ANATOMY AND ART

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 89, 12 October 1934, Page 16

ANATOMY AND ART

ARTIST OR PLUMBER?

The modern artist should be something of a chemist, something of an anatomist, and something of several other things... When Miss Dorothy Thornhill, a young Australian painter, was in London,' she found that, through the Royal Academy, the artist-student could attend lectures on many. things related to. art.. Anatomy has always been related to art, but art has not always been related, to anatomy. While in London, Miss Thornhill attended lectures oiv anatomy by Professor Thompson, and on the chemistry of paint by Professor J. B. • Lawrie. At London' University she attended lectures on the history of art by the famous critic, Mr. Roger Fry. ■ . Art has never been related to plumbing on the art side, but it appears that there can be a resemblance. When Miss Thornhill returned to Sydney recently she told an interviewer that a- modern group of artists; known in London art circles as "Unit One," was coming to tfte foro with: a form of ultra-modern work which made- the French impressionists conservative.: There was a. good deal of ..controversy in art circles, she said, about what some of the paint-' ings meant. Statements were eventually made by the artists themselves, but they did-nothing to enlighten others. Some of the. paintings looked like second-rate plumbing jobs. Some appeared to be sheets of asbestos with holes cut: in them. But this did not suggest that art> in England was deteriorating, as the Royal. Academy was as conservative as ever. "London, is over-run with art students and artists,"' said Miss Thornhill, "but the market is not what it used to be. ' However, there is still a conservative market for good pictures. I think the' Ultra-modern work is-a passing phase."