Fix this text
Angry Penguins
Fix this textEditors: Max Harris John Reed
Fix this textEditorial
Fix this textOn the subject of policy
Fix this textWhen questions of policy become too prominent
Fix this textliterary values are liable to be unceremoniously
Fix this textthrown out the door—if they have not already un-
Fix this textobtrusively slipped out through the window.
Fix this textIt so happens that at the moment “policy” is very
Fix this textmuch to the fore and.it is probably unwise to pretend
Fix this textthat one doesn’t see/it, or to ignore the issues in-
Fix this textvolved. /
Fix this textIt is in fact most interesting—and extremely rele-
Fix this textvant —to note the growing insistence in some quarters
Fix this texton “Australian” art. Why do we copy the Euro-
Fix this textpeans? What is wrong with Lawson? Why can’t
Fix this textwe say what we have to say in our own terms
Fix this textdevelop our own idiom?
Fix this textBut does Angry Penguins encourage this trend? Is it
Fix this textour “policy” to do so? If we must answer this ques-
Fix this texttion, we say, No: because we realize the inherent
Fix this textartificiality of doing so. What we say is that if such
Fix this texta trend exists and is valid, it will inevitably produce
Fix this textmaterial which Angry Penguins will certainly pub-
Fix this textlish. But to publish bad material merely because it
Fix this textpurports to be developing a certain trend is not our
Fix this textpolicy.
Fix this textWe do ourselves believe that Australian art is de-
Fix this textveloping at an astonishing rate and that in its growth
Fix this textit will inevitably (if that growth is not artificially
Fix this textstimulated) mature into a form of expression which
Fix this textwill be unique and in the truest sense of the word
Fix this textindigenous; remembering always that we do not come
Fix this textfrom aboriginal stock—the aboriginal, by the way,
Fix this textbeing the only truly Australian artist up to date—but
Fix this textthat on the contrary we have a very definite European
Fix this textancestry. • •
Fix this textThat is one question of policy. Another is raised
Fix this textby “Australian New Writings,” which challenges the
Fix this textartists to face reality, to avoid “the personal subjec-
Fix this texttive theme” and to write rather “of their experiences
Fix this textand the social excitement they sense around them.”
Fix this textThe editors pride themselves on the fact that not one
Fix this textof their contributing poets “is concerned with love,
Fix this textlandscape or lotus blooms.”
Fix this textWe, on the other hand, are happy to find that our
Fix this textpoets are sometimes concerned with love, one of the
Fix this textdeepest and most fundamental forces in human nature,
Fix this textand with landscape, the influence of which has a pro-
Fix this textfound bearing on the life of man.
Fix this textOne remaining point of policy, and that is the in-
Fix this textclusion of a considerable volume of highly contentious
Fix this textart-political material in what is primarily a literary
Fix this textpublication devoted to creative expression:— this will
Fix this textno doubt offend the susceptibilities of some readers
Fix this textbut it is done consciously and without any apologies.
Fix this textThe editors firmly believe that the issues involved are
Fix this textof vital importance to all artists and that to shirk
Fix this textthem or to refuse to have them fought out in the pages
Fix this textof Angry Penguins would be to show a completely
Fix this textunrealistic approach to the complex situation which
Fix this textconfronts the artist today.
Fix this textA final point—not one of policy. It will be noticed
Fix this textthat reference to the war is almost entirely absent from
Fix this textthis volume, a phenomenon which parallels the posi-
Fix this texttion in England, where Stephen Spender says that one
Fix this textof the significant things about the war poets of this
Fix this textwar is that they do not write about the war. We
Fix this textwould be far from suggesting, however, that con-
Fix this textsciousness of the war and the life struggle involved
Fix this textin it is not by far the most powerful factor influenc-
Fix this texting the great majority of artists to-day.
Fix this textSeptember, 1943
Fix this textIt's easy and takes two shakes of a lamb's tail!
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http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3084411268
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
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>
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
{{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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