MS 8680
Papers of Bernard Smith (1916- )



Scope and Content Note

  • Papers
  • 1938-99
  • 1.12m (8 boxes)
  • Available for reference

These papers were donated to the National Library by Professor Bernard Smith in instalments received in 1995 (two consignments), 1996, 1997 (two consignments) 1998, 1999 and 2000.

The papers include correspondence (principally with Jack Lindsay, 1979-88), handwritten drafts, notes and typescripts of talks, lectures, addresses, book reviews and articles. There are a large number of drafts of articles, later published in journals and newspapers such as Meanjin, Art and Australia and the Age.

Bernard Smith’s arrangement of the papers has been preserved by the Library and this finding-aid is based on his own listings.

The papers are typescripts, unless indicated otherwise.


Biographical Note

Bernard Smith, art historian, lecturer and critic, was born in 1916 and grew up in the Sydney suburb of Burwood. He studied at the Sydney Teachers’ College 1934-35, the University of Sydney 1945-48, the Courtauld Institute of Art and Warburg Institute, London, 1948-49, and completed his PhD at the Australian National University in 1953-54.

Smith’s professional career as a teacher led to his appointment as education officer at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1945-52. He lectured at the Department of Fine Arts, University of Melbourne from 1955, and was appointed Reader, 1964-66. During this period he was also art critic for the Melbourne Age. Smith was Professor of Contemporary Art and Director of the Power Institute of Fine Arts, Sydney University, 1967-77. A Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, Smith was president, 1977-80.

Smith’s first major publication was Place, taste and tradition (1945). During his time at the University of Sydney, his publications included The architectural character of Glebe, Sydney (1974), editor, Documents on art and taste in Australia: the colonial period, 1770-1914 (1975), Concerning contemporary art: the Power Lectures, 1968-73 (1975) and The Antipodean manifesto: essays in art and history (1976). Other publications include European vision and the South Pacific, 1768-1850 (1960), Australian painting 1788-1960 (1962), The art of Captain Cook's voyages (1985-87), Imagining the Pacific (1992) and Noel Counihan: artist and revolutionary (1993). The autobiography of his early years (1916-1940) was published in 1984 as The boy Adeodatus- the portrait of a lucky young bastard.


Description

Folder 1 Correspondence between Jack Lindsay and Bernard Smith, 1979-88. Relates mainly to the preparation of a Lindsay festschrift Culture and history: essays presented to Jack Lindsay (1984), but also to Lindsay's wish to sell his collection of Greek and Roman antiquities. Also includes letters from Smith to Michael Wilding, Robert Mackie and Professor Alexander Cambitiglou.

Added 10 July 1995

Folder 2 The Teachers' Federation Art Society yearbook and exhibition catalogues 1938-43.

Added 21 December 1995

In this addition, the item numbers relate to a list compiled by Bernard Smith and located in the beginning of Folder 3.

