Eastern Suburbs Art Group

This was the second modern masters show I saw last month. There are more modern masters works in Toledo Ohio than in all of Australia. It was great to see so many here. In addition to many of the usual representatives however there were some North American proactitioners liks Maurice Prendergast (see below). Another (below) this one by Robert Henri. The painting below by William Merritt Chase. Yes there were the usual practititioners but the North Americans also worth seeing and appreciating. It is hard to characterise the difference, but perhaps a certain mannered approach aplies in their case. Less impressionist and more realist. A similar thing happened in Australia, the so called Australian Impressionists were really just 19th C relists after the fact, not using impressionist techniques much at all. And I wonder why it is that settler societies have trouble adopting avant garde style.

 These large kinetic abstract paintings have a concentratged effect. Obviously the large size makes the works hard to find a place for, but many people have large houses and lots of walls. I was impressed by the scale of the works, as well as by their ability to hold space. They are sort of liking organic entities, things of blood/paint and air/brush. Putting an arrray of such works together is obviously the domain of a public gallery, you wouldn't probably find a private dwelling with this sort of display. Obviously some of the works have brighter colours than others, but they were all easy to relate to.

 Upstairs in the gallery there are several rooms with interesting items from about 100 years back. Actually I went there not to see these works, but rather to see a show from New Zealand (see last post). But what I found was good, like this 1910 Ethel Carrick Fox painting of the Luxembourg Gardens (see below). The scene has an immediacy that is refreshing and lively. The painting below is a work showing a Victorian landscape. It is by E Philips Fox. The following landscape by Grace Cossington Smith is surprising for the dominant pink colour. It is from 1932. The painting above is another EC Fox work, it is from 1910 and is a Sydney beach scene. This painting reflects roots in the Barbizon Schol of norther France from the previous century. The gallery is located next to a large parking lot and it is on the border of town. There are a lot of nice paintings, both regular works like what appearsa above as well as scheduled shows.

This collection has been donated to a New Zealand gallery and is on loan in Victoria. The donors are an American couple Julian and Josie Robertson. This is a diverse and amazing collection. The above painting is by Albert Dubois-Pillet, a painter I have never heard of. The painting below is a Gauguin. It shows a cow in a field. The painting below is a lovely colourful work by Derain. The painting below is by Braque. The sculpture below is a torse of the Rock Drill by Jacob Epstein, a famous work of the period. This is dated 1913-15. The painting below is by George Marcoussis, 'Shell Fish, Zither and Ace of Hearts'. So you see there are known and unusual names in the collection. The following painting by Henri Hayden is also  an unknown for me. I mean obviously it is Cubist, but it is not as technically competent as some other Subist works. I still enjoyed seeing it. Often seeing works by second tier artists within the scope of a particular movement is valuable. The following Ha...

This is a fabulous space tucked away near the train station. You go in through the library entrance then double back and cross a bridge inside, to find yourself in a study area with facilities. A frirned had curated this show so I wanted to see what was happening. Some surprising finds (see above) like a work by Loraine Simiana that combines a kind of deliberate abstraction with surreal components to create a frozen landscape. The title is reflective of this fact, actually I used the expression before checking the title. But there were other types of work (see below) like this naturalistic almost scientific portrayal of a n orchid by Tony White. And then there were Neville Dawson's determinedly figurative but nevertheless expressive studies of tree roots (see below). This one in black and white, another one in colour. Jennifer Shames' floral study was also expressive, almost embarassingly so (see below). The range of styles on display was compelling. I also liked Jennifer Mulle...

I had a nice invitation to contribute to this show and put in some collages, one of which I sold. The woman who bought the item also had something in the show. Trinity Myers' piece (see below) is a fridge covered in some sort of growth, something green that stands out against the hard lines of the kitchen appliance. Trinity has made a kind of domestic collage. The fridge contains food but it doesn't chill, everything is at room temperature so you'd probably not want to eat it. We chatted for a while and I took this snapshot. I was reminded of a work I made last year, one of my Fridge! series (see below). I make a similar comparison in a brochure produced for Ryde Library collage classes. A household fridge is a kind of collage, except instead of glue you use magnets. In my series I try to show this alongside the remnants of a life - a life I lived - illustrated with the sort of snapshots people put on their fridges. I mean everyoine has a fridge right?  In the digital colla...

The prize this year was rather muted. This might have had something to do with the size of the exhibition space. In fact all of the three shows seemed to be in smaller spaces than usual. In the Wynne I liked this watercolour (see below). Sort of speaks for itself, you don't really need to describe the painting. The quality is there in the intense figuration that draws the viewer in. The suprising sort of modern notes like Pop art colour swatches somehow highlight the skill involved in the realistic scene. I'm only making a small selection this year, including this night sky with bits of space junk streaming over the earth (above). The painting above is 'Garrapara' a polymer painting on aluminium, quite striking. Like  I said the number of paintings in each show seemed to be smaller than usual.