New in the Gallery: Cassab, Friend & Coburn

Judy Cassab

Judy Cassab
Untitled c.1965
Oil on board
46.5 x 61cm
no.11216

Donald Friend: The Four Seasons Etchings

John Coburn

Artwork of the Day - Sutherland - Asters in a White Vase

Jean Sutherland (1902 - 1978)
Asters in a White Vase c.1927
Oil on canvas
56 x 41cm
no.3146

Jean Sutherland is represented in the National Gallery of Victoria as well as many important collections throughout Australia. Sutherland was the recipient of many awards including the 1923 National Gallery of Victoria Travelling Art Scholarship.

New Paintings - Wayne Eager Exhibition 2010

Sackville - Artist Statement - 2005 Exhibition

I began painting in watercolour over 20 years ago and was inspired by such artists as Ellis Rowan and Charles Demuth, and the luminous works of J.M.W. Turner.

When I was approached to paint flowers I was intrigued by their softness, delicacy and fragility, qualities I sought to capture in everything I painted. As I continued to paint flowers over many years, I developed a great passion for them, and began to explore different ways to express their vibrant beauty.

I have always enjoyed using graphite on paper to create subtleties of form and tone, light, shade, strength and softness, particularly in portrait making. However, I find that watercolour is the ideal medium for my still life images. I love the translucency and vibrancy of watercolour, the way the colours run and blend together creating their own hues. Watercolour offers an amazing depth of tone and brilliance, as well as the softest shades, through which the white paper shines as light or is disguised. It beautifully captures the glow of porcelain, the fold of drapes and the radiant colours of fruits and flowers.

Over the years my work has become much more expansive. I have gained freedom through greater size and increased intensity of colour. Although I am occasionally tempted by other painting media, watercolour somehow maintains its hold over me.

Artwork of the Day - Irving - Beyond the Fence

Tony Irving (b.1939)
Beyond the fence 2009
oil on linen
80 x 130cm

Tony Irving is one of Australia’s leading contemporary realist painters whose devotion to realist painting extends across four decades. Irving is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Lady Potter Collection as well as numerous other public collections throughout Australia. He has held exhibitions in the UK, Indonesia and Singapore and in 1966 was awarded the coveted McCaughey Prize.

New in the Gallery

Leonard French (b.1928)
Winter Fountain c.1987-93
enamel and gold leaf on hessian on composition board
122 x 137 cm
Signed: l.r. 'French'
Provenance: Private collection Perth
no.11197

Left: Paul Procee, My Nephew 2009, Oil on copper, 25 x 20cm, no.11194

Right: Paul Procee, My Spineless Cousin 2009, Oil on copper, 25 x 20cm, no.11195

Christopher McVinish
The Ongoing Moment
oil on canvas
110 x 110cm
no.11196

Focus On: Geoffrey Proud

Often quirky and verging on the surreal, Geoffrey Proud's paintings in oil and pastel are like fractured fairytales. Depicting a world of innocence with a sometimes ominous edge, Proud's paintings are fantastic and bizarre. His choice of subjects is broad, including children and childhood narratives, flowers, still lifes and nudes. Alternating between expressionist impastoed brushwork and sensitive detail, he experiments freely with vibrant colour and varying textures. The highly glazed surfaces of his recent oils give his scenes an ethereal and otherworldly quality.

Proud has won numerous awards including the Sulman Prize in 1976 for a painting on perspex, and the Archibald prize in 1990 for his portrait of writer Dorothy Hewett. He has exhibited consistently in all state capitals since 1966 and is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; many State and regional gallery collections; Parliament House collections in Canberra and Sydney; Artbank; IBM collection; and the Elton John collection, London.

Artwork of the Day - Crooke - Villagers Relaxing

Ray Crooke (b. 1922)
Villagers Relaxing
oil on canvas
75 x 61cm
signed lower left 'R. Crooke'
no.11049

Ray Crooke exhibited at the Tate Gallery London in 1963 and was awarded the Archibald Portrait Prize in 1969. His painting trips to Thursday Island, New Guinea, Cape York and Fiji continue to be inspiration for his work. Crooke explores contour and silhouette using rich blocks of colour, and the nuances of positive and negative space in the manner of Gauguin. The artist reveals in his travel diaries and sketchbooks the basis for his paintings - the strong light effects at different times of the day, the colour of the lush foliage after rain, and contrasting golden skin tones.

His paintings are in major collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, state galleries and the Vatican Collection Rome.