Folder 3 Item 1 Articles in Education (1940-1943) relating to the NSW Teachers' Federation Art Society.
Folder 4 Item 2a 'Tendencies in Modern English Verse', thesis presented to the NSW Department of Education in partial fulfilment of the teachers 'academic' classification to 1B. November 1940, 49p.
2b 'Tendencies in Modern English Verse', original version as written, 107p.
Folder 5 Item 3a - c 'Reversion and Growth in Art', lecture first given to the NSW Teachers' Federation Art Society 16 Sept 1942, three versions (unpublished).
4 'Three Rhythms in contemporary Art', notes for a lecture given to the NSW Teachers' Federation Art Society on 24 July 1940, 23p.
5 'Paganini', notes after attending the Monte Carlo Diaghilev Ballet in Sydney 1940, 3p.
Folder 6 Item 6 'Paper on Surrealism', to the NSW Teachers' Federation Art Society 16 October 1940, 12p. (As part of a symposium of three papers, with the others given by James Gleeson and Albert Tucker).
7 Notes for the opening of the 1940 annual exhibition of the NSW Teachers' Federation Art Society, 3p. (incomplete).
8 Notes for a talk to the Australian Youth Council, c.1940, 6p.(ms)
9 Notes for a talk to the Australian Youth Council (after its banning as a Communist front organisation) 8p.
10a-b Egyptian Art', lecture to the Teachers' Federation Art Society 25 June 1941, 25p. (Two versions, unpublished:. 22p. and 25p.)
Folder 7 Item 11 Art Notes for Education, NSW Teachers' Federation Art Journal October 1941, 2p.
12 'Some problems connected with the Marxist approach to art criticism', c.1941-42, 2p.
13 'Paper on Soviet Art', published in Soviet Culture - A selection of talks at the Cultural Conference, November 1941 Aid Russia Committee, Sydney 1942, 12p.
14 'The Macabre Element in late Medieval Art', lecture to the Teachers' Federation Art Society 1943, 20p.
15 'Summary of the lecture on Macabre Elements in late Medieval Art', 2p.
16 'A summary of the Development of Australian Painting', c. 1943, 12p.
Folder 8 Item 17 'Art and Mr Lawlor', Australian Quarterly March 1943, 11p.
18 'Country Art Exhibitions', Society of Artists Year Book, 1944, 2p.
19 Commentary for 'Our Great Ally', film strip for the Aid Russia Committee, 1944, 16p.
20 'What's the Use of Art'. I. A broadcast talk with Mrs John Moore 2BL 3.20pm 14 April 1945.
21 'What's the use of Art' II. 2BL 3.20pm 28 April 1945.
22 Talk to the Dubbo Council on 'Travelling Art Exhibitions' 19 June 1945.
23 'Australian Art', Australian Blue Book, July 1945
Folder 9 Item 24 Material written for the Catalogue of the Art Exhibition held in conjunction with the twenty fifth anniversary of the Communist Party of Australia, August 1945.
25 'Art Exhibitions in Country Centres' Society of Artists Year Book, 1945.
26 'Taking Art to Country Centres: the work of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales Country Exhibition Scheme', broadcast talk 2BL 9.20 pm 26 October 1945, 7p.
27 Notes on the 'Teaching of creative art', written for George Blakemore, Inspector of Schools, Murwillumbah, 27 October 1945, 3p.
28 'Drawings by Paul Beadle and Hal Missingham', Progress, November 1945, 2p.
29 'Country Art Exhibitions', broadcast over Grafton Broadcasting Station, 3 December 1945, 5p.
30 'Noel Counihan', Present day Art in Australia, Ure Smith Ltd, 1945, 1p.
31 'Art and Imperialism', notes for a lecture (probably not given) c.1945, 35p. (ms)
32 Notes on 'Realism in Art' for a lecture to the Sydney University Labour Club, 2 August 1945, 5p.(ms)
33 Notes for opening of Elizabeth Durack's Exhibition, Sydney c.1945, 3p.
34 Introduction to the catalogue of the exhibition, Australian Watercolours, Travelling Art Exhibitions - Art Gallery of NSW, 1945, 5p. (ms)
Folder 10 Item 35 'Art Chronicle', Meanjin, Winter 1945.
36 'Australian Art and the War', 1945, 2p.
37 'Realism in Australian Art' 1p. (incomplete).
38 Notes on 'The Nature of Realism in Art' c.1945, 4p. (ms)
39 'Australian art', Australia, edited by Hartley Grattan, University of California, United Nations Series, 1947, 15p.
40 Article on the work of Dobell and Drysdale, 8p (some typed on both sides).
41 'On looking at Paintings', notes for a CEMA (Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts) talk c.1946, 1p.
42 'The Angels Sing: a commentary on art criticism in Australia', 9p (unpublished response to an unfavourable review of Place, Taste and Tradition, 1945).
43 'The Roland Pope Collection', Newcastle, 1p.
44 'The Encouragement of Art', Australian New Writing, 3 February 1945.
45 'Art Exhibitions in Country Centres', 1946.
46 'The Art of Justin O'Brien', 1947, 3p. (written at the request of Sydney Ure Smith for a London client. O'Brien had an exhibition at the Hanover Galleries, London in 1952).
Folder 11 Item 47 'Russell Drysdale', 10p.
48 'Art Chronicle', Meanjin, 1946, 3p.
49 'Roderick Shaw', Progress, March l946, 2p.
50 Notes for lecture on 'Primitive Art' for SORA Studio of Realist Art, 2 April 1946.
51 'The Art of Russell Drysdale', 3p.
52 'Country Art Exhibitions', talk in Tamworth, August 1946.
53 'The Art Museum Today' Meanjin 3 (2), 1946, 9p.
54 English 1 exercise in taste, set by Wesley Milgate. Department of English evening course, University of Sydney, l946.
55 Honi Soit review of the Australian University Students National Art Exhibition held at Sydney University in June l947.
56 'Some notes and comments on the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Art Prize Awards for 1947', Meanjin, Febuary 1948.
57 '100 Years of Australian Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Celebrating the Centenary of Public Education in NSW', April 1948.
58 Comments on the Art Gallery of NSW administration, conservation etc. submitted to Professor E.G.Waterhouse, one of the Trustees, at his request, 14 May 1948.
59 'Foreword', Studio of Realist Art Exhibition, David Jones Gallery, August 1948.
60 'Australian Art in 1938 and 1948', talk to SORA (Studio of Realist Art), 8 August 1948.
Folder 12 Item 61 'Adrian Feint Flower Paintings', edited by Ure Smith, Australian Book Society, October 1948
62 'Sali Herman', Meanjin 8 (3) 1948.
63 'The New Realism in Australian Art', Meanjin, 1944.
64

The Art of William Dobell', Tribune, Feb 1944 (edited version was published).

65 'Australian Art and the War', April 1944, submitted to Harry Gould, Communist Party of Australia, for the journal New Masses.
Folder 13 Item 66 'Adult Aesthetic Education', presented to the NSW Department of Education as a thesis towards the second part of a requirement towards the teachers' lb classification, 28 June 1944 (also photocopy of this ).
67 150 Years of Painting in Australia', talk given over 2WG Wagga, Part I. 10 October l944.
68 Part II of the above talk, 11 October 1944.
69 Notes written for J.G. McKenzie, Director General of Education, for the Manly Art Gallery's Twenty-first year celebrations, 6 March 1945.
Folder 14 Item 70 'Art and Environment in Australia', Geographical Magazine, London, January 1947.
71 'The English Portraits of William Dobell', ARNA (the Sydney University Magazine), June 1947.
72 'The Critic and the Cackle' (written at the request of Sydney Ure Smith but rejected by his assistant, Gwen Morton Spencer, after which 'Comments on Style Change and Criticism' was written and published in the Society of Artists Year Book for 1947).
73 Review of Clive Turnbull's book, Art Here, 1947.
74 Review of Brian Penton's book, William Dobell published by Ure Smith, c.1947.
75 Review of Douglas Stewart's play, Shipwreck, for Southerly September 1947, 3p.
Folder 15 Item 76 Notes on the history of Australian art, 2 vols. c.1943. (ms)

Added 12 December 1996

Folder 16 Art in the Country, National Art Gallery of NSW, c.1946 (an account of the first year, 1944-45, of the country art exhibition project established by Smith while on secondment to the National Art Gallery of NSW from the NSW Education Department).
Catalogue for the exhibition, Some recent Australian painting, National Art Gallery and Department of Education NSW, Canberra, December 1944 (according to Smith, this was probably the first time that contemporary Australian painting was shown publicly in Canberra. The exhibition was in the Scouts' Hall, a quarter mile from the Kurrajong Hotel).

