Mesmerising optical effects showcased in Geometries

 

‘Geometrics’ showcases works by both Australian and international contemporary artists who play with colour and form to create often mesmerising optical effects. The exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) features works from the 1950s to the present day that stir the senses, engage the viewer in both mind and body and address the eyes with dazzling demonstrations of colour and form, write Peter McKay and Ellie Buttrose.

What’s on in Brisbane: Visit ‘Geometrics’ at the Queensland Art Gallery until 2 February

Using deceptively simple strategies — structuring relationships between the most elementary components of shape, scale and relative sequencing, for the most part described in pure, flat and vibrant colours — the artists behind these arrangements excel in creating mesmerising optical effects. Contemporary in their lively spirit, and sometimes surprisingly classical in their sense of order and proportion, these works are certain to stir the senses.

Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley, England b.1931 / Big Blue 1981-82 / Oil over synthetic polymer paint on linen / 235.3 x 202cm / Purchased 1984 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Bridget Riley. All rights reserved.

Perennial favourite Big Blue 1981–82 by British artist Bridget Riley is the centrepiece of ‘Geometries’. Often associated with the Op (optical) art movement of the 1960s, Riley is a master of perception. She has dedicated her career to exploring the interaction between colour and form, and her works are highly attuned to the dynamic effect of this relationship. Although Riley’s work is resolutely abstract, Big Blue was inspired by her experience travelling to Egypt, basking in the Mediterranean light and visiting the ancient tombs in Luxor. Here she was ‘astounded at the consolidated effect of the “fabric of colour” in the well-preserved frieze paintings. A restricted palette, although 4000 years old, was fresh and perfectly harmonised, a marvellous condensation of light itself’.1

Max Gimblett

Max Gimblett, New Zealand/United States b.1935 / Light green/red – to Dora 1978 / Oil and wax on canvas / 203.2 x 203.2cm / Purchased 2006. The Queensland Government’s Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Max Gimblett

While the colour scheme of Max Gimblett’s Light Green/Red – To Dora 1978 exhibits some similarities to Big Blue (in that they both use red to create strong contrasts, for example), Gimblett’s is a significantly more reductive exercise in pairing only two tones in two shapes. The New Zealand artist painted these works in response to new directions in colour-field and geometric abstraction emerging in the United States during the late 1940s and early 50s, particularly the work of Robert Motherwell, Ad Reinhardt and Barnett Newman. Spanning just over two square metres, Light Green/Red – to Dora (Gimblett’s mother) provides a visceral optical experience that, with great economy, engages both mind and body. The impressive turquoise field immerses the viewer in pure colour, punctuated, or perhaps punctured, by a vertical red rectangle that compels the viewer to stand in the centre of the work.

Wilma Tabacco

Wilma Tabacco, Australia b.1953 / Hellza poppin 2004 / Oil on linen / 183 x 244cm / Gift of William Nuttall and Annette Reeves through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation 2008. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Wilma Tabacco

Australian painters Wilma Tabacco and Lesley Dumbrell are both known for their pursuit of especially lively abstract styles. Unlike many Op painters of the era, Tabacco paints with a rich, almost glowing, traditional oil medium instead of fast-drying flat-finish synthetic paints. This makes the tightly spaced thin vertical stripes of Hellza poppin 2004 intensely luminous, heightening and enlivening the complex and rhythmic moiré effect that she constructs. Hellzapoppin was a popular Broadway revue that ran from 1938 to 1941. The show was a comedy hodgepodge of music and topical slapstick — the opening scene featured Hitler speaking in a Yiddish accent — and its irrepressibly energetic circus atmosphere included dwarfs, clowns, trained pigeons and audience participation. Various sequels followed, including a 1941 movie that featured some of the best-known Lindy hop dance scenes of the swing era. Tabacco’s Hellza poppin clearly makes reference to this high-energy music and improvisational dance, here translated into bright fluctuations of pink, yellow and blue.2

Lesley Dumbrell

Lesley Dumbrell, Australia b.1941 / Stridor 1972 / Synthetic polymer paint on canvas / 167.7 x 246.7cm / Gift of the Queensland Art Gallery Society 1974 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Lesley Dumbrell

