Sharp look at women

Press, 13 February 1988, Page 8

Sharp look at women

“Paintings,” by Sue Syme, at the C.S.A. Gallery, until February 21. Reviewed by Pat Unger. Art about women by

women is becoming increasingly popular. After the dubious joys of family life in “Stuffing on,” the misadventures and problems of the “fair sex” in prints by Mary Kay, and the drawings of 3-generation-psychic-interdependence by Heather Busch, we now have a further exhibition of women by Sue Syme at the C.S.A. Gallery. These paintings are in oil and in water-colour. They show the many faces of women in social situations. They also show Syme’s keen observation and her ability to recognise the value of stereotyping in art, while preserving a semblance of individuality. Syme’s women seek friendship. They want glamour. Their lives are filled with a constant round of activity which gives them such sharpness that it almost disfigures them.

Sharp hair, pointed

shoes, stiletto heels, brilliant and sharp nails, tongues like snakes, elbows like picks and narrowed eyes forever darting this way and that, are indicators that they belong to the social group (like the gasping fish in one painting). They look with two or three eyes; they may have several faces. They talk with, sometimes, two or three mouths. And in several conversations. The viewer can almost see the sarcastic comments flying about. They party, they dance, they play bridge, they travel the tube, with expressions ranging from the bored to the frenetic. Their smoking, their angularity and their parody of grace make them fit ting subjects in search of an artist. The most successful of these works are the water-colours. Syme controls the smaller format, the paint quality and the strident colour harmonises well. At best they have a touch of . Otto Dix’s merciless wit.

Some of the oil paintings look less practised,

“The Dream” and “The Appointment” have a slimy look; “Nude” is a more fleshy but indifferent echo of a Christine Conrad melodrama. The bald-headed lady is asking for help, too. The artist has lived over the Tasman and now lives on the West Coast. The viewer may enjoy imagining that this is how Aussie women live arid work, or how life is on the West Coast. Whatever the misconception, many of these paintings are telling and attractive.