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ARTWORK PRESENTATION
Contemporary Art
14 August 2015
JOHN CRUTHERS
rococo pop pty ltd
CONTENTS
David Aspden 3
Brian Blanchflower 7
Stephen Bush 11
William Delafield Cook 15
Lesley Dumbrell 19
Dale Frank 23
Robert Jacks 27
Tim Johnson 31
Ildiko Kovaks 35
Richard Larter 39
William Mackinnon 43
Gareth Sansom 47
Imants Tillers 51
2
DAVID
of only one tone. This signalled the end of the modernist peers managed to navigate this tricky divide but Aspden,
painting project and led directly to conceptual art, where as a pure and instinctive painter, could not.
ASPDEN the idea of the art was more important than the artwork
itself - indeed, there was often no artwork. Through the later 1980s Aspden struggled. In a more
negative critical environment he found less support, and
Born England 1935. Arrived Australia 1950. Died 2005. Painter. David Aspden did not proceed into conceptual art, commercial prospects for his work toughened. Leading
recognising that it was pointless for him as a painter. galleries still wanted to show him, however, and in Sydney
David Aspden’s father was a carpenter/pattern-maker and After experimenting with pouring and staining, he hit both Roslyn Oxley9 and Annandale Galleries had solo
his grandfather a picture framer, so he was aware of art upon a style that immediately clicked. It was based on the shows. But sales were few and Aspden sought other rep-
from an early age. When he was 15 the family migrated to coloured stripes of earlier paintings, but with their edges resentation - or did it himself with his wife Karen Coote.
Australia, settling in Wollongong. Aspden left school that broken up into interlocking leaf-like shapes. Effectively, Such moves meant he lacked the promotion a good dealer
year to become an apprentice painter/sign-writer. Over the he re-introduced the biomorphic shapes of earlier paint- provides, and a stable price structure.
next 12 years he worked at this trade, building technical ings. While some purist critics derided his insertion of
skill and expertise in handling paint. the ‘natural world’ into an art practice that seemed to have In terms of the work, it continued moving forward. In
evolved past it, Aspden was unapologetic. the catalogue for the 1986 exhibition Surface for reflexion
During this period Aspden adopted a rigorous program of at the Art Gallery of NSW, curator Tony Bond described
artistic self-education, beginning with plein air landscapes Once he’d fixed on this style there was an outpouring of the course of his work as a shift from “a rigorous formal-
and progressing to abstraction. To generate interest he work. He was immediately successful, and in 1971 ism to rather more open configurations”. The latter part
entered local art shows and in 1963 won two prizes at the represented Australia at the Sao Paulo Biennale, where his of the shift is what Aspden achieved through this period.
Wollongong Art Competition. This gave him the confi- work was awarded a Gold Medal. Except for Brett His work loosened up and he began to enjoy the possibil-
dence to embrace painting fulltime, and in 1964 he moved Whiteley’s International Prize at the 1961 Paris Biennale ities of expressive gesture and mark-making. Oceanic and
to Sydney and set up a studio in Paddington. of Young Painters and Sculptors, this was the only award Aboriginal art had an influence here. He also used the jazz
granted in a major international event to an Australian of he always played in the studio as a prompt, aiming for the
His first exhibition in Sydney was at Watters Gallery Aspden’s generation. same spontaneity in his paintings as did Duke Ellington or
in 1965. The works combined biomorphic shapes with Miles Davis in a solo.
straight or vertical lines. The show was well reviewed and Through the 1970s, Aspden was one of Australia’s leading
Aspden continued his push into abstraction, abandoning contemporary artists. He was purchased by museums, In early 2002 Aspden was the subject of a small survey
natural forms for pure colour and geometry. His painting gained commissions for offices and theatres, and was exhibition at the Orange Regional Art Gallery. David
was influenced by American post-painterly abstraction - chosen in major international touring exhibitions. The best Aspden - celebration of colour included significant works
the style that followed abstract expressionism. of these, Ten Australians, was curated by Patrick from 1970 to 2002. It showed what a strong painter David
McCaughey and included Fred Williams, Roger Kemp, had been through his career, regardless of shifting fashion
David Aspden was a pioneer of this style in Australia. In John Firth-Smith and Sid Ball. or popularity.
1968, when the striking new National Gallery of Victoria
building was opened, the first exhibition was called The Aspden’s career was well on track into the early 1980s. At the time of his death in 2005, David had a show booked
Field. It was a survey of the best new Australian art in this He worked hard to keep his painting fresh - breaking up in Sydney. Rather than cancel, Karen decided to go ahead.
style and included two paintings by Aspden. the forms, working on unprimed canvas or linen, varying It became a tribute exhibition, with long reviews by two
the colours widely. But the early 1980s also signalled the leading critics, John McDonald (Sydney Morning Herald)
Often called hard edge or colour field painting, this birth of postmodernism, and as a new generation arose and Sebastian Smee (The Australian). Both made similar
became the dominant style in local art around 1966. Later Aspden’s generation and style came to be seen as passe, as points - that Aspden had stuck to his guns as a painter, had
it became more minimal until, by 1970, many artists had everything the new guard wanted to overturn. Some of his painted what he wanted and had sustained a high level of
reached the monochrome - the canvas covered with paint
3
Grevillea 1976, acrylic on canvas, 158 x 376 cm, $65,000
quality and creativity over 40 years of painting. Smee felt Sydney began to manage the estate, having successful solo David Aspden was a leading artist of his generation and
he was the best abstract painter of his generation. Both felt exhibitions in 2010 and 2013. a major post-war abstract painter. While instrumental in
he was seriously underrated, and McDonald hoped a state introducing new ideas to Australian art, he remained
gallery would take up the challenge of a retrospective. The two paintings below are from Aspden’s most creative independent of schools and theories – he was a pure painter
period. Grevillea 1976 is an example of his skill at small- and a gifted colourist. At its best his work is some of the
Shortly after, the Art Gallery of NSW committed to a scale mark-making and a pixelated effect as colours dance finest abstraction produced in Australia.
survey of Aspden’s work, which ran in 2011. It was based across the surface. Giant steps 3 1975, named after a jazz
on eight paintings and 40 works on paper gifted from the standard by John Coltrane, shows Aspden returning to the
Aspden estate. The accompanying catalogue was the first harder edged shapes of his earlier paintings.
museum publication on his work. At this time Utopia Art
4
Giant steps #3 1975, oil on canvas, 159 x 320 cm, $60,000
5
BRIAN
His earliest Australian works were texture paintings in in it as observer and recorder of the elemental forces with
which he simulated the earth’s surface by adding sand to which all living things are charged.
