (including metallic tints), using circles, triangles, squares, et cetera, as forms, and produces some very pretty designs for patchwork quilts". 1 Painting (p.39) a work from this exhibition, illustrates the somewhat dramatic change that had occurred in Balson' s oeuvre. It exudes all the hallmarks of a Modernist work, stating a clarity of intention and purpose. This painting and others in the show advertised boldly Balson's objective; to explore and engage (unlike any other Australian artist of the period) in the challenging complexities and uncertainties of abstraction.

1 Anon.,Bulletin, 6 August I 941. 38 Painting, 1941, oil on hardboard, 79.0 x 63 .5, Art Gallery ofNew South Wales.

39 Balson's rejection of the representational meant that he never assigned his works descriptive titles after 1940, preferring instead to classify them as congregates of works; such groups became subdivisions of what I have called his 'grand vision'. Balson used terms such as 'Painting', 'Construction', 'Constructive Painting', 'Non-Representation',

'Matter Painting' or simply a number. Such an approach not only signalled his departure from representational modes of working but more precisely, it suggested he understood that each work was simply part of the seriality of method that would lead to his 'grand vision'. Such parts of a whole did not require specific or detailed notation; like days in a diary, they became a year and years become a potential life time.

Construction in Green, 1942, (p.41), displays all the characteristics of Balson's conventional Constructivist painting. What preserves Balson's integrity in this work, as indeed in all his work is of course his use of colour. The general outlook of the work yields a scheme of muted colours and, essentially, it is monochromatic; a mellow statement. Despite the muted sensibility of the picture plane it is not static; there is a slight agitation of the planes, reinforced by the two symmetrically placed right angled lines; what softens and counter balances the hard-edged angles are the floating circular disks which allude to notions of movement, but this movement is measured, a piece in adagio. What further activates this work is a nervous energy imparted during Balson's development and construction of the painting. Here he only alludes to depth; it is suggested by means of colour contrast. Hence there is a faint suggestion of a push and pull between foreground and background, but essentially he is emphasising flatness.

Balson's engagement with such issues placed him outside not only mainstream practice but also mainstream social expectations of what art's appearance should be. Balson's

40 Construction in Green, 1942, oil on paperboard, 85.7 x 109.9, Art Gallery of New

South Wales.

41 work tackled other issues pertinent to the development of his abstract work. The removal of 'representation' and or 'realism' from the painting's history was an act of desecration, visual blasphemy which Balson acknowledged, but this did not diminish his zeal for seeking art's elusive goal. For Balson the primacy of colour was logically coexistent with the primacy and plasticity of his medium, without which he would not have been able to achieve his mark.

As Balson developed his paintings he realised the subtle but emergent power of

'surface' as distinct from the conventional necessity to infuse the picture plane with

Euclidean geometry; in other words, perspective. Instead he used colour intuitively and could enlist the potential power of 'surface' or 'flatness', as a new tool for the construction of his paintings. Balson's 'grand vision' was a living malleable pursuit and so his works could never reach a finite position; consequently his work could never not be invested with re-interpretation, and this actively included the continuity of his own accumulated history. In addition Balson's work could never be dismissed from abstract art's global history. The austere appearance of his early efforts of the 1940s in his

Constructive mode of working could not be contextualised within an Australian cultural framework of that period. Balson's alienated position existed because his work had no real connection with local art history; which up to that point, was largely rooted in the representation of landscape and the urban myth. Balson's work attempted to negate that expression and challenge the singular validity of its importance.

Balson's most repeated element was the geometric plane; and his manipulation of colour was used to unite the planes into a homogeneous composition. Due to repeated motifs and tight control over colour scheme it could be argued that no work ofBalson's

42 could be regarded as absolutely new. His work of this phase is a good example of the repetition of painting's process, but it should be appreciated that repetition in Balson's work is only part of the process. The brought forward elements lie in both the artist's knowledge and experience of past works. Each new work by Balson contains inherited parts from his previous investigations which means each new work is grounded in his personal history, and the continuity of renewal became a programmed formula by which he moved forward. Balson was an accumulator of 'parts', to frame and magnify his quest for his 'grand vision'. Balson naturally took something from his previous work, not only but also to ensure a continuity of practice but, to invest new work with something of his previous works.

Constructive Painting No. 10, 1944, (p.44), clearly illustrates a continuity of purpose and a transferring of motifs from, for example, the previous work discussed (p.41).

Constructive Painting No. I 0 is composed of geometric planes and rectangles in flat ensemble. Small rectangular planes are framed by larger planes and again the larger are contrasted with floating disks which in this work don't float to the degree they did in the earlier painting. The colour scheme in this work is weighter and Balson employs greater colour contrast to delineate the planes and disks as they hold together the compositional tension. Imported from previous works is his compositional scaffold of geometric planes and recognition of surface immediacy to negate the sense of three-dimensional space.

The new investment resides in the colour scheme, and because colour is Balson's inquiry, he delights in its purity of colour as one of nature's given pleasures. Balson

43 Constructive Painting No. 10, 1944, oil on cardboard mounted on plywood, 55.3 x 65.5,

National Gallery of Australia.

44 provides little certainty for interpretation, but at least he provides delight in the immediacy of the plasticity of artist's pigments m oil medium. In considering the pioneering attitude imbued in Balson's work it is necessary to acknowledge his awareness of social and spatial change in urban development. It is plausible that his

Constructive work could be interpreted as a metaphor for the changing developments in urban architectural space. Balson's life as a house painter; working in suburbia, enabled him to observe his local enviromnent and note life's repetition and ordinariness. He painted flat colours on flat walls of houses and then on weekends he directed his workday experiences onto artist's supports. In the Constructive works we can see the corollary between Balson's experience as a house painter and his ideas transplanted as geo-maps onto artist's supports. Balson' s mix of formal and informal compositional structure disturbs the otherwise expected symmetricality of urban planning and suggests allowances for territorical segregation and population travel. Balson's paintings as urban overviews are of course illusory and innocent. They are illusory precisely because his topographicals don't fit the expected; and they represent an austere expression of human urbanism.

In Balson's work we may observe a sense of planography, an architectural modularisation of the urbanscape, where any real sense of community space is rendered minimal in the name of development, progress and profit; perhaps symbolised by the absence of flora. Balson' s Constructive paintings suggest a dehumanised urban geography, or an implied urban space which has undergone a morphological change resulting in tensions. Balson either expresses a new urban planning as ideal or he has responded to his own, worked urbanscape. If Balson's urban maps are ideological then these Constructive paintings are optimistic, showing Modernism's way to new social

45 order and geometric planning. Balson has expressed how the urban illustrates itself through its very existence, one layer after another in turn explaining its intricacy.

Irrespective, Balson' s paintings are possibly a personal statement about his own ordered urban existence. They state that he is located within his own field, his own template, mapped out as yet another signifier toward his 'grand vision'.

Balson's Constructive Painting, 1948, (p.47) suggests an urban blandness in minimal colour scheme. The painting possibly maps a locale void of entertainment and variety, merely a place of ordinary habits. The work suggests a state empty of spiritual or immaterial collectiveness; instead we have a sameness of the physical and a repetition of the urban paradigm. Balson' s vista is incorporeal and its only concession to the possibility of living lies in the minimal sense of mobility in the interplay between an interpretative possibility of positive and negative space.

Balson provided little or no explanation as to the basis of his work, however, perhaps the most telling and by far the most interesting comment he ever made about his own work was, in part, "As one grows older one contemplates more and more, and maybe the ultimate goal of all the arts is the ineffable."2 If Balson sought to connect with the idea of the 'ineffable', that which is unspeakable and beyond expression, then the corollary must surely be ambiguity melded and inescapably bound to the task of interpretation.

2 Ralph Balson, statement published in the catalogue for the 'Pacific Loan Exhibition,' S.S. Orcades, (October, 1956). 46 Constructive Painting, 1948, oil on cardboard, 106.8 x 71 em, National Gallery of

Victoria.

47 CHAPTER THREE

WORKS IN PASTEL 1951-1959

Balson's works in pastels have generally been unappreciated and g1ven only scant attention. To some1, they have merely been incidental acts of little importance, a group of small scale works lacking true value or meaning, particularly when compared to his impressive body of oil paintings. Balson's pastels executed between 1951 and 1959 are a body of work that represent a pause from his usually single-minded effort to create major and definitive paintings. It will be argued that these works serve both experimental and preparatory roles for the purpose of developing new expressive directions; ones which furthered his aim to validate colour as a legitimate and primary means to declare an aesthetic position about colour itself.

It is understandable that an artist like Balson would reach a point where it became necessary to investigate other challenging possibilities. Of all non-paint media, pastels provided Balson with certain qualities that produce an excellent parallel to the outcome of oil paint. There is the vibrancy and brilliance of pastel colours, their refractive quality and opacity. Their nature permits the use of colour in pure application or freely mixed to obtain a kaleidoscope of secondary and tertiary colour schemes. Best of all though, pastels provided Balson with an immediate result, unlike oils which need many days to

1 Of the major writers on Balson; Paul McGillick makes no reference to Balson's pastels in his article 'The Importance of Ralph Balson', in Aspect, No.22, October, 1981. Likewise Bruce Adams does not mention the pastels in his article 'Metaphors of Scientific Idealism: The Theoretical Background to the Paintings of Ralph Balson' in Australian Art and Architecture: Essays presented to Bernard Smith, (Melbourne, 1980). Adams, in the Ralph Balson retrospective catalogue (pp.27;30), Heide Park and Art Gallery, Victoria, 1989 and Daniel Thomas' article 'Ralph Balson' in Art and Australia, Vol. 2, No.4, March 1965 (p.257), both briefly note the existence ofBalson's pastels, but neither carry out a deep analysis of the importance of these works. 48 dry. Additionally, the small scale of his pastels enabled greater portability and freedom in execution.

Pastels allowed Balson to express in colour on an alternative surface, that of paper, and to feel a variety of 'tooth' or textual qualities different to those experienced with oil and brush on canvas or on hard board. A 'toothed' or textured paper offered Balson a new surface, unlike the almost exclusively hard and flat surfaces he painted on, with opaque flat oil paint, up to this point. Balson found that the subtle texture of paper gave him the opportunity to create texture, broken planes or strokes with pastels. Additionally, he could smudge to create tonal variation, inter-mix colours on the surface, fix colours and over-work to enrich the surface with complex layerings. Such layering provided

Balson's pastels with a richness of surface that was not present in the Constructive works.

Balson's intense use of pastels between 1951 and 1959 gave him a new lease of life. It liberated him from the strict parameters of Constructive work which he had produced for nearly 15 years. Balson's new found liberation allowed him to embrace qualities which may be described in terms of 'spontaneity' and 'intuition'.

Douglas Dundas writing about Balson's early years, stated," ... I remember only some delicate pastels shown at the monthly sketch club, particularly one of an open field with a lark in the sky". 2 Likewise, Grace Crowley recalls Balson's presence at the sketch club and seems to have been most impressed with Balson's use of colour," ... he would

2 Douglas Dundas, The Second Contemporary Australian Movement', Quarterly, Art Gallery of New South-Wales, October, 1966 p.318. The sketch club referred to operated out of Julian Ashton's Sydney Art School which Balson attended from 1922. For further information see Bruce Adam's Ralph Balson Retrospective exhibition catalogue, endnote number 3. p. 39. 49 bring to the sketch club held there every month delicious gems of colour, mostly landscapes done in pastel".3

Balson's pastel, executed in 1951, (p.Sl) is clearly derivative of his Constructive works.

