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Artist Jeffrey Smart is 'Phidias’ who takes his young audience on ‘a walk through the art gallery’ featuring artworks from viewers in Melbourne, Sydney and ‘all the way from Perth’. He uses the first picture he selects – a painting of a jug and toast rack – to demonstrate how everyday things can make good subjects. The following abstraction from Melbourne is described in detail, including the colours utilised, despite the program being broadcast in black-and-white.
Curator’s notes
A carry over from The Argonauts radio tradition in which experts were called upon to share their knowledge, this segment features intelligent art criticism from established artist Jeffrey Smart. Unlike many children’s shows that are patronising, Smart offers extremely honest criticism on how those art works could be improved. Providing much more than the usual art show-and-tell segment, Smart comments critically on subject matter, style, colour and the media used in a respectful showcase of children’s work from around the country.
The segment also demonstrates an early and effective example in the long tradition of involving viewers at home in program content through interactivity. Producers of early children’s television such as this show were prescient in their understanding that passive viewing would not hold the audience for long. In this case viewers from across Australia are named and recognised as their artwork is validated and treasured on television for the nation to see, a highly effective method of engaging the audience and making children all around Australia feel that they are, or could be, a part of the show. Here Smart comments that even Perth is not far away with television.
