possible to organize it.'250 Ratas was not able on his own to do this: his initial, single-handed effort to revive graphic art in Perth had failed and, besides, his English was rather poor and he had not yet formed many connections in Sydney. The most suitable person for the task was Henry Salkauskas who had 248 Daily Ttlegraph. Sydney. Aug. 1957.
249 Sec pp. 104-107
many social contacts and was regarded as everybody's friend. At the time Salkauskas was an executive member of the Contemporary Art Society and willing to co-operate with Ratas. Ratas proposed first to organize an Australia wide graphic art exhibition and then, everything being favourable, to consider the establishment of a graphic artists association.
In
1%0,
under the auspices of the Contemporary Art Society, the first Australia-wide graphic art exhibition was held at David Jones Art Gallery in Sydney. The exhibition was divided into two: a Print section, which included ninety prints, and a Drawing section, with ninety-four black and white drawings. Prizes were canvassed among Lithuanians by Ratas: first prize of100 guineas donated by Dr. Sofija Ambroza251 for the best graphic print, was
awarded to Earle Backen; second prize of fifty guineas, donated by the Lithuanian Cultural Council, went to Thomas Gleghorn for the best drawing.After this successful exhibition Ratas persuaded Salkauskas to invite more Australian graphic artists to form a lobby group and suggested Laurie Thomas, whom he had known in Perth, as the most suitable person to be president of such an association. The Sydney Printmakers Society was founded on
13 February, 1%1,
with Laurie Thomas as its first president. Foundation members included Sue Buckley, John Coburn, Joy Ewart, Strom Gould, Weaver Hawkins, Eva Kubbos, Ursula and Peter Laverty, Vaclovas Ratas, Elizabeth Rooney, Roy Auke, Henry Salkauskas, James Sharp, David Strachan and Earle Backen.252Laurie Thomas reflected on the society's inception, which took place in his flat in Potts Point:
One Friday night -- I've forgotten whether it was planned or just happened -- there was a preponderance of printmakers: Henry Salkauskas, Earle Backen, Sue Buckley, Elizabeth Rooney, Vaclovas Ratas, Jim Sharp, Eva Kubbos and lord (sic) knows how many others. They were all grizzling because whenever they showed their lithographs, their etchings, their screen prints, their wood engravings ... their smaller, more intimate works were always over-shadowed and overlooked among the larger canvases and splashes of colour in those mixed exhibitions. They argued that, big or small, a painting, especially in a mixed show, for some reason or other was always preferred by collectors to a print, however good. And so the group known as the Sydney Printmakers was formed, the idea being to hold its own shows, exclusively of prints, once or twice a year.253
A year later a similar Printmakers Society was founded in Adelaide. The Sydney Printmakers Society held its first graphic art exhibition in April,
1961,
251 Dr. Sofija Ambroz.a, a graduate of Kaunas University, was the first Lithuanian medicalto re-study medicine in Austrdlia and graduated from Sydney University in 1955.
McCulloch, Encyclopedia of Australian Art, 1981, p. 530. Algirdas
�
iml..'iinas was notamong the foundation members, contrary to what is stated in this publication.
2.53 Laurie Thomas, the most noble art of them all, Unh·ersit)' of Queensland Press, !976, pp.
at the Blaxland Art Gallery and this was later shown in Melbourne. From then on the Sydney group arranged regular showings of graphic art, as did other art societies. One of the most impressive, called the Australian Print Survey
1963-
4,
organized by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, toured state galleries for fourteen months. James Mollison writes: 'It is very largely the work of a group of New Australian printmakers that gives the Print Survey Exhibition the flavour that makes it so different from that which a corresponding exhibition of paintings might have had ... Henry Salkauskas, Eva Kubbos and Vaclovas Ratas each have in common a vigorous, bold style.'�Members of the Sydney group began to participate internationally. Their work was shown in graphic art exhibitions held in Japan, Brazil, Yugoslavia and Switzerland, countries with long graphic art traditions. Australia was represented by Vaclovas Ratas, Henry Salkauskas and Eva Kubbos, among others.
Art critics and judges now began to accord higher status to graphic art.