Despite its origin this work exudes a different atmosphere, primarily delivered by

Balson working on a black background. His once familiar flat planes and/or shapes have given way to a robust linear statement. Traces of the geometric heritage remain, but only in the loose grid-like composition. What is most interesting about this work is its

'openness', allowing a greater presence of negative space to occupy more of the composition. Each area of negative space is in effect framed by Balson's carefully placed broad pastel strokes which act as a 'frame' for the negative areas. The 'frames' or 'boundaries' interact in two ways. Firstly, at intersections and secondly, as colour relationships. The eye is captured by the neon-like colours and spirited along these strokes only to periodically drop off into an absorbing suction-like blackness, a place of contrasting calm and stillness. More interesting, still, is the 'surface' evidence that informs Balson's mode of execution. His marks show not only a nervous energy but perhaps more importantly, an intuitive recognition of the vitality of colours. On the reverse of this work, Balson made another pastel work; no title, 1951 (p.53). In essence this pastel is a variation on the theme created on the recto side. The application of pigment in this composition is lighter, the marks and the shapes are mostly semi- transparent; this effect is enhanced by the subtle texture of the paper which seems to have been purposely used by Balson to lighten his motifs. Consequently, his colours are variable in shade and intensity and for the most part they are veil-like. Balson has

3 Grace Crowley, audiotape interview with Hazel de Berg, Grace Crowley Talking About Ralph Bolson, February 1966 (National Library of Australia), p.2,454.

50 Pastel of no title, 1951 , on paper, (recto), 47.8 x 60.8, National Gallery of Australia.

51 maximised the light-absorbing feature of black to contrast his electrically charged colours that vibrate over the surface.

Many have argued, as we have seen, that the basis for Balson's late Constructive works and onwards was his reportedly sound knowledge of a scientific worldview.

Additionally, it is assumed that Balson was capable of transferring this scientific awareness into visual mode; his work from the early fifties is regarded by many as a metaphor for a scientific and explainable conquest of reason over nature. (Theories that caught the general public's imagination during this period include Relativity and

Quantum Theory). Bruce Adams promotes the scientific view ofBalson's work, which gained currency in the early Fifties. Adams suggests that Balson's change of direction via his pastel works was predominately inspired by his interest in science; particularly, post-1945 and the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan. Adams explained Balson's position thus, "His [Balson's] growing acquaintance with the Theory of Relativity made

Balson realise the inadequacies of those fundamental, mechanistic views of order and regularity, which had first influenced his development into Constructive art". 4 Adams' view is not convincing. Balson's new work in pastels initially and later in paintings do not express a scientific basis for their creation; each work affirms something far more basic and tangible to him. Balson was a colourist; his pastels are about colour associations and little else. In looking at Balson's pastels one sees not a scientific theorem or mathematical equation. What we have rather is an artist's curiosity about colour and the ways in which pigments may be applied to surface. It is interesting to note that a statement by Adams in the Balson retrospective catalogue (1989) does not in any way support his own belief in there being a scientific base to Balson's work. Adams

4 Bruce Adams, Curator. Ralph Balson: A Retrospective. (catalogue). Heide Park and Art Gallery, (Victoria, 1989), p.27. 52 Pastel of no title, 1951 on paper, (verso), 47.8 x 60.8, National Gallery of Australia.

53 quotes in part the critic James Gleeson's review of the Balson and

(1920-2001) joint exhibition at the Macquarie Galleries in 1952:

Balson, after spending years on a coldly ascetic plateau contemplating the fascinations of the rectangle with unrelenting fixity, has suddenly descended into a fantastic and delightful jungle. Here in these pastel labyrinths the forms are shattered into a thousand particles which are disposed over the surface in patterns of great complexity and variety ....

Gleeson here makes no reference to science or mathematics in his interpretation of

Balson's works. Instead, Gleeson responds to the artist's use of colour and new found gestural mark making. Gleeson's response to Balson's newly developing work is most appropriate. He affirms Balson's engagement with colour and gesture, and does so in strong and engaging language.

Balson developed his pastels further and quite rapidly. He explored at this time many different gestural possibilities. His untitled pastel of 1951 (p.55), demonstrates the breadth of his exploration. This rather delicate work alludes to a passing and momentary concession to the world of representation: it hovers between that of abstraction and quasi-realism. Whether subconscious or premeditated, Balson in this pastel uses his colours less decidedly as shapes. Muted at the edges, they are laced with delineated gestures that criss-cross. Balson suggests some form of organisation, of mapping and planning. The dark grid-like structures have the effect of pushing the paler, muted colours to the background. This in turn suggests a degree of perspective and depth-of- field. In this pastel, Balson pushes the technique of tonal texture further than at any previous time. It is achieved by the way Balson applies the pastel to the textured surface

5 James Gleeson, 'Abstract Art Show Exciting', The Sun, 21 May 1952, p.48. And used by Bruce Adams in Ralph Bolson: A Retrospective, (catalogue). Heide Park and Art Gallery, (Victoria, 1989), pp.27, 30. 54 Pastel, untitled, 1951, on cream laid paper, 38.0 x 51.0, National Gallery of Australia.

55 of the paper: no shape is solid, each mark is fragmentary and uneven. Likewise the lines; many are broken and appear to be flushed with a tentative energy.

To further dispel the notion that Balson created according to a scientific dogma, Balson himself in 1956 was asked by James Gleeson, who was organising the catalogue for the

Pacific Loan exhibition, if he [Balson] could articulate for Gleeson his artistic attitude.

Balson in part declared, "I want my forms and colours to have the density and at the same time the fluidity of Joyce's words". 6 These remarks by Balson make no reference whatsoever to science. Instead, Balson notes a connection between the aims and style of writing Joyce used in works such as (1922) and A Portrait of the Artist as a

Young Man (1916), and his own manner of working. Balson would have appreciated

Joyce's ability to craft a literary work that produced free flowing, ambiguous and dreamlike sequences. Like Balson, Joyce did not concern himself with representation and chronological narrative. Both, on the contrary, preferred a sort of timelessness through ambiguity and suggestiveness.

It has often been asked if Balson created preliminary studies for his paintings, and in particular, were the pastels of this period made as preliminary studies for his new 'Non-

Objective' paintings? The answer must be in the negative. Grace Crowley has stated, "I have never Icnown him to make a sketch for a painting".7 Balson's pastels should be appreciated as a stand-alone body of work serving as an end in themselves. But, as with all of his work, the pastels do contribute to his 'grand vision', and they do constitute part of the ongoing seriality and continuity of his effort.

6 James Gleeson, 'Fluid Forms and Colours', The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 November 1967. 7 Crowley, op. cit., p.2,455. 56 No. 19, 1951, pastel on paper, 47.8 x 60.6, National Gallery of Australia.

57 Balson's pastel No. 19, 1951, (p.57), displays clearly his use of quick, intuitive mark- making and the benefit of broken colour application. This work suggests Balson is increasingly working with greater speed in execution, relying on the placement of planes, gestural strokes and colours. As in previous pastels Balson makes extensive use of the surface texture to create dry, uneven and semi-transparent layering of pigment.

The variety of marks - linear, slabs, curved, straight, block-like, opaque, thin, transparent - ail meld to produce a vital surface that is somewhat pastoral in affect. This should not surprise; Crowley, for one, has affirmed that landscape was a subject matter

Balson portrayed regularly when a member of the Sydney Art School sketch club.8

Adams draws attention to the fact that the " ... linear gestures" in Balson's pastels

"were controiled by the framework of an implied compositional grid". 9 The loose grid- like compositional device is one component of Balson's pastels that over the period in question becomes increasingly inconsequential. The formal grid matrix is slowly superseded by Balson's own confidence in his ability to freely cover the surface with marks defined by active colour relationships.

Pastel of no title, 1951 (p.59), conveys Balson's incremental developments in this medium. It is a work that signals Balson's departure from an underlying, architectural structure. The new surface flux is created by the coiiective convergence of active colours and Balson's expressive slabs and delineated shapes. Gone is the austere grid or check-like pattemation of earlier work. The composition is subtly divided, triptych-like; both lateral segments are subtly darker, leaving the central segment as a pathway

8 Crowley, op. cit. p.2,454. 9 Adams, op. cit., p.30. 58 Pastel of no title, 1951, on cream laid paper, (recto), 48.2 x 62.5, National Gallery of

Australia.

59 driving the eye up and through the composition. The paler colours of the centre segment are suggestive of a light-filled passage which is further emphasised by the bold, snaking lines that are reminiscent of linear reflections and surface movement. Batson's plan of execution appears to be deliberately two-staged. First, he blocks-in large slabs of colour, at times textured, broken and transparent. At others, he applies pigment in ways that are smooth, solid and opaque. The second stage of execution consists of a network of mostly linear scores; these perform the task of pulling the slabs of colour together; it is as though the linear network of lines behaves as an overarching skeletal framework through which we penetrate.

Despite Batson's success with the pastel works he was still subject to negative reviews.

One in the Bulletin, for example says "Some of Ralph Batson's abstract pastels, keeping company with the 'constructions', also have a decorative quality, smoother and softer in color, like designs for fabric or wall paper ... " 10

In conclusion one may sum up best with an analysis of one of Batson's consummate pastels from 1959, Pastel of no title, (p.61).

The composition is no longer strained and austere; it is a complex layering of warp and weft that draws the viewer in, and the eye can float and scan the surface freely or permit itself to descend into the levels of mostly transparent colours and gesticulating lines and counter-point dabs and planes. At an obvious level the work looks ordered and

10 Anon 'Abstract Circus', Bulletin, 28 May, 1951, p.51. 60 Pastel of no title, 1959, on paper, 54.5 x 70.5, Art Gallery ofNew South Wales.

61 patterned as if adhering to a pre-determined plan. However, a closer analysis reveals

Balson's now highly honed ability to employ colour to its most effective degree. In this pastel it appears as though Balson has employed a mustard tone as foundation, upon which he has assembled a vast array of contrasting structural motifs; primarily, these are vertical, subtly segmented and contrasted with loose overlaid calligraphic - like swirls that float about the vertical columns. Muted blues, greens, browns and black form not only a contrast for the columns, but also behave lace-like to unify the composition. The columns proper are further defined by the broad, dry and transparent sweeps of white wash. The latter float free from the tangled weave created by Balson's twisting and arching wrist action in the application of pastel to paper.

This pastel is complete in all respects. It declares a harmonious colouration and balanced composition; its structural components meld perfectly with Balson's 'active colours'. Consequently, the work declares nothing but Balson's self belief in seeking a purity of colour aesthetics. Balson's 'active colours' are stated not as austere rigid planes, but as colour truly liberated. Colour is now 'formless' and offers greater optical oscillation. In an interview with the writer, Robert Klippel was asked what he thought ofBalson's pastels. He replied, "Outstanding of that period". 11

"Robert Klippel, audio tape interview with Kevin Hegarty, About Ralph Raison, 21 October 1999. 62 CHAPTER FOUR

THE NON-OBJECTIVE

Balson's Non-Objective works executed from 1955 to 1959 had their genesis in the pastel works on paper, produced from 1951 to 1959. As stated earlier, Balson's pastels do two things; firstly they hold their own as a self-directed, independent body of work.

Secondly, despite their stand-alone claim and independence they also simultaneously express Balson's innovative and developing concepts, consequently these are works of experimentation and transition too.

Balson's transition to the Non-Objective phase is not immediately apparent in the works themselves. Initially the link existed cerebrally; together with his cumulated experience and desire to develop his art further. The newfound freedom evident in his pastels became a conduit which moved Balson forward with freshness and confidence. The freeing up of his expression and use of colour was derived from Balson trusting his intuitive powers; this enabled him to take a leap, to explore and utilise a new visual language.

