The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • 17

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD WEDNESDAY MARCH 12 1997 Arts 17 Durack: look at the big picture The Durack scandal has implications for how we judge the intrinsic worth of a piece of art writes Elizabeth Durack painted pictures on Aboriginal themes long before the Aboriginal art boom began in the 1970s A fortunate life After decades of international acclaim on the chamber Maureen Jones in her home music stage retirement remains a dim prospect for Musica Viva founding member town of Sydney for two recitals KELLY BURKE reports Elizabeth Durack has said she never intended to create another scandal when she adopted the fictional alter ego of an Aboriginal artist Eddie Burrup Now with Aboriginal groups looking for ways to sue the elderly artist for fraud the question of what she did and did not intend becomes critical Durack cannot deny that she set out to deceive when she entered paintings by Eddie Burrup in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in Darwin and the Native Title Now show at the Tandanva Aboriginal arts centre in Adelaide but it is hard to say there was anything malicious or even mischievous in her actions The artist has a long history of friendship sympathy and understanding with Aboriginal people and it is here one must look before venturing any pious condemnation At the age of 81 Elizabeth Durack belongs to an entirely different era to those street-wise younger artists such as Tim Johnson who has used elements of Aboriginal painting in his own work after first obtaining permission Neither is there any affinity with Imants Tillers who has appropriated images by artists such as Michael Nelson Jagamara into his canvas-board anthologies of local and international art Durack's relationship with the tribes of north-western Australia goes back to a childhood spent on her grazing properties in the Ord River region During her lifetime she watched Aborigines go from being outcasts in their own land to fully fledged citizens with the same legal rights as whites She was painting pictures on Aboriginal themes long before the Aboriginal art boom got under way in the 1970s when issues such as Mabo and native title were beyond all imagining She may be compared to an artist such as Margaret Preston (1875-1963) who originally claimed that Aboriginal motifs made splendid decorations for tea towels and home handicrafts all in a spirit of tribute to native artists Yet as she grew more familiar with Aboriginal culture through her acquaintance with the anthropologist Frederick McCarthy Preston modified this crass position shows there was no evil design at work only the creative excitement of making Eddie Burrup seem more and more real until an uneasy conscience called a halt It is important to remember that the story was not broken by an investigative journalist but revealed in a sensitive fashion by a friend art historian Robert Smith in the pages of Art Monthly Smith says Durack authorised him to reveal the truth she feared the situation was getting out of The great virtue of all literary or artistic hoaxes from Ern Malley to Helen Demidenko to Eddie Burrup is that they shatter our cultural complacency forcing us to examine attitudes we take for granted Ern Malley seemed a greater poet when he was an unknown prodigy The Hand That Signed the Paper seemed a more powerful book because it had been written by a Ukrainian and Eddie paintings were more impressive when the artist was thought to be Aboriginal In the first heated exchanges the experts are embarrassed the hoaxer is damned and the works lose all merit overnight -but is not everything Eventually one may take a more dispassionate view and learn to judge a work by its intrinsic qualities Unlike the Demidenko affair there is no suggestion of plagiarism in the Eddie Burrup paintings They may yet be accepted as some of Elizabeth Durack's most important and original works AUSTRALI AN-born Maureen Jones divides her time these days between homes in Florence and Switzerland an apartment in Paris and a daughter and grandchild in Trieste It is a trans-European itinerary with an enviable glamour attached but to the septuagenarian pianist it is merely the routine of her life a very fortunate life she admits Last week Jones returned to her original home of Sydney to prepare for two recitals tomorrow evening she joins John Harding and Nathan Waks in a performance of Trio in flat major as part of Musica Schubertiade at the Opera House on Sunday Jones and Harding will present a program of Schubert Franck and Ravel in the ballroom at Government House The duo first performed together two years earlier during Musica 50th anniversary celebrations It is a partnership that holds special significance given Robert Pikler former musicians conductors and artists Even Hephzibah Menuhin with visiting brother Yehudi in tow was known to frequent the lively homestead Like most of her colleagues Jones eventually succumbed to the lure of Europe She travelled first to London then to Zurich where she met up with former SSO violinist Brenton Lang-bein Since then the pianist has established an international career with hundreds of chamber music performances regular master classes and recordings to her credit along with a Cavaliere Merito bestowed on her by the Italian Government Jones finds it difficult to pinpoint highlights these days in a creative life which has spanned more than half a century She remembers with pride performing at Royal Festival Hall under the great conductor Pierre Mon-teux and her Vienna debut a memory all musicians hold dear she believes But highlights are by no means something of the past Recently she was invited to play at Lugano Switzerland to mark the second anniversary of Arturo Benedet- violin teacher was also a colleague of Jones during the late 1940s in Sydney when the two joined Richard Goldner Edward Cockman and Theo Salzman to form the Musica Viva Ensemble Jones herself had debuted a decade earlier with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at just 10 years of age As precocious in spirit as she was in musical ability by the time she was in her late teens she had moved out of her Gladesville home to pursue her career suppose everyone just thought I was a bit Jones recalls of her early longing for social and financial independence If anyone tried to persuade her that life as a piano teacher in suburban Sydney was more suitable for a young lady than aspiring to a career on the international chamber music stage well she just never listened After joining Musica Viva in 1948 she began a schedule of up to 200 concerts annually sometimes performing as many as three concerts daily back on it yes it was a staggering performance she says we thought I was a bit Jones in Sydney above and on a magazine cover in 1951 Photograph by STEVEN SIEWERT to death an invitation in itself considered a great honour And of course returning to her home town to perform with Musica Viva never ceases to be a highlight she adds musical scene has grown here in Sydney enormously over the she says audiences here are even bigger than those in Europe And this is extraordinary for such a young Now based in Florence neither Jones nor her cellist husband Amadeo Baldovino 81 shows signs of retiring The couple continue to perform separately and as two thirds of the Trio di Trieste continue to perform as long I enjoy she says only difference these days is that I can choose what concerts I really want to And that says Jones is a far more exciting prospect than retirement were young and enthusiastic And we were She remembers Goldner as a genuine and fascinating individual with an extraordinary intelligence the end he became disillusioned which was a pity because he had no reason to she says The ensemble spent much of its time rehearsing and partying at the spacious Selby homestead in the upper North Shore suburb of Warrawee The place soon became known as a Bohemian hangout for becoming aware of the deeper spiritual significance of Aboriginal signs and symbols Durack has possessed this more mature understanding of Aboriginal culture since her earliest years but has stayed within the bounds of a relatively conservative style Her paintings have used Aboriginal people as subjects within an old-fashioned Western tradition that often veers close to simple illustration The Eddie Burrup pictures represent an extraordinary creative leap for an artist in the twilight of her career They sum up a experience of Aboriginal people and have been made with such consummate skill that they fooled experts in the field If the invention of Eddie Burrup was psychologically necessary for the creation of these paintings instead of attacking morals perhaps we should admire her artistic ingenuity The paintings may well spring from the neuroses and as curator Doreen Mellor puts it but recognising that the work originates in some deep inner need should make us more tolerant of her deceptions Having created Eddie Burrup having painted the pictures authored a life story and written convincing of his speech how could Durack resist trying out the strength of her fiction in the public? 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