Lesley Dumbrell, a recognised pioneer of the Australian women’s art movement of the 1970s and a leading exponent of abstraction in Australia, also refers to sound in her work Stridor 1972: ‘stridor’ meaning a harsh, grating noise or the wheezing of an obstructed windpipe. Here, Dumbrell works with a muted palette — unusual given the predilection for bright tones and high contrast employed by many Op painters — and this creates a strange shifting (perhaps rattling) push-pull effect with her subtly angled crossing verticals, which seem to perpetually cross from the foreground to the background. Although Dumbrell is better known for her jazzy system paintings of the late 1970s, as well as the more playful linear and shape paintings of the 1980s that share an aesthetic with the ubiquitous Memphis design group, Stridor is an accomplished early work.

Lincoln Austin

Lincoln Austin, Australia b.1974 / Out of sight 2013 / Light box: acrylic paint, aluminium and light-emitting diodes / 101 x 121 x 13cm / Purchased 2014. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Lincoln Austin

Related: Lincoln Austin

While most of the works in ‘Geometries’ create a sense of movement, Lincoln Austin’s light box Out of Sight 2013 take this further. By incorporating a system similar to that of a lenticular print, the Queensland-based artist has created a geometric composition of intersecting circles and ellipses that shift in relation to the viewer’s position. By offering no more than a glimpse of the work from any given angle, Austin encourages his audience to dart around the cool metallic form of Out of Sight in a sort of sight-responsive dance.

Peter McKay is Curatorial Manager, Australian Art, QAGOMA.
Ellie Buttrose is Associate Curator, International Contemporary Art, QAGOMA

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Feature image detail: Wilma Tabacco Hellza poppin 2004

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Margaret Olley: Woven into consciousness

 

John Honeywill, offers his personal reflections on Margaret Olley’s work and how her spirit has shaped his practice.

I met Margaret Olley once. In 2009 she came to her old school — Somerville House, where I taught art for many years — to be honoured for her contribution to Australian culture. Like most Australians, I knew Olley through her paintings, the portraits, her biography and the photographs of her home. She had been woven into my consciousness for many decades, though I did not know her personally.

RELATED: Margaret Olley

John Honeywill at Open Studio
Open Studio at the Queensland Art Gallery

SUBSCRIBE to QAGOMA YouTube to hear artist stories / John Honeywill remembers Margaret Olley

I finished teaching in December 2017 to focus on my painting, and four days later I began a residency at the Tweed Regional Gallery. I was invited to respond to the objects in the Margaret Olley Art Centre and made six paintings for the group exhibition ‘A Painter’s House’, held in conjunction with three other artists (Monica Rohan, Lewis Miller and Guy Maestri) who had done similar, earlier residencies. The initial impression of clutter in the re-creation of Olley’s Duxford St home quickly changed into an appreciation of a richly lived-in space as I spent time in the rooms, selecting and handling objects, becoming increasingly aware of the personal nature of these bowls, jugs and bottles and the stories they held. Her paintings included so many of these objects.

John Honeywill, Australia b.1952 / Jug and artichoke flower 2018 / Oil on linen / 92 x 71cm / Collection: Tweed Regional Gallery / Image courtesy: The artist and Philip Bacon Galleries / © John Honeywill
Margaret Olley, Australia 1923-2011 / Hawkesbury wildflowers and pears c.1973 / Oil on board / 101.5 x 76cm / Purchased with the assistance of the Members Acquisition Fund 2011 / Collection: National Gallery of Australia, Canberra / © Estate of Margaret Olley

I felt a sense of responsibility as I used Olley’s objects in my own work, reinterpreting them and their conversations with each other. I have been very fortunate to have had this access, as it has enabled a positive shift in my paintings. My deepest gratitude is for being able to spend time there, because each visit back into Margaret Olley’s rooms became more emotionally touching — a combination of happiness and gentle intimacy that gave me a sense of the private world of this uncompromising, wonderful artist.

