PRIME MINISTER
* PLEASE CHECK AGAINST DEUVERr*
ADDRESS BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING, MP
OPENING OF COLIN LANCELEY EXHIBITION, SHERMAN GALLERIES,
SYDNEY, FRIDAY, 27 AUGUST 1993
Colin and Kay Lanceley, Gene Sherman and William Wright, ladies and
gentlemen I'm very pleased to be here this evening to open this exhibition of Colin
Lanceley's recent work.
I wanted to make time for this event among the post-Budget feeding frenzy
because I like Colin Lanceley's vision and ideas. I also like his paintings.
I mean, how could you not like someone who says that great art looks as if it was
breathed onto the surface by angels?
It's always tempting for politicians to try and draw analogies between what they
do and what is done by the people we talk about in our speeches. Real people
like painters, and opera singers.
Some of you may remember a previous instance when I did this, and the
interesting events that followed.
So rather tonight I'll content myself with saying, quite seriously, that I think I
know what Colin means when he says that in trying to come to terms with
Australia, you've got to try and put it together in some meaningful way, so that if
it's real it will live in the imagination afterwards.
I have to say that I find the way he puts it irresistible: he says, " Ve need to
develop a profound understanding of our place and to shape it with what is our
finest sensibility. I think we've got to create the kind of place where we get
echoes all the time, and resonances. In a soulless environment where we
aren't able to have those resonances our culture won't develop, and we'll
become a satellite."
Dare I say it-sonds-a-bit like-Manring Ctark. whose great achievement was to
imagine Australia what it was and what it might become. And he did it so well
he helped us all do it.
It is not Manning Clark's politics which some conservative Australians object too.
His politics were hardly radical. And it's not the way he wrote history the way is
always open to anyone who wants to write it better.
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What they fear is his imagination, and imagination like a sense of humour is a
terrible threat to people without one. When it is coupled with a massive
achievement and imagination becomes a source of envy as well as fear.
Which is why I suppose Manning Clark will always be under attack: Why the
arts will always be a bitchy place: And why the conservative parties in Australia
will never support the arts as the arts should be supported.
The Australia that Colin Lanceley returned to after eighteen years away was very
different from the Australia that he left in the 1960s.
I know that in those days many creative people felt the need to leave what they
considered to be a stultifyingly conformist society.
It was an era when the arts were treated by politicians if they considered them
at all as at best a subject of bemnusement, and at worst a matter for suspicion
and hostility.
I know too that the situation has changed from those days, but not changed
enough.
was cWuelt usratilll ndeeevedl otop mberinntg ac uplaturtr aolf coounrc nearntiso nmaol rdee vinetloo pthmee mnta. instream. To make our
ey -And we'll get there, with help from people like Colin Lanceley.
.) le -As I've said before, my view of the arts is a simple one. I believe that when the
arts flourish we flourish with them.
They are a measure of our identity and our guiding force. In an ever changing
multicultural Australia, the arts are out there at the front, leading and defining.
The arts project to the world the truth about Australia in a way that no-one or
3t if nothing else can.
They show, as I'm sure Colin would agree, that we are a people able to imagine
what we might be.
ur Able to imagine our future in the region and the world.
A creative people, able to make things which the world wants.
And a people prepared to lead rather than willing to follow.
el I know that most Australians are enormously proud of our artistic achievements.
Too often I think we project ourselves as a pretty unsophisticated bunch without
too. much care for the life of the mind.
ly is Yet the achievements are there daily in writing, painting, dance, film, music,
theatre. And I have no doubt that Australians are very proud of their artistic
achievements. 1339
It is my belief that we should be doing more for our artists, and for those who will And
follow them. imm
And we intend to.
