Modern and Contemporary Art Australia: Primavera 2022 - Young Australian Artists

Primavera 2022 - Young Australian Artists showcased six works created by six emerging celebrities endorsed by Modern and Contemporary Art Australia. The works displayed in the exhibition are portraits of the artists. Through the artworks, viewers can get to know the stories of each artist and infer unaddressed narratives through visual cues. As the exhibition only shows a single work of each artist, viewers are encouraged to learn the complete story about each artist at the museum's website. The main purpose of the show is to introduce sponsors to the rising stars, so they can choose to financially support the artist of their choice. Remembering the artists who are featured in the show is highly recommended to readers who are interested in contemporary art, as they are currently in demand, and will eventually become big names in the art world in the next 5-10 years. Big names means showering with accolades and solo exhibitions at world-class art institutions.

Three Artists on Spotlight: Artwork and Profile

Julia Gutman

Julia Gutman, Isn’t it all just a long conversation?, 2022, Donated textiles, embroidery, chains

Assembled from fabrics donated by her friends and family, the patchwork is similar to her self-portrait. The artist compares herself to her artwork, stating that she is made from people who are close to her and who she engages with. She emphasizes the importance of keeping relationships by incorporating people who are close to her into her artistic practice. However, the artwork suggests that she has an abusive relationship with them, who refuse to interact with her sincerely and are even willing to impregnate her.
The artwork, the artist's largest tableau to date, features an appalling image of impregnated women as a subject of male desire. Though not explicitly stated, the woman is likely the artist herself. She values her honor and reputation more than herself. The three women on the left side of the pregnant women confirm that one of the main themes of the artwork is desire, as they are from canonical paintings of Western art history, in which women were depicted and manipulated by the desires of men.

Julia Gutman is a multi-disciplinary artist living and working on Gadigal land. She re-uses found textiles to produce ‘patchworks’ that merge personal and collective histories to explore themes of femininity, intimacy, and memory.

Amrita Hepi

Amrita Hepi, Open Poses (detail), 2022, Dataset for pose recognition, custom software, webcam, monitors, decal, lamps, painted wall, sound

Amrita Hepi, Open Poses, 2022, Images from dataset

In the interactive installation, the artist incorporates a green screen and motion capture technology to reveal the uncomfortable truth of modern society. The artwork enables viewers to perceive modern society as an iceberg. The top part that emerged above the water is the prevalent social phenomena of monitoring, which is simulated in the artwork, and submerged under the water is the order that maintains the unfair power structure of the social system.

Themes
1. premise: modern society is a panopticon
To understand the artwork, knowing the premise of modern society is a must. Modern society is similar to Panopticon, a circular-shaped prison where guards at the center monitor prisoners locked in rooms built around the edge of circumference. Prison guards, people of power, are eligible of monitoring and tracking prisoners, people of lesser power. Prison guards are the few authorities who are informed of common sense, have secure necessities of life, high social standing, and wealth. Prisoners are the majority and comparatively less in power than the guards. The power structure is set according to past behaviors that reflect ethical standards. Prisoners are encouraged to obey rules set by the authority to secure their rewards and avoid punishment.
In the artwork, the artist compares guards to the viewers and a prisoner to herself and emulates the process of reducing humans as leverages for capitalist means. In a mock green screen room, viewers are invited to intimate the artist's pose displayed on the left screen. Poses represent past behaviors of the artist, a prisoner. Viewers are guards, so they can monitor her poses through the screen. There are more than 2000 images of the artist in a strange posture. When viewers match the artist's posture on screen, a photograph of viewers is taken so they can compare their pose to the original image. The newly taken photo is saved onto the existing dataset of images.

2. helplessness of the human condition in modern society
Viewers can't check whether the artist would go through the newly captured images, but she emphasizes that monitored behaviors are returned to prisoners in her artwork description. Prisoners are reduced to a state of powerlessness, as they admit they are powerless compared to the mighty authority, who is in full grasp of prisoners' data and Achilles heel.
The artist reflects the helplessness of the human condition in society by selecting a green screen as the backdrop of her images. To be used in videos of various purposes, green screens are replaced with background videos. Just as green screens are easily replaced with a background video, people are easily removed from what they are and exploited as leverage for capitalist means regardless of their will. The authority is the ultimate judge and decision-maker, and people have no choice but to helplessly accept their vulnerable position.