John Honeywill, Artist and Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation member

Know Brisbane through the QAGOMA Collection / Delve into our Queensland Stories / Read more about Australian Art / Subscribe to QAGOMA YouTube to go behind-the-scenes

‘A Generous Life’ at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) 15 June – 13 October 2019 examined the legacy and influence of much-loved Australian artist Margaret Olley, who spent a formative part of her career in Brisbane. A charismatic character, whose life was immersed in art, she exerted a lasting impact on many artists as a mentor, friend and muse.

Feature image detail: Margaret Olley Hawkesbury wildflowers and pears c.1973
#MargaretOlley #JohnHoneywill #QAGOMA

Judy Watson: Collecting Australia

 

The Indigenous voice of Australia is over 65 000 years old. During NAIDOC Week 2019, with the theme of ‘voice, treaty and truth’, we invited award-winning author and Mununjali woman Ellen Van Neerven to develop a series of written responses entitled ‘Collecting Australia‘, which draw inspiration from works featured in our Australian Art Collection.

This is one of a three blogs by van Neerven, and features Judy Watson, combining her artwork with van Neerven’s poetry. You can also read poems inspired by Dale Harding and Destiny Deacon.

Judy Watson

The poem, ‘sacred ground beating heart’ takes its title from Judy Watson’s painting. I have always loved this work so I appreciated the chance to write to it. Plus the title just lends itself well to poetry!

I wrote this series of poems, ‘Collecting Australia’ in two places: in the Gallery sitting before the works, and abroad in Germany, where I had a travel engagement. I missed my Country a lot while I was away. I think this work really captures what that connection is like, how deeply it is felt through your whole body.

sacred ground beating heart 1989 is pinned to the gallery wall, and remains unstretched as exhibited, rebuffing the classical traditions of European paintings.

Judy Watson ‘sacred ground beating heart’ 1989

Judy Watson, Waanyi people, Australia b.1959 / sacred ground beating heart 1989
Judy Watson, Waanyi people, Australia b.1959 / sacred ground beating heart 1989 / Natural pigments and pastel on canvas / 215 x 190cm / Purchased 1990. The 1990 Moët & Chandon Art Acquisition Fund / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Judy Watson/Copyright Agency

sacred ground beating heart

sacred ground beating heart
ancient sound feeding art
we’re all sleeping on a sensation
bigger than us, bigger than the body
if you roll me I’ll be thunder
if you squeeze me I’ll be dance
move, jahjam, move
put your feet in the earth
recover yourself
don’t stop dreaming
softly spin
all the way around
sacred ground beating heart
ancient sound feeding art

Ellen van Neerven (Meanjin, July 2019)

Judy Watson

Through paint and pigment Judy Watson, a descendant of the Waanyi people of north-west Queensland, offers evidence of intimate encounters with the heat, air and moisture and pulse of the earth — the geographical emblems of her heartland. These emblems are linked with Australian Aboriginal totemic beings or culture heroes who metamorphosed into landscape features such as hills and rocks, and who continue to manifest their presence as meteorological or astral phenomena. The unstretched canvas has been stained by layers of wet and dry pigment, creating a velvety, sensuous surface which is then marked by distinct touches of colour. The imagery suggests an aerial perspective of parched land, a depiction of distant homelands or a material translation of an emotional state.

Watch | Judy Watson discusses ‘sacred ground beating heart’

This project is part of ‘Drawing from the Collection’, a series of programs which invite you to take inspiration and draw ideas from the QAGOMA Collection through ongoing experiences from special events, to daily drop-in drawing.

Acknowledgment of Country
The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Gallery stands in Brisbane. We pay respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders past and present and, in the spirit of reconciliation, acknowledge the immense creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country. It is customary in many Indigenous communities not to mention the name or reproduce photographs of the deceased. All such mentions and photographs are with permission, however, care and discretion should be exercised.

#QAGOMA

Destiny Deacon: Collecting Australia

 

As a poet, Ellen Van Neerven loves the challenge of responding to artworks, meeting them with her own craft. This poem inspired by Destiny Deacon’s Portrait – Eva Johnson, writer is from a series titled ‘Collecting Australia’, and includes poems created for the works of Dale Harding and Judy Watson.

This is the second in a three blog series, combining Van Neerven’s poetry with works within the QAGOMA Collection.