That's why we are working towards putting into place a national cultural strategy. RPereaf
Bob McMullan, as some of you may be aware, is currently engaged in a wide Bec
consultation process around Australia. In fact, today he has been here in doin
Sydney at an Evatt Foundation forum on cultural policy in Australia appropriately expt
entitled, " From Fossils to Films". supr
Which gives you an idea of the size of the task. And'
cBoyn sthidee erendd ovfie thwe aybeoaurt, thhee wroillle b aen idn rae sppoosnitisoinb iltioti ecso mofe t hbea cCko tmo mCoanbwineeatl twhith a tsoc~ dhe
Government in relation to our cultural life and heritage. From this the Allo
Government intends to develop a cultural map to guide us into the next century. thin
It's an ambitious enterprise, and one that hasn't been attempted before. And itsper
will be of great benefit to us all. The
But we haven't just pulled up the drawbridge while we wait for this to happen. Nothat
In the Budget last week we delivered a 12 per cent increase in arts funding. to a
It's perhaps hard to believe, but some people have viewed this with alarm. You
One commentator in the Sunday papers last weekend suggested that " thethan
electorate can look forward to an explosion of Balmain basket weaving" which So i
to say the least, showed scant regard for intellectual copyright. abot
I don't subscribe to this notion that, unlike every other human activity from I wo:
bpahniliksitninge tov ibeaws. e bI athlli, n kth iet' sa rptsri mdoitievse . b eIs tth ionnk ait ' ss taar vfuantidoanm deientt. a llIy t hTinokry itv'sie aw which itshe ar(
confuses excellence in the arts with exclusivity in the arts.
I believe that the approach we developed in the Budget was a sound one. One wIt'istht
which was economically responsible, practical and efficient in its delivery.
An approach which not only provided direct Government assistance for artists. Colir
bouptp owrhtuicnhi tiaelss of oern ncoonu-rgaogveesr namrtse not rgsaupnpisoartti. o ns to be innovative in exploring tAos Fth
iTnh sep a-6rt-sn onresehdip poaft rtohen aagrets. . WIte is n ae esadd tofa gcet t thmaot rAe uAsutrsatlriaanlia nb ucsoinmepsasn iiess n oitn vinol tvheed noaf tUu
habit of providing patronage at least not on the broad and imaginative scale And
that it is done in many other countries.
Artists should be rewarded in ways that are commensurate with the rewards they LaaMdLi
bring Australia. I look forward to the day when more Austraiian companies come
to the realisation that by helping Australian artists they are uitimnately helping Thar
themselves. 1340
4
And I hope this day comes soon, because the arts are in need of more
immediate assistance than the Government is able to provide. Furthermore I
suspect that this will always be the case.
Real artists, I'm inclined to think, don't choose to be artists. As Colin says in the
Preface from which I've already quoted, painting is compulsive.
Because they reward artists of excellence like Colin who really shouldn't be
doing anything else and give them the kind of mid-career support they need to
expand their horizons and go on to better things, I've always been a strong
supporter of the Australia Council's Creative Fellowships.
And that's the other reason that I was delighted to come and open this exhibition
today. It's a tangible expression of the results of the Creative Fellowship
scheme. All of these works were created while Colin has been on his fellowship, and I
think that no-one could deny that this has been Commonwealth money well
spent. The more observant among you will have noticed that this is the first reference
that I have made tonight to the works that actually comprise the exhibition.
Now it's no secret, I'm sure, that hitherto my attention has been primarily directed
to a different school from that of the Australian Modernists.
You will also probably not be astounded to hear that I have a somewhat less
than nodding acquaintance with the Annandale Imitation Realists.
So in these circumstances you will undoubtedly all be relieved that I am not
about to embark on a detailed critique of the exhibition.
I would however, make the observation, that even with a limited understanding
there is a real spirit in these works that no one can fail to appreciate, and there
is a real feel of Australianness about them.
It's hard to put my finger on why this is so, but I suspect that it has a lot to do
with the colours.
Colin Lanceley clearly is a great colourist.
As Robert Hughes says, his paintings " record a rapturous sensitivity of response
to the light of high summer, to the weird buzz in the bush... There are no artists
of Lanceley's generation to whom the diction of colour seems to come so
naturally." And none whose work I would think it a greater privilege to open.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is a sincere pleasure to open this exhibition. I hope that
a multitude of people have the opportunity to see it.
Thank you. 13411