Art for Mart's Sake
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| Invitation to Exhibition opening. Collection: Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. |
On the evening of Wednesday, 8 December 1965, an exhibition opened at the Clune Galleries, 59 Macleay Street, Sydney. It was the first solo showing of works by Martin Sharp, a local, 23 year old artist, best known for his association since 1962 with the controversial magazine OZ, his topical cartoons for The Bulletin, Sydney Morning Herald and the University of New South Wales student newspaper Tharunka, and his work in theatre set design. The show was colourful and consisted mostly of modern Pop Art pieces - painting, collage, prints and sculpture. Following the Clune Gallery exhibition, Sharp spent a number of years resident in London (July 1966 - January 1969), before returning to the former Clune Gallery early in 1970 to set up the famous Yellow House multimedia art space.
According to a local newspaper report, the 1965 exhibition featured 'paintings, collage assemblages, cartoons etc.' and 'way-out sculpture'. It represented a landmark in the exposure of Pop Art to an Australian audience, and introduced Sharp's unique blend of styles to the general public. The Clune Gallery show followed on the controversial opening of Mike Brown's Paintin' a-go-go exhibition at Sydney's Gallery A the previous month (November 1965). In that instance, Brown and the Gallery A director were charged with obscenity by the same conservative establishment which had twice taken the editors of OZ magazine - including Sharp - to court in 1963 and 1965 (Haese 2011). During this period Sharp courted controversy in the same manner as the proponents of Dada - and later Surrealism - in Europe and the United States between 1915 and 1924, rejecting establishment norms and seeking to create something new through drawing, painting and the reuse of materials in the form of collage. Sharp, and his OZ colleagues Richard Neville and Richard Walsh, were early Australian pioneers of what would come to be known throughout the Western world during the long Sixties (1962-74) as the counterculture - a multifaceted movement which was driven by young people and saw expression through art, music, fashion, behaviour and other elements which rejected the prevailing cultural norms. OZ magazine was very much an expression of this new countercultural ethic. It could be said that the 1965 exhibition was the closest Sharp ever came to participating in the mainstream art establishment.The major theme of Sharp's cartoons, art and prose during the early 1960s was contemporary Australian culture in all its variety and absurdity. The comedian Barry Humphries was a fellow traveller, though based in Moonie Ponds, a Melbourne suburb. All were disciples of the Goons, and its later Australian resident Spike Milligan. The upper middle-class Sydneyite Sharp cast a critical eye over politics, religion, police and political corruption, the arts and suburban life, lampooning and highlighting hypocrisy and buffoonery where he saw it. This brought him and his colleagues into conflict with the local establishment and the law, at a time when the powerful, conservative elements of society expressed shock at the actions of the younger generation in rebelling against establishment mores and norms. One of Sharp's characters, in fact, was Normal Normal Esq. - a manifestation of all he was rebelling against in Australia. Sharp chose a large pinkish surrealistic portrait of Norman to pose in front of for a major Sydney newspaper feature article on the exhibition.
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| Martin Sharp in front of his painting entitled "Norman Normal Esq." The silver painted hand with a glass eye balanced on its ring finger was titled "Youse Must be Joking". Photograph by Stuart MacGladrie, Sydney Morning Herald, 8 December 1965. |
The Clune Galleries show provided an opportunity for the artist to put controversy to one side and concentrate on art in a manner not heretofore attempted. The works were still, more often then not, controversial, but the emphasis in this instance was towards Sharp as a contemporary artist, at the forefront of Pop Art in Australia, and not simply a newspaper and magazine cartoonist. This focus would, however, be short lived, and his journey to England via South East Asia six months later in May 1966 would see him transform into a London-based pioneer of psychedelia as high art.
Invitations to the opening of the show were produced by Sharp and the Clune Galleries in the artist's typical hand-drawn combination of text and cartoon black ink line drawing. They were printed and sent out to friends and the media. The show was also advertised in the December 1965 issue of OZ magazine, with a typical Sharp-penned graphic.
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| Martin Sharp, Martin Sharp at the Clune Galleries [advertisement], OZ magazine, Sydney, December 1965. |
As a result of both media publicity and word-of-mouth, the opening night was a huge success. Richard Neville noted in his autobiography Hippie Hippie Shake that 'everything sold, even a portrait of me bopping in a corduroy suit, the eternal groover' (Neville 1995). A newsreel of the exhibition was produced by Cinesound for presentation in cinemas around the country. Entitled 'Sydney Pop Art on Show', it provided a visual overview of the numerous works on offer, plus commentary. The item ran for 50 seconds and closed with a less than complimentary comment by narrator Phil Halderman, stating: Young Martin Sharp is a man with something to say - BUT WHAT?!
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| Sydney Pop Art on Show, Cinesound Review, December 1965. Duration: 50 seconds. Collection: National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra. |
Screen shot from the Sydney Pop Art on Show newsreel footage, Cinesound Review, 1965.
The exhibition opening was also reported upon in the local print media, including within the Sydney Morning Herald and the University of New South Wales student newspaper Tharunka. Therein, Sharp received both critical and glowing reviews, with his Pop Art and Dadaesque presentations not always appreciated or understood by the commentators. Artist and critic Elwyn Lynn was on point, however, when he noted in his November 1963 article 'Pop goes the easel' that Pop artists 'are more anti-art than anti-big business... They do not aim at the usual art market, but at youth' (Lynn 1963). Sharp was very much in tune with this younger generation - he was one of them - and his art throughout the 1960s reflected a close association with the burgeoning counterculture and a rejection of the Academy system whereby artists studied Old Masters and the nude, working towards sales to art galleries, museums and wealthy clientele. Due to the tumultuous nature of the decade, his experiences were many and varied, and the direction taken by his art was subject to change, though its Dada / Surrealist / Pop elements could be said to have remained present throughout, with a brief foray into the realm of psychedelia, brought about by his use, from late 1966, of hallucinogenic drugs such as marijuana, hashish and LSD.