3. First Nations body as a subject of humiliation
The artist is First Nations choreographer and dancer from Bundjalung country (Australia) and Ngāpuhi (Aotearoa New Zealand) territories. The choreographic practice of the artwork reflects the historical constructions of First Nations identity, which have also been subjected to fetishization, and dehumanization in the Western art canon. By taking and displaying images of herself in awkward postures, the artist reinterprets her First Nations bodies as a subject of humiliation.

An award-winning artist. Hepi engages in practice concerned with dance as a social function performed within galleries, performance spaces, video art, and digital technologies. She engages in forms of historical fiction and hybrid —especially those that arise under empire— to investigate the body's relationship to personal histories and archives. Amrita is represented by Anna Schwartz Gallery.

Katie West

Katie West, I love you my baby, you are my first born (detail), 2020-22, Found driftwood and metal, 2-channel video projection

In the two-channel film, I love you my baby, you are my first born (2020–2021), the Yindjibarnd artist explores inter-generational trauma and the ongoing effects of the Stolen Generations. To associate the colonized land with her wounds of familiar history, the artist returned to Ngarluma Country, her ancestral land, to film this work. Taking place at a shoreline at sunset, the film shows the artist collecting driftwood, observing the shifting tide, and marking her footprint on the mudflats.
By documenting her actions, the artist undertakes a journey of self-realization. She informs viewers of the brutal policy of the Australian Government: removing Aboriginal infants from their parents at their birth. Then she discloses the artist's mother was forcibly taken away from her grandmother. While performing simple actions in her ancestral land, she imagines a time and place where the three generations might have all lived together. The film implies despair and intergenerational trauma of her and First Nations people, who are deprived of their culture. In this way, the artwork carries a social function — acknowledging that things are not as they should be; not as we imagine, and far from what we can hope for the experience of First Nations People in Australia.

Katie West is an artist and Yindjibarndi woman based in Noongar Ballardong Country, working in installation, textiles, and social practice. The process and notion of naturally dyeing fabric underpin her practice – the rhythm of walking, gathering, bundling, boiling up water, and infusing materials with plant matter.

Modern and Contemporary Art Australia: Perspectives on Place

When appreciating artwork, knowing the qualities that make an artwork great is crucial. Amongst many qualities, one of the most important qualities is showing the social issue. An artwork with such quality grants viewers to contemplate and thus expands their perspective on the world. Perspectives on Place exhibited by Modern and Contemporary Art Australia showcased two types of contemporary artwork: the first type reveals the national history of colonization and the second type shows the current world governed by the western system. The exhibition offers viewers an opportunity to contemplate and reach a conclusion that the national condition is the global status quo. From the museum's permanent collection, the artworks on display were desolate works insufficient in craftsmanship and lacking in aesthetic value. Looking back at Australian modern art, I was expecting an evolved form of refined artwork depicting abundance. Exhibited artworks are similar to conceptual art, as their theme matters more than physical appearance.

Topics Covered

• Australia: Before Colonization, Violence, Settlement
• World: Individual, Population

Australia

Before Colonization

Comprised of two essential artworks, the image summarizes the theme of the exhibition.

 three close up paintings of Shirley Purdie, Goowoolem Gijam - Gija plants, 2013-16

Painted by an artist of Aboriginal descent, each of the 72 artworks contains images of plants native to Australia. Aware of the characteristics of each plant, the artist painted each plant affectionately. The artwork shows the artist's affection and knowledge of Australian flora. Originally an output of affection, the artwork changes its connotation when juxtaposed with the artwork on the floor.

 Megan Cope, Foundations III, 2020

The artwork has 400 separate components, and each component comprises a concrete pedestal embedded with a singular oyster shell. The selection of the material is directly related to the Australian history of colonization. Shells refer to Shell mounts formed by Aborigins. The mounts are the residues of cultural and communal life and indicate Aboriginals' occupation over a long period. After arrival, European settlers destroyed the shell mounts to mine limestones. Limestones were processed to create the raw material for mortar, which was then used in various colonial buildings. The embedded concrete pedestals of the artwork were also made from mined limestones.
Through the keen selection of the materials, the artist states that the purpose of destruction and mining was to lay out the basic foundation to establish the western system in the fertile land abundant in natural resources. The constant and calculated form of each component of the artwork graphically demonstrates the western system overridden onto the Australian landscape, connecting back to the artwork displayed on the wall.

