Image: Dorrit Black, Australia, 1891–1951, The Bridge (cropped), 1930, Sydney, oil on canvas on board
Presented by Art Gallery of South Australia
Reviewed 19 June 2014
A Raconteur, by definition, is adept at storytelling, recounting tales and anecdotes with colourful narrative, sophistry and wit ; this is indeed what one discovers as they embark upon the painted world of Mortimer Menpes, elegantly expressed in the Art Gallery of South Australia’s current exhibition catalogue Mortimer Menpes; Painter, Etcher, Raconteur.
A South Australian expat, Morty or ‘Memps’ moved to London at the precocious age of 20 and from there, following the chronological form of the exhibition, he takes us on a grand tour spanning the globe, commencing with his candid notebook etchings and portraits of the who’s who of London society soirees (“if you wish to know the London of today, you must know Menpes”), to his unconventional apprenticeship under the auspices of James McNeill Whistler; finally, culminating with heady sojourns to the exotic east, Cairo, Morocco, Mexico, Venice and beyond.
The candid intimacy and subtle nuance of his portraits, particularly the etchings of the dandy-esque Whistler, of the “glory days when we lived together, worked together and thought together”, to his Japanese geisha bound in elaborate gold frames, are profoundly striking, perhaps even more so than the staged pomposity of his great masters renditions, despite an unerringly erudite technique.
The accompanying retrospective, Unseen Forces, brings to light the pioneering ‘modern soul’ of another South Australian artist, Dorrit Black (1891-1951).
Black, like Menpes, travelled extensively overseas exploring the avant garde practices of Europe, notably London and Paris, where she was compelled by her tutors to “express the energy of the modern age”. This she does with gusto, with her linocuts of this period most representative of her modernist sentiment.
She was an exceedingly dynamic artist and, across the evolution of her cosmopolitan oeuvre, we begin to see fixed geometric forms, controlled atmospheres and stark tonalities depicting Black’s burgeoning interest in cubist techniques. Her later still life and figure paintings moreover, demonstrate a modernist, analytic approach, working from the “standards of rhythm, balance, proportion and line”, a technique she went on to finesse in her landscapes masterpieces Mirmande and The olive plantation.
Returning to Adelaide in 1935, Black’s unique depictions of familiar South Australian landscapes beguile. Using watercolour, oil and linocut, her pieces are imbued with all the ruggedness and rawness inherent to the South Australian landscape which, despite its openness, remains powerfully and decidedly inscrutable. Through such depictions we are thereby urged to “contemplate the unknowable”.
It is here Black’s pieces are most potent, for these images, like her overall oeuvre, invite us to see differently, to deconstruct and perceive afresh – an alternate gaze – as is the very hallmark of modern art practice. This prescience is significant because, despite little recognition in her time, her influence towards modern art in Australia is unquestionable.
Undoubtedly both artists and their works have remained obscured far too long. Thankfully the dual retrospectives of Menpes and Black proffer them up exactly as they are – delightful, timeless, evocative, hidden treasures. The exhibitions take the viewer down an intrepid path, the stuff of which Morty would approve.
Set sail and journey with them awhile; they are each masterful narrators.
Reviewed by Jordana Lennox
The World of Mortimer Menpes & Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces
Venue: Art Gallery of South Australia, North Terrace, Adelaide
Exhibition Dates: Until 7 September 2014
Admission: Free
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