Balson's new body of work celebrates his liberation of colour, and his surfaces yield an explosive investigation into the workings and application of his 'active colours'. It is in these new works that Balson aimed for a utopian outcome; a pursuit obliged with his concept of the 'grand vision'. This new body of work, referred to as Non-objective, affirms Balson's true motive; that colour for him could perhaps express an even broader range of ideas and/or emotions.

63 Balson's works from 1955 are not only about the autonomy of his colours, they are also in a small way about his own personal freedom. Retirement in 1955 gave Balson the time to devote all his energies to his art. And this gave fire to a most productive period.

As late as 1957 some critics still failed to understand or appreciate the importance of abstraction as a legitimate means of questioning and/or confronting contemporary life.

One critic responded to Balson's solo exhibition at David Jones' Gallery, 19-28 June

1957, with, "The decorative element in this collection ranges from tight geometric patterns suitable for kitchen floor coverings to loose swirls or confetti clusters of color that would make rather dashing textile designs". 1 Negative and condescending remarks such as these did not seem to dent Balson's resolve to steadfastly move forward, by extending his experimentation with colour and his new found gestural freedom, discovered initially by way of the pastel works on paper.

Balson's new paintings are remarkably vital, exuding textural richness, built up by a complex inter-relationship of subtle and contrasting hues that enliven the surface. For example, Abstract 1956, 1965, (p.66) shows a remarkable departure from his earlier constructive mode of working. Remarkable for two reasons; firstly, Balson now engages the surface with an astounding array of brush marks and strokes that deposited pigment in a most complex fashion. Balson's colours alone are one thing, but what makes his colours perform as they do lies in the variety of application, done so with a mix of intuition and control. These new works display discipline at work, in order to liberate colour. As James Gleeson wrote, "There is discipline, but it is a discipline aimed at freedom". 2

1 Anon., 'Painters and Painting', Mirror, 20 June, 1957. 2 James Gleeson, 'Artist Ahead of his Time'. Sun, 17 July, 1968. 64 In essence, Balson consistently utilised this approach to painting and it was equally applied to all phases of his artistic career, but particularly in the Non-Objective works.

We see intuition as the device used to achieve 'active colour' freedom with control.

Secondly, Balson achieves a remarkably variegated surface; the surface is not dependant on any formal compositional structure as in his earlier Constructive work. In the painting discussed above colours and their relationship is where the fundamental aesthetic truth resides. This painting not only breathes 'active colours' but also 'active texture'; this was achieved by Balson layering small dabs of pigment and employing scumbling to slowly build-up a rich surface texture. What Balson has achieved here is a mobile surface constituted by a myriad of colour relations, arrived at through a combination of calligraphic-type lines and dabs of opaque and scumbled pigment. This method enabled some under colours to optically mix, giving the surface a jewel-like appearance. Perhaps Balson's only concession to his previous mode of working lies in the uniformity and balance of surface activity, in other words the composition is a symmetrical network of harmonious rhythm in colour aesthetics, it is not, for example, a full blown abstract expressionist painting.

It is with reference to the Non-Objective paintings that some commentators have suggested that Balson' s work finds legitimacy by way of ascribing and assimilating a scientific basis to explain his motives. Again, we need to quote. Bruce Adams, He writes:

Einstein especially fired his imagination, and during the 1950s changed his conception of the physical world and, correspondingly, his art. His acquaintance with Einstein's Theory of Relativity exposed the short comings of his more fundamental, mechanistic view of order and regularity ... ,

65 Abstract 1956, 1956, oil on hardboard, 55.3 x 65.2, Art Gallery ofNew South Wales.

66 static unity gave way to the continuous flux and variability of an entopic, unbound universe. It was a conceptual break which facilitated a stylistic shift, from the finite geometry of the Constructive Paintings towards more explanatory, painterly procedures. 3

To suggest that Balson's new work of the 1950s was brought about by him having developed a familiarity with Einstein's Theory of Relativity is fanciful. Neither

Balson's titles nor the paintings themselves directly promote themselves as being expressions of scientific theory or law, nor for that matter do they express scientific concepts in metaphorical terms. If scientific theory relates to the tangible universe it cannot successfully be extrapolated from Balson's paintings. They are not concrete in their expression; the very ambiguity of his art precludes any notion of certainty arising from a scientific theory. The only certainty to be claimed from Balson's Non-Objective work is their uncertainty. The nearest Balson comes to certainty is in that which is imbedded in his 'expressive colours'.

The strength of Balson's work comes from the direct response each work invokes, not from external concepts subsequently applied. Furthermore, it is reasonable to view

Balson's Non-Objective work as simply a logical development of the seriality of his working method. Change in his oeuvre, it could be argued, was inevitable; he did not need Einstein and science as the trigger for this. Such a change after a prolonged period of tightly controlled work was required to further develop his artistic practice. Balson was too inquisitive by nature to permit himself to stagnate any longer than necessary.

The geometric devices as a means by which Balson could display his ever developing

3 Bruce Adams, 'Metaphors of Scientific Idealism: The Theoretical Background to the Paintings of Ralph Balson'. In Australian Art and Architecture: Essays Presented to Bernard Smith, eds. Anthony Bradley and Terry Smith. (Melbourne, 1980), pp.l87-188. 67 'active colours' had outlived their usefulness; his new vrswn entailed a far more

complex surface of colour modulation.

To return to Adams. He weakens his own premise regarding Einstein and Relativity,

when he additionally states that:

Through Joyce, Balson may have become more sympathetic to the automatist and psychoanalytical procedures of , also seminal to painters he now admired most, such as Pollock [1912-1956] ... Joyce gave him a feeling for the relative precariousness and ambiguity of things, which connected with his metaphysic of universal flux and change. The limitless fields of the Non-Objective Paintings were quite evocative of this, they alluded to some condition of the sublime, that which Balson preferred to call 'the ineffable' .4

Here Adams suggests a move away from the 'certainty' of science to the subjectivity of

'the ineffable', and the provocative nature of ambiguity. It seems Adams is not entirely

certain about his premise that Balson's Non-Objective paintings are about lofty,

scientific concepts. If Adams now promotes qualities in Balson's work that align with

similar qualities in the work of Joyce; then it is difficult to accept, that Balson's work is

a metaphor for scientific ideas.

Adams does however offer one concession to an appropriate reading ofBalson's work,

when he refers to the notion of the sublime being a quality sought by Balson. The

sublime though was not created by scientific concepts, but through Balson's 'active

colours' arrangements.

4 Ibid., p.l88. 68 Painting 1957, 1957, tempera and synthetic polymer paint on composition board, 129.0 x 152.3, National Gallery of Australia.

69 Balson's painting titled Painting 1957, 1957, (p.69) illustrates the remarkable surface consistency of Balson's work of this period. The surface quality in the seriality of his production was achieved by maintaining the highest standards of execution; by this we mean the manner in which he built-up his surfaces, and more importantly in splendid, yet complex colour relationships, stated and expressed in a multitude of gestural marks.

It is in the manner in which Balson has scored the surface; with exuberant brush work that adds vitality to the deliverance of each colour both singularly and collectively. The surface in this work is gestural by way of calligraphic brush marks that are curvilinear and restless rather than static. Balson has worked this surface up with a balance of colour contrast: strands of dark blues and greens juxtaposed with pale blue-green and off white; together with his linear strokes there is a suggestion that he has created a lmotted surface that manages to suggest a multi-directional discharge. There is also just a hint of similar surface treatment and brush work with that of some of Ian

Fairweather's (1891-1974) work. Both artists managed work of great lyrical quality.

The association doesn't end there; Balson has used tempera and synthetic polymer paint, a medium used mostly by Fairweather, consequently this painting by Balson, like most of Fairweather's presents a chalky-dry quality.

Balson's use of this medium yet agam proves his great curiosity and ongoing preparedness to investigate new ideas and materials. He was one of the first Australian artists to experiment with synthetic polymer/acrylic paint and masking tape, but masking tape did not provide a surface or edge that provided him with the sensibility he sought. The medium used in this painting provides a sense of lightness due to the relatively flat nature of the paint, compared to the 'body' or impasto quality of oil paint.

70 This 'flatness', as we have already suggested, may be the result ofBalson's life-time of house painting; painting in large, flat surfaces.

A review ofBalson's solo exhibition at David Jones' Art Galleries, Sydney, 19-28 June,

1957, in the Herald seems an attempt to firmly locate Balson and his art within the

English tradition. The review in this regard is misleading and fails to account for the

European and hence international influences that in varying degrees shaped Balson's early work. The review says in part:

But the sentiment behind it all is as English as Turner [1775- 1851] and the school of English watercolour .... the lyrical flow here is disciplined, for it is not only the restrained virtuoso gesture that the English temperament adores, but also neatness - full marks are always given for neatness. Heaven knows how the lyrical and the carefully tidy mind should ever amalgamate, but the English always achieve it and so does Ralph Balson. 5

The thrust of this review fails to identify Balson as an artist whom at that time was emersed in contemporary practice with a keen eye on international developments.

Balson had never exclusively identified English art practice as having been important to him. Furthermore his colours are anything but English. Of greater significance to

Balson was the impact of the events and circumstances that permeated local Australian cultural activity.

In contrast to the previous revrew, another about the same exhibition admirably discusses Balson' s work, outlining a method by which we might better understand his work. It says:

' , 'Four New Exhibitions in Sydney', Herald, 19 June, 1957. 71 Balsom [sic] expresses himself in color and unrecognisable form and, in the words of another critic, 'if we are to enjoy these paintings at all we must abandon ourselves wholly to them so that the waves role through us and we become part of the storm. Then perhaps we may reach the still and ineffable centre and know a new aesthetic pleasure' .6

These observations deal directly with the work in question by stating that viewers must resist preconceived expectations and, instead allow themselves to be drawn into the paintings, while accepting them as they are and for what they are - abstract. It was

Balson and others like him who tried to invigorate Australian cultural activity by engaging with international developments. As James Gleeson wrote, "He [Balson] was not concerned with the events or circumstances of daily living, or even with the human condition in a more general sense". 7 And more precisely perhaps, Patrick McCaughey sums up Balson's attitude by saying that, "Balson aligned himself and his art with the most advanced movements of his time. He chose, not consciously perhaps, to work on the frontiers of art where the idea of what a painting should be was the powerful motive for the artist''. 8

Balson more than most responded to developments and events unfolding at the international level. It was at this level that he felt genuinely challenged by the depth of esoteric discourse about the purpose of art; that perhaps, through abstraction, he could contemplate not 'answers', but instead develop a facility to 'question' via interpretation.

Balson requires the observer to question the essence of abstraction, and the tools he

6 'Art Bursts', The Bulletin, 26 June, 1957. 7 James Gleeson, 'Chance work of a Genius', The Sun Herald, 1 June, 1969. 8 Patrick McCaughey, 'Balson, the Classic Story', Age, 13 August, 1968. McCaughey like Gleeson believed Balson was interested in visual arts developments overseas, this is not contested in this thesis, despite making a claim that Balson 's work as a house painter played a subconscious role in his work (Constructive). 72 offered for interpretation were essentially his 'active colours', and to a lesser extent the vitality released from his muted surface texture. It is plausible to consider that Batson didn't reach this position until after he had been challenged by a painting by Jean-Paul

Riopelle (1923- ), owned by Robert Klippel, who lent it to Batson in about 1951. As

Daniel Thomas writes," ... [Balson] firmly disapproved, doubtless for its subjectivity as well as for its relative incoherence and, however tempting to see a belated influence from it in the first painterly oil of 1957, ... 9 It could be argued that Batson's first

'painterly' works have an earlier date, for example Abstract 1956, (p.66) but the real point here is that Batson would have gained much by having had time to meditate on the qualities in Riopelle's painting.