Violence

 Tom Nicholson, Cartoons for Joseph Selleny, 2014

 Tom Nicholson, Cartoons for Joseph Selleny, 2014

The artwork is comprised of three parts:
1. a suite of large-scale charcoal drawings featuring soldiers shooting
2. a vast wall drawing: a myriad of tiny dots on an expansive paper
3. a takeaway artist's book

The component that addresses an evident narrative is 1. The subject relates to the story of the SMS Novara, an Austrian ship that docked in Sydney Cove in 1858 and departed with hundreds of handcrafts made by Aboriginal people destined for European collections. Joseph Selleny, as an official artist of the ship, produced numerous drawings of Australian flora, fauna, and even portraits of Aboriginal people. By depicting a graphic scene of violence, Nicholson points out Selleny omitted to depict colonial violence.

1, once had an apparent form, is smudged. The artist employed the cartoon technique to create the first two components of the artwork. The cartoon refers to the sketching technique for painting fresco (wall painting) invented by Renaissance artists. Once they finished sketching fresco subjects on a real scale with charcoal on paper, they punctured tiny holes in the outlines of the subjects. Then they pounced the paper with a small cushion against a wall to paint the fresco on. The process left dotted lines on the outlines of the subjects on the wall. 2 is the outcome of the repetition of the process, so the dots are in disarray.

When the intention of the cartoon and its process combined with the narrative of the artwork induces a wealth of connotations. Cartoon is a foundation for building up a fresco painting. Fresco is a large wall painting meant to be seen by mass, so publicity is one of the main characteristics of a fresco. By selecting shooting soldiers as a subject, the artist intended to publicize the violence of colonization that Selleny missed. Despite that he created a cartoon for his fresco, he didn't even start the base layer of the painting. Moreover, he repeatedly pounced the charcoal sketch to make the subject hard to identify. Through his process of cartooning, the artist compares shooting with pouncing, in which charcoal dots are 'shot' onto paper instead of bullets. In the artwork, the cartoon is a metaphor for colonial violence. Just as a sketch is ready for building up paint layers, colonial violence lays a foundation for building up a new governing system.

Settlement

Rosemary Laing, brumby mound #6, 2003, Photography

The image is from one dozen unnatural disasters in the Australian landscape, a photography series by Rosemary Laing. The image features red domestic objects arranged in the red soil plains near Tanami Desert, the land of the Wirrimanu Aboriginal community. Originally from a conventional household, the objects sit on the setting awkwardly. The objects represent modern western life settled uneasily on the Australian landscape, invoking histories of colonization, migration, and displacement.

World

Individual

 Christian Thompson AO, Dead Tongue, 2015

In the looped video, the artist is silenced by the Union Jack flags held between his teeth. The video is similar to photography in that the artist doesn't move throughout playtime, but the video has a soundtrack. A song in Bidjara, one of the Aboriginal clans' languages, plays along with the video, offering viewers an immersive experience.

The artist, who is of Bidjara descent, is aware that Bidjara is an endangered language, but he insists that it continues to be a living language if one word of the language is spoken. His work demonstrates the resilience of his Bidjara language and Aboriginal culture in the wake of Australia's colonization.

While showing Australian social issues, his image also reflects the conditions of non-westerners living in a modernized society. The traditional governing system of non-western countries was overridden by the western system directly or indirectly, as western ideas and systems established the foundation of modern society. Though traditional cultures are still tightly knitted to people's lives, the world is run by western ideas, especially capitalism, and productivity. Without any questions, modernized non-westerners follow the path set by past generations and instructions proposed by authority: they study at schools, then goes to work to afford their living.

Population

Louisa Bufardeci, Ground Plan, 2003-2009

In the large print that occupies an entire wall, the world map is reimagined as an architectural plan. Each country is resized according to the relative size of its population instead of its landmass. Borders of each country are configured as rooms in a metaphorical shared house. Open doors suggest the flow of people, capital, resources, and information between countries. The containment of countries within a Western design suggests the world is governed by a western system.
The most intriguing part about this work is that the size of each country is resized according to its population. The population is comprised of modernized westerners and non-westerners. The conditions of both groups of people are depicted by the previous artwork, Dead Tongue. Two artworks are purposefully displayed closely to communicate the idea of the world as a colony of modern civilization. 