Set up
Sharp spent the second half of 1965 working on the Clune Gallery show, assisted by 18 year old photographer and future Yellow House colleague Greg Weight. Sharp's decision to mount an exhibition came hard on the heels of a hectic two year period during which he worked as graphic designer and artist for Sydney's counterculture magazine OZ; as a set designer on various Sydney theatre productions and university reviews; in the production of political cartoons for local news media such as the Australian and The Bulletin; as script writer for the television program The Mavis Brampton Show; on a film satirizing the local surf life saving movement called Surfing Roundabout; with Mike Molloy on an animated cartoon strip; and on various pieces of experimental film with friend and fellow OZ artist Gary Shead. This busy schedule would expand exponentially upon his arrival in London during April 1966.
Sharp's involvement with OZ magazine ha intense and proven controversial, resulting in two court cases centred around the charge of issuing an obscene publication, with the prime culprit in one instance a narrative piece by the artist on sex and Sydney's northern beaches surfing culture. There was also the pressure of producing graphic content for the magazine. Much of this appeared in the form of Sharp's distinctive narrative cartoons, utilising pen, ink and collage to produce simple graphic designs, figurative and textual tableau or highly detailed works such as the bare-breasted Mona Lisa seen on the cover of the July 1964 issue of OZ, or the President Johnson and Prime Minister Menzies bomber bird and bomb cover of May 1965. Sharp was amazingly prolific within the area of the graphic arts throughout the 1960s, though he did not want to participate in the traditional gallery-based path followed by many of his his contemporaries such as Brett Whiteley. The Clune Galleries exhibition was therefore, in part, a 'clearing of the decks' as the OZ legal trial came to an end and the artist looked toward new horizons overseas. Sharp had wearied of Sydney's conservatism, corruption, and backwardness during a time of rapid cultural change in Western society. Therefore, in the latter part of 1965 he put his mind to painting and sculpture, and together with good friend Richard Neville made plans to leave Australia for London as soon as the OZ legal issues were resolved. This the pair did in February 1966, less than 3 months after the opening of the Art For Mart's Sake exhibition.
No printed or manuscript catalogue of works from the Art for Mart's Sake
exhibition has to date been located. However, a list has been compiled by the present author from various sources, including a viewing of the 1965 Cinesound newsreel and contemporary press reports and reviews. As a result, a list of some 29 works from 1965 have been identified, which may, or may not, have been included in the show. Titles have also been allocated to some works where there is none known or given. These are indicated in brackets:
1. Seventeen Minutes to Four / 12 Minutes to Midnight
2. Norman Normal Esq.
3. Love Minus Zero
4. Waltzing Matilda at the Gas Lash.
5. [Balloons]
6. Winston Churchill
7. My Son who nobly responded to the Empire’s Call
8. Richard Neville
9. Me
10. Connoisseur
11. Kindly Len
12. Fink's Paradise
13. Love Machine
14. Phylis Stein
15. Collage Painting
16. Unknown
17. Woman with Thick Neck
18. Lips on a Stick
19. Lady With a Hat
20. Tree With Heads
21. Archbishop Gough and other clergy with padlocked minds
22. Mona Lisa
23. LBJ Bomber
24. Winged Victory
25. Charlie A Go Go
26. My Husband and Eye
27. Youse Must Be Joking
28. Vase of Lips
29. [Let's Dance]
2. Norman Normal Esq.
3. Love Minus Zero
4. Waltzing Matilda at the Gas Lash.
5. [Balloons]
6. Winston Churchill
7. My Son who nobly responded to the Empire’s Call
8. Richard Neville
9. Me
10. Connoisseur
11. Kindly Len
12. Fink's Paradise
13. Love Machine
14. Phylis Stein
15. Collage Painting
16. Unknown
17. Woman with Thick Neck
18. Lips on a Stick
19. Lady With a Hat
20. Tree With Heads
21. Archbishop Gough and other clergy with padlocked minds
22. Mona Lisa
23. LBJ Bomber
24. Winged Victory
25. Charlie A Go Go
26. My Husband and Eye
27. Youse Must Be Joking
28. Vase of Lips
29. [Let's Dance]
Each work is described in detail below, based on identification with the Cinesound footage and reference in exhibition reviews or later documents. Only items 1, 8, 11, 21, 22 and 23 have been seen in person by the author of this blog, and the latter four only in their published form within Martin Sharp's 1966 publication Cartoons and OZ magazine.
1. Seventeen Minutes to Four / 12 Minutes to Midnight – oil and lacquer on paper mounted on board, 135 x 185 cm. Collection: Martin Sharp Estate. References:- Cinesound 1965, National Gallery of Victoria 1981.
Provenance: This painted was kept by Sharp and is part of the Martin Sharp Estate collection. The author viewed it hanging in Wirian, his former home, during 2021. Over time it has been referred to by the two titles given above, though the first is current. This is perhaps Sharp's most significant work from the period prior to leaving for London, combining elements of Dada, painterly collage, Aboriginal dot painting and Pop Art. It is also one of his largest. The oil presents a foretaste of psychedelia, before the artist had partaken of drugs such as LSD. It is in fact a portent of the later collage work of American artist Terry Gilliam, as seen in the British television series Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969-74). Gilliam, like Sharp, was a fan of Dada and the use of collage in association with artistic anarchy. However the American Gilliam would have been unknown to Sharp in 1965, and did not arrive in London to work with the Pythons until late 1967. Sharp left London early in 1968, shortly after Gilliam arrived, and it is unknown whether the two ever met up to discuss their similar interests and love of collage. Unfortunately, this was an element of Sharp's work which had largely disappeared by the end of the 1970s, replaced by simpler works in print and paint focusing on solid colour.