BLANCHFLOWER the paint. The sculptural works that followed included
found objects and banners. In 1979 came a breakthrough. Blanchflower is one of the most accomplished painters
When a geological oddity was uncovered in the working in Australia. He has been little affected by the
Born 1939 Brighton, UK. Arrived Australia 1972. Painter. construction of the Mitchell Freeway, Blanchflower be- progressive movements of the last 30 years - conceptual
came obsessed with it. He named it Leedermeg - as it was art and post modernism - both of which interposed various
Brian Blanchflower grew up on the Sussex Downs, an area found in Leederville - and conducted a ritual performance theoretical constraints between the artist and untrammeled
noted for prehistoric sites such as field patterns, monoliths on the spring solstice in which he poured honey over it. personal expression. His work is a reflective and strongly
and chalk drawings. Reminders of earlier human cultures On one level the honey signified the life force, and on felt response to the place in which he lives, and to the big
and of the passing of time in the natural world, these sites another paint and its transformative potential. questions of western art and culture - who are we, where
have inspired British artists as diverse as William Blake, do we come from, why are we here? What gives it power is
John Constable, Paul Nash and Henry Moore. This ritual and others that followed served a complex the way his early contact with prehistoric art has led him
function. They enabled the artist to connect with the to stress historical continuity rather than disjunction. Thus
After completing art school in 1961, Blanchflower and spirit of the place and forge his own relationship with it, he was open to Aboriginal art and could use its lessons to
an artist friend spent four months walking through this in a similar way as had the ancient peoples of the Sussex enrich his own work.
country. The sense of history embedded in the landscape Downs with their monoliths and chalk drawings. It also
had an immediate effect on his painting, prompting him to had a liberating effect on his art. By 1982 he had begun His approach to landscape is equally spiritual. He is
begin exploring questions of man’s place in the universe. working on large unstretched supports made of hessian interested in what binds things together rather than what
After more study, during which he discovered abstract sacks, sewn together and imprgnated with oil, acrylics, pig- separates them - the elemental forces of energy and light.
expressionist artists such as Mark Rothko, he travelled to ments and chalk, in a personal calligraphy of primal marks Thus his work is all - encompassing and inclusive, the
Western Australia in 1972 as an assisted migrant. that soon expanded to include dots, dashes and circles. He opposite to that type of landscape art based on the
worked in groups, Tursiops then Nocturnes and finally the separation between interior and exterior worlds, subjective
The Australia landscape was a revelation. As he wrote: Canopy series, started in 1984 and now comprising over and objective points of view. For Blanchflower, his work is
The language of painting per se, or at least my command of it, 100 large paintings. not about the figure in the landscape: in his art, the land-
seemed inadequate to deal with…the increasingly strong feeling scape and the figure are one.
of awe I had when confronted with that sky, or the gnarled skin Critic David Bromfield described the genesis of the
of the earth, or the power of the sea. I began to use any Canopy series as follows: Blanchflower’s work is held in all Australian state galleries,
materials to hand which seemed relevant - hence the local rocks the National Gallery of Australia and many university
The idea of the painting as a canopy was suggested by the
and sand, bitumen and hessian, the harpoon grenades and the art museums. He was the subject of a mid career survey
experience of lying under a hessian canopy erected against
honey. Strangely, colour, that wide range of largely unmixed in 1989-90 at the Art Gallery of WA, followed by an east
the heat of the day during visits to Lake Moore. Light seeped
colour I had been using in London, began to seep away into the coast tour. Survey exhibitions were also held at Curtin
through the material day and night, in the way that paint was
earth and sky. I was left with a residue of black, brown, grey University in 1991 and 2004, and at the University of
to soak into the hessian, jute and canvas of the various Canopies.
and white. Western Australia in 2011.
The more general metaphor of the sky as a canopy for the world
only followed at a later date.
Aboriginal art also made a strong impression. Of all the Particle city (Klangfarben) 1988 was painted simultaneously
Australian art he saw, only in Aboriginal rock paintings with the early Canopies. But unlike them it’s painted on
Bromfield continues that “the Canopy is still the form in
and land art did he recognise any fully realised concept of canvas on a stretcher, which makes it much easier to install
which Blanchflower chooses to embody his most elaborate
wholeness - “a deeply moving expression of the relation- and store. Klangfarbenmelodie (German for sound-colour
work,” and the series is his major achievement. It is an
ship of earth to sky, and of humankind to both.” -melody) is a musical technique that involves splitting a
ongoing portrait of the universe, and of humankind’s place
6
musical line or melody between several instruments, rather
than assigning it to just one instrument, thereby adding
colour and texture to the melodic line. It is sometimes
compared to pointillism, a neo-impressionist painting
technique.
Blanchflower’s use of it involves the deployment of differ-
ent types of painterly marks – dots, vertical and horizontal
dashes, circles and squiggles – to parallel a composer’s use
of different instruments and sounds, making a bustling
but also lyrical painting. The yellow ground layer is very
powerful, and in the flesh the painting does “sing”.
The second work, Canopy XXXI (Binary system) 1992,
shows the rapid shift in Blanchflower’s work through the
1990s towards a monochrome abstraction, which has been
his approach for the last 20 years. While the mark-mak-
ing has largely disappeared, the heavily impastoed paint
surface and deep, rich colours still create strong painterly
qualities that engage the viewer.
Blanchflower is little known nationally, but remains an
extremely fine painter whose work offers a distinctly
different view of Australia. Now 75, he is overdue a
retrospective, which I expect in the next three or four
years at the Art Gallery of WA. This should lift his
national profile and convince a new generation of the
strength and insight of his painting.
Particle city (Klangfarben) 1988, oils and sand on acrylic gesso, linen/jute canvas, 221.3 x 244 cm, $65,000 TBC
7
Canopy XXXI (Binary system) 1992, acrylic with powdered pumice on jute, two panels, 210 x 388 cm overall, $80,000 TBC
8
STEPHEN
Bush is influenced by 19th century painting traditions, in The single-perspective focus of works up to this point
particular European Romantic and American landscape was subsequently discarded by Bush in the mid-2000s in
BUSH painters. The landscape presents a field for exploring
paint’s expressive qualities. Works speak to an interest in
favour of a distorted, fragmented pictorial space which
allows for parallel readings. Multiple landscapes inhabit
American regionalism, with ongoing themes including the later works, in the form of natural, manmade and
Born 1958. Lives and works in Melbourne. Painter. exploration and the individual surveying nature. Bush cosmic environments. These scenes often dissolve into
foregrounds these historic influences, adopting a ‘retro’ a gestural abstraction that suggests a physicality to the
Born in 1958, Stephen Bush studied at the Royal style to explore how history, and painting, is read and painting process (turning the tables on Bush’s inclusion of
Melbourne Institute of Technology in the 1970s. He has interpreted. He is often compared with American painter his own body as subject in earlier works).