Art Gallery NSW: Australian Modern Art — Part 3 Sensuality

Sensuality

Blessed with fertile land, Australians cultivated an abundant life of materialistic pleasure. Such prosperous life greatly influenced Australian modern artists and their works. Many artists regarded that the voluptuous and muscular forms of Australians reflected the rich country's power. Thus, they celebrated the physical beauty of Australians by preserving them in their paintings. In their works, they often related sensuality with procreation and nurture, linking back to the role of fecund Australian land to settlers. To capture the nourished beauty, they incorporated techniques from European classical art and avant-garde.

Charles Meere, Australian beach pattern, 1940, Oil on canvas

Charles Meere, Atalanta's eclipse, 1938, Oil on canvas

Charles Meere was one of a group of Sydney artists whose work depicted Australian life during the inter-war period and modernized classical artistic traditions. Yet, he painted works of neo-classical style, most notably Atalanta's Eclipse, which shows a running race scene between Atalanta and Melanion. Contrasting to other suitors who competed with the huntress to marry her, Melanion won the race by distracting her with three golden apples.
The artist contributed to cultivating Australian modern art by painting works inspired by the art nouveau of the European avant-garde. One of his art deco masterpieces is Australian Beach Pattern, which was painted during the interwar period. Though full of enigma, the masterpiece is interpreted as a celebration of a healthy young nation's beach culture and a glorification of heroic racial purity.

Jean Broome-Norton, Abundance, 1934, cast 1987, Bronze

In the exceptional art-deco relief 'Abundance', a wholesome and athletic Australian family is presented. By adding the child, the artist relates sensuality to procreation and fecundity of the bodies. Sheaves of wheat and a wreath are rich provisions from the fertile land of Australia. As the family's body is from the food, the artist expresses gratitude towards the bountiful nature. The work reinforces notions of Australian life as a golden age of physical and environmental harmony.

Arthur Murch, The idle hour, 1933,

Oil on canvas on hardboard

The nakedness of the mother suggests she just finished feeding her baby. The mother, along with her baby, radiates sensuality with glossy skin and precariously hanging clothes. Their porcelain-like skin combined with warm key light from the window imbues sublime energy to the setting. The exceptional rendering of light's effect on skin indicates the artist's deliberate study of lighting and masterpieces of the early Renaissance and classical periods.
The artist associates sensuality with the sublime by showing the role of a mother as a nurturer of a family. To create images of national culture, the artist depicts Australian modern life by employing classical traditions of European art.

Art Gallery NSW: Australian Modern Art — Part 2 Modern Life

Modern Life

In the 20th century, cities were socially, culturally, and physically transformed by the dynamics of modernization. In the rising structures of the metropolis, people adapted to new conditions and improved their quality of life. Aspiring artists flocked to cities, especially Sydney, as they were primary sites for the encounter with modernity and diverse artistic critiques. Captivated by unprecedented changes brought by modernization, artists depicted urbanized environments and people living in the novel modern society with keen insight. Artists invented original techniques that reflect the changes in society based on their study of European classical art and avant-garde ideas and techniques.

Modern Life: People

Arthur Murch, The aeroplane, 1929-1930,

Oil and egg tempera on canvas on board

People in the painting gaze toward an unseen aeroplane flying overhead in a local backyard. The setting directly reveals a beautified representation of rural Australia. The placement of domesticated animals in the composition further contributes to the painting's overall rustic sentiment. High contrast in tonal range and pastel color scheme is reminiscent of the strong sunlight of northern Australia.
The tension expressed in people's faces is caused by seeing the flying vehicle. People in the countryside, who are used to the traditional way of living, are confused and surprised by the encounter with modern technology that invented the aeroplane. Through the depicted collision between tradition and modernity, the artwork invokes the monumentality of the changing world.

 Weaver Hawkins, Morning underground, 1922, Oil on canvas

Instead of showing a crowded interior of Sydney's metro train, the painting portrays commuters traveling on the London Underground. Though the two cities are distant, both of them went through a similar process of urbanization. The artist shows the consequence of the process by illustrating the claustrophobic confines of modern living.
The portrayal of the crowded Underground is relatively flat and flourished. This stylistic depiction is derived from studying artworks of modern masters such as Cézanne, Gauguin, Matisse, and van Gogh. Similar to European avant-garde artists, Australian artists sought innovative techniques for capturing a subject to reconcile with industrial expansion.

