The sculptors who best encapsulate the spirit of The Sydney School of Sculpture (SSS), are James Rogers, Jan King, Paul Hopmeier, Paul Selwood, Harrie Fasher, Orest Keywon, Michael Buzacott and this writer.
Other sculptors, Ron Robertson-Swann, Michael LeGrand, Ian McKay, Kevin Norton, Dave Horton, Ayako Saito remain more attached to English sculpture and have not adapted the sculptural language to being here.
The work of the second group is less mediated by the local landscape. These sculptors may prefer to be excluded from a ‘regional identification’ when in their minds sculpture has universal themes. This writer identifies those ‘universal’ themes, as English ones.
This distinction has no bearing on the quality of the work. The task here is to identify aspects which best characterise The Sydney School.
Sculptors move in and out of the SSS sculpture space according to their conviction and commitment. Because of the very limited ‘career’ opportunities within the movement, many sculptors over the years have moved on or attached themselves to more art world friendly forms where ‘individual’ practice is championed. Because the work only looks like itself, it cannot be identified as being something else, for which a viewer may be searching.
The physical ingredient the SSS sculptor employs over their more ‘English’ counterpart is heat. Heat makes steel soft. When the heat is removed the steel stays fast. The ‘English’ sculptor forms the work cold. With ‘English’ sculpture, the heat only occurs at the welded joint, between parts.
The ground on which Australia stands is iron ore. Like clay comes out of the ground, so does steel. That ore is extracted and smelted, to become steel. To become sculpture, it goes through a liquid phase again. This heat provides the gateway to expression. The use of steel is an extension of the place. The temperament of the sculptor shapes it. It is a primordial process, instinctive and reactive. The place impacts on the language of sculpture, which is The Sydney School.
The preferred use of steel and heat is one aspect that unifies the SSS sculptors. Steel is also used because it is direct and immediate and does not require a second processing, such as casting. The sculptor’s voice is registered in a robust and durable material and the work can be placed in the weather with minimum damage. The material is relatively inexpensive and can be worked in response to the scale of the human figure.
There has been sustained dialogue among the sculptors to extend the language that the use of steel presents. Through association with one another, individual styles are made redundant. Through their association, the sculpture engine has a sustaining power than one sculptor alone cannot muster. The work of Picasso and Braque before the First World War was equally committed to a trans-individual research practice which was Cubism.
The Sydney School was informed by innovations in the mid and late twentieth century in both the US and Europe. David Smith and Anthony Caro significantly extended the sculptural language. Part of the task of the SSS is to revitalise and extend the Cubism project from which the art world has mostly shied away.
The collective energy generated within the SSS group arises through friendship, competition and argument. The school spans three generations.
Success and market corruption brings about the end of most ‘schools’, as much as neglect does. The sculptors have maintained momentum in their practice by flying under the commercial and critical radar. A Sydney art world that prefers to be dazzled has no time for the slower art of the SSS
To escape a difficult identification with steel sculpture, some very good sculptors are experimenting with more traditional methods such as carving. Harry Georgeson, who was trained at The National Art School and lives in New York carves and casts sculpture. Stephen Ralph, also trained at NAS now carves as does Dale Miles. Cathy Weismann models the figure and casts in bronze. Time will determine which work survives.
This writer proposes the longest legacy will arise through the SSS innovation in the use of steel as the material of choice.
The National Art School sculpture department has for nearly one hundred years provided the sculpture education to establish this language standard and stands alone among the art schools of the world for this reason.*
When this education is applied to reflecting the spirit of place, a long lasting sculptural conversation is possible. The Sydney School of Sculpture is that conversation.
There has been little critical recognition of the achievements of the school. Those champions that were, shrank away or died. It is conceivable that this neglect has served a protective purpose. A writer will need to present themselves soon, before the land out of which all this work came, swallows it again.
All material ultimately does not survive over time outside. All sculpture everywhere is in a queue to come inside. Truth can bide its time as it always does, but there are rumblings here at the back of the internet.
Steel Is a Rock 1999 Michael Snape, Balmain