RALPH BALSON a Grand Vision in Active Colours
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RALPH BALSON 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 Art History and Theory College of Fine Arts University of New South Wales 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, Cubism 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 Australia. 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, Sydney) 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 Constructivism 1940-1955/56 38 3 Works in Pasels 1951-1959 48 4 The Non-Objective 63 5. Serendipitous Matter Paintings 86 6. Balson's Legacy 109 Illustrations 114 Bibliography 116 iii PREFACE In 1914 Paul Klee 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 abstract art 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 Australian art. 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 Painting, 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 artists 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, Impressionism 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 Julian Ashton's Art School and a casual attendee at the school's sketch club where he was taught by Grace Crowley (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 Frank Hinder (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 Paris. 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 artist 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 Roy de Maistre. 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.