Thea Proctor, The bay, 1927, Watercolor

Slender and elegant women sit on a sofa with their fans flipped open. The background shows an urbanized port of Sydney. The image is an idealized representation of the modern lifestyle in Sydney. One of the most influential modern artists, Proctor lived in London for 18 years and returned to Sydney in 1921. The refined composition and forms of her works were likely inspired by her life in London.

Modern Life: Setting

Tempe Manning, Kingsclere, 52 Macleay Street,

1919, Oil on board

As urbanization transformed Sydney rapidly, engineering spectacle towered up high-rise buildings. In the painting, the artist juxtaposes old low-rise buildings in the midground and the towering presence of Kingsclere in the background. Instead of depicting Sydney's grand skyline, the artist presents her intimate vision of the new everyday experiences and vistas of her modern world and the burgeoning metropolis. 

Opalescent and speckled color usage is a notable technique in her paintings. Though the brush strokes are relatively large, the technique is similar to the Pointillism of European modern art. The realistic rendering of the subject shows the traditional academic training she received while she was in Paris from 1912 to 1914. After returning to Sydney, she moved onto her avant-garde phase by devising the speckled color technique.

Margaret Preston, (left) Implement blue, 1927, Oil on canvas

(right) Western Australian gum blossom, 1928, Oil on canvas

Margaret Preston is regarded as a master of Australian modern art. Both of the presented paintings show two of her still lives. Believing that the best subjects for modern art were to be found in everyday life, she painted a large number of still-life subjects. Yet, the artist deliberately selected subjects as her commitment was to create modern art demonstrating the beauty of Australia. Her selection of Western Australian gum blossoms is especially smart, as it is native to Australia.
Notable techniques shown in the two paintings are strictly calculated and reduced forms and subdued color palettes. Mechanical and scientific forms and colors of domestic machines were primary sources of inspiration. Through her invented technique, the artist sought to indicate the improved quality of living manifested by modernization.

Art Gallery NSW: Australian Modern Art — Part 1 Australian Avant-garde

Modern Art: from Europe to Australia

In Europe, the transition from classical art to modern art occurred in the mid-19th century. Right before the transition, the academic painting was prevalent. It focused on painting beautified representations of real life. Impressionists, a group of painters in Paris, including Monet, Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, and Paul Cezanne rejected conventional academic tradition by capturing sunlight's momentary effect on a subject with rough brush strokes. Rejected by Paris Salon, the official art exhibition of a historic art school in Paris, Impressionists held an independent exhibition in 1874. Critiques and audience greeted their work with derision. A such art movement is Impressionism, and it marked the beginning of modern art in Europe. Modern art refers to experimental and progressive artistic practice that originated from modernism, a global movement that sought new ideas, subjects, and techniques to create artwork that aligned with the experience and values of modern industrial life.

In the 20th century, cities were socially, culturally, and physically transformed by the dynamics of modernization. In the rising structures of the metropolis, people adapted to new conditions and improved quality of life. Aspiring artists flocked to cities, especially Sydney, as they were primary sites for the encounter with modernity and diverse artistic critiques. Sydney artists noticed social changes brought by modernization. To depict the rapidly advancing society, artists sought innovative ideas and techniques from Europe, the birthplace of modernism. After returning to Sydney, artists propagated acquired ideas to like-minded artists.

Australian Avant-garde

Based on modernist principles and techniques from Europe, Sydney artists employed them in the Australian context. Australian artists portrayed Australian subjects based on observation of composition, form, and color with European avant-garde ideas and techniques. They developed their artworks further through collaboration. The such artistic practice created modern artworks truly unique to Australia, which was distinguished from European avant-garde artworks.
Australian modern art offers insights into the individual creative mind by telling stories of Australian encounters, cultural exchange between Europe, and artistic collaboration.

Roy de Maistre, Rhythmic composition in yellow green minor, 1919,

Oil on paperboard

Roy de Maistre is the Australian counterpart of Kandinsky in the European avant-garde. He devised the first Australian abstract painting. Kandinsky, the inventor of abstract painting, produced paintings that show the confluence of music and spirituality. Inspired by the ideas of Kandinsky, Roy de Maistre invented the theory of color harmonization. His theory is visually demonstrated in this painting. It shows the similarities between the colors of the spectrum and notes of the musical scale. Through his paintings, the artist encourages viewers to seek spirituality through abstraction.