exhibited regularly since his first solo exhibition in 1984. Mark Tansey, whose seminal work The innocent eye test 1981
He has always painted in a representational style, despite in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in The title of Hold up the ladder to the glory land 2008 is taken
it moving in and out of fashion, but his approach, more New York features a group of gentlemen inviting a cow to from lyrics of a Christian country and western song, but
expansive than pure figuration, increasingly incorporates examine a painting of a fellow beast. the scene is less than heavenly. The waterwheel in the
abstract elements. Bush’s masterful and unafraid use of centre of the image suggests a purgatorial cycle rather than
colour moves between monochrome and full palette in a In the 1990s, the composition of Bush’s paintings, with an ascent. The wheel’s form is echoed by a cosmic whirl
single canvas. their theatrical representations and spatial illusions, made of paint that draws the viewer into the painting’s visceral
reference to museum dioramas. The 1990s also saw him surface. Two barren trees sit above a River Styx-like
Bush explores the possibilities of the medium whilst exploring the iconography of pop art through underworld of stalactites and stalagmites that all but
recognising its limitations. In his early work he often used brightly-coloured still lives (as well as Babar). Both of obscure a cabin set among snow-capped mountains. The
his own likeness when constructing narratives, literally these approaches reveal an interest in the ordinary and a painting portrays a number of readings of the universe,
performing the act of painting. Here he was starting to desire to bring new meaning to cultural symbols. but rather than privileging any, instead foregrounds the
explore its narrative, as well as deceptive possibilities. cyclical nature of life’s questions and a swirling vortex of
2003 saw the solo museum show Blackwood Skyline: work in uncertainty.
Bush’s first solo institutional exhibition, Claiming: An progress #5 at The Ian Potter Museum of Art, the
Installation of Paintings, began in 1991 at the Australian University of Melbourne. This included works from the
Centre of Contemporary Art, Melbourne and moved to 1980s to early 2000s, from staged historical scenes
the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia before featuring multiple self-portraits from the early 1990s,
touring to The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, through to a series of paintings depicting wheelie bins a
Connecticut. decade later.
Despite this earlier local and international recognition, Col du Gablier 2003 (right) was painted at a point where
Bush first came to prominence through the series The lure the artist shifted into allowing the medium to control the
of Paris 1992 – ongoing, a suite of paintings depicting the message, rather than the art historical references of earlier
cartoon character Babar the Elephant exploring rocky land works. Similarly to Dale Frank and Gareth Sansom, the
and seascapes. The series was interpreted in the context properties of the material play a significant role in direct-
of Australia’s postcolonial discourse (Babar travels from ing the image. In Col du Gablier, paint itself is presented as
Africa to Paris and is ‘civilised’; he subsequently returns a monument, an inert material with the potential to trans-
to Africa to ‘enlighten’ fellow elephants). However these form. The lurid globules of paint, fresh from the tube, are
works, like much of Bush’s oeuvre, comment on history the equivalent of a blank canvas. This is a painting about
more broadly. the act of painting, the anxiety of taking a first step. Col du Gablier 2003, oil on linen, 201 x 244 cm
9
Similarly in Eddie Cole the David Brown guru 2012, the
organic meets the manmade, and Bush employs character-
istic elements of circularity. A child manoeuvres a wheel-
barrow up a rocky landscape in the direction of a piece of
agricultural equipment, which appears to be sending its
rotating belts into the portal of an ornate floating frame
nearby. The goat in the centre should be the element the
most at home in the composition, however as it turns its
head to meet the gaze of the viewer it seems unsettling.
In 2014 a major survey exhibition Steenhuffel took place at
The Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of
Melbourne. This exhibition included Col du Gablier and
many other significant works from across Bush’s practice.
Bush first exhibited in the United States in 1986 in the
group exhibition Voyage of Discovery in Dallas, Texas. Bush’s
first institutional solo exhibition, Claiming: An Installation
of Paintings toured to The Aldrich Museum of
Contemporary Art, Connecticut in 1991. He subsequently
held solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles and Santa
Fe. High-profile American art collector John L. Stewart
first became aware of Bush in the 1980s and developed a
close friendship with the artist, supporting him
throughout his career with regular purchases, promoting
Bush overseas, and helping to organize the aforementioned
exhibitions. Overseas collectors or curators do not often
champion Australian artists in this way, and Bush made
the most of the opportunity. In 2013 Stewart consigned
eight works by Bush to auction in Australia, as part of an
ongoing rationalization of his large art holdings.
Bush is represented by Sutton Gallery in Melbourne, and
his work is held in major Australian public Hold up the ladder to the glory land 2008, oil and enamel on linen, 198 x 244 cm, $50,000
collections and many significant corporate collections.
Bush continues to delve into history to create original,
contemporary works that examine the notion of truth in
painting while straddling both figuration and abstraction.
10Eddie Cole the David Brown guru 2012, oil on linen, 198.5 x 234 cm, $48,000
11WILLIAM
elsewhere. Being based in London allowed him to explore paintings evoked the particular qualities of Australian glare
the art scenes of other European cities. In 1972 he was and shadow, and reflected the artist’s longing for place.
DELAFIELD COOK included in the exhibition Relativerend Realisme at the Van
Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Holland, and Palais des Beaux In 1983 Delafield Cook’s work was included in the exhi-
Arts, Brussels. From 1973-73 he undertook a Berlin bition Recent Australian Painting – A Survey: 1970-1983 at
Born Melbourne, 1936. Lived and worked in Melbourne and
residency at the invitation of the prestigious DAAD the Art Gallery of SA, and in 1987 he was honoured with
London. Died 2015.
program, leading to a solo exhibition at the Akademie der two solo survey exhibitions, Selected Works 1958-87 at the
Kunste, Berlin in 1974. Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne,
Born in Melbourne, William Delafield Cook under-
and Mid-career Survey at the Art Gallery of NSW. The
took studies in Secondary Teaching and attended the
In the mid-1970s Delafield Cook turned his hand to paint- same year his work was part of the ANZ Bicentennial Art
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in the early
ing haystacks, inspired by the photography of Henry Fox Commissions which toured nationally. In 1997 his work
1950s. During this time he was inspired by the Parisian
Talbot (not the paintings of Monet as some presumed). was included in the exhibition The Real Thing at Heide
avant-garde and painted abstract compositions accordingly.