Batson's engagement with colour and intuitive placement of marks and dabs are about his desire to form an idea using colour; that would evoke a sublime response. Painting

1958, 1958, (p.74), presents evidence of his ongoing seriality of practice. Within his broad 'grand vision' this constituent work reveals yet again subtle variation; the outcome of continued experimentation and search for a means to express his personal actuality. Batson's colour scheme and scoring of the surface with brush-marks functions in perfect harmony to create a painting that engages the eye in continuous navigation.

His enticing lolly-pop colour scheme, balanced in pigment counterpoint guaranteed compositional unity. The surface is fluid and active, strongly assisted by his expanded marking capabilities of the surface, the latter achieved with unctuous paint in dabs, dots, flicked slashes and delicate calligraphic twists. Daniel Thomas describes Batson's method of construction thus, "Batson's technique at this time; the dabs of paint are

9 Daniel Thomas, 'Ralph Balson', Art and Australia, Vol. 2., No.4, 1965, p.257. 73 Painting 1958, 1958, oil on hardboard, 68.6 x 91.5, Art Gallery ofNew South Wales.

74 distributed with much care; they are given additional touches of related colour for extra vibrancy; above all the dabs and spots invariably coalesce in a central area of heightened concentration and activity, ... " 10 Likewise, describes Balson's paintings of the period as having, " ... the entire surface covered by an unbroken, exquisitely modulated pelt of shimmering dots and dabs. These light-filled walls for keeping objects out seemed to extend for ever, beyond the edges of the frame". 11 The views of by both Thomas and Hughes have also been expressed by others, for example,

Ronald Millar, who says:

In the same way, Balson's painted values never cease to re-group, going off in independent transports, changing course, clustering and clotting. They concentrate momentarily in selected areas, collecting in brilliant array, gathering strength before hurling themselves through and over and under other sets of marks going in different directions. Skeins of multi-coloured dabs underlap in layers to suggest that the rich tapestry of creation is made up of contradictory, intransigent creatures which at some stage or other will fuse because the artist forces them into an intermittent action and reaction. 12

What is significant about these descriptions is that they allude to Balson's methods of construction; to promote and liberate colour as subject matter in its own right. These descriptions in effect narrate Balson' s process, where he mixes colours are increasingly mixed intuitively freedom, while maintaining firm control over the manner in which surfaces are built up. Balson's surface layering and mark making are always variations on a theme or ideal, and they form the seriality of his practice. This seriality is imbedded in his method of construction, a twofold process: one being colour relations and the other being the method by which he inscribed colour on the surface.

10 Ibid. 11 Robert Hughes, The Art ofAustralia, (Ringwood, 1970), p.253. 12 Ronald Millar, Civilized Magic, (Toorak, 1974), p.65. 75 James Gleeson has been one commentator who has consistently responded to Balson's

oeuvre via the actual works themselves, rather than some notional, external idea.

Balson's work of this period expressed an expansive attitude and response not only to

international art, but more importantly to his own circumstances, and, the still

frustrating context in which he worked. Abstraction in the Fifties in Australia was still

little understood and tolerated. Despite this background, he forged ahead and

progressively advanced his method of painting to allow colour to truly represent itself

for no other purpose except to demonstrate its unbounded possibilities. Gleeson writes:

It is difficult to explain the fascination of spotted abstracts .... yet one is conscious of the fact that they exercise an almost hypnotic power. Standing in contemplation before such a painting is rather like watching the movement of water. It is always different yet always the same. You see a broken surface catching the light in a thousand points of brightness, and then, by a process of empathy, you begin to sense the current stirring beneath the surface. 13

These words invoke a quasi -religious expenence m front of a Balson painting; a

mediative experience as it were, one would not generally associate with a hard-edged

scientific theory. Indeed, Gleeson does not even hint at matters scientific as a means to

explain Balson's motives. Instead, he prefers to address Balson's work in terms of his

actual working methodology.

Daniel Thomas has hinted with an explanation of Balson's work that takes account of

scientific texts that he had in his possession. Thomas writes that " ... his [Balson] first book on Einstein was bought in 1948. Another came in 1955, with Hoyle's Frontiers of

13 James Gleeson, Modern Painters 1931-1970. (Melbourne, 1971), p.104. 76 Astronomy, and in 1959 there were more books on Einstein, plus "The Atom and the energy Revolution" and similar books". 14

Balson's acquisition of such texts, do not necessarily validate the idea that his artistic concepts and pursuit were formed on the basis of their content. Balson like most in society during the Fifties would not have escaped the wave of post-war optimism in technological advances. A person of his curiosity and love of reading may have acquired such texts, (and others) out of general inquiry. Many such writings tried to explain complex concepts and developments, and in doing so created a form of scientific popularism that only offered in the end, a shallow overview. Balson as a lay person in matters scientific would not have been able to form a deep and thorough insight into complex scientific theory. Furthermore, his work does not express such possibilities at all. At best, Balson may have found it convenient to use 'scientific speak' to explain to himself and others that which he couldn't explain through his work.

Balson's Painting No.9, 1959, (p.78), is a rather tight work that reflects his occasional need to check back on his ongoing programme of episodic production. Such checking affirms his forward development, but the negative to this process is that some works that refer backwards yield a stifled outcome; he surrenders his intuitive flow to that of exacting replication of ground already covered. This work has that effect.

David Aspden (1953- )and Paul McGillick discuss this painting, and their analysis highlights Balson's method of construction and his drive to attain an aesthetic sublime through the language of pigment. Both suggest that Balson was in fact attempting to a

14 Thomas, op. cit., p.258. 77 Painting No. 9, 1959, synthetic polymer on hardboard, 137.0 x 137.0, Art Gallery of

New South Wales.

78 articulate personal response to both internal and external events via a purely sensory medium. Neither writers hint at other influences, such as science and mathematics to explain Balson's purpose. Aspden argues that the focus ofthe work is colour:

Painting No. 9, a title as resolutely non descriptive as the work itself, it is one of the most subtle of the 'spotties' .... it appears at first to be mostly of pale colours- pinks, off whites, pale greys and so on, but on closer inspection it reveals many other brighter colours - purple, orange, blue and green, a good example of the relativity of colour. The brighter touches seem to be sandwiched in between and under the jostling larger and paler dabs. Further small flicks, spots and spidery lines of pale grey are over the top of all this, somehow helping to bind the painting together as a unity. 15

Here Aspden thoughtfully investigates the complexity of Balson's colouration. He clearly explains the structural layering Balson needed to achieve the jewel-like surface of dynamic colour that vibrates and pulsates evenly across the picture plane. Aspden articulates Balson's lmowledge of colour and his ability to compose harmonious compositional structures. The strength in Balson's compositional structures was generated by the manner in which he placed complimentary hues to provide appropriate colour contrasts.

Such contrasts were generally used by Balson to create linear structures that in turn provided the composition with multi-directional possibilities. It must be kept in mind though, that such devices were employed by Balson in very subtle ways; he intended every work to remain ambiguous, so no singular lineal device was permitted to control the composition. By moderating these lineal structures Balson ensured the primacy of colour in each work.

15 David Asp den, 'Ralph Balson: Painting No. 9', Art and Australia, Vol. 22, No. I, 1984, pp.94- 95. 79 Additionally, the centrality of colour was permitted by the subduing or negating of other elements within the field. Aspden addressed this consideration when he wrote, "He

(Balson) seemed to have been concerned with the idea of a painting as an autonomous object, not necessarily tied down to the so-called world of appearances, and having a reality of its own". 16

Paul McGillick's analysis of Painting No. 9 demonstrates the considered degree to which Balson went to work-up his surface. Of particular note is McGillick's list of

Balson's mark makings used to produce a surface of fluidity and coalescence.

McGillick declares the variety of brush-strokes as almost representing a vocabulary:

I. largish, circular white dabs; these are literally on the surface of the painting, but

are in tension with 'warmer' colours which are thrusting up from underneath.

2. short, square dabs.

3. long and short, thin strokes, most vertical, but some veering away.

4. thin skeins of white paint, sometimes continuous and sometimes broken.

5. thick extended strokes, mainly in white

6. thin, horizontal dashes, mainly orange. (the colour here refers to a specific

painting McGillick was discussing).

77. (sic) white spotting, deriving from fragmented white skeins. 17

Together, Aspden and McGillick demonstrate the fact that Balson's extensive colour scheme when compounded with a large variety of mark making guarantees a surface field that reverberates with rich colour and texture.

16 Ibid. 17 Paul McGillick, 'The Importance of Ralph Balson', Aspect, No. 22, 1981, p.J6. 80 In contrast to Painting No. 9 is Non-Objective Painting 1959, 1959, (p.82), Here Balson advances his ideas on two fronts. Firstly, in his variety and scale of brush work and secondly, the colour scheme is considerably stronger than in most of the other paintings from this period. The application of pigment is enhanced by a greater variation in the size of marks and strokes; most are small dabs with larger intermittently placed shapes spread over a very fluid field. Balson's mark making is further charged by his irregularly placed lineal vertical gestures; these fleeting slices appear predominately in the foreground, while the middle ground has an intense gathering of smaller dots and dashes.

The majority of Balson's marks and shapes in this painting and their matrix-like placement ensure a sense of cohesion. The slender, vertical lines lead the eye up into the middle of the composition where there is a greater coalescence of similar gestural statements. The colour scheme is bold, vibrant and active. Such a scheme could be described as festive, due to the predominance of primary hues. The balance in the colour schema is shifted to the warmer aspect, where Balson is able to promote these latter hues by cleverly juxtaposing them with complementary, cool colour. Balson's colouration is essentially composed of a predominance of warm oranges, reds, yellows contrasted with some cool purples, greens and turquoise-like hues. The surface of this painting is both opaque and weighty. These qualities Balson achieved by systematically layering-up the application of selective colours to construct a paradigm that reflected the seriality of his works. As indicated elsewhere, Balson's process was integral to his purpose. James Gleeson had a keen understanding of this aspect, as suggested when he wrote: "With Balson the organisation of his painting always remains a means to an end.

81 Non-Objective Painting 1959, 1959, enamel on composition board, 91.5 x 137.5,

National Gallery of Australia.

82 All the curbs and restraints, the discipline and finely considered ordering are aimed at the release of colour into an ideal freedom". 18

To further demonstrate Balson's aims and to note his development, it is important to consider another painting of the same year, Untitled, 1959, (p84). This illustrates

Balson's departure from tightly controlled surface mapping and placement of brush marks and colour schemes. The painting evidences Balson's personal development and ongoing attempts to reach a new form of expression. Despite his steady and seemingly meticulous approach to the construction of his work he was not adverse to experimentation and exploration. Part of his strategy was to gradually permit a greater intuitive element into his use of colour and consideration of its placement. In this painting we observe Balson's use of colour in a more explosive manner, and one is immediately reminded of bold Fauve-like works in the manner of Maurice Vlaminck

(1876-1958) and Andre Derain (1880-1954). Balson's colours speak loudly and with authority; they are boldly stated, not in small dabs as in previous works, but now in

'poster' size slabs of 'thunder' and 'whack'. The seriality of working remains, essentially by way of compositional layout and concentration. Despite these elements, however, Balson has expanded his own 'handwriting' to produce what could be thought of as a macro version of some earlier Non-Objective works.