William Roberts, The interval before Round Ten,

1919-1920, Oil on canvas

Two boxers are taking a rest before the tenth round of a boxing match. the artist positions the viewer above the setting, so they can have a complete view of the match. The tense atmosphere after an intense match is visualized through angular forms and an evident outline. The such distinctive technique is derived from vorticism, a combined style of cubism and futurism. The artist also took inspiration from Fernand Leger's proletarian subjects and his tubular depiction of forms.

Frank Hinder, Tram kaleidoscope, 1948,

Tempera on hardboard

This geometrical image is a result of the overlay of the interior view of a tram in Sydney and the prospect of the outside being seen from the inside. Two chaotically intertwined spaces are harmoniously integrated by irregular geometrical patterns. Seen closely, the space consists of the cylindrical tram, distant buildings, a zooming car, and a crowd of anonymous commuters. This dynamic and ambitious depiction of modern Sydney is a synthesis of Cubism, Futurism, and Orphism. This painting is a true legacy of the artist's distinct and innovative vision.

Art Gallery NSW: Australian Classical Art 1800 – 1900

Just as European classical masterpieces are in museums of Europe, Australian classical masterpieces are in Art Gallery of New South Wales, making them a must-see for visitors. Australian classical paintings portray scenes of Australia and Europe by following Greek and Roman ideas and techniques. 

After European settlement, European artists migrated to Australia and continued their artistic practice by painting various subjects and passing their skills to the next generations of European painters in Australia.

Active Australian classical artists had diverse geographical backgrounds. They grew up and had art education either in Europe or Australia. 

Art Gallery NSW has a large collection of significant Australian masterpieces painted by classical artists. Among them, I carefully selected works that evidently show key characteristics of Australian classical art. Selected masterpieces show Australian nature, the arduous lives of the Australian working class, the sumptuous lives of privileged Europeans, and voluptuous feminine beauty. 

Selected Works

• Nature of Sydney and Australia
• Arduous Lives of Working Class in Australia
• Sumptuous lives of High Society in Europe
• Voluptuous Feminine Beauty

Nature of Australia

Australia is renowned for its scenic and unpolluted nature. It ranks as one of the best in the world. Captivated by the charms of Australia's nature, artists passionately painted the land and sea of the beautiful land. Portrayed nature shows Australians' common sense of the nature of Australia. The nature is too immense and sublime that it is beyond human grasp and imagination. Thus, people are minuscule compared to mighty nature. Accordingly, Australian classical art portrays nature as vast and people and traces of civilization as small.

Tom Roberts, Holiday sketch at Coogee, 1888, Oil on canvas

The artist painted this en-plein air(outdoor painting) at Coogee Beach, Sydney. The impressive beach consists of a glistening turquoise sea with bleached white sand and sun-kissed seaside vegetation. The beach is a well-known tourist attraction in the present day. The artist painted the beach with an impressionist technique, which delineates the subject by painting shades of light instead of accurate depiction. his technique is evocative of the blazing sun in tropical northern Australia.

Sydney Long, Pan, 1898, Oil on canvas

The art-nouveau and Symbolist masterpiece shows an Arcadian pagan god blowing his pipe while a group of naked people dancing along to his music and lying down in a geometrical forest. The decorative and art nouveau-inspired trees symbolize the sensuous mood of the erotic spectacle. Naked people represent bucolic liberty and erotic frisson.

Arthur Streeton, Fire's on, 1891, Oil on canvas

The painting captures a critical moment during the construction of a railway line across the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney: the death of a railway worker in an explosion. 'Fire's on' was the warning call before the blast, as the gang dynamited the Lapstone Tunnel through the hillside. The human drama of the painting, however, is overshadowed by the immensity of the landscape itself. Arthur Streeton's visions of the landscape have defined an image of Australian nature.

John Glover, Patterdale Farm, c1840, Oil on canvas

The farm painting shows the English painter's depiction of his farm at his new home, Tasmania, an island state in Australia. Image on right is a close up of the livestock in the painting. Notice the difference in scale between the vast landscape and the domesticated animals.