Unlike Monet’s atmospheric compositions, Delafield Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne. This period saw him
In 1958 he visited Europe and was exposed to a much
Cook’s haystacks were sharply lit and finely detailed, with exhibiting less prolifically but gaining recognition in
wider variety of painting styles. He relocated to London
each individual blade of hay painstakingly rendered. museum shows.
that same year, and for the next decade his own style
evolved hesitantly, showing the influence of Pop Art
From 1975-77 he returned to Australia for a residency at Hillside 1 2004-11 and Hillside 2 2004 reflect in their titles
among other styles.
the University of Melbourne. This included the first Delafield Cook’s deadpan approach to his subject matter
survey exhibition of his work which, following its showing (every haystack in his series depicting that subject was
The definitive moment in Delafield Cook’s artistic devel-
in Melbourne, toured to the Art Gallery of NSW, titled A haystack). Both are splendid and very different
opment came in the early 1960s when, in an effort to hone
Newcastle Region Art Gallery at the Art Gallery of SA. examples of the artist’s ability to capture the unique
his skills, he began to make detailed drawings of furniture
1977 also saw the artist included in the important group qualities of Australian sunlight. Hillside 1 was begun in
in his family home. The resulting black and white draw-
exhibition Illusion and Reality which toured to all state 2004, however Delafield Cook revisited it in 2011, rework-
ings, made with charcoal and conte crayon, helped him to
galleries after opening at the National Gallery of Australia. ing the image and slightly reducing the size of the canvas.
discover his artistic identity. From that point he became a
realist. His paintings, though not photo- or hyper-realist,
Delafield Cook’s teaching years gave him a solid under- It has been said that Delafield Cook’s paintings speak of
are carefully considered and artfully produced
standing of art history which he used to inform a series both magnitude and quietude, and this is certainly the
transcriptions of the subject. They investigate timelessness
of postmodern works depicting museum interiors, and in case with these two works. The seeming innocuousness of
and the dynamism of the natural world.
1981 he received the Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of the landscape scenes is offset by the expansive canvases.
NSW for a painting featuring three portraits by Ingres The lack of any human trace places us in the work. The
From the early 1960s until the early 1970s Delafield Cook
hanging in the Louvre. 1981 also saw him acknowledged shadows cast by the trees in each painting, long and short
made his living lecturing at art schools in Britain, includ-
by his inclusion in the exhibition Aspects of New Realism: respectively, make us feel as though we are standing under
ing 12 years at the Maidstone School of Art, Kent. In 1961
1981 which began at the National Gallery of Victoria and the sun at the same moment and can feel the direction of
he was included in the exhibition Young Contemporaries at
toured nationally. its rays. The lack of any landmarks in the foreground of
the Royal British Society of Artists, London, and in 1963
each work invites us to approach these hills, climb them,
Australian Painting and Sculpture in Europe today, at New
While realist painters such as American Richard Estes and and discover what is on the other side. His use of acrylic
Metropole Arts Centre in Folkestone and Frankfurt.
Australian Jeffrey Smart looked to the urban landscape, paint allows for such precise rendering and also evokes
Delafield Cook maintained an interest in the rural, and in a dryness in the landscape that oils could not. Delafield
Delafield Cook held his first solo exhibition in 1967 at
the early 1980s, he began painting the Australian land- Cook has captured the essence of what it is to experience
Leveson Street Gallery, Melbourne, and subsequently
scape, rendering hills and rocky outcrops. These landscape the Australian landscape by paying homage to it.
held regular solo exhibitions in Australia and occasionally
12Hillside 1 2004-11, acrylic on linen, 162 x 380 cm, $380,000
By the last decade of his life the artist was spending part At the time of his death in early 2015 Delafield Cook’s For me they are not just ‘landscape’, they are part of my life. If
of every year back in his home country, with his works practice had spanned five decades. He is widely I’m painting Australia … I’m painting, among other things, my
reflecting the time spent observing the landscape. How- acknowledged as a painter whose dedication to the thoughts, my childhood, my sense of place, where I belong.
ever Delafield Cook painted the works themselves back in Australian landscape has led to new perceptions of the
London, meaning that he was able to distil the essential land. Despite all the years living in Britain, his Delafield Cook’s work is held in all major Australian public
nature of what he had absorbed. In 2011 a final survey ex- commitment to the landscape of his home country never collections and many significant corporate collections
hibition of his works was held at the Gippsland Regional wavered. Deborah Hart, author of Delafield Cook’s mon- across Australia, the UK, USA and Europe.
Art Gallery and TarraWarra Museum of Art. ograph, referred to Australia as the “spiritual home” of the
artist, and he agreed:
13Hillside 2 2004, acrylic on linen, 162 x 346 cm, private collection, Hong Kong
14LESLEY
In 1975 Dumbrell’s involvement with the Australian of the building from its inception. The scale and context
women’s art movement saw her co-found the Women’s Art of a wall-to-wall carpet required a shift in thinking for the
DUMBRELL Register. Her subsequent inclusion in exhibitions such
as A Room of One’s Own at the Ewing and George Paton
artist, and her work with the Australian Tapestry
Workshop helped her prepare for the experience.
Galleries in 1975 and her membership of feminist journal
Born 1941. Lives and works in Victoria, Australia and Bangkok,
Lip from 1979-80 are further examples of her activity in The 1980s also saw Dumbrell exhibit in New York and
Thailand. Painter
this arena. London with contemporaries Robert Jacks and John
Firth-Smith, as well as travelling to Italy and France.
Born in 1941 in Melbourne, Lesley Dumbrell studied at
Dumbrell’s ‘system paintings’ and works on paper of the During this period she was increasingly recognised for her
the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in the late
late 1970s involved the overlaying of grid systems, creating watercolours on paper as well as her paintings, through
1950s and early 1960s. Her style formed over a period
random and patterned lines, and saw her developing her inclusion in major museum exhibitions.
dominated by hard edge and colour field painting,
own visual vocabulary. In 1977 she undertook a residency
exploring optical effects, colour and precise shapes. She
at Monash University, Melbourne that led to the survey In 1990 Dumbrell moved to Bangkok and by the middle of
was particularly influenced by Optical (Op) Art, especially
exhibition Paintings and Studies 1966-77. She was includ- that decade her work had changed direction again,
that of Bridget Riley and Jesus Rafael Soto, in whose work
ed in an exhibition of recent acquisitions at the National returning to linear grid systems and spatial optical illusion,
Dumbrell discovered new modes of perception.