Additionally, this painting is also less synergistic than previous Non-Objective ones; it contains less harmony across the surface, and instead we have a restless, agitated field which is forceful in its purpose. The work is not without some conscious architectural

18 James Gleeson, 'A New Father Figure of Art', The Sun Herald, 29 October, 1967. 83 Untitled, 1959, enamel on composition board, 61.0 x 68.5, National Gallery of

Australia.

84 gesture and hint of figuration. Both possibilities meld together with ease and infuse the surface with action, not in shape or via brush stroke, but powerfully with 'active colour'. The rawness of the surface is further achieved by his semi-impasto layering of pigment in an aggressive manner. Balson has considered a greater variety of shape; from small dabs to large sweeping slabs of strong resolute colour. The tension of previous works has dissipated; this Balson has brought about by working vigorously and physically to induce a greater reliance on his intuition. The outcome of such robust effort is an invigorating sensibility which ensures the painting's sustainability;

Balson's exhibition of thirty-five Non-Objective works and eleven pastels, held at the

Blaxland Galleries, Sydney in 1960 was generally well reviewed in the press. Gleeson, for example, wrote in part:

The paint does not gesture or perform, or convey any message for which the mind could find precise words. All the accepted formulae of design are discarded. Fragments of colour are held together in a tenuous sort oftension. 19

Gleeson, of course, is writing in a populist publication, the Sun. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that he makes no reference to highfalutin scientific theories to validate Balson's work. On the contrary, it is colour that is emphasised. And rightly so. Balson's paintings work best when our attention is focussed on their colours and their ability to puzzle, surprise and delight.

19 James Gleeson, 'Balson's Paintings Discard Design', Sun, 13 January, 1960. 85 CHAPTER FIVE

SERENDIPITOUS MATTER PAINTINGS 1958/59-1962

Balson's Matter Paintings represent a marked departure from his previous work. This seemingly abrupt change in mode of working has raised questions about the purpose of these works. Additionally, there remains considerable doubt in the mind of some, about the quality and meaning of the paintings themselves. The diversity of opinion about these works revolves around the ubiquitous view that Balson's art was a metaphor for a scientific explanation of the universe. The word 'Matter' as applied to Balson's work, by some, has implied that the use of the word should be firmly associated with science, and therefore the 'Matter Paintings' are about science and its ability to convey a form of truth. For example, J. Henshaw writing about Balson's Matter Paintings says: "Some of these spatters look very much like models of organic molecules from a biochemists laboratory. Others resemble photographs of the universe, the light traces of atomic particles or microscopic slides of bacteria or fungi - all sub-human images of current coin in the modem interpretation of the material world". 1 As with Balson's previous work, it will be shown that the Matter Paintings are actually about other issues pertaining to the process of constructing art, and his use of 'active colour'. Balson's fundamental concern was always colour; the Matter Paintings simply provided him with yet another means by which he could further extend this language.

The date attributed to the first Matter Painting is uncertain, but on the basis of a painting listed in a Watters Gallery (Sydney) catalogue for an exhibition celebrating the work of

1 J. Henshaw, 'Spattering and Scattering', Bulletin, 24 February, 1962. 86 2 Balson and James Clifford (1936-1987), 15 June- 2 July 1994 , we may cautiously suggest 1958 as the point of departure. The work is titled Matter Painting and is dated c.1958. The date of commencement of the Matter Paintings is not a critical issue, although it does suggests that Balson's move from one mode of working to the next was not abrupt. The early date suggests Balson began what might be called Proto-Matter

Paintings before his first overseas trip in 1960. Bruce Adams, however, states an alternative view: "After his exposure to European Tachism and Art Informal during a trip to England and France in 1960, Balson commenced his last major series, the Matter

Paintings".3 Balson's trip in 1960 included travel to New York, England and France, and it is widely thought that his Matter Paintings are a direct result of his exposure to contemporary developments in those countries. In particular it has been reported that

Balson's Matter Paintings were inspired by artists like Jean Dubufet [1901-1985],

Antonio Tapies [1923- ] and Alberto Burri [1915-1965] in a more or less direct sense, and that the earliest Matter works were created while in Europe. 4

As Balson had held a solo show in Paris in 1960 of Matter Paintings, however, it would appear that in order to put together a body of quality Matter Paintings for an exhibition, he more than likely experimented with such works before 1960, while still in Sydney.

This scenario may help explain the early date indicated in the Watters Gallery catalogue. Either way, Balson's new work again displays a revelatory attitude toward his ongoing quest to seek out his 'grand vision'.

2 Geffrey Legge, Ralph Raison and James Clifford Paintings (Catalogue), Watters Gallery, Sydney, 15 June- 2 July, 1994. 3 Bruce Adams, 'Metaphors of Scientific Idealism: The Theoretical Background to the Paintings of Ralph Balson'. In Australian Art and Architecture; Essays Presented to Bernard Smith, eds. Anthony Bradley and Terry Smith, (Melbourne, 1980), p.l89. 4 Daniel Thomas, 'Ralph Balson', Art and Australia, Vol.2, No.4, 1965. pp. 259, 290. 87 As we have seen, many have sought to explain Balson's Matter paintings with quasi- scientific dogma, and this is because his images have in a vague way displayed characteristics similar to some astronomical images that depict a violent cosmos.

Exponents of this type of view include Bruce Adams and Daniel Thomas, and others.

However, it should be noted that Adams in relation to the Matter Paintings had softened his scientific stance and reorganised his view to encompass a recognition that Balson's use of the word 'matter' was not strictly of scientific intent. Adams' originally strong view on the scientific base as a motive for Balson's work is now tempered to accommodate, it seems, a possibility that Balson's work was actually motivated by other concerns. For example, Adams said in relation to the Matter Paintings:

And then, despite the affirmation and idealism with which he had always embraced scientific theory, by 1962 he had come to recognise the human difficulties implied by his theoretical stance . . . He [Balson] described a "world of ceaseless movement where reality is nothingness and nothingness is reality". 5

A previously strong promoter of Balson's work as metaphor for scientific idealism,

Adams now suggests his work contains broader possibilities. The concept of the scientific, however, still lies close to the surface. In Balson's case, 'matter' was not about a scientific theory, but about his own interaction with his media and the importance of colour to convey sensory messages. Balson confirms this when he says

"I try to find out what the substance of paint will give me, to make a painting, a Matter

Painting". 6

5 Ibid. 6 John Reed, "New Painting 1952-1962", (Melbourne, 1963). p.30. 88 Paul McGillick has declared, "They (Balson' s Matter Paintings) were his worst

paintings. For the first time and only time he tried to paint a theory and the result was

that impulse and realisation became distanced". 7 G.R. Lansell also describes Balson's

Matter Paintings as ".... the least successful, employing a variety of abstract

expressionist techniques from swathes of paint to baked, cracked surfaces". 8 Both

McGillick and Lansell dismiss Balson' s Matter Paintings as lesser works, but do so for

different reasons. Their respective views perhaps signal the difficulty in appreciating the

context in which Balson created these paintings. McGillick for example thinks that

Balson himself terminated the Matter Paintings on the basis that, "Balson seems to have

sensed the false turning, because at the end of his life he returned to the Non-Objective

'dab' paintings of the SO's ... "9

McGillick' s view is speculative; there can be many reasons for an artist reverting to an

earlier mode of working. In Balson's case, the return to a Non-Objective mode acts as a means by which he could check the validity and worth of the new Matter Paintings. In a

sense the Matter Paintings are chronologically contextualised and framed by the Non-

Objective work both before, and post, Matter Paintings. The latter, despite being

encompassed by Non-Objective Paintings must be viewed as forming a constituent of

Balson' s 'grand vision'.

The value attributed to the Matter Paintings is a value that in essence only Balson knew,

and it was his knowledge and experience of them (the Matter Paintings) that makes the

works important. Balson understood their value and necessity as being part of his

7 Paul McGillick, 'The Importance of Ralph Balson', Aspect, No. 22, October, 1981. p.6. 8 G.R. Lansell, 'Ralph Balson', Nation, 31 August, 1968. p.18. 9 McGillick, op.cit. 89 personal and artistic development. He was always connected to his medium; he was coupled with the qualities of paint, and paint percolated colour, his most important element. That said, in some of the Matter Paintings, Balson's usually flamboyant colours were reduced to minimal hues, and in some works were even paired back to black and white monochromatic statements.

For Balson, the method he used in creating the Matter Paintings was simply a means by which he might be able to extract something unexpected, that would enable colour to discover yet unlmown qualities, or, as Balson himself alluded to, the 'ineffable'. It is the inquisitiveness, the energy and experience that Balson gained in executing the Matter

Paintings that elevates them above the labels 'good' or 'bad' paintings.

One of the most vibrant ofBalson's Matter works, Matter Painting 1960, 1960, (p.91), can only be described as a work that screams out its colours in a Fauve-like manner. It is composed in an Abstract Expressionist mode, unlike the latter Matter Paintings which were poured and colours permitted to meld. The thick unctuous-like paint deposits here and there light impasto which assists in giving the work some textual vitality. The paint has coalesced in places, while in other areas there is a hint of a pentimento-Iike surface structure. But as with the majority of all of Balson's work, it is colour that first and foremost expresses his state of mind at the time of construction. Incandescent, it emits light in pigmented form, that yields a 'hot' painting tempered by traces of cool blue.

This painting, it seems to me suggests that Balson felt he was at a point, yet again, of developing new and exciting work.

90 Matter Painting 1960, 1960, enamel on composition board, 91.3 x 122.2, National

Gallery of Australia.

91 To return to the essay of Bruce Adams, cited earlier, he says that: "The Matter Paintings

did mark a conclusive point in Balson's thinking. Paint was presented for what it was, a

physical substance on a surface, obeying physical laws" .10 This view negates the lofty

ideas associated with science, and instead suggests Balson's concerns have more to do

with the properties of thick enamel paint, of viscose quality and of fluid fields of vibrant

colours.

Adams goes on to moderate his 'scientific' view some what by saying, "It was as if the

scientific idealism of Balson's whole metaphorical quest for some universal 'essence' was finally resolved by a more earth-bound affirmation of physical fact".ll Adams is

equivocal here in trying to sum-up Balson's ideology and allude to a resolution. Rather,

the case is that Balson's pursuit was open-ended and it must be considered doubtful that he would have ever considered his pursuits resolved. His work demonstrates the

advantage of his episodic progression; leading to total negation of 'representation', in

order to investigate his increasing interest in the idea of 'indeterminancy'. It is in such works as these that he sought to eliminate all reference to the concrete world, and pass

through as it were to a world of teeming flux and uncertainty.

Generally, Balson's Matter Paintings do not express vast colour schemes. They are

mostly worked-up with limited palette, or entirely in grisaille. Painting 1961, 1961,

(p.93) is constructed with a restricted palette. The Matter Paintings generally surrender

colour as the prime element for other qualities, such as the liquidity of paint, viscosity,

texture and vigorous gesture. Balson achieved this by pouring fluid paint onto the

10 Adams, op.cit., p.l91. II Ibid.

92 Painting 1961, 1961, oil on hardboard, 61.5 x 91.6, Art Gallery ofNew South Wales.

93 surface, allowing movement of the support to occur which permitted some bleeding between colours and/or the creation of a marbled effect. In this painting we can see that the thickly poured paint has developed a skin and formed sags and raised ripples. Once the first layer of paint had dried, Balson then worked over the top with gestural flicks of paint, and then selected areas were touched-up with brush work; this action gave him a means to construct his composition. In some cases Balson's aims were to establish a focal point or suggest movement and direction. The colour scheme in this painting is minimal and that is because, for a brief time, he moved his prime focus from active pigmented hues to the actual physical substance which carried the pigment. In other words, he explored the physical attributes and tactile qualities of the medium, reducing pure colour to secondary consideration. The result is a muted colouration coupled with an energetic roughness that promotes a sense of motion.