In celebration of NAIDOC Week, we invited award-winning author and Mununjali woman Ellen Van Neerven to develop a series of written responses which draw inspiration from works featured in our Australian Collection.

Collecting Australia

I deliberately chose artworks from Queensland artists to respond to, because this is where I’m from. I wrote ‘Portrait of Destiny’ because Destiny Deacon is always highlighting our people through portraiture and I wanted to flip this around and highlight her and how strong she is, contributing to this very Indigenous way of honouring each other and those who have come before us.

Deacon’s Portrait – Eva Johnson, writer is about the poet, actor, director and playwright who was born in Daly River, Northern Territory of Australia. Eva Johnson began writing in 1979; her first play was titled When I Die You’ll All Stop Laughing. Her writing spoke about Aboriginal Australian women’s rights, the stolen generation, land rights, slavery, sexism and homophobia.

This series reflects on what it means to ‘collect’ Australia, and how the tension between the Eu-Grip and Dhagan (Aboriginal land) manifests. I hope my words on this art in turn inspire future art and/ or creations/ imaginings. 

RELATED: Collecting Australia

Destiny Deacon, Australia b.1957 / Portrait – Eva Johnson, writer 1994 / Bubble jet print from polaroid photograph on paper / 70.8 x 57cm (comp.) / Purchased 1995 /  Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Destiny Deacon/Copyright Agency 2019

Portrait of Destiny

I don’t live as an artist.

Destiny Deacon, 2018.

 

multi-dimensional          magick K’ua K’ua          Erub/Mer          woman

funny                sharp                strong               communal

history              politics             radio                 performance

photography                 video                installation

 

Thanks, Sis, for dropping the ‘c’             for us urban blaks

You gave us way to       break free         of the whitefellas expectations

define our identity                      on our own terms

 

Thanks for taking the                 white people’s invention

putting your blak eye                             behind the lens  publishing         protecting

the humanity                 of us women                 us men             us children

 

You know          I also    feel       when I’m sitting on the couch

I am always feeling         too much

storytelling                    sometimes        is the only way out

 

you gave those dolls                 a home!

 

Brunswick Sista wherever you go                       living room                    Island

darkroom          gallery              classroom         kitchen              lecture hall

you fly              tid       you fly

Ellen van Neerven (Meanjin, July 2019)

Destiny Deacon

The politics of representation and their implications for Indigenous people are at the core of Destiny Deacon’s artistic practice, which is largely photography, but also film and installation. Her works combine wit and anger to subvert ethnographic misconceptions about Aboriginal people. Deacon’s low-tech, snap- shot type images humorously redress stereotypical Anglo-European portrayals of Indigenous peoples and seek to confront viewers with unacknowledged prejudices and anxieties. In doing so, she takes control of how Aboriginal peoples are represented.

The image Portrait – Eva Johnson, writer 1994 is appropriated from J M Crossland’s painting Namultera, a young cricketer of the Native’s Training Institution, Poonindie 1854, in the collection of the National Library of Australia. Deacon had seen the work on loan at the National Gallery of Australia and later improvised with her friends Eva Johnson to pose, with the assistance of Virginia Fraser, artist, writer, editor and curator, to stage the image. In Deacon’s version however, the subject’s cricket bat has been replaced by an axe.

The subject, Eva Johnson (b.1946) is an Aboriginal Australian poet, actor, director and playwright, and was named Aboriginal Artist of the Year in 1985, and in 1993 received the inaugural Red Ochre Award from the Australia Council for the Arts for lifetime achievement.

J M Crossland, England/Australia 1800-1858 / Namultera, a young cricketer of the Native’s Training Institution, Poonindie 1854 / Oil on canvas / 99 x 78.8cm / Collection: National Library of Australia

Know Brisbane through the QAGOMA Collection / Delve into our Queensland Stories / Read more about Australian Art / Subscribe to QAGOMA YouTube to go behind-the-scenes

This project is part of ‘Drawing from the Collection’, a series of programs which invite you to take inspiration and draw ideas from the QAGOMA Collection through ongoing experiences from special events, to daily drop-in drawing.