Added 27 March 1997

Folder 17 Item 1 ‘The Interpretation of Australian Nature during the Nineteenth Century’. English Hons. BA Thesis. Sydney University, 1952.
Folder 18 Item 2 Schedule of lectures and notes on the History of Painting for a course of lectures given to the School of Architecture. NSW University of Technology, June- July 1953.
2a Review of M. H. Ellis, Francis Greenway his Life and Times (Historical Studies, May, 1955)
3 ‘Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes for 1953’ (Meanjin, no.1, 1954).
4 Talk on the 'noble savage' to a seminar at the ANU in 1954 or 1955.
5 Notes for opening of Charles Doutney's first one-man show at the Macquarie Gallery, Sydney
6 'Australian sculpture’. For the News and Information Bureau. June 1953.
7 ‘Art in the Dog Days', published in Meanjin xii, 55-58
8 ‘Australian colonial art’. Unpublished lecture. Department of Fine Arts, Melbourne, 29 September 1953.
9 ‘The Emergence of Australian Painting’. Lecture to the recently-formed National Gallery Society of New South Wales, 1953.
10 ‘French Painting Today’ (Voice, 1953).
Folder 19 Item 11 ‘The French Art Exhibition’, Meanjin, xii 165
12 Synopsis for a series of lectures, University of Sydney, 26 March 1953.
13 ‘The Australian Scene’, lecture given at Sydney University, 26 March 1953.
14 ‘William Hodges’, paper probably given to the History Department Seminar, University of Melbourne, 1953
15 'The Celebration of Transience’, lecture, University of Sydney, 7 April 1954. Published in The Antipodean Manifesto (1976).
16 'New Light and the Ancient Mariner’, paper given to a seminar at the Australian National University, 1954 or 1955.
17 Notes for opening of Moya Dyring's exhibition, Peter Bray Gallery, Melbourne, 5 October 1956.
18 'The Genesis of Australian Art’, talk to the History Association, University of Melbourne, July 1956.
19 Notes for opening of the NUAUS ( National Union of Australian University Students) Exhibition, Melbourne, July, 1956.
20 ‘Introduction to exhibition of painting and drawing. Fine Arts Exhibition’. Olympic Games, Melbourne, August 1956. Published in The Arts Festival of the Olympic Games Melbourne, 1956
Folder 20 Item 21 Article on 'Australian Art' written in April 1956 for the Oxford Companion to Art (ed Harold Osborne, 1970)
‘The Interpretation of Australian Nature during the Nineteenth Century’. English Hons. BA Thesis. Sydney University, 1952.
22 Notes for Exhibition of Paintings by John Perceval. Australian Galleries, Collingwood, November 1956.
23 Notes on the 'Art and life of Charles Doutney’, Meanjin, Nov. 1957.
24 ‘The Antipodeans’, talk at the Annual Dinner, Fellowship of Australian Writers, Society Restaurant, 1 Sept 1959
25 Article for Australia today on the Antipodeans, 1959
26 Reply to William Hannon re his article on the Antipodeans in Prospect ,iii, no.1
27 Address at the presentation of diplomas, South Australian School of Art, Adelaide. Published in Art Education Today.
28 Notes based on comments by Bernard Smith at the Arts Faculty Meetings, Melbourne University, 4 August 1960. [most of the notes were compiled subsequent to the meeting]
29 'William Westall's drawings and paintings on Flinders Voyage’, published in Westall's Drawings ( ed.D. Simpson) 1962.
30 Udo Sellbach's Etching series 'The Target is Man' [1962?]
Folder 21 Item 31 ABC Talk, ‘Art Criticism’, 16 July 1964
32 'Nolan's Image' published in The London Magazine, Sept, 1962.
33 Address at opening of the Mildura Sculpture Exhibition, Mildura Art Gallery, 18 April 1963.
34 The Adelaide Festival of the Arts. 1964
35 ‘Sir Herbert Read and the Power Bequest’ published in Meanjin, March 1964.
36 Age, Draft for article on B. Berenson
37 Age, Draft on article recent art publications
38 Age, Draft on NGV catalogue: 'The Art of Drawing'
39 Age Art Notes. 10 Feb. 1964
40 Age, ‘The 33rd Biennale’.Venice.
Folder 22 Item 41 Age, ‘Recent British Sculpture’.
42 ‘The Felton Bequest’, comp. by Daryl Lindsay
43 Age, Australian painters by John Hetherington.
44 Age, Australian Painting Today by J.D. Pringle.
45 Age, Tom Roberts, his life and work
46 Age, The Masters
47 ‘Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary Art’, talk to CAS Sydney, 23 Oct. 1963.
48 ‘Art Notes’, Age, 15 April 1963
49 ‘Moya Dyring Opening’, Australian Galleries, May 1960
50 Two Literary Fund lectures given at Newcastle University College.
Folder 23 Item 51 Review of Art in Queensland by Vida Lahey, Meanjin, August 1960
52 David Boyd's Adelaide Exhibition, May-June 1960
53 Notes for the opening of David Boyd's Adelaide Exhibition
54 Charles Conder. his Australian years by Ursula Hoff. National Gallery Society of Victoria, 1960.
55 The John Murtagh Macrossan Lectures for 1961. First Brisbane lecture, later published
56 ‘Dobell's Art’. Only parts of this essay have been published elsewhere
57 ‘Survey of the Year's Art’. Gallery Society, NGV 1964.
58 Elwyn Lynn exhibition. Kym Bonython Gallery, 1967
59 ‘The Melbourne Gericault’ (Art Bulletin NGV).
60 ‘Whither Painting’? Arts Council WEA Lecture, Newport, 30 Sept 1967. (ms)
Folder 24 Item 61 ‘The Antipodeans’, 1964?
62 Britannica Award to William Dobell. Notes, 1964
63 Statement tended to the Woollahra City Council embodying objections to the widening of Jersey Road, Paddington, NSW. 1967.
64 The Power Art Bequest for Hemisphere
65 Lecture to Senior History Students Conference, Newington College. 28 Aug. 1967
66 ‘Sculpture abroad’. Mildura Sculpture Exhibition, 1967.
66 ‘The Art Museum and the University’, Art Galleries Association, National Gallery of Victoria, 1967.
67 Graduation Address, University of Sydney, 1967
68 ‘The total meaning of the Work’. Notes for lecture to residents, St Paul's College, Sydney University.
69 ‘The Power Bequest Exhibition, 1968’. Catalogue entry.
70 ‘The Power Art Bequest’. Reply to correspondents of the Sydney Morning Herald, probably late 1967
Folder 25 Item 71 ‘The Power Bequest Exhibition, 1968’, article for Art and Australia
72 Opening. The Blake Prize for Religious Art, 1968
73 ‘David Boyd’, lecture, Commonwealth Institute, London. 1969.
74 Notes for opening Power Exhibition Italian Exhibition,14 April 1969
75 Notes for introducing Christopher Wallace, Lecture Theatre, Sydney University, 20 Oct. 1969
76 Notes for opening Craft Association, August 1969
77 Talk to the National Trust (NSW), Sydney, 27 Oct 1969
78 Review of J. M. Freeland, Architecture in Australia, 1968. Published in Historical Studies
79 ‘Power Bequest and Adult Education’, Week-End School, Newport, Oct? 1967.
80 Talk for the Australian Council for Cultural Freedom, Sunday 29 July 1967
81 ‘Desiderius Orban’, exhibition, Brummels Gallery, Melbourne 2 June 1957
82 Notes for talk on ‘Myth and the Visual Arts' for Adult Education, 1968? (ms)

