David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.


15 December 2012

2 Way Street

        
Peter Tyndall has been exhibiting again in Sydney, twenty years after his previous solo show in that city. There has been no mention of it in the local major newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian.

As newspapers wither, the online community thrives. The following is from ARTFORUM online.
      
Sydney
Peter Tyndall : detail
ANNA SCHWARTZ GALLERY | SYDNEY
          
Peter Tyndall has long been recognized as a seminal contributor to the development of postmodern art in Australia. Curated by Doug Hall—a former director of the Queensland Art Gallery—this uncluttered exhibition provides a historical overview of Tyndall’s career, and it eschews the venerative undertones that would have accompanied the same exhibition in a state- or federally run space. Unfussily displayed, each of Tyndall’s paintings—twenty-two in total—hang from two short pieces of string attached to the gallery walls, in a manner that emulates his frequently used graphic symbol of a frame adjoined by two lines. Near the gallery entrance, this symbol features in four small AbEx-influenced works from the mid- to late 1970s, which are accompanied by the equally recurring title detail/A Person Looks At a Work of Art/someone looks at something. The artist’s pared down black-and-white graphic style figures prominently throughout the exhibition, and it is used to depict other regularly used motifs by the artist, such as eyes and 1950s-era family scenes.

In detail/A Person Looks At a Work of Art/someone looks at something . . . LOGOS/HA HA, 1996, Tyndall spells out the word LOGOS using black-and-white iconic symbols such as a skull, a silhouetted human figure, and a vertical infinity motif that acts as the letter S. Referring to the plural of logo as well as the ancient Greek term for reason and word, here, as in all of his work, Tyndall searches for universalist perspectives on how and why we look at and think about art. Evoking comparisons to more internationally recognized artists such as John Baldessari, Joseph Kosuth, and On Kawara, Tyndall’s relentless yet rarely pious focus on the fundaments of viewing art is showcased in this excellent survey exhibition, demonstrating his works’ relevance beyond an Australian art-historical narrative.
      
— Wes Hill
                  
  click image to enlarge

 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something ...

 LOGOS/HA HA
 (‘The Praise To Dependent-Arising,
 Called The Heart Of Good Explanation’,
 by Je Tsong Khapa)