In 1962, Balson held a solo exhibition at David Jones' Gallery, (14 February to 27

February). The critical response to the exhibition of Matter Paintings was varied. James

Gleeson wrote both favourably and guardedly about the paintings:

He invited us to drift through paintings where all tensions were resolved innebulous (sic) mists of colour. To this end he suppressed all form that would halt the eye or lead it to a climax. They were paintings of nothingness ... In effect he has denied the validity of man as a conscious artist. By refusing to accept guidance from the conscious mind he implies a criticism of man as a rational animal... He sees no remedy but to deny his existence and sink into the void.12

12 James Gleeson, 'Art- At David Jones' Gallery', Sun, 16 February, 1962. 94 Gleeson's response to Balson's new work signals his own uncertainty about the artist's change in direction. What Gleeson wrestles with here is perception; that Balson's paintings are about 'nothingness'.

In contrast to Gleeson, Henshaw wrote enthusiastically about Balson' s new painting. He discusses Balson's new terrain and seeks to explain his processes and ideas:

This exhibition of paintings in mixed mediums ... in full of restless experiment, a searching for an ever-receding goal which may be unattainable. Remarkable about it all is his youthful urge to plunge headlong into new avenues, following the wayward impulses of the moment. With such a long history of pioneer abstract painting behind him we might expect a slowing up; but the sparks still fly, the sense of adventure remains. 13

Henshaw identifies many of Balson's personal attributes and professional temperament that drove him to produce exciting and adventurous work. Of greater importance, however, is Henshaw's description of Balson's concerns in the Matter Paintings. In essence, Henshaw identifies Balson's process of execution, and what is revealed is that his manner of creation was centred on the medium and the way in which it could be manipulated. Henshaw goes on to write that, "Essentially, the preoccupations here are with paint, density, opacity, fluidity, its multifarious qualities; paint splattered, scattered, dribbled, crushed and knifed into unexpected shapes which may or may not suggest an Image. " . l4

Balson's Matter Paintings emanate a forceful gestural intent, and the explosive quality in these works has brought out a characteristic not previously observed in his work.

13 J. Henshaw, 'Spattering and Scattering', Bulletin, 24 February, 1962. 14 Ibid. 95 Henshaw's paired-down list (stated above) of working options tells us something about

Balson's concerns; namely, the physicality of his medium. In addition, Henshaw also notes that " ... this exhibition is tempered with a guiding hand and a certain amount of calculation". 15 Here Henshaw is at odds with Gleeson's view of the exhibition. He sees

Balson employing a 'guiding hand', using conscious decision making, whereas Gleeson infers that Balson didn't use guidance from his conscious faculty. The evidence for

Balson using considered form and marks exists in the works themselves. Consequently, the Matter Paintings can only be considered semi-autonomous because the evidence of thoughtful prodding is there on the surface.

Painting No. 32, 1961, (p.98) shows that at times Balson opted to work without colour.

This suggests that on occasions he preferred to invest his time in exploring the physical nature of his medium; to produce a work that actually has its genesis in the behaviour of the physical action of fluid paint. At another level, it could be said that the denial of colour was another way in which Balson could clear the decks, in other words, he may have considered the complexity of orchestration as a hindrance. Painting No. 32 is best described as a monochromatic work utilising black and white paint. Hence, its tonality and fine coral-like structure is reminiscent of grisaille technique. This structure yields tattered filaments, moving predominately from a central location. These combined elements give the work fluidity and a hint of cosmic nebulosity, colourless and silent. It is in works such as these that Balson finds hope; a chance aspiration that may reveal something that would lead him to 'his' ineffable. This painting is a 'master work', as it were, and its status was achieved with a simplicity of concept and elegance in execution, it's a work that breathes purity and force while simultaneously expressing a

IS Ibid. 96 serene beauty. Painting No. 32 is also cited by Henshaw in his review ofBalson's 1962 solo exhibition. Henshaw wrote, "Number 32's fascinating moss-like curtains of grey are full of the delicate patterns of some found object; a stone, perhaps, whose original fluidity is frozen hard yet revealed in its grain". 16 Henshaw's review (of 24 February

1962), affirms Balson's position as a major contributor to the development of Australian abstraction. I also indicated that Henshaw himself had a good grasp ofBalson's creative developments.

In an essay in Art and Australia, 1965, Daniel Thomas quoted from Balson's response to questions regarding his Painting No. 9, 1959 (p. 78), recently acquired by the Art

Gallery of New South Wales. Balson's response was free ranging, from science to the

Old Masters. His overture to science, however, is used as a quasi theory on which to attach his activity. It's simply an attempt to sanction his abstraction. Balson stated, for example, "I have long held the belief that the arts of man are his expression in terms of a particular medium of his concept of the universe, and now that I am in England and seeing it spread out before me, the pattern becomes logical and convincing". 17 This statement is anything but specific. It was not so much the pattern of the universe that preoccupied Balson, rather it was the pattern of nature. And for the most part he tried to capture its elusive patterns with colour. But in the Matter Paintings the primacy of colour gave way momentarily to textural sensibility. Balson alluded to this:

In my painting the matter, the paint, was allowed to flow together to produce its own rhythm, its own structure - a . 18 naturaI pamt structure.

16 Ibid. 17Thomas, op. cit., p.258. 18 Ibid., p.290. 97 Painting No. 32, 1961, oil on hardboard, 85.5 x 110.0, Art Gallery ofNew South Wales.

98 Balson's real consideration, for the making of art with the tools of his trade, meant that

other considerations were secondary to the act of 'doing'. He sought to discover a form

that could represent the indeterminate and the 'ineffable'. Untitled 1961, 1961, (p.100)

is one of his most exhilarating Matter Paintings. There is a sense of intense vertical movement climaxing in an explosion at the top, which sends tentacles of a rather acidic yellow, streaming outward. Yet, despite the hint of violence, there is also a sense of frozen calm.

In these Matter Paintings, Balson worked almost exclusively on a hardboard surface, with house enamel (full-gloss) paint, usually masonite, which consists of a hot-press glossy surface that generally repels liquids. Coated with gesso, it would have given

Balson a rigid support of non-porous quality. As such, it provided him with the perfect topography to work over. The qualities of such a topography ensured that the poured enamel would not be absorbed into the support; in addition, the lack of support 'tooth' permitted an easy flow and melding of colours and tone to coalesce into a form of

'marbling'. In this technique Balson's colours performed freely with minimal intervention. The result was a 'plastic' and fluxating indeterminate image. The 'plastic' sensibility was achieved by the paint's smooth, high gloss characteristic that at times coagulated and skinned, forming sag ripples. These characteristics are even across the picture plane. The marbling effect was created by Balson tilting his support to

encourage certain colours to flow and meld in particular directions.

99 Untitled 1961, 1961, enamel on hardboard, 76.4 x 137.3, Art Gallery of New South

Wales.

100 Patrick McCaughey has identified Balson's engagement with his materials, saying:

His deep physical enjoyment of paint, suppressed for so long in his constructive period, is the exact metaphor at last for his continued sense of the dense physicality of things - water, earth and sky. 19

If, as McCaughey suggests, Balson had a sense of the "physicality of things", then this

too renders suspect the claim that Balson engaged in esoteric scientific theory, even if

only as a metaphor. Balson was firmly grounded in his experiences, of his own material

world, and much of this experience relates to his work as a house painter, working with . colour. It is this physical experience that informed his oeuvre. At another level, it does

seem as if Balson approached the construction of his Matter Paintings in an almost

child-like manner: he explored with great curiosity the incidental outcomes from playing with fluid paint, and he tried to break away from the conscious certainty of process.

In 1963 Balson held a solo exhibition (his last) at Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 3 - 15

July, showing Matter Paintings executed from 1961 to 1963. This exhibition received wide and significant press attention, commensurate with his increasing status in

Australian abstraction. Generally, the reviews were positive. They attempted to provide

an interpretation of the Matter Paintings and articulate their possible purpose or intention. In addition, some authors tried to provide an insight into how Balson executed his Matter Paintings; and to explain the links between his materials, the manner in

19 Patrick McCaughey, 'Balson- Best in a Decade', Age, 9 May, 1969. The date, hand recorded on this review does not correspond with the dates for the Melbourne exhibition (8 July to 27 July, 1969); it would appear the date of the review should be 9 July, 1969. 101 which he used them and his ideas. John Henshaw's review mostly considered Balson's

medium and process:

All suggest an absorption in the possibilities of guiding rather than manipulating paint with any great control. This sort of thing excludes image or form in the usual sense but opens the door wide to the accidental, and often to results not possible through any other method ... In this flowing on of paint Balson makes his point, that the medium possesses a sensitiveness in the way it moves, provided the artist is responsive to its potentialities.20

Balson, in trying to find a new way to express his time and context, decided that replication of conventional methods of image-making didn't serve modern circumstances or his own. Thus he embraced concepts that sprang from intuition and serendipitous risk-taking. To further enrich his method of working he was required to be sympathetic to the physical, yet variable nature of his materials. Balson needed to be able to read the play of his fluid yet viscous paint and respond to the potential inherent in the paint's imprecise performance. Likewise James Gleeson articulates Balson's method of Matter Painting construction, but with perhaps a little more precision:

The resulting picture is a compound of two different kinds of action. Initially there is the artist's action in pouring the paint; then there is the action of the paint itself, moving according to the laws of its nature, until, by its nature, it hardens into immobility. The picture is a compound of chance and inevitability, of accident and immutable law. 21

Balson's initial pouring of paint, sometimes of several different colours and at other times just black and white, had the effect of activating a physical magic. It was as though Balson was drawn into the void of plastic, unctuous films of mesmerizing

20 John Henshaw, 'Stone Images', Bulletin, 13 July, 1963. 21 James Gleeson, 'Art, action and accident', Sydney, Sun-Herald, 7 July, 1963. 102 enamel paint. It was the action and reaction of a hard, smooth surface, melding with a

structure-less liquid, that Balson had little control over. And it was his surrendering of

control that excited him; his curiosity was fed by accident and risk promotion. Gleeson

in the review cited also some misgivings about Balson's Matter Paintings, saying:

Balson has become an anti-artist. He makes pictures that look as though they had not been man-made at all, and in the end, this abrogation of his rights as an artist and as a human being has a depressing effect... For an artist to deny that he is a man means that he has become less than an artist. He has become an accident's assistant". 22

Gleeson's remarks are interesting. Rather than provide some degree of certainty about

Balson's work, they do the opposite. If as Gleeson suggests, Balson's paintings are not

'man-made', then perhaps it is reasonable to suggest that he had created an ineffable body (Matter Paintings) of work. As the 'ineffable' was one of Balson's stated aims, it seems reasonable to suggest also that in order to create such work he was prepared to surrender something. Gleeson suggests Balson gave up being an artist; in other words, he became an "anti-artist", and an "accident's assistant". Balson played devil's advocate for the sake of his art and prospered from the experience.