Gallery of Australia the following year. partly in response to the vibrant intensity of her
surrounds. This and her subsequent visits to Thailand
Dumbrell takes colour as her starting point, selecting hues
In 1980 Dumbrell moved to Richmond and through that exerted a major influence on her work, as she experienced
for their emotional and physical resonances. Lines are
decade lived and worked in a warehouse studio. She taught the colours and flavours of Bangkok.
overlaid in complex arrangements, causing the com-
part-time before moving to full-time painting, making the
position to advance and recede in space. This creates a
most of a buoyant economy and art market. Her linear In 1999 Dumbrell was honoured with a solo exhibition,
dynamic experience where the paintings flicker and glint
paintings of the early 1980s were intuitive and influenced Shades of Light: Lesley Dumbrell 1971–1999 at the Ian Potter
as the viewer moves.
by natural elements. The change of personal circumstances Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne. By the
was reflected in a playful use of colour, and experimen- early 2000s the grid systems in her works had started
Geometric abstraction was traditionally male-dominated
tation with spatial composition. She was included in to become more complex and fragmented. In 2002 she
in the 1960s, and despite advancing along a similar route to
the iconic Australian Perspecta 1981 exhibition at the Art returned to Australia to build a home in the Strath-
the prevailing style of the day Dumbrell was not included
Gallery of NSW. bogie Ranges in rural Victoria. The Australian bush had a
in the seminal 1968 exhibition The Field. The inaugural
profound impact on her work, the grid was replaced with
show at the National Gallery of Victoria’s new premises
After an exhibition in New York in 1981 Dumbrell increasingly random systems as the landscape and atmos-
included 39 artists, only three of whom were women.
returned to Australia invigorated. She began to explore phere were absorbed.
jagged, interlocking shapes sitting in an imagined spatial
Despite this oversight Dumbrell is recognised as a
plane. This style returned intermittently throughout the By the end of that decade there was an organic influence
pioneer of the 1970s Australian women’s art movement. In
decade, and appeared in several tapestries she completed in her paintings, reflected in shimmering linear arrange-
Janine Burke’s book Field of Vision Dumbrell said: “I am
at the Australian Tapestry Workshop in 1981. The result- ments and the palette. Columbine 2008 features an earthy
a woman who paints, not a painter who happens to be a
ing pieces are in the collections of the National Gallery of brown background, which is criss-crossed with a dazzling
woman. Therefore my work must contain some expression
Australia and the National Australia Bank. arrangement of lines in orange, yellow and green. The
of my sexuality, intuition and intellect.” After her first solo
variety of colours used to create the lines adds a depth and
exhibition in 1969, she began exhibiting in commercial
In 1982 Dumbrell was commissioned to design the carpet dynamism to the work and keeps the eye moving across, in
galleries across Australia, and in 1974 was included in the
for the lobby in the Prime Minister’s suite in New and out.
group exhibition Moravian International ’74 at Moravian
Parliament House. Art was planned to be an integral part
College, Pennsylvania.
15Russet 2007, oil on linen, 163 x 284 cm, $24,300
Russet 2007 employs a simpler palette but its composition or mechanical assistance. She also paints on paper using the 2015 exhibition After 65, the Legacy of Op at Latrobe Re-
is no less complex. The overlay of white lines on crimson a similar technique, sometimes as stand alone works and gional Gallery, Victoria. She has been described by Rachel
sometimes meet in starbursts which combine to create the sometimes as studies for larger paintings. Kent, Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary
impression of constellations. The eye endlessly discovers Art, Sydney as “one of Australia’s leading exponents of
different shapes amongst the delicately rendered divisions. Dumbrell’s work is held in most major Australian public abstraction”.
collections as well as significant corporate collections. In
While Dumbrell’s style has evolved, her commitment recent times she continues to explore the contrast between
to technique has been unwavering. The realisation of country and city life as she divides her time between
each painting is a long process, beginning with detailed Thailand and rural Victoria. The belated institutional
preparatory drawings before marking up the canvas with recognition of her significance in the development of
pencil. Works are all painted by hand, without masking Australian abstraction has continued with her inclusion in
16Columbine 2008, oil on linen , 172 x 229 cm, $24,300
17DALE
hypnotic colour scheme would come to identify many of The late 1990s saw Frank explore a harder edge to his
his subsequent works. abstract compositions, with figurative forms creeping back
FRANK In 1988, after 10 years abroad, Frank returned to Australia.
into the works. In 2000 he was honoured with the
survey exhibition Ecstasy – 20 Years of Painting, at the
By this time the figurative, symbolic elements in the work MCA Sydney. A solo show also took place that year at the
Born 1959. Lives and works in Singleton, NSW. Painter.
were abandoned in favour of collaged elements and found Art Gallery of NSW. Nonetheless his attacks on the art
objects. The painted surface began to incorporate world continued, with titles like Art critics make great fat
Born in 1959, Dale Frank began painting and drawing striations, cracks, drips and smears. chicks between flannelette sheets 2001 and The artist’s four
seriously at the age of 14, and in 1975, at age 16, he was testicles on the barbecue of life 2001 ensuring his
already receiving accolades including first prize in the Red In moving home Frank hoped to encourage reputation as an art world ‘bad boy’ persisted.
Cross Art Prize, judged by John Olsen, and being short- similar critical debates locally to those he had experienced
listed for the Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW. overseas. He was included in the 8th Biennale of Sydney By the mid 2000s Frank had begun working with varnish
This was the beginning of a high-profile career that has in 1990, indicating increasing recognition. However his in a similar manner to his earlier poured resin style. This
seen his abstract, psychologically-driven paintings return home inspired a new aggression in the work that now defines his visual vocabulary, although recently canvas
exhibited all over the world. never dissipated. This was partly inspired by his being supports have given way to more experimental materials
described as an enfant terrible, a description that persisted such as mirrors and perspex. While Frank continues to
Frank held his first solo show in 1979 and subsequently over the years. He abandoned the compositions of his make attractive, saleable paintings he still lampoons the art
left his home in rural Singleton to pursue what he saw earlier works in favour of a loss of form – at one stage he world by incorporating devices such as incongruous gold
as a professional artist’s career in Europe and the United even took to their surfaces with a blowtorch. Some works frames that he sometimes partially burns.
