Title
Two hippocritters in tumultuous circumstances
1978
Artist
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Details
- Date
- 1978
- Media categories
- Drawing , Collage
- Materials used
- synthetic polymer paint, photocopy collage, brush and ink, wash, frottage on paper
- Dimensions
- 102.5 x 69.0 cm sheet; 129.7 x 94.3 x 3.7 cm frame
- Signature & date
Signed and dated l.r.corner black ink, "Gleeson '78".
- Credit
- Purchased 1987
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 589.1987
- Copyright
- © Gleeson/O'Keefe Foundation
- Artist information
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James Gleeson
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
"When you make collages - and I did quite a few quite early in the piece - you bring together random elements. However, you do make a judgement on an aesthetic level as to whether they work or not. It doesn't matter whether they're related in a rational way or not, but they must work together aesthetically."
- James Gleeson 1993Gleeson began making a large number of collages at a period when he was unable to paint consistently, due to commitments as an advisor to the National Gallery of Australia. They are complex juxtapositions of drawn and collaged elements; ink is applied to the paper in a number of ways - for example, with a brush onto dampened paper which is then pressed on a textured surface, leaving a ghostly impression, or using the technique of frottage, where the paper is rubbed with a crayon or wax, allowing a texture underneath to be superimposed on the image.
'Two hippocritters in tumultuous circumstances' is from one of his most important series of collages, the 'Locus-Solus' suite, derived from a surrealist novel by Raymond Roussel, also the name of a work conceived jointly by Gleeson and Robert Klippel between 1972 and 1978.
Australian Art Department, AGNSW, 2000
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Exhibition history
Shown in 4 exhibitions
James Gleeson: beyond the phenomenal world, David Jones' Art Gallery, Sydney, Sydney, 23 Oct 1987–12 Nov 1987
Contemporary Australian Drawings - from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 11 Jan 1992–17 Feb 1992
Contemporary Australian Drawings - from the collection, Nolan Gallery, Australia, 01 May 1992–08 Jun 1992
Contemporary Australian Drawings - from the collection, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Campbelltown, 12 Jun 1992–12 Jul 1992
Contemporary Australian Drawings - from the collection, Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre, Murwillumbah, 14 Oct 1992–08 Nov 1992
Australian icons: twenty artists from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 04 Aug 2000–03 Dec 2000
James Gleeson: Beyond the screen of sight, Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne, 29 Oct 2004–27 Feb 2005
James Gleeson: Beyond the screen of sight, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 18 Mar 2005–13 Jun 2005
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Bibliography
Referenced in 4 publications
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James Agapitos, Look, 'Call of the benefactor', pg. 12-13, Sydney, May 2006, 13 (colour illus.).
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Renée Free, James Gleeson: images from the shadows, Sydney, 1993, 153 (illus.). figure 26
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Hendrik Kolenberg, Contemporary Australian drawings: from the collection, Sydney, 1992. cat.no. 20
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James Gleeson: beyond the phenomenal world, 1987. Cat. no. 2
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