Not so, says Januszczak. It “successfully evokes the sensation of standing under a cascade of diarrhoea.” Savage attack: art critic Waldemar Januszczak. Credit:Michael Lallo Olsen, meanwhile, has dismissed the review as ‘‘extremely foolish’’ and ‘‘an attempt to put Colonials in their place’’. He says his artwork was inspired by NASA photos of the sun that showed immense globules of energy emanating from the source. ‘‘It's not just a simplistic idea. You can call it diarrhoea or energy. It just depends on what you ate last night. ‘‘What is demonstrated [by the exhibition] is that Australians have their own way of looking at things," Olsen says.

‘‘We don't give a damn about what they say we are. Such a review is endeavouring to put the colonials in their place. Ha-bloody-ha. I'd say it was extremely foolish.’’ John Olsen's Sydney Sun: like "a cascade of diarrhoea". Credit:Graham Tidy The RA show has raided the country's major galleries to present a survey of Australia's most-admired painters and paintings - a 'best of' Australian art, from before white settlement to the very latest contemporary works, around the theme of 'landscape'. It has garnered mixed reviews, with some complaining such survey shows are old hat. However The Times gave it four stars, calling it long overdue and “powerfully atmospheric”. Fred Williams' desert landscape: “thick cowpats of minimalism”. Credit:Getty Images

But the Sunday Times disagreed with its sister paper. Of the show as a whole, Januszczak says “every now and then something interesting comes along, but as an overall national achievement, the contents of this display feel lightweight and provincial … I ended up musing (in Australia) the wrong people became artists.” He complained that the indigenous element of the survey was tokenistic, preferring original ancient rock art to the “dull canvas approximations knocked out in reduced dimensions by a host of repetitive Aborigine artists making a buck.” Recent indigenous art, he says, “amounts to a market in decorative rugs”. Only Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and Albert Namatjira impressed on the indigenous side. And he seemed to like the power of Sidney Nolan (“strewth cobber, but he wasn't sensitive!”) and enjoyed some contemporary artists.

Januszczak is a former Guardian critic who has twice won the Critic of the Year award, and also makes television arts documentaries. Olsen, however, described his criticism of Williams as ‘‘utterly ridiculous’’. ‘‘[Williams] was looking at an untidy Australian landscape. I sometimes describe it as a dog's hind legs. The untidiness is really the essence of what it is. So to expect an Australian landscape to correspond to a European landscape is a very limited view indeed.’’ Olsen, who saw a preview of the show in Canberra before it left for London, conceded that some artists, like Ian Fairweather, we're not well served by having only one example of their work on display, but added that the Aboriginal art is ‘‘very, very good’’. ‘‘As an overall national achievement, the contents of this display feel lightweight and provincial,’’ Januszcza wrote.