2. Norman Normal Esq. – large oil painting + collage. Collection: National Gallery of Australia.
Provenance: Held by Sharp, then initially 'borrowed' by Sweeny Reed, before being sold to the National Gallery of Australia through an exhibition at the Coventry Gallery, Sydney, in 1975. The painting was over painted in part by Sharp, however the original collage lips as seen during the 1965 show were from an issue of Vogue magazine. This over painting was done after 1965 and prior to the work's sale to the National Gallery of Australia. Sharp frequently over-painted his work. Norman Normal was a character featured in OZ magazine and newspaper cartoons. It represented Sharp's rejection of conservatism and the idealised suburban life which was appearing in Australian urban areas during the post war period, as the so-called Baby Boomers enjoyed increased prosperity. Sharp's painting is likely a development of the cartoon My Name is Norman Normal previously published by Sharp, with both works possessing a similar form, though the painting tending toward the Surreal (Sharp 1966).
A critique of Norman Normal appears in Craig McGregor's People, Politics and Pop: Australia in the Sixties which was illustrated by Sharp and written during the period 1966-8. His dense, pen and ink collages combine McGregor's commentary with the artist's views of the world, and Australian society, at that time.
3. Love Minus Zero
–
collage on paper, 120 x 152 cm / 47 x 60 inches. Location: Unknown. References: Cinesound 1965, Art in Australia
1966.
Description (from Art in Australia 1966): The title of this work comes from a Bob Dylan song released on
the 1965 Bringing It All Back Home album. Like fellow Australian
artist Brett Whiteley, Martin Sharp was a big fan of Dylan and played
his music constantly whilst working in his studio or relaxing. This
Dadaesque collage - a 'bric-a-brac icon of Victoriana' - was typical of much of Sharp's work as featured in
Sydney OZ magazine from April 1963 and within the early editions of London OZ. Love Minus Zero was reproduced in the March 1966 edition of Art in Australia, with the following comment:
Amid cartoons, some Pop, an idol with a mannequin's torso and actual
eagle's wings, some bloated pink figures with arbitrarily placed eyes
and teeth and lots of eyes and lips up to aesthetic-sexual-satirical
high jinks, came this bric-a-brac icon of Victoriana. It surely lampoons
the interior decorator with one eye on Napoleon III and the other on
Victoria I, both unamused monarchs. Maybe Max Ernst I could claim some
of this territory, so skilfully exploited by Martin Sharp, lying between
humour and mild horror (Horton 1966).
The reference by Horton to Max Ernst is telling, as that German artist was in many ways a bridge between Dada and Surrealism, with the mix of humour and horror evident. Sharp famously produced a homage to Ernst with his Max 'The Birdman' Ernst poster of 1967, again, based on an earlier collage.
A section of the work is seen in an image published in the Sydney Morning Herald of Thursday 9 December 1965. The text accompanying the photograph reads: Mrs Peter Thompson (actress Victoria Anoux), in front of the painting "Waltzing Matilda at the Gash Lash," one of the exhibits in the one-man exhibition "Art for Mart's Sake" by Martin Sharp at the Terry Clune Galleries last night.
At the time, Sharp was going out with Victoria's sister. No further reference to this work has been located. It, like the other large collages included in the exhibition, perhaps survives in a private collection.
5. [Balloons] - paint and collage on paper. Location: Unknown. Reference: Cinesound 1965.
6. Winston Churchill – enamel on paper laid in board, 136 x 186 cm. Sold at public auction November 2006. Reference: Cinesound 1965.
This smallish collage reflects the surreal, non-nonsensical aspect of Sharp's work, as also seen in Norman Normal Esq. It portrays a set of pipes with a number of balloon-like extrusions. The image as a whole has the form of a body, with feet, arms, head and a dislocated heart. As with Seven Minutes to Four and Normal Normal Esq., the work is very much a precursor to the style seen from 1968 in the Monty Python animation of American artist Terry Gilliam.
6. Winston Churchill – enamel on paper laid in board, 136 x 186 cm. Sold at public auction November 2006. Reference: Cinesound 1965.
Sharp later (1966-7) painted a photograph of
John Lennon by his friend Robert Whitaker with a similar Union Jack face.
It is unclear whether the work bearing this title is one of those shown on the wall in the image above from the Cinesound Review footage.
8. Richard Neville - synthetic enamel and oil paint on board, 110 x 127 cm. Location: Private Collection. Reference: National Gallery of Victoria 1981, Neville 1996.
Provenance: Margaret Fink 1981. Richard Neville makes reference to this work appearing in the 1965 exhibition.
Martin's face has the Cranbrook school badge on the right cheek and the Union Jack on the left cheek.
10. The Connoisseur - Collage, synthetic enamel and Indian ink on board, 43 x 42 cm. Reference: National Gallery of Victoria
1981.
This work was reproduced as a full page illustration in Sharp's 1966 compilation Cartoons. In a 1977 article on Sharp, Elwyn Lynn noted: In the [1965] show, "Kindly Len" (everything about him seemed borrowed) had two tiny eyes above the lenses of his spectacles which reflected scenes from the turn of the century — for Sharp always a comic turn — a huge, kindly and most voracious mouth, every tooth a sound investment, and a girl's head bound into his necktie knot (Lynn 1977).
12. Fink's Paradise - [No image] coloured inks on silver foil on card, 52 x 63 cm. Reference: National Gallery of Victoria 1981. It is unknown whether this work was included in the exhibition.
13. Love Machine - [No image] collage, coloured inks in silver synthetic enamel, 223 x 356 cm / 87 x 140 inches. Location: Unknown. Reference: National Gallery of Victoria 1981. Provenance: Michael Guest 1981. It is unknown whether this large work was included in the 1965 exhibition, and no copy is known to the author. It may have been similar to the drawing published in the University of Sydney magazine The Hermes during 1965, reproduced below. 
