The Field Revisited

The Field Revisited
NGV Federation Square
To August 26




View of The Field Revisited, NGV 2018.


Trevor Vickers, Untitled, 1968 (remade 2017).


Tony McGillick, Arbitrator 1968.


Mel Ramsden, No Title, 1966


L: Robert Hunter, Untitled 1968. R: David Aspen, Fifth Force 1968.


Wendy Paramor, Diablo 1967


Sydney Ball, Ispahan 1967



'The National Gallery of Victoria’s inaugural exhibition at its new premises on St Kilda Road in 1968 was The Field, the first comprehensive display of colour field painting and abstract sculpture in Australia. Regarded as a landmark exhibition in Australian art history, The Field was a radical presentation of 74 works by 40 artists who practised hard-edge, geometric, colour and flat abstraction, many of which were influenced by American stylistic tendencies of the time. With its silver foil–covered walls and geometric light fittings, The Field opened to much controversy and helped launch the careers of a generation of Australian artists, including Sydney Ball, Peter Booth, Janet Dawson and Robert Jacks. Eighteen of the exhibiting artists were under the age of thirty, with Robert Hunter the youngest at twenty-one years of age.' NGV Website





David Wallage

Studio visit with David Wallage

Reasoned Explorations No. 5, 2012-3Acrylic on Linen on Board, 75cm x 75cm.

David Wallage is dedicated to the exploration of the grid and non-objective painting. There are up to 80 layers (and counting) in each work that takes months if not years to complete. In the process several layers are laid and then at intervals are sanded back to a smooth surface and the layering starts again. Quite often he has a plan for the work such as a preliminary drawing. The result is looking into a blurry glass fine surface with real depth. It’s hard to locate the individual makes rather they fuse and hum in unity.


David Wallage in his studio


David Wallage in his inner Melbourne studio. Wallage is represented by Block Projects in Melbourne.


David Wallage studio



Northcote Hall

This small hall in Northcote has been recently sandblasted. There is something wonderful about the tonal effect.













Dani Marti

Red on Red
17 May - 16 June
Dominik Mersch Gallery
Sydney


Dani Marti, photo Marlene Sarroff


Dani Marti, photo Marlene Sarroff


Dani Marti (detail), photo Marlene Sarroff


For decades the boundaries of traditional fine art practices have been blurring as artists academically trained in one field explore others. Within this context Dani Marti has been talking about minimalist painting solutions using weaving techniques and everyday materials including hardware bought ties and rope, kitchen scourers, melted reflectors and recycled glass beads.

David Gatiss

Density of Darkness
9 May - 3 June
Tacit Gallery
Melbourne

Untitled (detail) mixed media on paper

‘Density of darkness. My favourite hour, that ambiguous pause between darkness and dawn when you sense the imminence of light.’ 
David Gatiss



Convoy of boats, (detail) mixed media


This exhibition is in memory of the artists’ father. The large drawings are reflective of the coal seam in the UK mine his father worked. Many of the sculptural pieces reference his father’s time in the navy. Other more figurative works detail the family life of a coal miner.

David Thomas

David Thomas
MONOCHROMES & POLYCHROMES
To May 19
Tristan Koenig
19 Glasshouse Road
Collingwood 


Install of individual works: Untitled (On + Off Series), 2018,
synthetic polymer on gesso panel 30 x 20 cm.



Untitled (Listening to the silence between two colours), 2018,
Synthetic polymer on gesso panel, painters tape, 30 x 20 cm.





Untitled (Listening to the silence between two colours; Yellow/Blue), 2018,
Synthetic polymer on gesso panel, painters tape, 30 x 20 cm.



Install: Untitled (Listening to the silence between two colours), 2018.




Robert Hunter

Robert Hunter (1947–2014)
Retrospective
Ian Potter Centre NGV
27 April 18 – 26 August 18 



Untitled 1968.

‘When Robert Hunter decided to exhibit 13 white-on-white paintings at his first solo show it was an audacious decision, marking the beginning of a lifelong dedication to minimalism. After that first exhibition at Tolarno Galleries in Melbourne in 1968, his paintings were critically acclaimed. Later that year he was included in The Field, the groundbreaking exhibition that heralded the opening of the National Gallery of Victoria’s new building on St Kilda Road.’ Bronwyn Watson, The Australian.



Installation. Earlier work, materials: House paint and masking tape on canvas. 


'Hunter is one of very few Australian artists to participate at the centre of an international art movement, exhibiting in Eight Contemporary Artists at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1974, and presenting solo exhibitions at Galerie Konrad Fischer in Düsseldorf in 1974, and Lisson Gallery in London in 1975.' NGV website



Untitled 1970 painted paper and masking tape. 

‘Practical and no-fuss, Hunter's stock-in-trade was Dulux house paint, rollers and masking tape. Asked why he chose the 8x4 feet size of his plywood paintings Hunter offered two off-hand replies: it was the same size as the pool tables he liked to play on; and it fitted into the transport van he drove.’ Ray Edgar SMH

Untitled works c1986 - 87.


I saw Robert Hunter's 1989 exhibition at Ian Potter Gallery, Melbourne University. The works were a collection of his white paintings (above) done whilst artist-in-residence at the uni. At that time I found the works almost impossible to gaze at. They were so white and so hard edge and the gallery was all white too. Hunter's painting grew on me over the years as he stuck rigidly to his core vision and process. He seemed reassuring. Seeing this period of works again as a group I thought this time about the macro and micro. The white of snow and the unique cellular pattern that is each snow flake.


Robert Hunter painting detail 

Robert Hunter painting detail 

Pleinair


A man you don’t meet everyday. Diamond Creek area. Out and about. Mother’s Day. In the zone he seemed too.



Monochrome: Empty and Full

Margaret Lawrence Gallery
4 May - 2 June 
VCA School of Art
Melbourne

Curated by David Sequeira


Monochrome with Ian Wells

A few selected works:

Rose Nolan, A Small Orange Constructed Work, 1994,
oil paint, cardboard, dressmaking cotton, glue and metal tacks. 
Courtesy Anna Swartz Gallery.


David Serisier, Untitled Black Vertical 1, 2002, oil on linen. Courtesy Charles Nodrum Gallery.


Allan Mitelman, Untitled, 1983, oil on panel. Courtesy Charles Nodrum Gallery.


Over 30 artists explore the idea of colour as its own entity – a kind of presence, connected with form but not beholden to it, that has the capacity to both embody and conjure a range of meanings, associations and emotions.


Per Kirkeby

'The artist Per Kirkeby died today (9 May) in Copenhagen, aged 79, according to his gallery, Michael Werner.

Born in the Danish capital in 1938, Kirkeby was a painter, sculptor, poet, novelist, film-maker, and costume and stage designer. He experimented with Fluxus performance in the 1960s with people like Joseph Beuys before becoming particularly well known for his opaque, semi-abstract canvases that critics and historians regularly discussed in terms of geological strata, recalling the artist's background as a student of geology and natural history at the University of Copenhagen.’ The Arts Newspaper.


Per Kirkeby, Untitled, 1999, Oil on canvas 300 × 500 cm