Added 20 June 1997

(Papers 1950-1969)

Folder 26 Exhibition catalogue entitled "Antipodeans 4-15 Aug.1959". Artists exhibiting in this exhibition were Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd, David Boyd, John Brack, Bob Dickerson, John Perceval and Clifton Pugh. The catalogue is introduced by 'The Antipodean Manifesto' which was also signed by Bernard Smith. According to Smith, the Manifesto ‘created a major controversy in art circles that is still unresolved’.

Added 16 January 1998

(published and unpublished 1970 – 1980)

Folder 27 Item 1 ‘The Power Institute of Fine Arts', published as 'Sydney's Power Institute of Fine Arts', Studio International, 1970 pp 142-144, ill.
2 Foreword to Dr Norman Behan's collection [Brisbane].
3 Note on the art of Guy Boyd, 12 May 1970
4 ‘The University and its Neighbourhood', published in The Union Recorder, May 1971.
5 Review of Donald F. Lach's Asia in the making of Europe Vol 2, Chicago University Press, 1970, published in the American Historical Review, 23 Oct. 1971
6 Review of John Hetherington, Norman Lindsay the Embattled Olympian, Melbourne University Press, 1973
7 Review of Architecture for the New World. The Work of Harry Seidler by Peter Blake, Horwitz, Sydney 1973.
8 Preface to Merric Boyd Drawings, Secker and Warburg, London, 1975.
9 Art and Industry.Response to a critique by Jonathan Benthall of my article 'Art and Industry' published in Studio International, April 1974.
10 Teaching Fine Arts in the Australian Universities in 1974 (two versions)
11 ‘Dr John Wardell Power’ (1881-1943).
12 ‘The Art Museum and the University’
13 ‘Three critics of the 1890s’, seminar on the 1890s, Humanities Research Centre, Canberra.
14 ‘The Power Institute of Fine Arts’ (1969?)
15 ‘The Whitlam Government and Visual Arts’. Draft notes.
Folder 28 Item 16 Draft notes for a book on 'Art and the Industrial System' submitted to Phaidon Press, Oxford.
17 Article on 'Australian Painting' for the Grolier Australian Encyclopaedia, October 1973.
18 Robert Hughes, Art of Australia, 1970. 2 reviews for Historical Studies, 1973
19 Copies of two letters published in the Sydney Morning Herald in July and October 1974 (newspaper cuttings)
20 'The New Commonwealth Patronage and the Arts', article for the Age, National Review, July 1974
21 ‘On Perceiving the Australian Suburb’
22 ‘Making the Future', Spode House Review, Feb 1974
23 'Modern Masters - Manet to Matisse’: Review of the exhibition for Art and Australia
24 Review of Noel Counihan by Max Dimmack, MUP, 1974
25 ‘The Teaching of Fine Arts in Australian Universities’
26 Review of Historic Houses of Australia, Cassell, 1974
27 Notes for a vote of thanks to William Lieberman after his talk on the 'Manet to Matisse' Exhibition, AGNSW
28 Copy of review of The Loaded Line by M. Mahood, MUP 1973.
29 'Ludwig Herschfeld Mack and Lionel Feininger.' Address at the opening of the Exhibition, AGNSW July 1974.
Folder 29 Item 30 Review of Leonard B. Cox, The National Gallery of Victoria 1861 to 1968 [1974]
31 Unpublished draft of an article on 'Style and Choice in Art'. (ms)
32 'Artist, Craftsman and Community'
33 ‘The Local and the Universal in Australian Colonial Landscape Painting', given at Seminar of the Australian Academy of the Humanities [ 1975]
34 Draft of an article on 'Elitism and the Arts' for Meanjin
35 Address 'Artists for Labor' Exhibition, Paddington Town Hall, 1 Dec 1975.
36 Vote of thanks following the opening of the Sylvia Snowden exhibition at the Seymour Centre, University of Sydney, Sept 1975.
37 'The Australian Government and the Visual Arts. Is it a Labor Policy?’ and another version subtitled ‘Is there another way?’
38

A response to John Bailey.