15. Collage painting – medium sized painting. Reference: Cinesound 1965.
16. Unknown – portrait orientation medium sized work (Cinesound).
19. Lady with a hat – small collage / drawing (Cinesound).
20. Tree with heads – small collage / drawing
(Cinesound).
21. Archbishop Gough and other clergy with padlocked minds – small framed cartoon (Cinesound / SMH review). This work was also reproduced in Sharp's Cartoons of 1966.
22. Mona Lisa – ink drawing from OZ magazine cover. Not for sale (SMH review).
23. LBJ Bomber – ink drawing from OZ magazine cover. Not for sale (SMH review) – present Private Collection.
24. Winged Victory – wings on a mannequin base on wheels sculpture (Cinesound, SMH)
26. My Husband and Eye – cricket ball with eyeball on wooden stand (Cinesound)
27. Youse Must Be Joking – Silver painted hand sculpture with eyeball on finger (SMH review + picture).
28. Vase of Lips – sculptured vase with cut-out
glossy magazine lips (SMH review)
Reviews and Reminiscences
Provenance: Margaret Fink 1981. Richard Neville makes reference to this work appearing in the 1965 exhibition.
9. Me -
synthetic enamel and Indian ink on mirror, 43.5 x 71 cm. Collection: Cranbrook School, Sydney. References: National Gallery of Victoria 1981 (illustrated), Rollinson & Melville, 1996 (illustrated).
Martin's face has the Cranbrook school badge on the right cheek and the Union Jack on the left cheek.
The Connoisseur is said to be a portrait of Frank McDonald, then
director of the Clune Galleries and no fan of the type of modern Pop Art
produced by Sharp. McDonald went on to privately run the Thirty Victoria Street gallery which serviced a group of wealthy Sydney clients and specialised in Australian colonial period art and European art.
In his 1977 review of Sharp's work, Elwyn Lynn noted: In "The Connoisseur" a
horridly toothed vertical mouth replaced any nose he had had for art and behind
him was a queue of twenty-one Mona Lisas. Eyes, lips, mouths and teeth were the
revealing erogenous parts of the body, which usually swelled in bulging pinks,
albeit preserving a poster-like flatness. Sydney had not seen such a repertoire
of images that lampooned, didactically distorted and parodied with such
graceful surgery (Lynn 1977).
11. Kindly Len - collage, pen and ink on paper, 63 x 50 cm. References: Sharp 1966, National Gallery of Victoria 1981.
This work was reproduced as a full page illustration in Sharp's 1966 compilation Cartoons. In a 1977 article on Sharp, Elwyn Lynn noted: In the [1965] show, "Kindly Len" (everything about him seemed borrowed) had two tiny eyes above the lenses of his spectacles which reflected scenes from the turn of the century — for Sharp always a comic turn — a huge, kindly and most voracious mouth, every tooth a sound investment, and a girl's head bound into his necktie knot (Lynn 1977).
13. Love Machine - [No image] collage, coloured inks in silver synthetic enamel, 223 x 356 cm / 87 x 140 inches. Location: Unknown. Reference: National Gallery of Victoria 1981. Provenance: Michael Guest 1981. It is unknown whether this large work was included in the 1965 exhibition, and no copy is known to the author. It may have been similar to the drawing published in the University of Sydney magazine The Hermes during 1965, reproduced below.
14. Female Profile
(?Phyllis Stein) – medium sized painting being a profile of a woman with a ?man in her hand, eating him. Reference: Cinesound 1965.
15. Collage painting – medium sized painting. Reference: Cinesound 1965.
16. Unknown – portrait orientation medium sized work (Cinesound).
19. Lady with a hat – small collage / drawing (Cinesound).
21. Archbishop Gough and other clergy with padlocked minds – small framed cartoon (Cinesound / SMH review). This work was also reproduced in Sharp's Cartoons of 1966.
22. Mona Lisa – ink drawing from OZ magazine cover. Not for sale (SMH review).
23. LBJ Bomber – ink drawing from OZ magazine cover. Not for sale (SMH review) – present Private Collection.
24. Winged Victory – wings on a mannequin base on wheels sculpture (Cinesound, SMH)
26. My Husband and Eye – cricket ball with eyeball on wooden stand (Cinesound)
27. Youse Must Be Joking – Silver painted hand sculpture with eyeball on finger (SMH review + picture).
[No image]
The
Cinesound film only shows part of the collection of works, judging by
comments in media reports and reminiscences of those in attendance. For example, Richard Neville refers to first sighting his portrait at the 1965 show, but it is nowhere else referenced.
Reviews and Reminiscences
We are fortunate in that the Sydney newspapers had social sections which reported on gallery exhibition openings, often including photographs of attendees. The Sydney Morning Herald was one such example, with three separate items over the two days of the opening and immediately following. The first two stories - published on 8 December - presented a detailed preview, noting a number of individual works. The third featured photographs of two young female attendees at the opening, including Victoria Anoux, supposedly the sister of the artist's then girlfriend, who was simply known as Anou. The newspaper items are reproduced below.
* Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday 8 December 1965:
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| Sydney Morning Herald, 9 December 1965. |
Art for Mart’s Sake
A Sharp Bite at a Tribal Hand
"Art For Mart's Sake," says the invitation to an
exhibition of paintings, cartoons and pop sculpture by Martin
Sharp which opens at the Clune Galleries today. The
implied motivation is not commercial (his portrait of "Phyllis Stein"
will hardly appeal to Norman Normal Esq.); it is personal. Mart's art is
unique, and so too is his position in Sydney. If one had to choose a
representative for the in group of young people who orbit around "OZ,"
"Tharunka," "Honi Soit", East Sydney Tech. and the Gas Lash
discotheque, that representative would probably be 23-year-old Martin
Sharp. The sort of people he represents are all in their
early twenties. They are tertiary educated, highly personable, the sons and
daughters of well-to-do parents, and biters of the tribal hand that fed them.
