tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801294530366692016.post5944978791520788295..comments2010-07-11T12:52:49.894+10:00Comments on sarsaparilla lite: There beneath the brown suburban skiesAmpersand Duckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12245377686193859488noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801294530366692016.post-88932032238591678792009-06-15T00:35:29.354+10:002009-06-15T00:35:29.354+10:00I loved the Brack Retrospective. Two days and 10 b...I loved the Brack Retrospective. Two days and 10 blogs later, I realise that people change their mind about both style and content all the time. But two things worry me about Brack's Melbourne paintings, particularly of the 1950s. <br /><br />Firstly you say that Brack’s widow described Brack’s Melbourne paintings as little more than “sneering” jibes at “people who don’t know the right words”. <br /><br />Secondly Hieronymous the Anonymous reported that Brack came to disavow much of this early work, later in his career.<br /><br />I have created a link to your post, many thanks.<br />Hels<br />Art and Architecture, mainly<br />http://melbourneblogger.blogspot.com/Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801294530366692016.post-7682588341897602462009-05-12T14:54:00.000+10:002009-05-12T14:54:00.000+10:00Great review Tim.Great review Tim.TimThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10333303180015967125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801294530366692016.post-66410977553407787892009-05-12T14:19:00.000+10:002009-05-12T14:19:00.000+10:00I generally get quite irritated by cynical dismiss...<I>I generally get quite irritated by cynical dismissals of suburbia</I>.<br /><br /><br />I do too (see <A HREF="http://sternezine.blogspot.com/2005/03/exhibitionism.html" REL="nofollow">here</A>, for instance), however there's something about (some of) Brack's early work that goes beyond cynicism into the realm of despair and loathing. That may be objectionable in itself, but it's certainly interesting.Timhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01361330734876130185noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801294530366692016.post-10235476998703459892009-05-12T12:08:00.000+10:002009-05-12T12:08:00.000+10:00Well, if this is sub-VCE art criticism, bring it o...Well, if this is sub-VCE art criticism, bring it on. <br /><br />I remember visiting Canberra not long after Brack's death. The National Gallery had managed to put together a retrospective very quickly. I remember being charmed by the warring pencils, but I can't recall much of my response beyond that. <br /><br />I like your observations about Brack's depiction of suburbia. I generally get quite irritated by cynical dismissals of suburbia, but perhaps the suburbs of the 70s and 80s weren't so oppressive as they were imagined by artists and writers in the 40s and 50s. <br /><br />This sentence is so evocative: 'The paintings give off a strange aura: even the pinks and greens feel yellow and brown'.Kirsty Leishmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05168866917829955549noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801294530366692016.post-49967488169822110652009-05-12T08:57:00.000+10:002009-05-12T08:57:00.000+10:00Thanks, Mark. Good point about the artificial leg ...Thanks, Mark. Good point about the artificial leg - Brack was born in 1920 so would have grown up surrounded by WW1 veterans, so perhaps that plays into it too.<br /><br />One thing I wish I'd written about is how Brack's suburban art differs from other representations of the same subject. I think these days if suburbia is depicted critically it is in terms of a rotteness behind a facade. Brack says no, the facade itself is rotten. Violence and despair are implicit in the facade - this stuff, the meat slicers and so forth, are everyday items, out in the open - therefore whatever is behind that must be truly monstrous.Timhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01361330734876130185noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801294530366692016.post-63070626128773765382009-05-11T21:41:00.000+10:002009-05-11T21:41:00.000+10:00Thanks for your different take on Brack, Tim. It's...Thanks for your different take on Brack, Tim. It's brilliant. Move over Robert Hughes. <br /><br />I don't know the artificial leg still life, but considering what I've heard of Brack's left sympathies (though he was no Noel Counihan) I wonder if it was a reference to the then silent trauma of the WW2 veterans who'd returned to the suburbs shell-shocked and horrified, but maintaining the charade of the 'golden age' of post-war boom. <br /><br />I think Brack's perspective on work in that 'golden age' context is also one of the most defining features of his work to me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com