39 Introductory remarks. Art Association of Australia, 16 Aug. 1975, AGNSW.
40 Newspaper cutting ‘How an Expressway would destroy Glebe’. Sydney Morning Herald, 24 June 1975.
41 'Lawson Balfour' article for the Australian Dictionary of Biography
42 'Australian Painting' for United Asia
Folder 30 Item 43 Co-operative Workshops in England )originally part of the 'Death of the Artist as Hero' lecture.)
44 Original draft of the 'Death of the Artist as Hero' lecture. 1976
45 'Death of the Artist as Hero' for Meanjin , 1977.
46 Statement to The Australian, 19 Jan 1976.
47 Review of David Meek, Social Science and the Ignoble Savage, Cambridge University Press.
48 Opening remarks, Art Association of Australia Seminar, AGNSW 1976.
49 Review of The Tactless Philosopher by Michael Hoare, Hawthorn Press, Melbourne, 1976. The Canberra Times, 4 Sept 1976.
50 Draft notes for a talk on community workshops.
51 Hans Arp opening, AGNSW May 1977.
Folder 31 Item 52 'The Mode of production suited to Human Beings', ABC Radio, 10 April 1977. Published in Habitat 1978
53 'Art as Information'. Two drafts.
54 ‘Cook's posthumous reputation’. Summary paper and essay.
55 'How Provincial is Australian Culture?' Deakin University 1978.
56 John Peter Russell 1858-1930. Exhibition for Gallery Society, Feb. 1978
57 The Art of John Peter Russell by Ann Galbally, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1977. Two drafts.
Folder 32 Item 58 ‘Cook's Artists and Pacific Peoples’. Two drafts.
59 ‘Art in the Service of Science’
60 Preface to the second edition of Place, Taste and Tradition together with additional notes for second edition.
61 Review of Humphrey McQueen, The Black Swan of Trespass, Sydney, 1979.
62 Review of Bougainville et ses Compagnons autour du Monde 1766-1769 for the Journal of Pacific History
63 Review of Robert Goldwater's Symbolism for the Age
Folder 33 Item 64 Review of Gavan Daws, A Dream of Islands
65 ‘Melbourne and Sydney: Two Art Systems’ for Meanjin
66 The Boyer Lectures 1980. For the ABC

Added 14 January 1999

(Papers written between 1980 and 1990)

Folder 34 Item 1

Art in the service of science’ (written as an introduction to vols 1 and 2 of The art of Captain Cooks voyages, but later abandoned)

2

‘Captain Cook: artists and the portrayal of Pacific peoples’: lecture given at the Museum of Mankind, London.

3

Review of Gary Catalano’s Years of Hope: Australian art and criticism 1959 –1968, for Island Magazine, 1981.

  4

Review of The shock of the new by Robert Hughes for an ABC talk, March 1981.

  5

‘William Hodges and Plein air painting’, talk first given at the Sandby Colloquium, Hamilton Art Gallery, October 1981 and later published in Art History, Vol 6 No 2 June 1983.

Folder 35 Item 6

Draft of an opening talk at Apmira Art Exhibition, Paddington Town Hall, Sydney, 23 October 1981.

7

Review of Victorian treasures from the La Trobe Collection by Ann Glover; State Library of Victoria published in the Australian Book Review, 1981.

8

‘Communism and the Visual Arts in the 1940’s’ review of Rebels and Precursors by Richard Haese for the Age Monthly Review, 2 October 1981.

  9

Draft of talk at the launching of Richard Haese’s Rebels and precursors, October 1981, State Library of Victoria.

  10

Review of Augustus Earle travel artist by Jocelyn Hackforth Jones for the Australian Book Review, Feb 1981.

  11

‘Jesse Jewhurst Hider (1881-1916)’ for the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

  12

‘Sidney Dickinson (1851-1919)’ for the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

  13

‘Fred Williams in Context’ for Meanjin, Feb 1981.

  14

Review of Murray Bail’s Ian Fairweather for Island Magazine.

  15

Review of Robert Smith’s Noel Couihan’s Prints a catalogue in Raisonne.

Folder 36 Item 16

Review of the first issue of the Australian Art Review for the Age, November 1982.

1 7

Review of Race relations in Australian history by A.T. Yarwood and M.J. Knowling, 1982 for the Sydney Morning Herald, November 1982.

18

Early draft of a review of Felicity St John Moore’s Vassilieff and his art for the Sydney Morning Herald, November 1982.

  19

Review of A.J. Baker’s, Anderson’s social philosophy for Australian Historical Studies.

  20

‘Jack Lindsay’s Biography of Artists’ for his festschrift, Culture and history, edited by Bernard Smith.

  21

‘Art galleries and the teaching of art history’ for the Association of Australian Art Conference, Sydney, 7 August 1982.

  22

Review of Father John Peter’s People of the Sacred Mountain, for the Age 27 April 1982.

  23

Notes for a talk (not given) ‘My Role in the art of the 1940s’ requested by David Bromfield to give to the School of Art in Hobart.

  24

Review of Jack Lindsay’s The Crisis in Marxism for Bowyang, January 1982

  25

Review of Art and Text vols 1-4 for the Age Monthly Review, March 1982

  26

‘History’ talk to Half Time: Architects Ex Student Group, Melbourne Architecture School, 24 July 1982.

  27

Letter to Age Monthly Review apologising to John Reid late 1981.

  28

‘The Painter as a potter’ Art Exhibition National Gallery of Victoria, 9 December 1982.

  29

‘Australian culture: five options’ given at the Commonwealth Writers’ Week, Brisbane 29 September 1982. Published in Occasional papers of the Australian Studies Centre (Humanities and Social Sciences), University of Queensland.

  30

Background copy for Channel 2 talk with Robyn Williams on the Art of Cook’s Voyages, 10 August 1982.

Folder 38 Item 31

‘Social Realism in the 1940s’ talk for Leigh Astbury at Monash University.

32

‘Lot and Pompeii: two paintings from the 1940s’ Art and Text 7, Spring 1982.

33

‘Jack Lindsay’s achievement’ drafts of talk given in Brisbane, 1982.

  33a

‘Drysdale and the hegemony of landscape’ Review of the Life and work of Russell Drysdale by Lou Kelpac, Age Monthly Review.

  34

‘The first drawings of Australian Aborigines’, in Seeing the first Australians by Ian and Tamsin Donaldson.