Acknowledgment of Country
The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land upon which the Gallery stands in Brisbane. We pay respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders past and present and, in the spirit of reconciliation, acknowledge the immense creative contribution Indigenous people make to the art and culture of this country. It is customary in many Indigenous communities not to mention the name or reproduce photographs of the deceased. All such mentions and photographs are with permission, however, care and discretion should be exercised.

Feature image: Destiny Deacon Portrait – Eva Johnson, writer 1994
#DestinyDeacon #EllenvanNeerven #QAGOMA

D Harding: Collecting Australia

 

In celebration of NAIDOC Week 2019, we invited award-winning author and Mununjali woman Ellen Van Neerven to develop a series of written responses entitled ‘Collecting Australia’, which draw inspiration from works featured in our Australian Art Collection.

This is the first of three blogs combining our work with van Neerven’s poetry.

Dale Harding, Bidjara, Ghungalu and Garingbal peoples, Australia b.1982 / Wall Composition in Reckitt’s Blue (detail) 2017 / Reckitt’s Blue laundry powder, charcoal and Grevillea robusta resin, incision into wall / Commissioned 2017 with funds from anonymous donors through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Dale Harding

Collecting Australia

I wrote this series of poems, ‘Collecting Australia’ in two places: in the Gallery sitting before the works, and abroad in Germany, where I had a travel engagement.

I understand the newly developed Australian Collection as a reimagination. What is Australia anyway?

As a poet, I love the challenge of responding to artworks, meeting them with my own craft. I was deliciously drawn to Dale Harding’s Wall Composition in Reckitt’s Blue 2017 which covers a whole wall. I sat by this work for… I guess it was over an hour. The first poem I wrote was ‘Footnotes on a timeline’, and it captures all of my immediate feelings about the work. The shovel handle stencil motif in this artwork inspired ‘Call a spade a spade’. I saw an interview with Dale where he talked about the woman figure on the right in this artwork as representing women’s work and our matriarchal cultures so I wrote ‘The woman looking down’ about my own mother and grandmother and great-grandmother.

RELATED: Collecting Australia

Dale Harding introduces Wall composition in Reckitt’s Blue / Subscribe to QAGOMA YouTube to be the first to go behind-the-scenes

Harding considers a fuller history of art production in Australia – from Indigenous (pre-European) to colonial to contemporary times. The tension in the Euro-centric perspective on Australia followed me in Germany, where I had a revelation of sorts. It is important to frame colonisation in two ways: events in Europe, events in Australia, there’s a direct relationship. I participated in a postcolonial walking tour in Bremen, in the north of Germany, where I saw what invading other countries had brought to Germany society. The city, the harbor and the waterways was created and shaped by this. Not ‘post’ anything, colonisation is still alive and well, it just goes by other names. By using a made-up spelling ‘Urup’ in my poem ‘Postcolonial musings in Urup’ I wanted to apply an Aboriginal sensibility to the word, and in doing so frame Europe as the other. Put the sharp microscope back on countries like Germany, The Netherlands, England and France, uncover the trails of exploitation, and see how they are still designed by default to exploit other countries.

While I hiked the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) in the south of Germany, I was struck by a feeling of sadness, haunting. I wrote about this in ‘a ship-shaped hole in the forest’, and I became interested to retrace the Cook’s Endeavour back to its source. Facing history from this angle, I felt oddly calm.

As well as having Mununjali Yugambeh (South East Queensland) heritage, I have Dutch heritage, and when I visited my family in the Netherlands I thought about my mixed-race body, two very different perspectives in my genes. ‘Funeral Plan’ is about this.

The following works reflect on what it means to ‘collect’ Australia, and how the tension between the Eu-Grip and Dhagan (Aboriginal land) manifests. I hope my words on this art in turn inspire future art and/ or creations/ imaginings.

DELVE DEEPER: Dale Harding

Watch as Dale Harding creates Wall Composition in Reckitt’s Blue / Subscribe to QAGOMA YouTube to be the first to go behind-the-scenes

Footnotes on a timeline

Burnt in blue to circumnavigate the strange land of evanescence, the blue line they call time moving all forward, bluing the blackfellas they dared called savage – you can’t steal from savages. There was infinite wealth to steal. Do you understand what it means to be a beneficiary of colonisation? Can we creep through the timeline and draw against the ancient-modern binary?