Henry James Johnsone, A billabong of the Goulburn, Victoria,
1884, Oil on canvas

Arduous Lives of the Working Class in Australia

The divine land of Australia gives life and breeds myriad kinds of flora and fauna. the fertile land is blessed with a wide variety of climates from the warm tropical north to the cooler southern region. Accordingly, there's little that the land can't grow or produce. The majority of European descendants' duty was to process the resources from nature into consumable commodities. Australian classical artists, informed about the importance of labor, captured various angles of the lives of the Australian working class.

Oswald Brierly, Whalers off Twofold Bay, NSW, 1867, Watercolor 

The masterpiece features a commercial whale slaughter operation at Twofold Bay, on the far south coast of New South Wales.

Tom Roberts, The Golden Fleece, 1894, Oil on canvas

Henry Herbert La Thangue, Cider apples,
1899, Oil on canvas

Antonio Dattilo-Rubbo, The strike's aftermath,
1913, Oil on canvas

The social realist painting shows a weary Australian miner seated with the Labor Party newspaper after rallying for demanding an increase in the minimum wage. The British National Coal Strike of 1912, in which coal miners fought to obtain a minimum wage, inspired similar campaigns across Australia and New Zealand. The artist drew on these turbulent times in this portrayal of a dispirited miner.

Sumptuous Lives of Privileged Europeans

In the early 20th century, European artists active in Australia had affluent family backgrounds, as becoming an artist demanded high financial costs for education and art material. So since childhood, the artists were well acquainted with privileged and materialistic life. They traveled to various countries in Europe extensively. After their art education in Melbourne and Sydney, they traveled to Europe and painted admired lives of wealthy Europeans, scenes that they are familiar with. Consequently, some artists left masterpieces to be preserved as timeless images of European high life. They received recognition in European art institutions including Paris Salon and Royal Academy, London.

  

E Phillips Fox, The ferry, c1910-1911, Oil on canvas

The setting of this masterpiece takes place at outdoors in Trouville, a luxury beach resort in northern France. The artist positions the viewer as if peering down at the elegant boating party and immerses us in a sumptuous, genteel world of vibrant colors, luscious fabric textures, and a warm summer atmosphere.

Rupert Bunny, A summer morning, 1908,
Oil on canvas

This greatly admired painting portrays the life of privileged women in lacy dresses. The artist's wife, kittenish herself, plays with a lapful of cats. Her companion accepts a basin of milk from a meaningfully shadowed maid.

 

George Lambert, Holiday in Essex, 1910, Oil on canvas

The subject of this monumental painting was derived from the family holiday at Mersea Island in Essex and features Lambert's wife Amy and sons Constant and Maurice. The painting is a deliberate attempt to emulate Velasquez, a Baroque art pioneer. Lambert studied his composition to place subjects and incorporated chiaroscuro to establish contrast.

Voluptuous Feminine Beauty

Rich in natural resources, colonized Australia eventually became wealthy. The abundant life of materialistic pleasure in Australia greatly influenced Australian classical artists. As a result, they choose women of voluptuous beauty as subjects to represent bountiful life in Australia. Plump depiction of fabric and flesh is a common characteristic of Australian classical painting featuring feminine beauty.

Charles Landelle, Ismenie, nymph of Diana,
1878, Oil on canvas

Violet Teague, Dian dreams, 1909,
Oil on canvas

Art Gallery NSW: European Classical Art 1400 – 1900

Topics Covered

• Venue
• Background Knowledge
• Classical Art
• Classical Paintings at Art Gallery NSW
• Selected Works
• Narrative: Myth and Legend
• Composition: Beautified Representations of European Lives

 

Venue

Art Gallery of New South Wales is the Australian version of The Met and MoMA. When walking into the museum, the audience would get the impression that artwork collections at the renowned museums are reduced to a smaller scale and housed on one vast floor. The 20th-century gallery on the left displays modern art of Australia and Grand Courts on the right exhibit European and Australian classical art of the 15th - 20th century. Due to expansive collections of works, viewing one collection per day is recommended.
I was overwhelmed by the loads of artworks displayed at the Courts. Paintings were too crammed into the walls of the Courts that several paintings hung vertically. Paintings were not as well organized as that of Modern Art displayed in the left galleries. Though classical paintings on display were masterpieces, too many of them cause viewers confusion by distracting focus and fatigue from overworking cognition. The best solution, in this case, is to concentrate on your field of interest and pay attention to a few works.