States. Like other artists at the time, Frank felt hemmed incorporated pages torn from art magazines, with titles
in by the parochialism of the local art scene and wanted to such as The critic’s bladder (Portrait of Paul Foss) 1992 These two paintings are strong examples of Frank’s recent
make a mark on the broader world. making his opinions clear. practice. Only after did it occurred to him that she was the
bitch that wrote the nasty article on her blog 2014 incorporates
Over the next 10 years he earned extensive recognition, Frank had produced works on paper prolifically since 1980, a dark palette which reflects the dark thoughts behind the
holding 64 solo exhibitions in cities all over Europe as well and 1993 saw a retrospective of his drawings tour to the title. Frank’s virtuosic handling of the varnish creates deep
as the USA, Britain and Asia. He was seen by European Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Monash University voids as well as areas revealing expanses of sky blue. The
and American curators of the 1980s as part of a new global Museum of Art and Wollongong City Gallery. 1994 saw a paint has been coaxed into striations that appear almost
art movement – the Trans-avant-garde – and as a result solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW Project Space geological. As a painting it encapsulates the ups and downs
was included in numerous exhibitions with international gallery. of psychological reflection.
artists. At the same time in Australia Frank’s work was in-
cluded in exhibitions examining the postmodern condition, By the mid 1990s, Frank’s work became more corporeal. In contrast, Peering over the Liverpool Plains from a
including the 4th Biennale of Sydney curated by William He began working with resin, pouring it across the surface Cessna Cherokee 2012-13 boasts a more celebratory palette.
Wright in 1982 and, a year later, the iconic Australian of the works and rotating the canvas while the resin set. Splashes of sunny yellow, crimson and teal surround a
Perspecta 1983 at the Art Gallery of NSW. These paintings became like living organisms, with the psychedelic riot of marbled black and white. The centre of
material pooling onto the floor, bursting from or moving the composition is a black swirl which sucks the viewer in
Frank’s work of this time was a psychological investigation underneath the paint skin. These effects referenced Frank’s before spitting them out again into the lighter surrounds.
into a complex inner world. Symbolist motifs such as the interest in biology and the human body’s inner workings, The title suggests an aerial view that encourages the search
eye appeared within dark landscapes and seascapes that and eventually he began using the human body to impact for geographic elements in the work.
morphed into hallucinatory abstraction through striated the surface of the paintings – hiring studio assistants to
painting effects. These works used a palette of black, acid imprint the works with physical actions.
green, yellow, ultramarine blue and red. This darkly
18Frank believes contemporary painting must hold its own
amongst other media. As such he approaches it as a con-
ceptual practice, grounded in the loaded historical con-
text of painting. In the statement accompanying his 2014
exhibition Toby Jugs at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney,
he wrote:
The medium-specific approach to painting is still possible in
artistic practice…. All it has lost is its status as self-evident.
Since painting is realized today within the horizon of conceptual
practice, it must be grounded in a context that is no longer its
own. That means, on the one hand, that an appeal to the
specifics of the medium as its sole justification is no longer
possible. Painting can no longer just be painting. Today it is
also necessarily a form of conceptual art, and as such it must be
judged, and hold its own, in relation to conceptual practices in
other media. But this also means that painting can take strength
precisely from the fact that by way of an immanent intimate
dialogue with its own history and conditions as a medium it
arrives at a strategic self-justification within a broader wider
world. Forcing painting potentially into a more enthralling,
adventurous and critically engaging approach than any other
media.
This commitment to push the boundaries of his chosen
medium is why Frank remains relevant to contemporary
painting, and why museums continue to collect his work.
Represented by leading galleries Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Frank has also shown recently
in Singapore, Hong Kong and Auckland.
Frank’s work is held in many significant collections
including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New Only after did it occurred to him that she was the bitch that wrote the nasty article on her blog 2014,
York, Zurich Kunsthaus, Switzerland, Exxon Corporation varnish on canvas, 214 x 274 cm, $78,000
Collection, New York, Trans-Art Collection, Milan, Italy,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, National Gallery
of Victoria, Melbourne, Museum of Contemporary Art,
Sydney, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney and the National
Gallery of New Zealand.
19Peering over the Liverpool Plains from a Cessna Cherokee 2012-2013,
varnish on canvas, 214 x 274 cm, $78,000
20ROBERT
was a hard act to follow. It also reflected the Melbourne In 1980 Jacks moved to Sydney to lecture at Sydney
public’s lack of appreciation of minimalist abstraction at College of the Arts. He was included in Australian
JACKS the time. Perspecta 1981 at the Art Gallery of NSW, and paintings
of this time show a break from the grids and formality of
In 1968 Jacks was included in the seminal abstract painting prior work. The 1980s was a strong period for Australian
Born Melbourne, 1943. Lived and worked in Australia and North
exhibition The Field at the National Gallery of Victoria. art and Jacks responded confidently. Works like Kentish fire
America. Died 2014.
The same year, just shy of his 25th birthday and at a time and heavy boots 1982 contain almost no right angles, and
when his work was starting to be recognised in were the largest works he had produced to date. Using
Robert Jacks was born in 1943. As a child his family lived
Australia, he went overseas. Rather than the typical a palette knife rather than a brush to apply subtle col-
on-site at the Burnley Parks and Gardens in Melbourne,
Australian trajectory of moving to London, he and his wife our combinations, he built up layers progressively, then
where he had his first experience of drawing, sketching
travelled to North America. This self-proclaimed scraped them back to create a textured effect. Kentish fire
plants in the garden with his father. The family attended
apprenticeship, in which he immersed himself in and heavy boots is an early example of the style that became
flower and garden shows, and their orderly rows of flowers
minimalism and abstraction, continued until his return to typical of his practice over the next decade.
later influenced his interest in the grid.
Australia ten years later.
In 1983 Jacks returned to Melbourne, where he was in
From 1958 Jacks attended Prahran Technical College. He
His first stop was Toronto to collect his American visa, residence and subsequently lecturer in painting at Prahran
began to explore abstraction, influenced by the work of
which signalled a distinct second phase of his practice. College until 1988. Having been one of the few
Picasso, Braque and Miro, as well as pop culture including
Embracing minimalism, he remained anchored in the Australian artists to experience New York during the
record covers, advertising and cinema. In 1961 he began a
perceptual rather than the conceptual, despite the prevail- heyday of minimalism and conceptualism, his influence,
Diploma of Art in sculpture at Royal Melbourne Institute
ing trend towards the dematerialisation of the art object. friendship and mentoring of younger generations of artists
of Technology (RMIT), quickly transferring to paint-
was pronounced, continuing beyond his teaching years.
ing and printmaking. He met painter Fred Williams, 16
Jacks spent the next decade in New York, where he met Sol
years his senior, who became his mentor and took him on
LeWitt, Donald Judd and other art world luminaries. This In the early 1990s Jacks moved with his family to rural
painting excursions. Along with his peers including Lesley
experience makes him unique in the history and develop- Victoria, where the expansive garden of their property
Dumbrell (also in this presentation), he moved from the
ment of Australian art. One of his first shows was facilitat- became an on-going project, reflecting his early years in
expressionist painting style of the time, typified by Arthur
ed by LeWitt, who selected the Australian to inaugurate Burnley Parks and Gardens. This time also saw a major
Boyd, towards a new and pared-back form of abstraction.
a new international exhibition program at the New York exhibition of his works on paper at the Ian Potter Gallery,
Cultural Centre in 1971. The exhibition consisted of which brought him to the attention to a new generation.