Artwork of the Day - David Boyd - Three Children by the Sea

David Boyd (b.1924)
Three Children by the Sea c.1980
Oil on board
43 x 65 cm
Signed 'David Boyd' lower right
Provenance: Private collection NSW
no.11077

David Boyd is a figurative painter, ceramic sculptor and potter. David Boyd's art stems from a long family tradition of artistic talent. Acclaimed as a potter in the fifties and sixties, he began his career as a painter in 1957 with a series of symbolic paintings on Australian explorers. Since then, David Boyd has painted several major series of works, including his powerful Trial series, the Tasmanian Aborigines, the Wanderer and Exiles series. Picturing innocence and evil, destruction and creation, his works convey mythical and universal themes. Having won significant international recognition, David Boyd was invited by the Commonwealth Institute of Art, London, to hold a retrospective of paintings at their Art Gallery in 1969. David Boyd is represented in the Australian National Gallery, Canberra; all State and many regional galleries; the Mertz collection, USA; the Power collection, Sydney; and many major international galleries and private collections in Australia and overseas.

Artwork of the Day - Gleeson - Surreal Landscape with Figures

James Gleeson (1915-2008)
Surreal Landscape with Figures c.1943
oil on canvas board
39.6 x 48.6cm
no.2110

James Gleeson was Australia's best known and most important Surrealist. He had been painting and exhibiting consistently from the 1930s until 2008. He played a significant role in the Australian art scene, not only as a painter and poet, but as a critic, writer and curator. Gleeson combined skillful draughtsmanship with a great facility in handling paint. Delving into the subconscious, Gleeson used literary, mythological or religious subject matter to allow the viewer glimpses of extraordinary beauty. Regardless of their scale, the resulting paintings convey a sumptuous monumentality.

Gleeson is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, all state galleries, most regional galleries, university collections, Artbank, and many corporate and private collections.

Artwork of the Day - Nolan - Wimmera

Sir Sidney Nolan (1917-1992)
Wimmera 1942
Ripolin enamel on canvas
42 x 52 cm (sight size)
initialled and dated lower right: 11.42 N
no.8085

Provenance:
The Estate of Sir Sidney Nolan

From May 1942 until February 1944 Sidney Nolan was stationed as an army guard in the remote Wimmera district of North Western Victoria. Despite the limitations that the situation imposed on the young artist, it nonetheless gave rise to one of Nolan’s most important early series, focusing predominantly on the expansive wheat-fields dominating the region.

Painted in November 1942, when Nolan was stationed in the town of Dimboola, Wimmera arises from an especially noteworthy phase in the series. For the artist Albert Tucker in Nolan’s Dimboola paintings, “we glimpse for the first time since Roberts, McCubbin and the early Streeton, the return of an authentic national vision on a higher and more independent level.”1

The painting bears the characteristic hallmarks of Nolan’s Wimmera landscapes, in particular the vivid primary colours and flattened picture plain. In common with a number of other Wimmera works, the rapidly executed bushes in the foreground are dramatically offset by the bright blue sky and sun-drenched landscape.

In 1983 Nolan donated a large number of his Wimmera works to the National Gallery of Victoria where they are now on permanent display in the Gallery of Australian art.

DS

1 Albert Tucker, ‘Two Melbourne exhibitions of paintings’, Angry Penguins 5, September, 1943.

Artwork of the Day - Hawkins - Conflict

Weaver Hawkins (1893-1977)
Conflict
Oil on board
59 x 78 cm
no.1900

Weaver Hawkins’ pursuit of a singular and personal vision was greatly influenced by his experiences as a soldier during WWI. It was in this war that Hawkins lost the use of his right arm, only having partial use of his left. Travelling extensively throughout Europe, and to Nth Africa, Tahiti and New Zealand, Hawkins’ eventually settled in Australia in 1935. He developed a significant public profile in the Sydney art world from the 1940s, and during his lifetime held eight solo shows and participated in 250 group exhibitions.

Hawkins’ works are built upon dramatic colour contrasts, volumetric forms, and taut compositions that give a great monumentally to his subjects. His observation of light and movement was greatly influenced by Cézannes’ technique of mapping the geometry of natural forms through colour, and the modernist concern for the way forms are related to one another in their architectural context. Hawkins’ interest in physicality produced works that balanced figurative and abstract elements in order to express ideas of order and freedom. The work of Weaver Hawkins is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, Australian State galleries, The City Museum and Art Galley in Bristol, The National Gallery in Valletta, and in the collection of The First National Bank of Chicago.

Artwork of the Day - Thomson - Transmition

Ann Thomson (b.1933)
Transmition
Oil on linen
122 x 153cm
no.10705

Ann Thomson studied under Jon Molvig, Brisbane in 1956 and at the National Art School, Sydney from 1957 – 1962. In 1978 she studied etching with Paul Frank and Henri Goetz whilst Artist in Residence at the Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris, France. In 1985 she was Artist in Residence at “Parataio” Studio, Tuscany, Italy and in 1995 at the Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris, France. Ann Thomson lives and works in Sydney.