Background Knowledge

Classical Art

Classical art has over nine centuries of history, so its history is certainly longer than that of modern art, which has 60 years. The history of classical art took place in Europe and began in the medieval period of the 500s, and it lasted until the emergence of impressionism, an initial modern art movement, in the late 1800s. Accordingly, classical art boasts an immense collection of art created during the period of classical antiquity.

Technically, classical art refers to art created in the style of Greek and Roman art. Artists studied classical ideas and techniques and followed visual rules of form, proportion, and perspective to create their art. Their main purpose in creating artwork was to depict ideal representations of people and objects in the real world. Artists realized their vision in a variety of genres including sculpture, painting, fresco, ceramics, mosaic, and more. Each genre had corresponding techniques, meaning skills done by hand.

Classical artworks portray subjects realistically, so viewers can understand the happenings in the images. Unlike experimental and expressive artworks of modern art, classical artworks show the subject rationally and directly. The two main types of subjects were narrative and composition. The narrative captures a scene of an important story from the bible or myth and thus contained morals. Composition reconstructs reality by beautifying subjects and rearranging compositions. As time progressed, ideas, subjects, and techniques of art gradually changed within the frame of classicism. Those changes are also known as art movements.
Conclusively, classical art shows the power of European civilization. Based on investment from affluent sponsors of art, visually intelligent Europeans formulated basic theories about art, cultivated various genres, and devised mediums and techniques to visualize ideas. As a result, educated artists had the capacity of rendering their ideas with high precision in visually pleasing compositions. Artists painted countless masterpieces that showed the lasting legacy of advanced civilization.

Classical Paintings at Art Gallery NSW

As classical art originated in Europe, the masterpieces are consequently in art museums in Europe. Though Art Gallery NSW does have classical artworks of high quality, they are comparatively less significant than works in Europe. Yet, I still selected the best works from the Australian museum's European classical paintings, as works painted in Europe show the power of European civilization. 
Grand Court has an overwhelming amount of Classical Art created across five centuries. To prioritize the artworks, I divided them into two groups, setting European Settlement in Australia as a milestone. The first group of paintings is European Classical Art from 1400 to 1900. The second group of paintings is Australian Classical Art from 1800 to 1900. In two groups of paintings, I carefully selected important works based on four standards.

1. large scale: large images are meant to be seen by many people
2. defined subject: the depicted subject is well delineated
3. completed within five years
4. has description: important works usually accompany an explanation

Then I categorized them according to their type of subjects.
1. narrative

• captures a scene of a story
• similar function as modern-day TV - a reminder of an important story
• the depicted story taught and endorsed morals

2. composition

• subjects indicate how people lived in the era of creation
• reconstructs reality by beautifying subjects and rearranging compositions

For paintings of narrative subjects, artists froze a scene of a story into a painting by depicting the scene realistically. Painted biblical tales, myths, and legends showed morals that formed the basis of European civilization and enforced endorsed values. Based on those morals, Europeans build their lives. Composition paintings suggest how people lived when artworks were painted.

Selected Works

Narrative: Legend and Myth

Edward Coley Burne-Jones, The fight: St George kills the dragon VI, 1866, Oil on canvas

Ford Madox Brown, Chaucer at court of Edward III, 1847-1851,
Oil on canvas

A celebration of the English language, the painting was the first work to be purchased by the museum. Subject shows a significant historical event of Chaucer, the father of English literature, is reading lines from Canterbury Tales to King Edward III, who ruled England from January 1327 until his death in 1377.  

Composition: Beautified Representations of European Lives

Ambrosius Benson, Portraits of Cornelius Duplicius de Scheppere and his wife Elizabeth Donche, c1540, Diptych: oil on panel

Duplicius de Scheppere was an important scholar and diplomat who traveled extensively in the service of the Kings of Denmark in the 16th century.

Abraham van Beyeren, Still life with fruit, a glass, and a Chinese
Wanli porcelain bowl, 1656, Oil on canvas

William Marlow, The Rialto bridge, Venice, 1780s, Oil on canvas

Francois Salle, The anatomy class at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, 1888,
Oil on canvas