Jacks began exhibiting in 1962. His first solo exhibition, in
modular works, which Jacks had been working on since By the mid-1990s he had again abandoned the palette
1966 at Gallery A, Melbourne, was received with critical
1968. knife for the brush and his works featured flat areas of
acclaim. It explored abstraction through painting,
colour, with the guitar - recalling Picasso and Braque - a
sculpture, drawing and printmaking, with configurations of
Jacks’ return to Australia in 1978 coincided with a shift recurring motif.
angular and curved forms in varied palettes, and Brancusi
away from grids and modular forms that had been the
influenced bird-like elements.
focus of his American work. A residency at the University Jacks revisited the urban in the mid-2000s in the series
of Melbourne resulted in the 1978 exhibition Works in The city sleeps. The works reflected influences ranging from
In 1967 Jacks held his second solo exhibition at South Yarra
Progress. This formed a bridge between two distinct Mondrian to Australian modernist Ralph Balson, as well as
Gallery. It consisted of minimal and refined paintings,
periods in his artistic development, combining the pixel structures referencing the digital age. They are
featuring arcs and squares at the centre, grounded in
freedom of his mid-1960s work with the discipline of the undeniably urban, encapsulating simultaneously the
expanses of colour. The dramatic change between his first
process-oriented American years. aerial and pedestrian views of a cityscape, the blinking
and second exhibition was not well received – the first
traffic lights and jostling skyscrapers. While the work is
21Kentish fire and heavy boots 1982, oil and wax on canvas, 197 x 296.5 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales
landscape in orientation, its composition is dynamically exhibition confirmed his significance in Australian art to put his new works into context with early ones, always
vertical. history. His work is held in many local public collections asking questions about the nature of art and of painting.
as well as international collections including the British While he remained true to minimalist abstraction through-
Jacks passed away during the development of the retro- Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. out his working life, he felt free to experiment within
spective exhibition Order and variation, held at the With a career spanning five decades, Jacks proved himself these frontiers, which meant his work developed and
National Gallery of Victoria in 2014. Widely praised, this a formidable painter. As his practice evolved he continued evolved in reference to the art of the times.
22The city sleeps 2006, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 183 x 305 cm, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Melbourne
23TIM
They exhibited the works, lectured and wrote on the art, dotting was hotly debated in the 1980s, but his efforts to
and promoted the movement. understand the work of other cultures and establish pro-
JOHNSON Aboriginal painting had a profound effect on Johnson’s
tocols to use it in his own art have become exemplary in
cross cultural practice. He’s now seen as a pioneering voice
own art. His earliest works from 1979-80 featured arguing for cultural pluralism in Australian art and culture.
Born Sydney 1947. Painter, filmmaker, printmaker. Aboriginals in the desert. Based on magazine images, they He is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, all
were often painted in gridded space, showing the ongoing state galleries and many university museums. In 2008 he
Tim Johnson began painting in high school. Later he influence of conceptual ideas. In 1980 he began photo- was the subject of a survey exhibition at the Art Gallery
studied architecture, philosophy and political science, and graphing artists with their paintings, and then painting a of NSW and the Queensland Art Gallery. He has also
by the time he began exhibiting his works were strongly version of the photograph. In this way he included their shown widely overseas, both commercially and in museum
conceptual. Through artist-run gallery Inhibodress, he was paintings in his own work - always with the permission exhibitions and biennales.
a pioneer of conceptual art in Sydney in the late 1960s, of the artists, as iconography in Aboriginal art is tied to
producing installations, performances and films. dreamings owned by people. Only the owner or those The painting Yantra 2008 is in one of Johnson’s standard
authorised by the owner are allowed to paint these images formats – five panels producing on overall work measuring
Around 1973, while most of his colleagues continued with and stories. 182 x 306 cm. The work focuses on Buddhist principles:
non object-based work, Johnson returned to painting.
However, it was painting informed both by conceptual art Yantra is the Sanskrit word for instrument or machine…. One
In 1983 Johnson began using dots, although ironically they usage popular in the west is as symbols or geometric figures.
and his growing interest in Asian cultures. The works from were first used in appropriations of Chinese cave paintings
this period frequently used Buddhist imagery to explore Traditionally such symbols are used in Eastern mysticism to
– for example Zhu Haogu’s Yuan Dynasty wall painting balance the mind or focus it on spiritual concepts. The act of
issues of spirituality. He also became interested in Aborig- Maitreya Paradise. His subsequent work used a range of
inal art and in 1980, after a dream, he travelled to Papunya wearing, depicting, enacting and/or concentrating on a yantra
dotting techniques to explore ideas of landscape and spirit- is held to have spiritual or astrological or magical benefits in the
to make contact with the Aboriginal artists whose works uality. Rather than copying Aboriginal art however, he
he admired. Tantric traditions of the Indian religions.
combined its imagery with elements from other cultures -
Tibetan, Chinese and Native American - to draw attention So Yantra contains the depiction of a yantra, while the
Papunya, a dusty out-camp north of Alice Springs, had to their similar land philosophies.
been the birthplace of contemporary Aboriginal painting painting itself functions as a yantra, “an object or instru-
in 1971, when teacher Geoff Bardon gave acrylic paints ment to balance the mind or focus it on spiritual concepts”.
Collaboration has also been a feature of Johnson’s practice. Aesthetically the work is modeled on Nepalese scroll
to a group of elders and suggested they paint their tribal In the 1980s he worked with Aboriginal artists, asking
designs on small boards. The resulting works had been a paintings with thangkas (decorative borders) surrounding
them to paint the dreaming design while he added the a central field of spiritual symbols from different cultures.
revelation, and this style of ‘dot painting’ soon became the dots. Later he worked with Native American and Asian
most acclaimed Australian art internationally. Yantra was included in an exhibition at the Wellington
artists. His collaborations were the subject of a 1993 City Gallery, New Zealand, which toured to the Tel Aviv
exhibition at Monash University called Tim Johnson: Museum of Art in Israel.
