The Australian Academy of Art was a conservative Australian government-authorised art organisation which operated for ten years between 1937 and 1946 and staged annual exhibitions. Its demise resulted from opposition by Modernist artists, especially those associated with the Contemporary Art Society, though the influence of the Academy continued into the 1960s.
History
Precedents Efforts to form an art academy in Australia were initially limited to individual States: The Academy of Arts, Australia, under the presidentship of P. Fletcher Watson was founded in Sydney in 1891, with its first exhibition held in 1892, but survived only four years. The Society of Artists, founded in Sydney in 1897, and the Australian Artists’ Association, of Melbourne, both had members from various States, but held their regular exhibitions only in their home states.
Formation Aspiring to the principles of the long-established, but independent, privately funded, and also by then conservative, British Royal Academy of Arts (founded in 1768), Attorney-General Robert Menzies envisaged an overarching, Federal organisation promoting art that would be "understood by" the ordinary Australian amongst the middle class who were his prime supporters in his later prime-ministerships.
In The Argus of 3 May 1937 in an article headed "Does Not Like the "cross-eyed drawing" of Modern Art," he was reported to take issue with the idea that this might be de facto censorship of "those whose conception of art is not his," as had been suggested by Mr. Norman Macgeorge in a letter published the previous Saturday. MacGeorge, Menzies responded, was "misinformed about the object of the proposed Australian Academy;" It is true, however, as Mr. Macgeorge claims, that I find nothing but absurdity in much so-called modern art, with its evasion of real problems and its cross-eyed drawing. It is equally true that I think that in art beauty is the condition of immortality - a conclusion strengthened by an examination of the works of the great European masters and that the language of beauty ought to be capable of being understood by reasonably cultivated people who are not themselves artists. I realise that an academy should find room in its membership for all schools of artistic thought provided they are based on competent craftsmanship. So much do I realise this truth, which I take to be the basis of Mr. Macgeorge's letter, that at the outset, when mentioning the academy idea to a committee of artists, I stipulated that I would take no steps to further it unless this principle were adhered to. The published list of those invited to join the proposed academy is the best proof that the principle has been followed. The list was selected by artists of the highest standing. My only function has been, and is, as an uninstructed lover of fine painting and drawing, to do as much as I can to help obtain for Australia the benefits of an artistic organisation which has been invaluable in England."
Subsequently, at a meeting of ten state delegates in the smokeroom of the Canberra Hotel, Menzies formed the Australian Academy of Art, on 19 June 1937 and was its inaugural chair. Where long-established European art academies were teaching institutions, the Australian Academy was not, and served to present annual salons by invitation to established artists. Its other role was to advise government on art administration as "a body which will be recognised as a standard reference on art." It was to be the second such academy in the British dominions, following Canada's which was established in 1880 with a Royal charter, which was sought also by Australia's.
Against the background of the 1939 Herald Exhibition of French and British Contemporary Art, the Academy was to persist in its anti-Modernist stance, with one member, Norman St Clair Carter, describing 'contemporary art' as a 'fungoid growth.' While tolerating some Australian post-impressionism, its exhibitions showed traditional figurative and realist paintings by John Longstaff (the first Academy president), Hans Heysen, William Dargie, John Longstaff, Elioth Gruner and Charles Mere as examples of conventional academic values of draughtsmanship and technical prowess; the Modernists' innovation and originality meant they were excluded. Its first catalogue announced that its nationalist, doctrinaire intent;...marks a definite move towards the co-ordination of the artistic activities in a true Federal spirit. Hitherto there has not existed an institution which has adequately represented the whole continent. Nor has there been a body of artists who could speak with one authoritative voice on the many questions that concern the right development of the Fine Arts of this country. It is hoped, then, as the Academy proceeds with its work, the Federal and State Governments, as well as the general public, will realize the value that such an institution can be to the community, not only as a group of artists representing various points of view in their work but also as an advisory body which works in the interests of government and people alike.
Influence and demise The organisation failed to obtain a royal charter when opposed by the Contemporary Art Society and other modernist groups, so its last annual exhibition was in 1947, although its influence remained through former members who were assembling national collections, writing art criticism and teaching art, in particular through those who were instructors or administrators at Melbourne's National Gallery School. Those who held roles as curators, or who were critics for newspapers and magazines had direct influence on the public. William Nicholas Rowell was appointed drawing master at the National Gallery in 1941 and was acting head of its art school briefly in 1946. William Beckwith (Billy) McInnes was acting-director at the National Gallery of Victoria (1935) and an instructor in its art school, while The Age critic James Stuart (Jimmy) MacDonald supported Menzies and reviled George Bell, and Lionel Lindsay used his art criticism in the Melbourne Herald to spruik the organisation.