White Ant
Martin himself is a
sort of white ant from Bellevue Hill. He was born there (his father is a
Macquarie Street dermatologist), educated at Cranbrook (where he was taught art
by Justin O'Brien and won the art prize four times), and still lives at home in
Cranbrook Lane, Bellevue Hill. After matriculating, he spent part of one year
doing art at East Sydney Tech., and then reluctantly put in two terms at St.
Paul's College and the Faculty of Architecture, Sydney University. "It was
a pleasing-the-father kick," he says now. "The faculty didn't seem to
think I was interested, and I wasn't, so I went back to Tech. for two more
years. Tech. was never very good except for the art students' balls." As
joint editor of "The Arty Wild Oat," a lively Tech. newspaper which
survived for only two issues, he met Richard Neville, editor of
"Tharunka" at the University of N.S.W. Neville also met Richard
Walsh, editor of "Honi Soil" at a student editors' conference, and in
1963 the three of them combined forces to publish the highly successful
satirical magazine "OZ." Sharp's exhibition
contains some of his cartoons from "OZ," the "Australian"
and the "Herald" (Archbishop Gough and other clergymen with padlocked
minds); some ironic pieces of Victoriana ("My Son Who Nobly Responded To
The Empire's Call"); some strange combinations of flesh and machinery
("Waltzing Matilda At The Gas Lash"): and such pop art pieces as a huge
photograph of Sir Winston Churchill with a Union Jack face, and a vase full of
cut-out glossy magazine lips. The cut-out smiles and gleaming dentures are a
by-product of an animated film which Sharp helped to
make on the forced commercial smiles of the newsstands. He and photographer
Mike Molloy are now working on another film about super-Australian ideals. The
visual element of the film will be those glass paintings of Aussie sportsmen
which adorn the facades of most Sydney hotels, and the sound track will consist
mainly of "Waltzing Matilda" and Dorothea Mackellar's "My
Country."
---------------------------
* Sydney Morning Herald, [Exhibition opening photograph], 9 December 1965.
 |
| Miss Lyssa Hagan seen behind the way-out sculpture 'Charlie A Go Go' by Martin Sharp which is included in his one-man exhibition 'Art for Mart's Sake' which opened at the Terry Clune Galleries last night. |
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* Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday 8 December 1965
Martin
Sharp exhibition at Clune Galleries
By
WALLACE THORNTON
The
bite of contemporary satire, the send-up of debunking comment and the hard bash
of direct attack — all form the coherent melange of Martin Sharp's exhibition at
the Terry Clune Galleries. This is a first one-man show of youth rampant. It is
the "best of OZ" - the "S.M.H. at its sharpest," together
with a multitude of viewpoints painted, drawn or in montages and assemblages.
It can be rough, raw, garish or subtle. Take it or leave it, like it or reject
it, it cannot be ignored, One's reaction must be positive and to this reviewer
Sharp has made his mark. The surreal, the unexpected, the strange or the
abruptly shocking are stated in political, social or general comment that is
made with no punches pulled. It is a developing expression, particularly in the
painting, but Sharp is emerging with a forthright style. This interesting
exhibition will open at 10 a.m. today.
----------------------------------------
* Elwyn Lynn, Art for Mart's Sake, The Australian, December 1965:
.....Sharp's is the comment on an affluent society, which has its rogues, fools and remnants of religions, but which is not so dangerously corrupt as was Daumier's France and Grosz's Germany...
---------------------------------------
* Roger Foley, Tharunka, Tuesday, 15 March 1966:
Martin Sharp at the Clune Galleries
An
exhibition of Art for Mart's Sake was held in the Clune Galleries, Macleay
Street, King's Cross, for a short season from December 8 last year. If one
wanted to be unkind, it could be remarked that Terry Clune is a long-term
advertiser in OZ. Martin Sharp first came to public notice as the author rather
than cartoonist of "The Gas Lash" which appeared on the back of
Tharunka in Orientation Week, and as cartoonist for OZ magazine. So it is not
surprising that this exhibition consists mostly of cartoons or other humorous
portraits of life. Although using the technique of the Dadaists in collage and photo montage, Sharp is not trying to fell convention with a sharp retort, but
rather with a more subtle smile, a direction to "Chacun a son gout."
For this reason the exhibition was interesting to see, as a refutation of the
criticism he and his fellows of the OZ ilk are gathering, that they have
"no point of view." Rather they, or Sharp at least in this exhibition,
is saying, "Let us not be dogmatic, people. Let us enjoy life with
magnanimity, a tear in our eye for the ordinary man and his moral
cowardice." On their own the works are not memorable, only the bare
breasted Mona Lisa and perhaps the L.B.J. and Menzies bomber birds showed the
graphical skill Sharp is capable of. These two were not for sale. The remainder
are a colourful (ghastly pinks on silver foil), amusing but non-commercial
smile. Roger Foley.
-----------------------------------------
* Reminiscence by Nick Waterlow
Just on a decade later, art curator Nick Waterlow looked back on the show and observed the following:
I vividly remember Martin Sharp's 1965 Clune Gallery exhibition. It was one of the most precious memories I took back with me to London in 1966. A fine art sideshow is the best way I can describe the atmosphere the display created, a unique mixture of sardonic wit, irreverence and cleverness... He is one of those very rare creatures, whose alchemy makes visible the invisible and who bridges spans that no global engineer would undertake .... Martin Sharp is one of a handful of international guerillas bringing light to these dark ages. (Waterlow 1977)
As Australian artist and critic Elwyn Lynn noted during the same year:
When, in 1965, Martin Sharp invited the outside world to his show at the Clune Gallery in McLeay Street, Potts Point, he employed his usual revealing pun: "Art For Mart's Sake"; it was partly a burlesque about the art market, but, as always, about Martin's brand of humorous caricature (Lynn 1977).