I can point on one side of the wave my ancestors’ story, I trace it through, they thought they cleaned it up but they built the shallowest grave. Their sold their soul for gold and coal and oil and we line our stomachs with water, it will be our armour, we are the people that can live inside our dreaming, live inside the sea, like inside a turtle’s heartbeat, live inside the sun on the sand, warm this country for centuries because we are the real entities. Don’t turn a blind eye please, all we need for you to see is that climate is our only bank. If we don’t have healthy water, air, earth, we got nothing. So where does your money go, where does your time go, my time and your time are on this timeline.

There’s time for us to read out all of the footnotes, go over the fine print. They burnt records of us in fires, the stole the evidence of our survival. But check my blood, I’m from here. This country is a haunted house, governments still playing cat chasing marsupial mouse. How many lies on your timeline? Have you ever felt like you’re just killing time? We’re still smoking sores. Let’s carbon date it, baby. We have time to read out all the footnotes of a timeline in Reckitt’s Blue.

Dale Harding working on his commission, inspired by rock art
Dale Harding working on his commission / Photograph: Chloe Callistemon © QAGOMA

Call a Spade a Spade

A heart a heart
A diamond a diamond
A club a club
Call it invasion not settlement
Call it genocide not colonisation
Call it theft not establishment
Don’t call January 26 Australia Day
Don’t shy away from telling the truth
Don’t say ‘no worries’ say ‘I worry’
for the future of our country, our environment
if we fail to listen and to act
Don’t say ‘we’re full’
Say we’re open
Call yourself an ally
Call yourself a mate

Dale Harding working on his commission, inspired by rock art
Dale Harding working on his commission / Photograph: Chloe Callistemon © QAGOMA

The woman looking down

is my mother
she’s stressing the way
come here my jahjam
the ancestors whisper
come now, sit on my shoulder
you’re safe
you listen
you think of us

“Postcolonial” musings in Urup

Urup colonised itself
and now has a belly ache

like the snake that ate
a kangaroo

local languages
hang in the balance

the river pushed
for commerce

coffee grounds on the
railway tracks

cotton seeds
in the air

merchant houses
built on backs

wolves asked
welcomed back

beavers needed
to clean the river

the red squirrel
fends of the grey

migrant children play football
on the hills

gold draped buildings
fester in the city

here their traditions honoured
so why isn’t ours?

let’s get the U-Grip
of our Dhagun

A ship-shaped hole in the forest

Such a sad sight: a ship-shaped hole in the forest
still recovering from the fright of colonisation
The straightest pine cut into masts
elm into keel and stern post
white oak into hull, floors and futtocks
For the farms: streams of straw and cattle
graze on the deforested floor.

While the ship sails in the southern seas
the ship-shaped hole
thousands of years deep
aches and aches
the people burn their furniture to stay warm
try to regenerate with new trees
left with commercial forests
and waldsterben.

no consent was asked from the materials of “discovery”
in Yugambeh our names for boat and
tree that makes the boat are the same
material handled with care
spirit lives
in the same name
so do I call you tree or mast
as I walk through the wood
full of so many ship-shaped holes?

Funeral Plan

what can you do with your body?
it’s just one body

my Aunt and Uncle are burying themselves in a curated forest
it costs $4000

when history becomes necessary
the sadness belongs to me

I am not aware of my power
you watch me build my weapon

Ellen van Neerven (Meanjin, July 2019)

Dale Harding

Working in diverse techniques and traditions, including painting, installation, sculpture, domestic handicrafts, stenciling, woodcarving and silicone casting, Dale Harding is renowned for works that explore the untold histories of his communities. Harding has a particular interest in ideas of cultural continuum and investigates the social and political realities experienced by his family under government control in Queensland, with a focus on matrilineal antecedents.

