Brian Dunlop (1938-2009)

Brian Dunlop (1938-2009)

Untitled (Self-Portrait) 1985

lithograph 12/20

32.5 x 31.5 cm

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Brian Dunlop (1938-2009) one of Australia’s greatest painters and a dear friend.

Brian died yesterday morning, 9 December, in Melbourne after a long battle with a congenital heart condition. He was 71.

An artist of great sensibility, of great intellect and virtuosity, Brian was an exceptional professional; sought after by collectors, revered by his colleagues, and loved by all who knew him. The body of work he leaves behind includes some of the most important figurative paintings produced in Australia. The best of Brian’s works exude a poetic vulnerability and sensuality, perhaps seen in a silent pause or the lift of a curtain in the breeze. For many years Brian restricted his range of subject matter to the interior with window, often including a figure or still life. In these works "The room represents the mind, the windows the eyes looking out, curtains are the eyelids. A window is the division between inner and outer, spiritual and worldly. The figure later stood in the doorway, the threshold; then she ventured outside into the landscape." Whether painting the figure or the landscape, overpowering everything in Brian’s work is light. In April reflecting on his latest compositions he wrote, “The correct balance can be pure energy.”

Having inherited his love of painting and drawing from his father, Brian won a scholarship to study at the National Art School from which he graduated at the end of the 1950’s. There was a strong tendency towards abstraction in Sydney at that stage and it wasn’t until he reached Rome some years later that Brian found his ‘true’ way. “Justin O’brien had looked at sketches and drawings I had done in Rome and said that they were more 'true to you' than the abstract work. He said 'Keep doing them, and they will evolve', so I did.”

Brian had an insatiable appetite for the history of art, particularly European art, as a practising painter. “I have also always liked what I regard as the true American tradition which includes a deep respect for nature and wilderness and social comment (Frederick Church, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth).” Of continuing interest to him were artists as different as Piero della Francesco (he had seen all his paintings), Vermeer and Braque.

After working for twenty years in and near Port Fairy on the south west coast of Victoria, Brian had recently moved to Beechworth, where he painted his last exhibition.

Brian Dunlop is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery, all state galleries, many regional galleries and numerous other public collections throughout Australia including the High Court, Canberra. He was the recipient of the 1981 Sulman Prize, the 1999 Savage Club drawing prize, the 1978 Andrew and Lillian Pedersen Drawing Prize , the 1976 and 1977 Civic Permanent Award, the R N Ansett Hamilton Award and the 1958 Robert Le Gay Brereton Drawing Prize. Over sixty or more years Brian accepted commissions from some of the most prominent entities in Australia including two sets of postage stamps from Australia Post and over ninety portrait commissions, including a Governor-General, three Chief Justices, three Archbishops and Victoria’s sesquicentenary portrait of the Queen (1984).

Brian was part of the gallery family for more than 15 years. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones. We farewell him with the greatest respect.

Quotations from a letter from Brian dated May 2006.