John Brack
(Australia 1920–11 Feb 1999)
Nude with two chairs
- Location
- 20th & 21st c Australian art
- Further information
This painting is part of a series of nudes by John Brack that were first exhibited in Melbourne in 1957. Contrary to the traditions of Western art, this work presents the nude as sexless and alienated from the viewer. The impersonal nature of Brack’s nude is heightened by the stylisation of the figure, which reduces individual features to classically architectonic forms. Nonetheless, Brack views his subjects with sympathy, understanding and compassion.
When I paint a woman … I am not interest in how she looks sitting in the studio, but in how she looks at all times, in all lights, what she looked like before and what she is going to look like, what she thinks, hopes, believes and dreams.
John Brack, 1957
- Year
- 1957
- Media
- Painting
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 81.3 x 61.0cm stretcher; 95.8 x 75.7 x 5.8cm frame
- Signature & date
- Signed and dated l.r. corner, black oil "John Brack 57".
- Credit
- Purchased 1957
- Accession number
- 9424
- Copyright
- © AGNSW