  35

‘Aspects of Australian figurative painting: 1942-1962: dreams, fears and desires’. Two versions of a paper written for the John Power Foundation forum 12 June 1984. Another version of this paper was also presented at Monash University on 13 September 1984.

Folder 39 Item 36

Review of Sydney Parkinson: artist of Cook’s Endeavour voyage by D.J Carr, written for the Journal of Pacific History but not published.

37

Forward to Charles Merewether’s exhibition ‘Art and social commitment’ Art Gallery of NSW, November 1984.

38

Talk about The Boy Adeodatus, National Book Council Luncheon, 15 August 1984.

  39

Review of Just city and the mirrors by Lynne Strachan for Historical Studies, completed November 1984.

  40

Opening talk at exhibition of the Captain Cook Study Unit, Queen’s Hall, State Library of Victoria, 21 September 1984.

Folder 40 Item 41

‘On Cultural Convergence’ paper written for Jenny Zimmer at RMIT, 30 April 1985. Completed 1986.

42

‘On Marxist Aesthetics’ for CAMARP July 1985 (drafts).

43

‘Marx and Aesthetic Value’ Completed January 1986, published in The death of the artist as hero: essays in history and culture.

  44

‘Apollo’s Vanguard: the popular and the classic in the Hinton Collection, published in The death of the artist as hero: essays in history and culture.

  45

"Jack Lindsay’s Marxism’, written for the Marxist Conference Merewether Building Sydney, January 1985. Published in The death of the artist as hero: essays in history and culture.

Folder 41 Item 46

Talk in the ‘Accepting a challenge’ series at the Australian Academy of the Humanities, AGM, in 1985 or 1986.

47

‘Greece and the European colonisation of the Pacific’, first given at the conference on ‘Ancient Hellenism, Greek colonists and native populations’ Sydney University, July 1985. Later published in Greek colonists and native populations edited by Jean-Paul Descoeudres, 1990 and Imagining the Pacific, 1992.

48

‘The use and value of catalogues of the permanent collections of our public art galleries’, Margaret Carengie Seminar ‘Documentation of Australian art’, Riverina College of Advanced Education c.1986. Later published as ‘The Art Museum and Public Accountability’ in The death of the artist as hero: essays in history and culture

  49

‘The functions of art on Cook’s voyages’ (several drafts). Given as the Dulcie Stretton Lecture, March 1985.

  50

Review of To sail beyond the sunset by C.M. Finney, 1984, published in Historical Records of Australian Science.

Folder 42 Item 51

Review of June Helmer’s George Bell for the Age.

52

‘An Australian Impressionism?’ published in the Age Monthly Review.

53

‘History as Criticism’. Talk for the History Institute of Melbourne, 28 April 1985.

  54

‘Is there a radical tradition in Australian art’ later published in The death of the artist as hero: essays in history and culture, 1988.

  55

‘Art objects and historical usage’ for the AHA Symposium ‘Who owns the past’, Canberra, 20 May 1983. Also read at the Research Methodology Seminar Programme 1984, Department of Fine Arts Melbourne, 9 May 1984.

  56

Text of a tape for Penguin’s Sales Conference for The Boy Adeodatus, 19 February 1984.

  57

Review of The Artist and the river, by Sandra McGrath for the Age, January 1983.

  58

Material written in defence of Art and a Text A against an impeding injunction by Paul Taylor on 12 January 1983. He, however, withdrew the charges on 11 January 1983.

  59

‘Notes on Abstract Art’ written for Jenny Zimmer, RMIT Abstract Exhibition, August 1983.

  60

A note on ‘Changing Role of Artist in Society’ for Community Arts, Ministry of the Arts Victoria, July 1983.

Folder 43 Item 61

Note for the Australian Book Review June 1983 on The Antipodes observed: artists of Australia 1788-1850.

62

Response to David Holbrook’s review of Jack Lindsay’s Life Rarely Tells for the Age Monthly Review, 1983.

63

Notes for an opening address for an exhibition of Noel Counihan’s art at Flinders University, 11 November 1984.

  64

Notes for the opening of the James Cant exhibition, Art Gallery of South Australia, 29 February 1984.

  65

‘Who was the Port Jackson Painter?’, talk at the Canberra School of Art, 1986 and the Library Society of New South Wales, 26 April 1988.

  66

Notes for the opening of the John Skinner Prout exhibition, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 9 December 1986.

  67

Notes for the opening of the Red Letter Press exhibition, Melbourne, 27 November 1986.

  68

Notes for the opening of the ‘Cheer Up Children’ exhibition, Museum of Victoria, 23 October 1986.

  69

‘Art in its Social Setting’ Chapter written for Australia since the British invasion: people’s history.

  70

Early draft of an obituary on Noel Counihan for the Tribune 14 July 1986.

Folder 44 Item 71

Address at the Memorial Ceremony for Noel Counihan, Camberwell Civic Centre, July 1986.

72

‘Reflections on the 1940s’ a talk given to the Friends of Heide, at Heide Park , Sunday 13 July 1986.

73

‘The Art of Owen Stanley’ written as an introduction to a book that was never published provisionally entitled ‘Owen Stanley. His Australian and New Zealand watercolours and sketches’, March 1986.

  74

Talk given at Writers’ Week, Adelaide Festival of Arts, 6 March 1986.

  75

Notes for the launching of The Art of Arthur Boyd by Ursula Hoff, 29 April 1986.

  75a

Notes for biography of John Joseph Wadell Power for the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Folder 45 Item 76

Talk at opening of the Francis Lymburner exhibition, Erwin Gallery, Sydney, February 1987.

77

‘Depicting Pacific Peoples’ The Founder’s Lecture, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, September 1987.

78

‘Style, information and image in the art of Cook’s voyages’; the Harkness Lecture, Christchurch, New Zealand, September 1987.

  79

Article on Fred Williams for Modern Painters edited by Peter Fuller, 1987.