I vividly remember Martin Sharp's 1965 Clune Gallery exhibition. It was one of the most precious memories I took back with me to London in 1966. A fine art sideshow is the best way I can describe the atmosphere the display created, a unique mixture of sardonic wit, irreverence and cleverness... He is one of those very rare creatures, whose alchemy makes visible the invisible and who bridges spans that no global engineer would undertake .... Martin Sharp is one of a handful of international guerillas bringing light to these dark ages. (Waterlow 1977)
As Australian artist and critic Elwyn Lynn noted during the same year:
When, in 1965, Martin Sharp invited the outside world to his show at the Clune Gallery in McLeay Street, Potts Point, he employed his usual revealing pun: "Art For Mart's Sake"; it was partly a burlesque about the art market, but, as always, about Martin's brand of humorous caricature (Lynn 1977).
In
a 1979 interview with Australian surrealist James Gleeson, Sharp
commented upon his preparation for the show and referenced one of the works
which had subsequently been purchased by the National Gallery of
Australia:
James Gleeson: ....Martin, to go from the collage, now Normal Norman is a painting, isnʼt it?
Martin Sharp: Yes. Well, parts of it are collage. This is collage and these were initially collage. The lips were initially collage but then I began painting them over and you of course see a sort of similarity to the Luna Park [entrance face].
JG: Yes, of course, that image again.
MS: The mouth in there. This was when Iʼd started working on OZ after my art school days, or during it, and it started developing images.
JG: Have we a date for that? We havenʼt any date at all.
MS: Oh, thatʼs ʼ65.
JG: 1965.
MS: Yes.
JG: Can you remember how we got that? Iʼve got no information.
MS: Sixty-six. I can give you the more exact date. I think it was ʼ65, possibly ʼ66. No, it would be more likely December, January, February, sorry, November or December ʼ66.
JG: Sixty-six?
MS: Yes.
JG: I see. Where was it shown?
MS: At the Clune Galleries. It was my first exhibition.
JG: Well, we didnʼt buy it until October ʼ75.
MS: Right.
JG: That was from the Coventry Gallery.
MS: Yes.
JG: You had it since the exhibition, the first exhibition?
MS: Yes. Oh well, Sweeney Reed had actually had it for a while.
JG: Did he?
MS: Yes. He sort of borrowed it and it eventually came back.
JG: Well, I see theyʼve got a note here, enamel, ink and collage.
MS: Yes.
JG: Is that right?
MS: Yes. This had originally been a big mouth from a Vogue magazine, I think.
JG: Had it?
MS: This as well from lipstick adds.
JG: Yes.
MS: The eyes as well. This was from a book, an old book I found of dental tools, which I had photographed and blown up.
JG: I see. So the collage element is still implicit in it.
MS: Yes.
JG: Really is in it, even though the basic thing is painted now.
MS: Yes, and all this is a sort of cross hatch pen work which Iʼd done.
JG: Yes.
MS: Through OZ Iʼd had to create images very quickly to meet deadlines and I'd been using a lot of collage. Then I sort of got to the stage where I felt the images, they demanded a more, you know, solid treatment. So I sort of really just stayed at home for six months and painted and had an exhibition. Norman Normal was, you know, ironic, its title, I think. But itʼs possibly to do with, you know, this is rather a mechanical sexual image.
James Gleeson: ....Martin, to go from the collage, now Normal Norman is a painting, isnʼt it?
Martin Sharp: Yes. Well, parts of it are collage. This is collage and these were initially collage. The lips were initially collage but then I began painting them over and you of course see a sort of similarity to the Luna Park [entrance face].
JG: Yes, of course, that image again.
MS: The mouth in there. This was when Iʼd started working on OZ after my art school days, or during it, and it started developing images.
JG: Have we a date for that? We havenʼt any date at all.
MS: Oh, thatʼs ʼ65.
JG: 1965.
MS: Yes.
JG: Can you remember how we got that? Iʼve got no information.
MS: Sixty-six. I can give you the more exact date. I think it was ʼ65, possibly ʼ66. No, it would be more likely December, January, February, sorry, November or December ʼ66.
JG: Sixty-six?
MS: Yes.
JG: I see. Where was it shown?
MS: At the Clune Galleries. It was my first exhibition.
JG: Well, we didnʼt buy it until October ʼ75.
MS: Right.
JG: That was from the Coventry Gallery.
MS: Yes.
JG: You had it since the exhibition, the first exhibition?
MS: Yes. Oh well, Sweeney Reed had actually had it for a while.
JG: Did he?
MS: Yes. He sort of borrowed it and it eventually came back.
JG: Well, I see theyʼve got a note here, enamel, ink and collage.
MS: Yes.
JG: Is that right?
MS: Yes. This had originally been a big mouth from a Vogue magazine, I think.
JG: Had it?
MS: This as well from lipstick adds.
JG: Yes.
MS: The eyes as well. This was from a book, an old book I found of dental tools, which I had photographed and blown up.
JG: I see. So the collage element is still implicit in it.
MS: Yes.
JG: Really is in it, even though the basic thing is painted now.
MS: Yes, and all this is a sort of cross hatch pen work which Iʼd done.
JG: Yes.
MS: Through OZ Iʼd had to create images very quickly to meet deadlines and I'd been using a lot of collage. Then I sort of got to the stage where I felt the images, they demanded a more, you know, solid treatment. So I sort of really just stayed at home for six months and painted and had an exhibition. Norman Normal was, you know, ironic, its title, I think. But itʼs possibly to do with, you know, this is rather a mechanical sexual image.
---------------------------------
* Reminiscence by Richard Neville
In 2006, within the introduction to Martin's exhibition at the Ivan
Dougherty Gallery, University of New South Wales, Richard Neville noted
the following in regard to the impact of the 1965 exhibition:
It was only when I attended a throbbing opening at Sydney's Terry Clune gallery in 1965 that I realised my new best friend could apply oil to canvas with breathtaking audacity. The cameras flashed all night, as the cash register sang. Naturally, the painting to which I was most attracted was a large portrait of myself, a prancing popinjay in blue velvet. I squirmed in admiration. Not only for its exquisite Sharpness, but that he had managed to execute it undetected (Waterlow and Pegus 2006).