Gleeson's comments also show that Balson's Matter Paintings were created as a result both of rational thought and emotional response. This runs parallel with Balson's placement of materials (paint), then allowing the medium to naturally react and perform in an accidental manner, with little effort by him to control the process. The following

Herald review promotes Balson's exhibition in rather poetic fashion:

22 Ibid. 103 .. . provoking the viewer into seeing glimpses of strange worlds, provoking too, feelings and reactions of disturbance and agitation and, in several instances, of troubled gloom ... Fragile changes of gentle hues and lost edges are offset by an excellent balance of acid colours and crisp yet nervous definition of the forms. 23

The author of this review is at ease with these works, and seems to accept their legitimacy at face value. He/she suggests responding to the paintings at an emotional level. Unlike the reviews by Gleeson, Henshaw and McCaughey, cited previously, this does not advance a scientific theme to validate Balson's abstraction. On the contrary, it insists on the works' affecting qualities

Untitled Painting 1962, 1962, (p.l 06) is best described as an abstract in monochromatic scheme, and is uniformly regular in its modular make-up. The surface action is not dramatic, there is virtually no push-pull or suggestion of depth. Instead, we have what could be described as a microscopic slice of animal tissue or geological structure of rock. There are areas of openness and areas of dense activity that are best described thus: molecular, grainy, striated and fissured, these characteristics allude to living form, snap frozen or petrified.

Daniel Thomas suggests that Balson's paintings in his last solo exhibition in 1963 were mostly restricted " ... to black and white, because, in the evidence of those poured in colour, he could no longer in this semi-automatic technique properly control his normally fastidious tonal relationships". 24 This view is plausible but does not exclude other reasons. For example, it may have been the case that Balson simply felt like a change, and, using a very restricted palette would have given him a less cumbersome

23 Anon., 'Ralph Balson at the Macquarie', Herald, 3 July, 1963. 24 Thomas, op.cit., p.290. 104 manner of working and assist his creative problem-solving ability. Alternatively,

Balson may have used this period to reflect on things uncertain. His black paintings are perhaps a metaphor for his state of mind at the time? A moment of doubt or a moment of retreat.

Either way, the black and white monochromatic paintings are highly intriguing and offer yet another dimension to Balson's quest for the 'ineffable'. These paintings, like all ofBalson's other major works give nothing away. Instead they promote via the basic elements of painting, a reflective and mediative condition. There is no doubting the potency of the black and white paintings: they impart a restrained topography in modality, texture and tone, and yet exude a forceful presence compositionally. Daniel

Thomas eloquently summed up these works, saying, " ... Balson's final black paintings must be the grandest, most museum-worthy, most aristocratic pictures ever made in

Australia".25 A moot position perhaps, but the claim is worthy, if for no other reason than to instigate with hindsight, debate on the contribution these works make to the history of Australian abstraction.

1963, it would seem, was something of a turning point for Balson. This view is based solely on the paintings created in that year and in 1964. To what extent it was a critical juncture, however, cannot be determined with certainty because his work post-Matter

Paintings, irrespective of the direction they may have taken, was never to be fully realised due to Balson's death in 1964.

25 Daniel Thomas, 'Black is Beautiful', The Sunday Telegraph, Sydney, 25 May, 1969. 105 Untitled Painting 1962, 1962, enamel on composition board, 122.0 x 152.2, National

Gallery of Australia.

106 His last painting Non-Objective Abstract, (not reproduced) 1964, oil and synthetic enamel on composition board, 142 x 134.6, State Bank of Victoria, Melbourne, teems with a symphonic-like colour richness, presented in a gamut of mostly minute brush strokes and shapes. These present both colour and shape as one and the same thing, in the sense that they exist concurrently and for each other. The variety of colour mark­ making yields a picture plane of optical mobility and after image which in tum promotes the perception of great restlessness and movement in any number of directions simultaneously. Colour and shape work together to create a sense of constriction and expansion concurrently. Some areas pull inward while others move outward giving the painting a 'push-pull' sensation. Overall the colour scheme is warm and this is promoted and presented effectively by the counter balanced cool hues intermittently placed throughout the composition.

In part the success of this painting lies not only in the manner in which Balson selected and mixed pigments, but also in his ability to lay pigment down in a particular fashion.

It was Balson' s skill to assign certain hues a certain shape or mark, and also to determine an appropriate place to situate his intended effect. In many instances

Balson's outcome was only achieved after extensive layering of both opaque and transparent pigments; this rich arrangement often formed a scaffold-like structure, providing the viewer an opportunity to navigate any number of traces within the field.

This painting also succeeds in extracting an emotional response. The emotional subjectivity of the painting suggests Balson was never interested in assigning a specific and isolated meaning to his work. Each work forms part of his opus that collectively suggested a direction which formed a colour aesthetic that in tum expresses a utopian ideal. Balson's colours operate as his ideal means to extract sensory responses, and the

107 construct of marks that in tum creates larger patterns and shapes, promotes a flowing yet receding territory of vibrant colour that seduces the eye.

108 CHAPTER6

BALSON'S LEGACY

Balson's legacy has barely been noted, understood or appreciated and this fact has therefore stifled visual arts narrative. The scant recognition and analysis ofBalson's work has meant that Australia's visual arts history is bereft of an otherwise deeper complexion. Spasmodic and yet sincere appraisal of Balson' s work during his working life, and since his death have not (to-date) significantly improved his standing.

Why this remains the case is not certain. It could be that a degree of complacency and reluctance to question so called 'official' Australian art history has lead us to assume that there is little else to uncover or expand upon. What is certain however is that further efforts are required to reinvigorate Balson's standing.

To some extent Balson's ideas, pursued over several decades, were in a round-about way recognised officially and institutionally with the staging of The Field exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1968. This exhibition attempted to claim for abstraction in Australia a history (even if brief) and a status, but prior to the 1960s there was little of substance in terms of abstract art, apart from Ralph Balson's splendid volume of colour abstractions. It is at this point (mid sixties) that a new generation of younger artists interested in abstract art begin to realise that Australian art did indeed have an important precursor. Robert Rooney put it this way:

It was about this time [mid 1960s] that a legitimate ancestor needed to be found to justify the new abstraction and place it within an Australian tradition, and who better to serve this purpose than Ralph Balson. 1

1 Robert Rooney 'Grasping the Nettle of Abstract Works', The Australian, 9 April, 1984. 109 The Field exhibition, however, failed to acknowledge Balson's two previous decades of pioneering work. Balson and others of his generation were essentially ignored in the catalogue essays; only Patrick McCaughey noted their contribution saying, "The Ralph

Balsons [sic], Roger Kempts [sic] and Robert Klippels [sic] have been few and their work never given the prominence it deserves."2

In 1981, Gary Catalano described the lack of awareness ofBalson's work, by saying:

It was left to a later generation to appreciate more fully the work of Ralph Balson, and the fact that he was largely discounted in the late 1950s helps to illuminate the general attitude of the time. 3

The consequences ofBalson's low profile meant that many aspiring abstractionists were not aware of his pioneering, work achieved over many years and with consistent quality.

But as abstraction gained wider currency a new generation of artists discovered

Balson' s work. Ron Saw had this to say: "Young abstract artists were agape to learn that what they were trying to do had been done by Balson 20 years earlier".4 Balson's legacy has been far more reaching than one would expect. His major phases of work,

Constructive, Non-Objective and Matter Paintings have all provided different pathways for other artists to follow, even with someone as unexpected as Fred Williams.

2 Patrick McCaughey, 'Experience and the New Abstraction', in The Field (catalogue), (Melbourne, 1968), p.90. 3 Gary Catalano, The Years ofHope- Australian Art and Criticism 1959-1968, (Oxford, 1981), p.14. 4 Ron Saw, 'The Words of James Joyce in Print', Daily Telegraph, 18 July, 1968. 110 Helen Sweeney captured the connection when she declared, "If we hadn't had Balson's dabbed on bits of paint at the Non-Objective stage, we wouldn't have Fred Williams' landscapes and so it goes on".5

David Pestorius recently organised an important exhibition titled, Geometric Painting in

Australia 1941-1997, held at the University Art Museum, The University of

Queensland, Brisbane. Pestorius ( et a!) as editor of the accompanying catalogue has unlike The Field catalogue and exhibition, ensured that Balson and others of his generation have been inclusively contextualised in this snrvey. In fact, without Balson and others of his generation a genuine history of Australian abstraction would be a futile pursuit. The University Art Museum exhibition successfully illustrates the weight of importance of Balson and the benefit of his legacy to the artists of the sixties and equally to the new emerging artists ofNeo-Geo.

Balson's legacy was formed with determination and self-belief; he worked doggedly to forge a new pathway toward a relevant contemporary art practice in Australia in the face of institutional resistance and conservatism. Helen Sweeney remarked, "No major artist in Australia has had less recognition in his lifetime than Ralph Balson ... "6 This suggests that Balson had a difficult task persuading others of the merit of his pioneering work; consequently, his work has not been canonised.

John Henshaw, an advocate for Balson's cause, wrote in 1967:

5 Helen Sweeney, 'Balson Tribute', Sunday Telegraph, 29 October, 1967. 6 Sweeney, op.cit. 111 Bissiere [Julius] [1893-1965] or Le Moal [Jean] [1909-] would be comparable figures; Balson is in no way inferior and his mastery of visually exciting color, space, and suggestions of intangible reality, which one sees in the best work of the final years, indicate the important position he occupies in the story of contemporary art in this country.7

Henshaw focuses on colour, space and the intangible, not matters of science. Balson' s work is not about certainty, he instead explored the nature of the indeterminate via

colour.

Both McCaughey and Henshaw have expressed similar thoughts about Balson's last works. McCaughey stated, "Balson achieved what few other Australian painters have

achieved: a great last period where all the themes and obsessions of an artist are brought together into a climactic unity". 8 And Henshaw: "Balson did achieve a resolution in

1964 when he nicely balanced intuitive impulse with conscious control".9 Both in a

sense have suggested that Balson'sjourney, in the end, provided a degree of resolution; that in the end, his struggle yielded a purpose, even if not entirely or clearly understood.

The consistent standard of Balson's complex conceptions and processes were in part

due to the role of seriality and continuity in his work. Balson repeated motifs

(sometimes as symphonic colourations); these episodic acts emanated from his

obsessive pursuit for the essence of the indeterminate. At times it must have seemed

close-at-hand; so he continued to explore variations of his themes, redoing and digging

deeper each time. To an extent, Balson's works emerged from his experiences within a

remote modernist concern that remained equivocal within Australian culture. Balson

7 John Henshaw, The Australian, 28 October, 1967. 8 Patrick McCaughey, 'The Classic Story', Age, 13 August, 1968. 9 John Henshaw, The Australian, 7 June, 1969.

112 approached the content of his work with conviction, but he did not attribute specific emotions or concepts to colours, or particular colour schemes. His attitude to, and use of colour, was intuitively flexible; all colour, singularly or in complex combinations could yield indeterminate possibilities. And it was this that was the singular driving force behind his remarkable oeuvre.

113 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

All measurements are in centimetres, height before width.

