SUKARNO AND
 THE  NUDE:
 ==============

 CHRIS: Sukarno was a
 painter. Actually, there is a
 story about  President
 Sukarno. He used to have
 artists come to the Istana to
 make sculptures and ask
 them to create female nudes.
 He used to hug the nude
 model, and say,
 “This is not right, it is not
 ready!”
 DONALD: But there's another
 story.
 He used to keep a helicopter up
 there in Tampaksiring, Bali, and
 in the evening, his pilot would
 fly him over the bathing places;
 and there would be the
 President with very strong
 binoculars having a
 good peep at the girls bathing.

 But also, you see, the nude for
 an artist is not an object of
 porn- absolutely not!
 At the same time, it is sensual,
 and all of that. The nude is the
 most incredibly difficult thing to
 deal with in art, which
 is one of the reasons why it
 fascinates painters.
 

The Coast at Batu Djimbar,
Off set print using original
watercolour gouache over
pen and ink,
56 x 76 cm (1966-1980)

 
 PORTRAIT AND LANDSCAPE
 SUBJECT-MATTER and
 ART'S COMPLETION:

 ======================

 CHRIS: Portrait painting is an amazing
 dimension in art, isn't it?
 DONALD: Well, you see, with portrait
 painting, you're not painting the subject
 with desire; but the character, the
 personality of that person.
 You are painting the subject in an attempt
 to get the likeness, which is not really
 terribly important anyway.

 It is exemplified by Goya, where you had
 the character, sort of staring there so
 strong, eccentrically strong. Marvellous!
 Even with those models of his, who were
 his mistresses, the desire is there because
 he hasn't satisfied it until after he's painted
 it; but the likeness to character is
 most important.

 With landscapes, you are of course, in a
 completely different field, but it is really
 another sort of desire- the landscape is
 passive. It's on the whole an inanimate
 object; the trees, the hills, the houses
 and all that. The meaning of a landscape
 to a person is whether he knows the place
 very, very well, so then, he can paint it
 from the point of view of a person who is
 really intimate with it, as with a friend. 

 Or he can paint it as an abstraction;
 seeing it in terms entirely of colour, tone
 and form, and that's very satisfactory.
Well, it is the artist's whole idea to express
 himself, much more than the landscape
 or whatever else he is painting.
 

Boy with Guitar
 print series 27/50,
38.5 x 31.5 cm
Collection of Chris Wee
from Thursday Island in the 1930s. 

 CHRIS: So really the artist is an
 impressionist, no matter how hard he
 tries to be a realist?
 DONALD: The artist is making a
 confession of his inner being, so he is
 really making a confession about
 himself. I really think that when you
 see a painting which expresses
 absolutely nothing of the artist, then
 you can be certain that it is a very bad
 painting.
 There are lots of bad paintings around.
 If you paint a wonderful picture, then
 you have put yourself into it!

 When the picture is completed in the
 studio etc, it is not really complete.
 It's only complete when it is shown
 and a whole lot of people have seen it.
 Some have liked it, some have
 hated it, some have thought nothing of
 it, and even then; it is not complete.
 It's completed properly when it is
 bought and paid for and it hangs on
 somebody's wall; someone who liked
 it enough to buy it.
 Then it is complete.

 I've no doubt that there are some
 painters who have painted all their lives
 and never shown anything; but we
 don't know about them.
 They are completely unknown.
 And so one simply can't judge anything
 about them, perhaps they got a lot of
 satisfaction out of simply painting, but
 in private. The artists who really
 completed their pictures are the ones
 who showed them and sold them.
 Some genuine artists are unlucky,
 like Van Gogh who worked and did
 not sell.
 

Carved Mirror Self-Portrait
from the book
Donald Friend Retrospective
by Barry Pearse of the
New South Wales Art Gallery
 watercolour/gouache(1966-1980)