Almost fifty years later, within the catalogue accompanying the Art Gallery of New South Wales' 2014 international Pop to Popism survey exhibition, curator Wayne Tunnicliffe noted of Sharp's first exhibition back in 1965:
The exhibition's presentation was orthodox, with framed works on paper and collage paintings on the wall, and free standing sculptures, but the works themselves continued the punning, satirical and surreal vein of Sharp's work as a cartoonist. The influence of the Annandale Imitation Realists can be discerned in some works, and Sharp had earlier befriended [Colin] Lanceley, who had written an article on the AIR for the second issue of The Arty Wild Oat. Sharp's surreally biomorphic forms and bright organic patterning in this exhibition were all precursors for the more psychedelic designs that were to follow after he moved to London. (Tunnicliffe and Jaspers 2014)
It was only when I attended a throbbing opening at Sydney's Terry Clune gallery in 1965 that I realised my new best friend could apply oil to canvas with breathtaking audacity. The cameras flashed all night, as the cash register sang. Naturally, the painting to which I was most attracted was a large portrait of myself, a prancing popinjay in blue velvet. I squirmed in admiration. Not only for its exquisite Sharpness, but that he had managed to execute it undetected (Waterlow and Pegus 2006).
Almost fifty years later, within the catalogue accompanying the Art Gallery of New South Wales' 2014 international Pop to Popism survey exhibition, curator Wayne Tunnicliffe noted of Sharp's first exhibition back in 1965:
The exhibition's presentation was orthodox, with framed works on paper and collage paintings on the wall, and free standing sculptures, but the works themselves continued the punning, satirical and surreal vein of Sharp's work as a cartoonist. The influence of the Annandale Imitation Realists can be discerned in some works, and Sharp had earlier befriended [Colin] Lanceley, who had written an article on the AIR for the second issue of The Arty Wild Oat. Sharp's surreally biomorphic forms and bright organic patterning in this exhibition were all precursors for the more psychedelic designs that were to follow after he moved to London. (Tunnicliffe and Jaspers 2014)
---------------------
* Reminiscences by Greg Weight
In December 2014, Greg Weight recorded some reminiscences of his time assisting Martin in preparing works for the 1965 exhibition:
When
I was 18, after work I occasionally made my way down to The Royal George Hotel
in Sussex Street, feeling daring and hoping to catch a glimpse of someone
bohemian like Germain Greer, or maybe strike up a conversation with a
long-haired girl in a duffel coat. It was 1964 and the ‘George’ was the
watering hole for the notorious group of intellectuals know as ‘Sydney Push’. One
evening over a beer, I mentioned to my friend Charlie Brown that I had become
increasingly interested in the art world. Taking off his spotted cravat and
tying it rakishly around my neck, he cocked his head and looking at me
approvingly, said, ‘You might be just the right person to work for Martin
Sharp’. ‘You’ve gotta be kidding,’ I said. Charlie
told me that Sharp, the well-known artist of the underground, and recently
banned magazine OZ, was having an exhibition and needed a studio assistant. He
scrawled a phone number onto a piece of paper and pressed it into the palm of
my hand. ‘Give him a call on the weekend. I’ll put in a good word for you,’ he
said. Enclosing my hand with both of his, he looked me in the eye, and gave me
the blessing that would open a new world for this ex-surfie boy from Manly. ‘Good
old Charlie.’ I thought.
On
Monday morning I knocked on the side door of Martin’s house. The door opened
and a bird-like, grey haired woman with smiling red lipstick extended her hand
and said, ‘Hello, you must be Greg’. Pausing and rolling her eyes towards the
ceiling she added, ‘His Lordship has not yet deigned to descend the stairs for
breakfast, come on in, he will emerge eventually’. ‘He’s
not a morning person our Marty,’ Joan confided in me as she made some coffee on
the Early Kooka stove. Martin finally appeared through the swinging door
looking rumpled. His smile matched his mother’s. It was a smile that he
continued to paint throughout his life. Joan
chatted and continued to top up our coffee. Martin immersed himself in the
newspaper and lit another cigarette. The coffee kicked in, and looking past the
newspaper his mischievous blue eyes sparkled under his uncombed, pageboy hair
cut. ‘I think the Prime Minister, Bob Menzies, has the hots for Queen
Elizabeth, do you think I could get away with that idea in a cartoon?’
Delighted to be included in this scurrilous decision-making process, I said, ‘Sounds
risky but why not?’ Joan
laughed, ‘Do it darling’ she said, winking in my direction. Marty was her gift
to the art world and everything he did fascinated her, like a wind-up toy let
loose. Martin adored his mother and they were a formidable team. Joan, a
divorced woman of considerable wealth, was always in the background offering
all the support any young man could ever want. Charlie Brown once prophetically
suggested that no woman would ever replace Joan in Martin’s life.