  80

‘The Australia Council and the Art and Working Life Programme’ written for Steve Cassidy ACTU Arts Officer, 12 August 1987.

Folder 46 Item 81

Review of Ann Galbally’s The Collections of the National Gallery of Victoria, for Meanjin 1987.

82

Draft for review of Tim Bonyhady’s Australian colonial painting in the National Gallery, 1987.

Draft notes for a review of vols 1 and 2 of 83Australians an historical survey.

  83a

Forward to Patricia Fullerton’s Hugh Ramsay, September 1987.

  84

‘An Australian contribution to British art?’, lecture given at the Royal Society London 1988.

  85

Forward to First views of Sydney by Tim McCormick.

Folder 47 Item 86

Article on Donald Brook’s ‘New Theory of Art’. Published in Meanjin.

87

Notes for the opening of ‘Other landscapes: art from political and social concerns’, 1988.

88

‘Taking art to the country,’ Regional Galleries Association, February 1988.

  89

‘The art of Aboriginal Australia’; review of Peter Sutton’s book Dreamings the art of Aboriginal Australia, 1988.

  90

Introductory essay to Part Two of the Terra Australis Catalogue, Art Gallery New South Wales.

Folder 48 Item 91

Draft for a review of Humphrey McQueen’s book Suburbs of the sacred.

92

Boyer Lectures, 1988.

93

Opening talk at the exhibition ‘First impressions: the British discovery of Australia’, Australian Museum, Sydney, 21 September 1988.

  94

Book launch of the eleventh volume of the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Melbourne University, 17 October 1988.

  95

Talk at the Melbourne Living Museum of West Footscray, ‘Back in your own backyard’, 19 October 1988.

Folder 49 Item 96

‘The Unknown Art of Australia. An essay in form and meaning.’ Written for the Australian edition of the UNESCO Courier.

97

Review of Peter Fuller’s Theoria, January 1989, published in Australian Society.

98

Review of Fernand Braudel’s The identity of France, vol 1: history and environment for Scripsi, 31 July 1989.

  99

Review of George Steiner’s Real presences for Australian society, December 1989.

  100

Talk, ‘Angry Penguins and Realist Paining in Melbourne during the 1940’s’ given at the National Gallery of Victoria, 1989. Later published in The Independent, Sydney.

Folder 50 Item 101

‘The Windsor Group’, written for Roderick Shaw, 1987.

102

‘Cook’s Voyage: vision of the South Pacific.’ Lecture given to the Library Society State Library of New South Wales, 11 June 1989.

103

Peter Cowan’s The hills of Apollo Bay, ABC talk for Jill Kitson.

  104

Review of Andrew Sayer’s Drawing in Australia for Australian Society, May 1989.

  105

Talk given at Kate Smith’s funeral service, 11 January 1989.

  106

Brief note on the proposed folio of prints by artists to honour the memory of Noel Counihan planned by Graham King but never published, February 1989.

  107

‘Australian art and British arrogance’ published in Modern Painters, London under another title.

  108

‘A reply to my critics’, a response to criticisms in the Necessity of Australian art, by Ian Burn et al, Fine Art Department, Sydney University, May 1989.

  109

Review of The road to Botany Bay by Paul Carter, January 1988.


Added 6 January 2000

(Papers written between 1991-1999)

