With the 2023 Archibald Prize recently announced, we delve into Australia’s oldest portrait award hosted by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Since 1921 the prize has attracted National interest, controversy, court cases and continually sparks numerous debates, so to celebrate we’ve made a list of works from the QAGOMA Collection with a link…
Continue reading » “The Archibald Prize: A Century of portraits”
The QAGOMA Research Library is host to the Jon Molvig Project Database, a database of the Australian artist’s works, compiled by Glenn R Cooke, former Research Curator (Queensland Heritage), QAGOMA. Jon Molvig (1923–70) spent the greater part of his productive life in Brisbane where he dominated the art scene into the late 1960s. Brisbane was…
Passionate and rebellious, Helge John ‘Jon’ Molvig (1923–70) was a relentless artistic innovator, who, in the 1950s and 1960s, attained national recognition. Newcastle-born, Molvig moved to Brisbane in 1955 and dominated the city’s art scene until his death just before he turned 47. With great energy, he created figure studies, portraits and landscapes, making radical…
Jon Molvig (1923-70) was an acclaimed Australian artist and charismatic teacher, whose uncompromising commitment to painting inspired a group of young artists in Brisbane. Simon Elliott spoke with some of the artist’s former students about their mentor. Jon Molvig ‘A twilight of women’ An intensely complicated artist, and a fiercely independent individual, Jon Molvig (1923–70)…
Jon Molvig (1923–70) settled in Brisbane in 1955 and the city became the catalyst for his major work. A volatile and rebellious character, he was also a charismatic teacher and his figurative expressionist art had a lasting influence on a number of artists who would come to dominate the local art scene. The Gallery holds…
Continue reading » “Carnivals an inspiration for Jon Molvig”
This portrait of Charles Blackman (1928-2018) by Jon Molvig (1923-70) alludes both to the friendship between Molvig and Blackman and to Blackman’s series of ‘Alice’ paintings in which he was immersed at the time — Blackman is depicted surrounded by flowers and accompanied by a white rabbit. Jon Molvig ‘Charles Blackman’ Molvig and Blackman established…
Continue reading » “Charles Blackman surrounded by flowers and a white rabbit”
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