In
1963,
in the prestigious NSWMirror-Waratah
Competition, Salkauskas's Serigraph (silkscreen print), was awarded the grand prize. TheDaily Mirror
reported that this was the first time a grand prize in a major Australian art competition had been awarded to an entry other than an oil or watercolour painting.255 The new appreciation of graphic art soon found reflection in patronage: large business and shipping companies. hotel proprietors and private art connoisseurs began to buy graphic art works.At the same time that Lithuanians were striving for greater recognition of graphic art, other, immense changes were occurring on the Australian art scene. The newly arrived Abstract Expressionism provoked a turmoil of reaction. Many theoretical discussions had followed the
1953
French Painting Today exhibition. In1955,
artist and art critic Elwyn Lynn, editor ofBroadsheet,
the official publication of the Contemporary Art Society of NSW, initiated debate on various aspects of abstract expressionism. According to both art historian Bernard Srnith256 and art critic Paul Haefliger,257 abstract expressionism was launched on to the Sydney art scene by the1956
Direction I exhibition which included works by Passmore, Olsen, Klippel, Eric Smith and William Rose.In the sixties, almost all Lithuanian artists in Sydney began to experiment with abstract expressionism. It is worth asking whether there was some underlying reason. One possible explanation is that it was a style that offered psychological release to the newcomers. As refugees from both Soviet 254 James Mollison, "Printmaking in Australia' in An 011d Altstrolia. Vol. I, No. 4, 1964, p. 236
255 Gil Docking, Henry Salkouskas 1925-1979, Catalogue of retrospective Exhibnion at the NSW Art Gallery, 1981, p. 8 and the Daily Mirror, 9 Oct. 1963.
256 Smith, Auslralian Paiming, p. 132
257 Cited in Peter Pinson, Abstract Expressionism in Sydney 1956-1964: Catalogue of Retrospective Exhibition at the Ivan Daugherty Gallery, 1980, p. 5
Communism and Nazism, nearly all had at one time or another been captured, conscripted, imprisoned or persecuted. Certainly, most had lost family members and friends. These traumatic experiences, it is reasonable to suggest, lay hidden in the subconscious minds of many. Abstract Expressionism was a subjective, emotional style which offered an opportunity to release experiences without a requirement to render them in explicit, definite shape. Fractured lines. broken shapes and free colour selection insubordinate to any particular object gave artists a freedom of visual expression not before known to them. This was also an evocative style, a style which spoke in innuendo, with reticence or with vehemence, but image-free. It provided opportunities for personal psychological discharge and unburdening of memories and events and helped to clear the way for a new and happier future. At the same time, abstract expressionism had become universally accepted and understood and was specific to neither culture nor country. It gave the artists, so to speak, an international passport and cultural security.
Following the establishment of the Sydney Printmakers Society, Lithuanian artists possibly felt a sense of'rnission accomplished' and no longer considered it necessary to meet as before to promote the revival of graphic art and printmaking. For whatever reason, from that time on, there seems to have been a definite move towards working independently. seldom seeking opinions and advice from, or even the company of, each other.
In
1%5
Lithuanian artists in Sydney had an unexpected opportunity once more to celebrate achievement when four of them gained prizes at the prestigious Australian Fashion Fabric Design Awards. Leonas Urbonas won first prize and a gold medallion; Vaclovas Ratas and Eva Kubbos each won second prize and silver medallions; and Henry Salkauskas won a bronze medallion. 258It is probably true, also, that by this time most bad begun to feel more secure in their adopted country and had sufficient knowledge of Australian ways of life to enable them to work comfortably on their own. It must not be forgotten that, while Lithuanian graphic artists had been becoming more locally prominent during the late fifties and early sixties, there were two important Lithuanian painters -- Vladas Meskenas and Leonas Urbonas -- who were working quite independently in Sydney. For the sake of continuity, however, it is proposed at this
point
to continue a discussion of those Vanguard artists who in the initial stages of their careers worked in close communication and co operation with each other.258Their success coincided with the annual Press Ball for Miist( Pastoge, and the whole community celebrated together.
The various art styles encountered by Lithuanian artists inevitably influenced their work. These influences are best seen by examining the development of the oeuvre of individual artists.