Folder 51 Item 110 'Robert Boynes', the preface to an exhibition catalogue for a show held in the USA
  111 Review of The quest for grace by Manning Clark, published in the Independent Monthly, 7 October 1990
  112 Preface to Looking beyond yesterday, David Headon (ed)
  113 Drafts of an address given at the launching of the Council for International Cooperation and Disarmament (CICD) banner, 28 October 1990
  114 'Artists and unions', [1991?]
  115 Speech at the opening of the retrospective exhibition of work by Diana Mogensen, Dempster Gallery, Melbourne, 20 September 1991
  116 Answers to questions related to Australian art for the ABC Open University, 19 September 1991
  117 Drafts of address at the opening of the Noel Counihan retrospective exhibition, McClelland Gallery, 16 June 1991
  118 Drafts of 'Counihan and painting', 1991
  119 Notes relating to the Australian Association for Armed Neutrality (AAAN), March 1991
Folder 52 Item 120 Preface to Udo Sellbach's series of aquatints Nightwatch, February 1991
  121 'Intellectual currents in Australia, 1930-1939'. Lecture for the History Department, Australian National University, 1991 (unpublished)
  122 'Francis Lymburner: a personal memoir', written for Barry Pearce, Curator of Australian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales for his retrospective exhibition of Lymburner's work, July 1991
  123 'Geoffrey Bardon, Papunya Tula art of the Western Desert', for Australian Society, October 1991
  124 Review of The colour of time: Claude Monet by Virginia Spate for the Australian, November 1992
  125 Review of Making Australian art by Nancy D.H. Underhill, written in September 1991 for the March issue of Art and Australia, 1992
  126 Obituary of Sir Joseph Burke, The Age, 3 April 1992
  127 Early draft entitled 'On modernism and postmodernism', which ended with the writing of Modernism's history
  128 'The two natures of art' and other drafts towards Modernism's history
  129 'Clifton Pugh and the Antipodeans', La Trobe University Gallery, 14 November 1993
Folder 53 Item 130 Address given at the launch of the catalogue of the Newman College Collection, A deep sonorous thing, by Christopher Marshall, 26 July 1993
  131 Address at the opening of the Richard Beck exhibition, Joshua McClelland Gallery, Melbourne, 23 March 1993
  132 Review of the exhibition of works by Peter Kennedy, 'Chorus: from the breath of wings', Heide Park, 4 June 1993
  133 Review of The Apotheosis of Captain Cook by Gananath Obeysekere, Princeton University Press, 1992
  134 Tribute to Roderick Shaw, 1915-1992, at the Memorial Service, Waterside Workers' Federation, Sussex Street, Sydney, 6 March 1993
  135 'Modernism as a late nineteenth century style', Australian Art Association Conference, La Trobe University, 14 November 1993
  136 Introduction for the catalogue of a retrospective of the work of Geoff Hogg, Shepparton Art Gallery Exhibition, written 10 June 1993
  137 Talk to a teachers' group at the National Gallery of Victoria on the occasion of a retrospective of the work of Arthur Boyd, 30 April 1994
  138 'Modernity and the formalesque', lecture given at the Power Institute of the Fine Arts, University of Sydney, 18 October 1994
  139 'Four contemporary Koori artists', talk for the Victorian Chapter of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, 29 March 1994
Folder 54 Item 140 'The architectural formalesque', draft of a chapter eventually deleted from Modernism's history
  141 'On being Antipodean', talk to a literary group in Western Australia, March 1996
  142 'Deconstructing Europe', not published
  143 Launch of E. Phillips Fox - his life and art by Ruth Zubans, 4 September 1995
  144 'What does postmodernism mean?', for Helen Daniel, editor of the Australian Book Review
  145 Review of Heritage: the national women's art book, Joan Kerr (ed), 1995
  146 Talk on postmodernism, Griffith University, Western Australia, April 1996
  147 'Work in progress: aesthetic values', University of Western Sydney, 10 September 1996
  148 'Reframing Mimesis'
  149 Review of Art for art's sake by Gene M. Bell-Villada, for Thesis 11
Folder 55 Item 150 'The oil painting: Sydney in 1794', published in the Australian Journal of Art
  151 'Cultural imperialism and the formalesque', draft of the last chapter of Modernism's history
  152 Notes for an assessment of a thesis on Elwyn Lynn May by Denise Mary Whitehouse, 1997
  153 Review of Modern Asian art by John Clark, for Art Asia Pacific, December 1998
  154 'Modernism's history', talk at the Tate Gallery, London, September 1998, later published in Art Monthly
  155 'Thank you' statement after the launch by Peter Timms of Modernism's history at the Ian Potter Gallery, Melbourne, 27 August 1998
  156 'On Patrick's patricidal impulse', a response to Patrick McCaughey's review of Modernism's history, in The Australian Review of Books, August 1998
  157 Launch of Gary Catalano's book of poems, Jigsaw, at The Malthouse, 23 August 1998
  158 'Introduction: a biographical memoir', 1998. Intended for publication in a proposed bibliography of Smith's work by the Power Institute, University of Sydney
  159 'May Mardsen', biography written for the Australian dictionary of biography
Folder 56 Item 160 'The Rex Nan Kivell Collection: a memoir', article for National Library of Australia News, August 1998
  161 Review of The Europeans in Australia, Volume 1, for the first issue of The Republican, March 1997
  162 'Grounds, Boulee and Ledoux', article for The Australian, defending the retention of the 'glass window' of the National Gallery of Victoria
  163 'Australian art and the NGV', for Like, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology magazine, August 1997
  164 Review of The reds: the Communist Party of Australia from origins to illegality by Stuart McIntrye, for The Australian's review of books, May 1998
  165 'Modernity and its modernisms', talk to La Trobe University Sociology students, 24 March 1998
  166 Review of Giorgione the painter of poetic beauty by Jaynie Anderson, for The Australian's review of books, July 1998
  167 Review of Representing the South Pacifi; Colonial discourse from Cook to Gaugin, by Rod Edmond for Australian Book Review, April 1998
  168 'Sir Russell Drysdale, 1912-1981: a memoir', published in Art Monthly
  169 Review of Building a picture, interviews with Australian artists by Gary Catalano for Overland, November 1997
Folder 57 Item 170 Notes for a talk on the art of Ginger Riley, National Gallery of Victoria, 15 September 1997
  171 Speech at the opening of the exhibition 'The dark years' at the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, 29 August 1997
  172 Review of Male trouble, a crisis in representation by Abigail Solomon-Godeau for The Australian's review of books
  173 Review of Islands in time by Mark Patten for Thesis 11
  174 Critique of David Boyd's painting The trial IV, for a proposed book on the art collection of the University of Sydney
  175 Critique of Robert Dickerson's triptych Homage to Goya, for a proposed book on the art collection of the University of Sydney
  176 Review of Farewell to an idea: episodes from a history of modernism, by T.J. Clark for The Australian's review of books, July 1999
  177 'Robert Hughes', for The Australian, 31 May 1999
  178 Review of The favored circle: the social foundations of architectural distinction by Garry Stevens for Thesis 11
  179 Foreword for Jill Hamilton's Napoleon, the Empress and the artist, April 1999
  180 'The last days of the post-mode', published in Thesis 11, August 1998
  181 Review of The view from the bridge: aspects of culture, the published version of Pierre Ryckman's 1996 Boyer Lectures, for Meanjin, February 1997
  182 'In defence of Art History, after listening to Jacques Derrida'. The Franz Philipp Lecture, Art Association of Australia annual conference, Wellington, New Zealand, 2-5 December 1999
  183 Review of Arcadian quest: William Westall's Australian sketches by Elizabeth Findlay, for Overland
Folder 58 Item184 Obituary of Arthur Boyd, for the Australian Academy of the Humanities and intended for publication in its Proceedings
  185 'Europe beyond Europe', lecture prepared for presentation at the Fine Arts Department, University of Melbourne, but not given due to illness
  186 'Imagining Australia', Melbourne Writers' Festival, October 1997
  187 'Does history matter?', Melbourne Writers' Festival, October 1997
  188 'The McCaughey Prize', 2 December 1997
  189 Speech given at the launch of Roger Collin's book Charles Meryon: a life, Hocken Library, New Zealand, 7 December 1999


Box list

Box Folder
1 1-9
  2 10-16
  3 17-25
  4 26-33
  5 34-41
  6 42-48
  7 49-55
  8 56-58

Guide prepared March 1997. Amended December 1998; February 2000; August 2002