New Additions to the 2010 Exhibition Schedule

Doreen Gadsby (b.1926) Exhibition 2010: New Work Opening 27 October, 6-8PM

Francis Giacco (b.1955) Exhibition 2010: New Work Opening 4 December, 3-5PM

New Artist: Matthew Perceval

Matthew Perceval's landscapes are filled with light and fresh energy due to his dynamic brushstrokes. Matthew, the son of John Perceval and Mary Boyd, was born in Australia but spent the majority of his early formative years in London before moving to the south of France. The vivid colours of the Mediterranean had a positive influence on his work and during his time in France he began exhibiting all over Europe and had his first one man show in London in 1967 (with Arthur Boyd making the first purchase from the exhibition)1. The tone and mood of the paintings are set via the colour scheme ranging from pure brilliant tones to soft palettes of blues and creams. His paintings can be found in numerous public and private collections in Australia and abroad. The National Portrait Gallery held the first solo exhibition of Perceval's portraits in late 2007 – early 2008.

1 Sayers, A., 'Painters' Paradise', Portrait Magazine, Summer 2007-2008, p.12

Artwork of the Day - Kruger - Slice of Garden

Elisabeth Kruger (b.1955)
Slice of garden
oil on linen
122 x 306cm (diptych)
no.10887

Awarded the prestigious Moet & Chandon Art Fellowship (1989) and an overseas studio residency with the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council (1990), Elisabeth Kruger is recognised as one of Australia's leading contemporary artists. In her newest series of paintings, Kruger explores the luscious beauty of flowers. These are stunning floral masterpieces with a contemporary edge. Her work is represented in the Australian National Gallery, The National Gallery of Victoria, the Parliament House Collection, Macquarie University and major private collections.

Artwork of the Day - Shead - The Rocking Horse

Garry Shead (b.1942)
The Rocking Horse 1986
Oil on canvas
90 x 120 cm
Provenance: Private collection Sydney
no.11133

Spanning more than five years, the 'Outback' series is an important period of work by Garry Shead that encapsulates his father’s narrative history of the adventurous jackaroo. Themes running throughout the body of work include loss of freedom and frustration symbolised by the breaking of the horse. Visually inspired by the outback landscapes by Sidney Nolan, the paintings are composed of warm ochres and burnt sienna reds. Initially the horses depicted in the early works from the series contained parts of the female body. The horses evolved to embody a sexual energy typically reserved for Shead’s female subjects and the relationship between man and horse served “as a metaphor for the relationship between man and woman, while the vastness of the outback landscape is constant setting for this drama.”1

1 Grishin S, Garry Shead and The Erotic Muse, Craftsman House, 2001 p.87

New Additions to the 2010 Exhibition Schedule

Stephen Nothling (b.1962) New Ways With Roses Opening 19 June, 3-5PM

Tony Irving (b.1939) Exhibition 2010: New Work Opening 3 November, 6-8PM

Press Release: Brenda Humble

Brenda Humble's December exhibition includes paintings and sculpture from 1988 to the present. Humble's body of jewel-like still life's, abstracted in varying degrees are painterly, boldly colourful and beautifully simple. Her continuing motif; the silhouette of vase and flowers against an open window, is distinct and distilled to essential elements and colour blocks. Her palette is high keyed like Mattisse and in some of the still lives, the flatness and bold outline of shapes is somewhat reminiscent of Picasso.

Her sculptures share a similar simplification of form; Humble pares back the image to its most elemental lines, creating crisp linea images of quirky teachers, laughing horses, squinting love hearts and little Alice figures.

Humble won the 1982 Portia Geach Prize for her portrait of Virginia Hall, the American world war II spy. In August this year her work was honoured with a retrospective which explored her painting of the 1970's and 80's. Brenda Humble: Art as Activism coincided with History Week 2009 and the Kings Cross Library 50th Anniversary. The exhibition explored Brenda's involvement in the activism in the Kings Cross area during that period, her work on the Green Bans and the disappearance of Juanita Nielsen.

Having graduated from the national art school in 1960 Brenda Humble has been a major part of the Sydney art world for more than 50 years. She has had over 16 solo exhibitions in Sydney and was a finalist in the 1974 Wynne Prize, the 1982 Waverley Art Prize and the 1981 Mornington peninsula Drawing prize amongst others.

Brenda Humble is represented in the Artbank Collection, Parliament House, Canberra the Reserve Bank of Australia, University of NSW, the IBM Collection, Sydney, Mackay City Library, Queensland as well as private and corporate collections in Australia, Canada, Japan, UK and USA.

Press: Humble - Sydney Morning Herald