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Countercultural Enclave: Martin Sharp's Yellow Counterculture Studies Volume 1 | Issue 1 Article 2 2018 Countercultural enclave: Martin Sharp’s Yellow House Michael Organ University of Wollongong, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/ccs Recommended Citation Organ, Michael, Countercultural enclave: Martin Sharp’s Yellow House, Counterculture Studies, 1(1), 2018, 6-34. doi:10.14453/ ccs.v1.i1.2 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Countercultural enclave: Martin Sharp’s Yellow House Abstract Martin Sharp’s Yellow House represents a transitional phase in the countercultural movement within Australia, from the peace and love Utopian ideals of the Sixties through to the disenchantment and technological changes of the Seventies. Inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s similarly titled building and aborted artist community in the south of France during the 1880s, and the British Arts Lab movement of the late 1960s, a 3-storey Victorian era terrace building in Sydney was transformed into a work of art, living museum, experimental art gallery and performance space, under the liberating and libertine guidance of Martin Sharp - an artist who had experienced some of the extraordinary cultural changes taking place in London and Europe between 1966-69. The eY llow House was a unique expression of the counterculture’s disparate elements through a redundant example of the built environment, namely a former art gallery and guest house facing the threat of demolition. Art and architecture fused with lifestyle and culture within a veritable rabbit warren of rooms and performance spaces. Though innately ephemeral, the venture succeeded – between May 1970 and March 1973 - in providing an expressive outlet for a disparate group of counterculture artists, performers and commentators. Keywords counterculture, Martin Sharp, Dada, pop culture Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. This journal article is available in Counterculture Studies: https://ro.uow.edu.au/ccs/vol1/iss1/2 Countercultural enclave: Martin Sharp’s Yellow House Michael Organ University of Wollongong ‘Let's paint a jungle on the walls....’ Third grade boy, Freestone - Advertisements for a Counterculture, Progressive Architecture, July 1970. ‘[The Yellow House] is probably one of the greatest pieces of conceptual art ever achieved.’ Martin Sharp, September 1971. Figure 1. The Yellow House, Sydney, circa 1971. Photograph: Greg Weight. Counterculture Studies 1(1) 2018 6 Abstract: Martin Sharp’s Yellow House represents a transitional phase in the countercultural movement within Australia, from the peace and love Utopian ideals of the Sixties through to the disenchantment and technological changes of the Seventies. Inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s similarly titled building and aborted artist community in the south of France during the 1880s, and the British Arts Lab movement of the late 1960s, a 3-storey Victorian era terrace building in Sydney was transformed into a work of art, living museum, experimental art gallery and performance space, under the liberating and libertine guidance of Martin Sharp - an artist who had experienced some of the extraordinary cultural changes taking place in London and Europe between 1966-69. The Yellow House was a unique expression of the counterculture’s disparate elements through a redundant example of the built environment, namely a former art gallery and guest house facing the threat of demolition. Art and architecture fused with lifestyle and culture within a veritable rabbit warren of rooms and performance spaces. Though innately ephemeral, the venture succeeded – between May 1970 and March 1973 - in providing an expressive outlet for a disparate group of counterculture artists, performers and commentators. Counterculture Studies 1(1) 2018 7 Yellow House - Origins In 1970 Martin Sharp - a former University of Sydney architecture student (1961), graduate of the National Art School (1963) and co-editor from 1963 through to 1968 of the landmark Australian and British counterculture magazine OZ - returned from London where between June 1966 and January 1969 he produced a series of stunning Pop art posters and record covers, whilst also helping set in place the basic template for modern magazine graphic design through London OZ.1 Sharp had left Australia for London and Europe with the aim of escaping its stifling conservatism for the liberating freedoms of the Continent. While away, he formulated ideas, in collaboration with locals and expatriates, around how to effect change in his homeland. One of Sharp’s first tasks upon arriving back in Sydney was to recreate the legendary Yellow House of Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh.2 It was Van Gogh’s original vision during the 1880s to set up a retreat for artists in the sunny south of France, where he and his colleagues could work in true collaboration.3 Van Gogh’s Yellow House was a simple, 2-storey building in Arles, attached to a house and adjacent to a restaurant (painted pink), with 2 rooms on each floor. Sharp had a similar vision, though one which was very much updated and attuned with contemporary culture. The Arts Lab movement in England was the most obvious precursor, beginning with the Drury Lane Arts Lab alternative arts centre set up by Jim Haynes in 1 Ted Owen, High Art: a history of the psychedelic poster, Sanctuary Publishing, 1999. Julia Bigham, Julia, Day-Go Mind Blow, Eye: The International Magazine of Graphic Design, 11(42), 2001, 32-43. 