1. Figure Design, 1938, oil and charcoal on cardboard, 86.0 x 56.1, National Gallery of Australia.

2. The Sisters, oil on canvas, 110.0 x 85.5, Art Gallery of New South Wales.

3. Study ofa Woman in Veiled Head Dress, (verso), 1936, oil on cardboard, 55.6 x 32.8, National Gallery of Australia.

4. Studio Sketch, Emily, (recto), 1936, oil on paper-board, 32.8 x 55.6, National Gallery of Australia.

5 Holiday, 1936, oil on canvas and mounted on composition board, 77.5 x 58.7, National Gallery of Australia.

6. Girl in Pink, 1937, oil on paper-board, 70.5 x 55.0, Art Gallery of New South Wales.

7. Portrait of Grace Crowley, 1939, oil on canvas on cardboard, 108.8 x 64.3, Art Gallery of New south Wales.

8. Painting, 1941, oil on hardboard, 79.0 x 63.5, Art Gallery of New South Wales.

9. Construction in Green, 1942, oil on paperboard, 87.7 x 109.9, Art Gallery ofNew South Wales.

10. Constructive Painting No.IO, 1944, oil on cardboard mounted on plywood, 55.3 x 65.5, National Gallery of Australia.

11. Constructive Painting, 1948, oil on cardboard, 106.8 x 71, National Gallery of Victoria.

12. Pastel of no title, 1951, on paper, (recto), 47.8 x 60.8, National Gallery of Australia.

13. Pastel of no title, 1951, on paper, (verso), 47.8 x 60.8, National Gallery of Australia.

14. Pastel, untitled, 1951, on cream laid paper, 38.0 x 51.0, National Gallery of Australia.

15. No. 19, 1951, pastel on paper, 47.8 x 60.6, National Gallery of Australia.

16. Pastel of no title, 1951, on cream laid paper, (recto), 48.2 x 62.5, National Gallery of Australia.

17. Pastel of no title, 1959, on paper, 54.5 x 70.5, Art Gallery of New South Wales.

114 18. Abstract 1956, 1956, oil on hardboard, 55.3 x 65.2, Art Gallery of New South Wales.

19. Painting 1957, 1957, tempera and synthetic polymer paint on composition board, 129.0 x 152.3, National Gallery of Australia.

20. Painting 1958, 1958, oil on hardboard, 68.6 x 91.5, Art Gallery ofNew South Wales.

21. Painting No. 9, 1959, synthetic polymer on hardboard, 137.0 x 137.0, Art Gallery ofNew South Wales.

22. Non-Objective Painting 1959, 1959, enamel on composition board, 91.5 x 137.5, National Gallery of Australia.

23. Untitled, 1959, enamel on composition board, 61.0 x 68.5, National Gallery of Australia.

24. Matter Painting 1960, 1960 enamel on composition board, 91.3 x 122.2, National Gallery of Australia.

25. Painting 1961, 1961, oil on hardboard, 61.5 x 91.6, Art Gallery of New South Wales.

26. Painting No. 32, 1961, oil on hardboard, 85.5 x 110.0, Art Gallery of New South Wales.

27. Untitled 1961, 1961, enamel on hardboard, 76.4 x 137.3, Art Gallery of New South Wales.

28. Untitled Painting 1962, 1962, enamel on composition board, 122.0 x 152.2, National Gallery of Australia.

115 BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS

Adams, Bruce. 'Metaphors of Scientific Idealism: The Theoretical Background to the Paintings of Ralph Balson'. Australian Art and Architecture: Essays Presented to Bernard Smith, eds. Anthony Bradley and Terry Smith. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1980.

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Bann, Stephen, ed. The Documents of20'" Century Art: The Tradition of Constructivism. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1974.

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Benjamin, Andrew. What is Abstraction? London: Academy Editions, 1996.

Bryson, Norman; Michael Ann Holly and Keith Moxey. Visual Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press in association with Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 1991; reprint 1996.

Bum, Ian eta!. The Necessity ofAustralian Art. Sydney: Power Publications, 1988.

Catalano, Gary. The Years ofHope- Australian Art and Criticism 1959-1968. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1981.

Channin, Eileen; Steven Miller with Judith Pugh. Degenerates and Perverts, The 1939 Herald Exhibition ofFrench and British Contemporary Art. Melbourne: The Miegunyah Press, 2005.

Chipp, Herschel B. Theories ofModern Art. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968.

Clarke, T.J. Farewell to an idea: Episodes from a History ofModernism. London: Yale University Press, 1999.

116 Crowther, Paul. The Language of Twentieth Century Art. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1997.

Deicher, Susanne. Mondrian. Verlag: Benedikt Taschen, 1999.

Drucker, Johanna. Theorising Modernism: Visual Art and the Critical Tradition. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.

Dutton, Geoffrey. The Innovators. Sydney: The Macmillan Company of Australia Pty Ltd., 1986.

Eagle, Mary. Australian Modern Painting, Between the Wars 1914-1939. Kensington: Bay Books, 1989.

Eagle, Mary and John Jones. A Story ofAustralian Painting. Sydney: Pan Macmillan Publishers, 1994.

Finemore, Brian. Freedom From Prejudice. Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 1977.

Fuller, Peter. Aesthetics after Modernism. London: Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative Society Ltd., 1983.

Gleeson, James. Modern Painters 1931-1970. Melbourne: Lansdowne Press Pty ltd., 1971.

Greenberg, Clement. 'After Abstract, ', in Art in Theory 1900-1990, eds. Charles Harrison and Paul Wood. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1994.

'Modernist Painting', in Art in theory 1900-1990, eds. Charles Harrison and Paul Wood. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1994.

Harrison, Charles and Paul Wood, eds. Art in Theory 1900-1990. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1968.

Hess, Thomas B. and John Ashbery, eds. Avant-Garde Art. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1968.

Hughes, Robert. The Art ofAustralia. Ringwood: Penguin books, revised edition, 1970.

The Shock of the New. London BBC Publications, revised edition, 1981.

Kandinsky, Wassily. Concerning the Spiritual in Art. Trans. M.T.H. Sadler. New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1977.

Lambert, Jean-Clarence. Abstract Painting. Trans. Anne J. Cope. Geneva: Edito­ Services S.A., 1970.

McCulloch, Alan. Encyclopaedia ofAustralian Art. Hawthorn: Hutchinson Group (Australia) Pty. Ltd., 1984.

117 McQueen, Humphrey. The Black Swan of Trespass. Sydney: Alternative Publishing Cooperative Limited, 1979.

Miller, Ronald. Civilized Magic. Toorak: Sarrett Publishing Pty. Ltd., 1974.

Moholy-Nagy, Lazlo. The New Vision: Fundamentals ofDesign painting Architecture. London: Faber and Faber, 1939.

Mondrian, Piet. Plastic Art and Pure Plastic Art, 1937: and other Essays, 1941-1943. London: Wittenborn Schultz, 1947.

Moszynska, Anna. Abstract Art. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1990.

Maxey, Keith. The Practice of Theory. Ithica and Landon: Cornell University Press, 1994.

Murray, Chris. ed. Key Writers on Art: The Twentieth Century. London: Routledge, 2003.

Pestorius, David, ed., Geometric Painting in Australia 1941-1997. Brisbane: University Art Museum, University of Queensland, 1998.

Poggioli, Renata. The Theory of the Avant-Garde. Trans. Gerald Fitzgerald. Cambridge: The Bellmap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968.

Pringle, John. Australian Painting Today. London: Thames and Hudson, 1963.

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Rosenthal, Mark. Abstraction in the Twentieth Century: Total risk, Freedom, Discipline. New York: Guggenheim Museum Publications, 1996.

Sandler, Irving. The Triumph ofAmerican Painting. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970.

Seuphor, Michel. A Dictionary ofAbstract Painting. London: Muthuen and Co. Ltd., 1958.

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Smith, Bernard, Australian Painting 1788-1970. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, znd ed., 1971.

118 Thomas, Daniel. Outlines ofAustralian Art: The Joseph Brown Collection. South Melbourne: The Macmillan Company of Australia Pty. Ltd., 1973.

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Wolff, Janet. The Social Production ofArt. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd., 1993.

119 JOURNALS

Aspden, David. 'Ralph Balson: Painting No. 9', Sydney: Art and Australia, Vol. 22, No. 1, 1984.

Chambers, Nicholas. 'Ralph Balson: Painting', Sydney: Art and Australia. Vol. 40, No. 2, 2002.

Dundas, Douglas. 'The Second Contemporary Australian Movement', Quarterly, Art Gallery ofNew South Wales, October, 1966.

Evatt, Mary Alice. 'The Crowley Fizelle Art School', Quarterly, Art Gallery of New South Wales, October, 1966.

Hinder, Frank. 'Rah Fizelle', Sydney: Art and Australia, Vol. 3, No.2, 1965.

Maxwell, Helen. 'A Profile of Anne Danger', Sydney: Art and Australia, Vol. 26, No. 3, 1989.

McGillick, Paul. 'The Importance of Ralph Balson', Aspect, No. 22, October, 1981.

Nakov, Andrei B. 'To be or to Act: on the Problem of Content in Nonobjective Art', Art Forum, Vol. xvi, No.6, February, 1978.

Rooney, Robert. 'Sixties Vision', Review of 'I had a Dream: Australian Art in the 1960s', Sydney: Art and Australia, val. 35, No. 2, 1997.

Thomas, Daniel. 'Ralph Balson', Sydney: Art and Australia, Vol. 2, No.4, 1965.

Editorial Letters, Sydney: Art and Australia, Vol.3, No. I, 1965.

120 CATALOGUES

Adams, Bruce. Ralph Batson: A Retrospective, Heide Park and Art Gallery, Victoria, 1989.

Biennale of Sydney Ltd. (The). The 1988 Australian Biennale: From the South Cross: A View ofworld Art c. 1940-88, Sydney: The Biennale of Sydney Limited and Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1988.

Bloomfield, Lin. Director, Ralph Batson Matter Paintings, Sydney, 8 June- 2 July, 1969.

Eisenberg, Joseph. A View ofthe Collections, Armidale: New England Regional Art Museum, 1979.

France, Christine. New Directions 1952-1962, Lewers Bequest and Penrith Regional Art Gallery, New South Wales, 16 August- 29 September, 1991.

Free, Renee. (Introduction) Batson Crowley Fizelle Hinder, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1966.

Frank Hinder Marge! Hinder, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1980.

Gallery A. Paintings by the Late Ralph Batson, 1960-1964, Sydney, 27 May- 14 June, 1969.

Legg, Geffrey. Ralph Batson and James Clifford Paintings, Sydney, 15 June- 2 July, 1994.

Lindsay, Robert. Aspects: Aspects ofAustralian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1976.

National Gallery of Victoria. The Field, Melbourne, 1968.

Niagara Galleries. Ralph Batson (1890 -1964), Melbourne, 21 June -15 July, 1989.

Pearce, Barry et a!. Parallel Visions: Works from the Gallery's Australian Collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2002.

Reed, John. Director. Survey 1963, Museum ofModern Art and Design of Australia, Melbourne, 1963.

Thomas, Daniel. Project 4: Grace Crowley, Art Gallery ofNew South Wales, March, 1975.

Recent Australian Painting, Whitechapel Art Gallery. London, 1961.

Zimmer, Jenny, ed. Abstract Art in Australia, A Selection from the Past Thirty Years. RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, August 1-19, 1983.

121 INTERVIEWS AND FILM

Balson, William. Taped interview by Kevin Hegarty, Salamanda Bay, New South Wales, 11 January 1999.

Crowley, Grace. Taped interview by Hazel de Berg, Grace Crowley talldng about Ralph Batson, February 1966. (National Library of Australia).

Klippel, Robert. Taped interview by Kevin Hegarty, Birchgrove, Sydney, New South Wales, 21 October, 1999.

Lewis, Anne. Taped interview by Kevin Hegarty, Sydney, New South Wales, 16 April, 1999.

'Grace Crowley', The Painters, The Sculptors Archival Art Series. Australian Film Institute. Produced for the Australia Council by Smart Street Film, 1975. (50 mins).

122