Know Brisbane through the QAGOMA Collection / Delve into our Queensland Stories / Read more about Australian Art / Subscribe to QAGOMA YouTube to go behind-the-scenes

This project is part of ‘Drawing from the Collection’, a series of programs which invite you to take inspiration and draw ideas from the QAGOMA Collection through ongoing experiences from special events, to daily drop-in drawing.

NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee. Its origins can be traced to the emergence of Aboriginal groups in the 1920′s which sought to increase awareness in the wider community of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. NAIDOC week is celebrated yearly from the first Sunday in July.

Acknowledgment of Country
The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land upon which the Gallery stands in Brisbane. We pay respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders past and present and, in the spirit of reconciliation, acknowledge the immense creative contribution Indigenous people make to the art and culture of this country. It is customary in many Indigenous communities not to mention the name or reproduce photographs of the deceased. All such mentions and photographs are with permission, however, care and discretion should be exercised.

Feature image: Dale Harding Wall Composition in Reckitt’s Blue 2017
#DaleHarding #EllenvanNeerven #QAGOMA

Insights into the creative practice

 

Still life artist and art educator, John Honeywill begins our exploration of the studio as an essential site for housing the ideas, images and objects of his creative process. A place where he can work through, leave and return to his thoughts.

At its core, Open Studio at the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) is a home for the creative process. Whether you are looking at artworks selected by each guest artist, sitting down to engage in a drawing tutorial at our drawing stations, watching artist interviews, reading artist books or exploring materials and works in progress on loan from the artist’s studio, you are connecting with the skills and ideas that inform a living creative process.

This is the first in a series of blogs that explores the artists space. Pick up clues and tips about how the artist experiments, manipulates and refines materials and processes. Open Studio is open daily and includes a range of onsite programs for creative activities and broader learning.

Open Studio, Queensland Art Gallery

Take part in two art station drawing activities specific to the artist’s practice.

Artworks on display as part of John Honeywill’s Artist’s Gallery in Open Studio

Meet John Honeywill

John Honeywill began painting in 1974 and he currently concentrates on still life, a subject that has interested Honeywill since childhood.

Honeywill engages with the genre of still life as a tradition that holds genuine relevance to contemporary life. He invites visitors to create their own still life works through two drawing stations and through a range of workshops programmed in the Studio.

Watch | John Honeywill

The first Open Studio

As QAGOMA has been interwoven into John Honeywill life since he was a teenager, Open Studio is a great opportunity to talk to visitors about the process and act of making art , and give back to an institution that has given so much.

John Honeywill’s selection of artworks on display as part of his Open Studio project includes work from artists such as Vida Lahey who have taught students and mentored other artists, along with many who are currently working as educators such as Marian Drew.

Watch | John Honeywill

The importance of the studio

A studio is a space where you work, and at the end of the day you can leave your thoughts, ideas, and when you return the next morning, they are still there. It enables the continuity of your work.

In the centre of Open Studio at QAG sits a small Artist Space filled with objects, materials, and visual stimulus from the artist’s actual studio. John Honeywill has invested time and consideration into his selection and positioning of elements from his studio to help visitors understand his way of working.

Look closely at the images and drawings on the clip board. Consider how they relate to the unfinished work on the easel and how this relationship demonstrates how an artist is able to return to the studio to pick up where they left off.

Watch | John Honeywill

Reading List
For Open Studio, John Honeywill selected these books on the artists who inspired him. To read, research or learn more about these artists, visit the QAGOMA Research Library.

Laura Mattioli and others. Giorgio Morandi: Late Paintings. David Zwirner, New York, 2017.
Paul Hills. Brice Marden. Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2018.
Donald Woodman. Agnes Martin and Me. Lyon Artbooks, New York, 2016.
Chris Bedson. Euan Uglow: Sargy Mann. John Rule, 2017.
Michael Hawker and others. Margaret Olley – A Generous Life. QAGOMA, Brisbane, 2019

John Honeywill in his studio at Open Studio

QAGOMA Research Library

The QAGOMA Research Library is located on Level 3 of the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). Open to the public Tuesday to Friday 10.00am to 5.00pm. visit us in person or explore the online catalogue. Access to special collections is available by appointment.

Featured image detail: John Honeywill painting at Open Studio

#QAGOMA