Woodcut exhibition

Press, 20 February 1988, Page 35

Woodcut exhibition

“Woodblocks,” by Joan Smith, at the Bealey Gallery, until February 26. Reviewed by Pat Unger. Joan Smith is a Sydneyborn and trained printmaker. Now a teacher of printmaking in New South Wales, she has held many solo shows and her work was previously seen here in 1980.

Through woodcuts she "endeavours, to express” her main art interests — “pattern and space”, She does so with the help of embossing, collage and line. Her compositions are simple and her design principles are unadventurous and predictable. Smith’s prints, at the Bealey Gallery, fall into 3 general categories; those concerned with the female figures, with landscapes of waterfall and shoreline and with visual plays on plane (circles, rectangles and curves) and colour (blacks, white and silvers). In these conventional

areas of her preoccupation she explores the never-ending trivia of nature, the decorative attributes of women, both clothed and unclothed, and the ability of embossing to enhance chosen images or spaces.

The nude figure’s strength rests only in her "Rapunzel” mass of grainy hair. When dressed, embossing and coloured umbrellas give an edge over mere fashion drawing. “Ebb,” "Cumulus” and “Beach” are seascapes simplified to a point where there is no visual tension or challenge left. ‘ In contrast, Marilynn Webb’s works are true classics of the genre. Of the geometric studies, “Metamorphose” has attractive aspects. A thoughtful study of colour and plane, its impact is lessened by carelessly cut circles, that in some places are highlighted by

the colour contrasts. It does show the enduring qualities of flat black to suppress all light (and irregularities). As with so many exhibitions, the works tend to skirt around a variety of partially defined ideas with half realised resolutions. Only in “Waterfall” do Smith’s compositional elements and stylistic ploys come together in a strong and satisfying work. As an almost symbolic fall of water, it is a happy combination of form, of printmaking skill and of patterning.

In a time when printmaking was dominated by realism, fussy detail or a mannerist.style of pseudocubism, Smith’s work would be innovative and fresh. Today, in a more exciting climate of complex issues; fractured imagery and bold techniques, such clarity takes on a suggestion of advertising art.