2 James Gleeson, James, Interview with Martin Sharp, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1979. Accessed 17 July 2015, http://nga.gov.au/Research/Gleeson/pdf/Sharp.pdf. 3 Martin Gayford, The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles, Little, Brown & Co., New York, 2006. Counterculture Studies 1(1) 2018 8 1967.4 That facility included a cinema, gallery space, theatre, film workshop and drop-in centre / accommodation. It operated through to 1969, and spawned a number of similar centres throughout England and continental Europe, including David Bowie’s Beckenham Arts Lab in 1970.5 Sharp, following on discussions in London with Australian cinematographer Albie Thoms, brought these ideas to Sydney where he selected a derelict former art gallery and 3-storey, Victorian era terrace building at 57-59 Macleay Street, Potts Point. Influenced by Magritte, Van Gogh, Picasso, Hokusai, Dada and the Surrealists, over the next three years Sharp and an eclectic group of artists transformed the building into both work of art and performance space. The walls, floors and exterior were repainted (the latter yellow), remodelled, and turned into art galleries, living and office areas, a puppet theatre, cabaret, concert venue, café, school and cinema. The post-Woodstock, pre-Nimbin, Aquarian Age participants made use of a traditional piece of inner city architecture to accommodate the many and varied means of expression then at play, culminating in the building’s final manifestation as a countercultural commune wherein Utopian visions were enacted. Martin Sharp’s Yellow House was more successful than Van Gogh’s dream – only Paul Gauguin visited the Yellow House in Arles, and that tumultuous encounter resulted in Van Gogh losing a piece of his ear. Numerous artists, members of the counterculture, and the public engaged with the building between April 1970 and March 1973. Its adaptation and use was an expression of the Dada philosophy of anarchy and the everyday nature of art within the built environment. Intellectual, practical, artistic and liveable – the Sydney Yellow House was, for a brief period, a living, breathing community. The 4 ’The Arts Lab Movement,’ International Times, 1(66), October 10, 1969; ‘Arts Lab,’ Wikipedia, 2016. Accessed 1 April 2016, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_Lab. 5 Mary Finnigan, Psychedelic Suburbia: David Bowie and the Beckenham Arts Lab, Jorvic Press, 2016. Counterculture Studies 1(1) 2018 9 ability of the building to accommodate a wide range of activities, from performance and printing through exhibition, entertainment and accommodation, reveals the adaptability of both it and the numerous participants then engaged with the counterculture. It also points to the significant communal ethos of the era, as seen in later agrarian events such as the 1973 Aquarius Festival at Nimbin and creation of the environmentally friendly Autonomous House at the University of Sydney in 1974. In seeking to understand what the Sydney Yellow House was, from whence it evolved, and what it achieved, a reliance on traditional sources of research is of limited use. Published accounts of the activities of the Yellow House provide only brief overviews. A catalogue from the Art Gallery of New South Wales 1990 exhibition which attempted to recreate elements of the Yellow House experience is the most concise to date, alongside the published reminiscences of cinematographer Albie Thoms.6 Two recent biographies of Martin Sharp include substantial sections on the Yellow House.7 A few magazine articles on that artist also include snippets of information regarding the Yellow House. In the present instance, use has been made of first-hand accounts and reminiscences by participants in both the Yellow House and its London precursor The Pheasantry, including Roger Foley, Axel Sutinen, Richard Neville, Greg Weight, Philippe Mora and Sam Bienstock. For example, Axel Sutinen in 2016 produced a blog on his Yellow House experience during 1972-3, and Roger Foley has spoken at length 6 Johanna Mendellsohn, The Yellow House 1970-72, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1990; Thoms, Albie, My Generation, Sydney, 2013. 7 Lowell Tarling, Sharp – Road to Abraxas: Part One 1942-1979. The biography of Martin Sharp as told to Lowell Tarling, ETT Imprint, Exile Bay, 2016; Joyce Morgan, Martin Sharp: his life and times, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2017. Counterculture Studies 1(1) 2018 10 with the author on the subject.8 The Yellow House experience remains vivid in the memory of many of its then-young participants, due to both its intensity and the freedoms offered in regards to performance and art.
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