When Johnson arrived, Papunya was home to many across cultures. As this exhibition showed, for Johnson art
senior artists. He befriended them and his life and art is a democratic, utopian practice in which many cultural
was intimately involved with their art and culture for the Crop circles 2015 was included in Johnson’s recent
strands come together, enriching each other and breaking exhibition Open Source at Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne.
next decade. By spending time with them, he observed down boundaries of culture and race.
their working methods and came to understand their The term ‘open source’ describes a computer program that
work’s deep spirituality - including its potential to allow involves others in its production and use. For Johnson
Through its unique mix of conceptualism, cross cultural this means his three collaborators on the exhibition, and
non-indigenous people to grasp the Aboriginal view of the influences and collaboration, Tim Johnson’s art has been
interconnectedness of ‘country’ and the human spirit. Tim extends to the possible meanings of the work. It includes
central to the development of Australian art. His use of many images of UFOs, to acknowledge that
and his wife Vivien became early collectors of Papunya art.
24Yantra 2008, acrylic on canvas, five panels, 182 x 306 cm overall, $30,000
spirituality can overlap with the idea of extraterrestrial As part of his idealistic approach to art, Johnson keeps his and Juan Davila. But there is no doubt history will judge
life. The central motifs in each panel are recorded crop prices low. He prefers to have his paintings in people’s him as their equal in quality and importance. He is a
circles, although the fourth panel is a more humorous homes, rather than in storage. This also suits his practice central figure in contemporary Australian art of the last
reference – the icon of the classic 1980s computer game as a prolific artist. As a result of this strategy, Johnson’s three decades.
Space Invaders. prices are much lower than peers such as Imants Tillers
25Crop circles 2015, acrylic on canvas, five panels, 182 x 306 cm overall, $30,000
26ILDIKO
Aboriginal artists with whom she worked, including with rollers on large sheets of plywood: the works in this
collaborations. While many non-indigenous and urban presentation are from that period. There is a blunt physi-
KOVACS Aboriginal artists have appropriated Aboriginal painterly
devices, Kovacs was one of the first non-indigenous artists
cality to this mode of painting which, rather than consider-
ing the beauty of oil paint, is about Kovacs’ trademark line
to be inspired in their approach to painting and the motifs activating large areas. These works come into their own
Born 1962, Sydney, Australia. Lives and works in Sydney. Painter. in Aboriginal art, whilst developing a unique visual when viewed from a few metres distance – this is when the
language. This was a result of being invited by Ninuku physical gestures of the artist can be appreciated. As such
Mid career painter Ildiko Kovacs had long been interested Arts into an active collaboration with local artists. they are ideal for a foyer setting.
in Aboriginal art, and in 1995 the sale of two large paint-
ings gave her the opportunity to leave Sydney for Austral- Ildiko Kovacs was born in Sydney in 1962. She trained A recent commission gave Kovacs confidence working
ia’s west coast, where she could explore Indigenous prac- at St George College and the National Art School from large-scale, and she continues to work at these dimensions.
tice further. After living in Perth she moved to Broome for 1978 to 1980 and has held regular solo exhibitions since the She is a rare example of an artist who handles scale confi-
ten months, returning again in 2003. During these visits late 1980s. While her work has undergone several distinct dently, activating the board through her hand-movements.
she experienced ancient rock art and absorbed the visual shifts, an intuitive painting process has always led it. In this sense her practice is still connected to abstract
languages of contemporary artists of the Kimberley expressionism, however the roller’s sweeping gestures also
through exhibitions at Waringarri Artists in Kununurra Kovacs’ works of the late 1980s and early 1990s reflected recall the Yam Dreaming works of noted Aboriginal artist
and Short Street Gallery in Broome. Kovacs also visited an interest in abstract expressionism. This “youthful explo- Emily Kame Kngwarreye.
Aboriginal art centres in remote communities, where she ration into the unknown,” as she put it, gradually gave way
met and observed a number of artists, including the late to voids created by over-painting and washes as Kovacs, In flight 2015 is a dense composition in which streaks of
Paddy Bedford. Observing Bedford’s intuitive working spurred on by shifts in her personal life, reworked the ultramarine blue pop amongst an otherwise subdued,
mode prompted a shift in Kovacs’ practice, her subsequent surfaces in an attempt to return to fundamental questions organic palette of cream, charcoal and ochre. Lines snake
works incorporating more accidents and irregularities of painting and find clarity. Around 1993 the greyness of around the canvas and come to an abrupt end, keeping the
while maintaining a strength and simplicity in their these voids gave way to lighter colours, reflecting a more eye moving in and out of the painting’s depths of field.
composition and palette. positive emotional life. The random shapes in these works Because of the intuitive way she paints, there are times
began to form lines and a breakthrough occurred in the when Kovacs’ pieces can become overworked. However at
In 2008 Kovaks fulfilled a long-held ambition to visit 1995 work Slow roam where, for the first time, the lines their best, as these examples demonstrate, they succeed to
Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency at Fitzroy Crossing. had joined up – “it was a dance,” said Kovacs. The artist spectacular effect.
There she worked alongside senior artists Warkatu Cory found that the physicality of this line demanded a large
Surprise, Daisy Andrews and Jukuja Dolly Snell, assisting, format, and worked on very large canvases for a time. In 2011 Kovacs was the subject of a survey show, Down the
observing and occasionally collaborating. The residency line 1980-2010 at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts
resulted in a shift in Kovacs’ work and also impacted the Kovacs has described her treatment of the line “like Centre in Sydney. As is often the case with women artists,
practices of the local artists, particular Cory Surprise, sculpting in space…. Arabesque rhythmic forms that had this institutional recognition had taken several decades.
whose use of colour expanded dramatically. The changes the illusion of being three-dimensional”. Kovacs sees the Momentum subsequently built, and in 2015 Kovacs was
in Kovacs’ work were subtler but no less important. She line as a metaphor for her nature and continues to use it, awarded the Bulgari Art Award through the Art Gallery
had absorbed the Indigenous artists’ intuitive approach to however her approach evolves as overfamiliarity sets in. of NSW. An acquisitive award to a significant painting by
painting and her own work took on a new immediacy as a “When you get to know something so well you become too a mid-career Australian artist, the prize includes $50,000
result. self-conscious, it loses its honesty.” This led to the most for acquisition of the painting and a $30,000 residency in
recent shift, the use of rollers. Paint rollers create unique Italy, making it one of the most valuable art awards in
As well as the Fitzroy Crossing residency, a 2011 stint at marks, which Kovacs says allow her to see her work with Australia. Onda 2015 was acquired by the Gallery as a
Ninuku Arts in the APY Lands in northern South fresh eyes. Since 2008 she has worked almost exclusively result. Its title means wave in Italian - Kovacs can hear the
Australia led to new bodies of work by Kovacs and the
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