Foundation members By June 1937 it was announced that forty-seven artists had accepted invitations to be foundation members. The initiators appear in a group photograph taken on the day of the Academy's founding, and representing five states of the Commonwealth, but not Western Australia;
New South Wales
Victoria
Queensland
South Australia Hans Heysen
Tasmania John Eldershaw In addition to the foundation members, others who showed in the annual exhibitions hosted by the Academy were William Wallace Anderson (exhibited in the 1939 and 1943 shows), Archibald Bertram Webb (1938), Frank Charles Medworth (1939), Joshua Smith (1938), Lyndon Raymond Dadswell (1938), Amalie Sara Colquhoun (1938), L. J. Harvey (1938), Isabel Mackenzie (1938), and Elma Roach (1938) among others. Max Meldrum joined Menzies' organisation but resigned before the Academy held its first exhibition, though kept showing in early annual exhibitions. Frederick William (Fred) Leist was a foundation member but soon resigned. Rayner Hoff had died before the inaugural exhibition, as had Paul Montford.
Opposition In the Victorian Artists Society autumn exhibition being opened at its quarters in East Melbourne on 27 April 1937 by Menzies, the Society's new president (and foundation member of the Academy) James Quinn, had included modernists whose works he had seen on his visits to their studios. When Menzies had finished his speech condemning modernity in painting as "doing all that great artists wouldn't have done," like making "a face look exactly like a cabbage, or a cabbage resemble a face," Quinn indignantly attacked Menzies, pointing out that Rembrandt himself was a rebel; "Instead of painting for buyers he painted to please himself as an artist and, accordingly, 'went broke'," he countered. The confrontation prompted letters from readers.
When the Academy's exclusion of modernist art from its officially sanctioned exhibitions became clear, opposition to the Academy was led by George Bell, a spokesman for 'modern art'. His argument with Menzies was very public, pursued through the newspapers, and in The Australian Quarterly. The avant-garde Angry Penguins''' first three issues published in Adelaide also reflected these bitter tensions in what C.P. Snow regarded as "the last flowering of a 'national' modernism that a completely internationalised world of the arts was likely to see".Hayward Gallery. Angry Penguins and Realist Painting in Melbourne in the 1940s. London: South Bank Centre, 1988. . In July 1938 Bell issued a leaflet, To Art Lovers, which led to the formation of the Contemporary Art Society, of which he became founding president, with painter and writer Adrian Lawlor as secretary, who produced a book, Arquebus (1937), and pamphlet, Eliminations (1939), detailing their opposition. Others who declared themselves against a conservative, outmoded 'Academy,' were Isabel May Tweddle and Norman Macgeorge, while Rupert Bunny, Sydney Long and William Lister Lister publicly refused Menzies' invitation to join, as secretary of the Twenty Melbourne Painters Society, A.M.E. Bale wrote to the Governor General protesting the formation of the Academy; and James Quinn was in conflict with Menzies over his open support for modern art.
In contrast to the Academy's venue for its first show, in Sydney's Education Department gallery, the first CAS exhibition was held at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1939, where it presented young artists including Sidney Nolan, Albert Tucker, Joy Hester, Russell Drysdale, William Dobell, James Gleeson, Eric Thake, Peter Purves Smith, Noel Counihan and new arrivals from Europe, Yosl Bergner and Danila Vassilieff. William Frater switched allegiances after the first Academy exhibition and showed with the CAS.
Exhibitions of the Australian Art Academy
First exhibition By the time of its first exhibition, held 8–29 April 1938 at the Education Department's Art Gallery, Loftus Street, Sydney, the catalogue lists more; Robert Henderson (Bob) Croll (Academy general secretary) William Frater, and John Rowell
The catalogue also names as Patrons; Rt. Hon. R. G. Menzies, P.C., M.P., Alexander Melrose, LL..B., G. R. Nicholas, J. R. McGregor, Charles Lloyd Jones, Hon. John Lane Mullins, Howard Hinton, O.B.E.; and its officers; the President Sir John Longstaff (who held the office until 1941); Vice-President Sydney Ure Smith, O.B.E., Exhibition Manager C. Parker, Secretary and Treasurer R. H. Croll, Assistant Secretary and Treasurer Vera Carruthers.
For this first exhibition, a Selection Committee was formed comprising Sir John Longstaff, W. B. McInnes, Harold Herbert, Lionel Lindsay, Sydney Ure Smith, Norman Carter, William Rowell, Thea Proctor, Margaret Preston, and Douglas Dundas.
Its Council had two 'divisions',' Northern, whose members were Norman Carter, Lionel Lindsay, Elioth Gruner, Thea. Proctor and Sydney Ure Smith; and Southern, whose officers were Harold Herbert, W. B. McInnes, Hans Heysen, Sir John Longstaff and William Rowell.
Second exhibition The second annual Academy exhibition was held 5 April-3 May 1939 at the National Gallery of Victoria in Swanston Street, Melbourne. The exhibitors, several of whom were not Academy members, were from all states except Western Australia;