The
Art for Mart’s Sake exhibition was in full production. Martin was an artist who
was crackling with ideas and I jumped into his hive of creative freedom as
happily as a duck takes to water. I felt like the sorcerer’s apprentice, and
the sorcerer had cast a spell over me, allowing me to participate in the making
of his magic. Six
whirlwind months went by. Lunches with Barry Humphries and girls posing for
paintings, framing pictures in the courtyard and Joan tinkling ice in a glass
around 5pm declaring happy hour. On the appointed day a truck came and took the
exhibition away to the gallery. My work was over. On
opening night of Art for Mart’s Sake the Clune Gallery was packed. Many of the
works had sold by the time I arrived. Excited guests could be heard declaring,
‘Darling you are wicked, I just love it’, or ‘Oh my God, can you believe this
sculpture, I want it’. Martin was engulfed by admirers. His girlfriend Anou was
clinging to his arm amongst a blur of social activity. I felt very connected to
all the art works that I knew so well, in some cases intimately. But nobody
knew what I had done. It
was his exhibition. It was clear that all the attention rightfully belongs to
the artist, not the framer or the studio assistant. For me, a young man, it was
anti-climatic. I had thought that the close connection I had experienced with
Martin and my intimate knowledge of how the art was made would have continued
into that opening night. I sensed that there would be an after party, but even
if there was, I didn’t find it. Within
a few weeks Martin had left for England to join the Pop Art World to which he
belonged and I began working in an English photographer’s studio in Sydney. We
were worlds apart, consumed by our own ambition, instincts and self-indulgent
urges.
Five
years later Martin returned. By this stage I had my own photographic studio in
South Dowling Street, Redfern, shooting fashion, advertising, magazines and
portraits. One day my assistant knocked at the darkroom door and said excitedly
that Martin Sharp was here. He wanted to talk to me about his plans to set up
The Yellow House. We shared a cup of tea and talked about Vincent’s Van Gogh's dream of a house filled with creativity where artists worked side by side,
feeding off each other’s inspiration and how with the right people and
commitment it might be possible to make that dream come true. It was. Our
friendship continued until he died in 2013.
----------------------------------
In his 2016 biography of Sharp, Lowell Tarling noted of the 1965 exhibition:
Martin left Australia with quite a bang, as he'd hoped. The Clune Gallery exhibition was packed with admirers. It had been a bit of a risk, because although his OZ followers were used to Martin as a black and white cartoonist, he had not yet fully presented himself as a painter of pictures. Martin's Greg Weight-assisted collage-paintings gave every indication that a great career had been launched. Pictures from this series found their way into major galleries at the time (Tarling 2016).
Martin left Australia with quite a bang, as he'd hoped. The Clune Gallery exhibition was packed with admirers. It had been a bit of a risk, because although his OZ followers were used to Martin as a black and white cartoonist, he had not yet fully presented himself as a painter of pictures. Martin's Greg Weight-assisted collage-paintings gave every indication that a great career had been launched. Pictures from this series found their way into major galleries at the time (Tarling 2016).
------------------------
Art For Mart's Sake was an important exhibition for Martin Sharp - 'Australia's greatest Pop artist' - though it remains a little known event in his life. It was the artist's first one-man show, revealing his limited level of interest in pursuing the more traditional course of artists in preparing large works on canvas or paper for purchase by galleries and private collectors. Sharp was blase about the art scene, rebelling against the norm and 'doing his own thing' because he both wanted to, and could do so, as a result of his family's wealth and the support of his mother. This freedom allowed Sharp to follow a unique path in both life and art. The results of this was clearly seen in the 1965 show and his work on Sydney OZ and associated endeavors. By the end of that year he was well prepared for the new frontiers that would open to him upon his arrival in Europe and England.
Martin Sharp, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon circa 1965, mixed media on board, 80 x 104 cm. Private Collection.
---------------------
References
Neville, Richard, Hippie Hippie Shake, Bloomsbury, London, 1995.
Rollinson, Julie and Melville, Sue, Australian Art and Artists, Science Press, 1996.
Tarling, Lowell, Sharp: 1942-1979 - A Biography of Martin Sharp as told to Lowell Tarling, Ett Imprint, Exile Bay, 2016.
Art for Mart's Sake [review], Sydney Morning Herald, 8 December 1965.
Cinesound, Sydney Pop Art on Show, Cinesound Review, December 1965, duration: 50 seconds. Collection: National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra. Available URL: https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/martin-sharp-sydney-pop-art-show.
Foley, Roger, Martin Sharp at the Clune Galleries [review], Tharunka, University of New South Wales Students' Union, 15 March 1966.
Horton, Mervyn, Exhibition Commentary, Art and Australia, March 1966.
Horton, Mervyn, Exhibition Commentary, Art and Australia, March 1966.
Lynn, Elwyn, Pop goes the easel, Art and Australia,
November 1963.
-----, Art for Mart's Sake [review], The Australian, Sydney, December 1965.
-----, Those Silver Scissors, Quadrant, 21(2), February 1977.
Neville, Richard, Hippie Hippie Shake, Bloomsbury, London, 1995.
Rollinson, Julie and Melville, Sue, Australian Art and Artists, Science Press, 1996.
Sharp, Martin, Cartoons, Scripts, Sydney, 1966.
-----, Interview with James Gleeson, National Gallery of Australia, 7 November 1979.Available URL:
-----, Interview with James Gleeson, National Gallery of Australia, 7 November 1979.Available URL:
Tarling, Lowell, Sharp: 1942-1979 - A Biography of Martin Sharp as told to Lowell Tarling, Ett Imprint, Exile Bay, 2016.
Thornton, Wallace, Martin Sharp at the Clune Galleries [review], Sydney Morning Herald, 8 December 1965.
Tunnicliffe, Wayne and Jaspers, Anneke, Pop to Popism, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2014.
Waterlow, Nick, Martin Sharp, Nation Review, June 1977.
----- and Pegas, Annabel, The Everlasting World of Martin Sharp - Paintings from 1948 to Today, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, University of New South Wales, 2006.
Tunnicliffe, Wayne and Jaspers, Anneke, Pop to Popism, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2014.
Waterlow, Nick, Martin Sharp, Nation Review, June 1977.
----- and Pegas, Annabel, The Everlasting World of Martin Sharp - Paintings from 1948 to Today, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, University of New South Wales, 2006.
Weight, Greg, Working for Martin in 1965, Great Australian Story [webpage], 6 December 2014. Available URL: https://greataustralianstory.com.au/story/working-martin-1965.
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Michael Organ, Australia
Last updated: 23 June 2023
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