Angry Penguins

Call Number
N 820.5 A ANG
Created/Published
[Adelaide] : Adelaide University Arts Association, 1940-1946
Issue
(September 1943)
Images
42
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Text

Angry Penguins  

Editors: Max Harris John Reed  

Editorial  

On the subject of policy  

When questions of policy become too prominent  

literary values are liable to be unceremoniously  

thrown out the door—if they have not already un-  

obtrusively slipped out through the window.  

It so happens that at the moment “policy” is very  

much to the fore and.it is probably unwise to pretend  

that one doesn’t see/it, or to ignore the issues in-  

volved.  

It is in fact most interesting—and extremely rele-  

vant —to note the growing insistence in some quarters  

on “Australian” art. Why do we copy the Euro-  

peans? What is wrong with Lawson? Why can’t  

we say what we have to say in our own terms  

develop our own idiom?  

But does Angry Penguins encourage this trend? Is it  

our “policy” to do so? If we must answer this ques-  

tion, we say, No: because we realize the inherent  

artificiality of doing so. What we say is that if such  

trend exists and is valid, it will inevitably produce  

material which Angry Penguins will certainly pub-  

lish. But to publish bad material merely because it  

purports to be developing certain trend is not our  

policy.  

We do ourselves believe that Australian art is de-  

veloping at an astonishing rate and that in its growth  

it will inevitably (if that growth is not artificially  

stimulated) mature into form of expression which  

will be unique and in the truest sense of the word  

indigenous; remembering always that we do not come  

from aboriginal stock—the aboriginal, by the way,  

being the only truly Australian artist up to date—but  

that on the contrary we have very definite European  

ancestry. • •  

That is one question of policy. Another is raised  

by “Australian New Writings,” which challenges the  

artists to face reality, to avoid “the personal subjec-  

tive theme” and to write rather “of their experiences  

and the social excitement they sense around them.”  

The editors pride themselves on the fact that not one  

of their contributing poets “is concerned with love,  

landscape or lotus blooms.”  

We, on the other hand, are happy to find that our  

poets are sometimes concerned with love, one of the  

deepest and most fundamental forces in human nature,  

and with landscape, the influence of which has pro-  

found bearing on the life of man.  

One remaining point of policy, and that is the in-  

clusion of considerable volume of highly contentious  

art-political material in what is primarily literary  

publication devoted to creative expression:— this will  

no doubt offend the susceptibilities of some readers  

but it is done consciously and without any apologies.  

The editors firmly believe that the issues involved are  

of vital importance to all artists and that to shirk  

them or to refuse to have them fought out in the pages  

of Angry Penguins would be to show completely  

unrealistic approach to the complex situation which  

confronts the artist today.  

final point—not one of policy. It will be noticed  

that reference to the war is almost entirely absent from  

this volume, phenomenon which parallels the posi-  

tion in England, where Stephen Spender says that one  

of the significant things about the war poets of this  

war is that they do not write about the war. We  

would be far from suggesting, however, that con-  

sciousness of the war and the life struggle involved  

in it is not by far the most powerful factor influenc-  

ing the great majority of artists to-day.  

September, 1943  

Cite

Citation options:
Work identifier

http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3084411268

APA citation

Harris, Max & Reed, John & Kerr, D. B & University of Adelaide. Arts Association. (1940). Angry Penguins Retrieved June 4, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3084411268

MLA citation

Harris, Max, Reed, John, Kerr, D. B and University of Adelaide. Arts Association. Angry Penguins [Adelaide]: Adelaide University Arts Association, 1940. Web. 4 June 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3084411268>

Harvard/Australian citation

Harris, Max & Reed, John & Kerr, D. B & University of Adelaide. Arts Association. 1940, Angry Penguins Adelaide University Arts Association, [Adelaide] viewed 4 June 2025 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3084411268

Wikipedia citation

{{Citation
  | author1=Harris, Max.
  | author2=Reed, John.
  | author3=Kerr, D. B.
  | author4=University of Adelaide. Arts Association.
  | title=Angry Penguins.
  | year=1940
  | section=9 v. : ill. ; 22-27 cm.
  | issue=(September 1943)
  | location=[Adelaide]
  | publisher=Adelaide University Arts Association
  | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3084411268
  | id=nla.obj-3084411268
  | access-date=4 June 2025
  | via=Trove
}}

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