Title

Abstract - the kitchen stove

1943

Artist

Eric Wilson

Australia

05 Jan 1911 – 23 Nov 1946

Artist profile

Alternate image of Abstract - the kitchen stove by Eric Wilson

Details

Other Title

Abstract

Date

1943

Media categories

Painting , Collage

Materials used

oil, alkyd, printed and embossed papers, aluminium paint, sand, sawdust on plywood

Dimensions

145.5 x 79.7 cm board; 150.7 x 84.8 x 6.6 cm frame

Signature & date

Signed and dated l.l., "Eric Wilson-1943".

Credit

Gift of the New South Wales Travelling Art Scholarship Committee 1946

Location

South Building, ground level, 20th-century galleries

Accession number

7663

Copyright

© Estate of Eric Wilson
Reproduction requests

Artist information

Eric Wilson
Artist profile

Works in the collection

66

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About

After winning the New South Wales Society of Artists Travelling Art Scholarship in 1937, Eric Wilson sailed to London and studied at the Royal Academy schools. A brief trip to Paris roused his enthusiasm for modern art, and he soon after
moved to the Westminster School, London, where he studied abstract design, underpinned by cubist philosophy. Wilson then studied at Amédée Ozenfant's Academy of Fine Arts, which strongly influenced him to develop a formalised pictorial manner derived from the cubist tradition.

'Abstract – the kitchen stove' exemplifies this development in Wilson's work - he uses a domestic subject to explore formal elements such as colour, shape, surface patterning and texture. The painting is constructed around lines which delineate a triangular composition, its apex formed by the pot on the stove leading up into the stove-pipe. It demonstrates Wilson's attempt to create an 'orchestration of the formal elements into a symphonic whole'.
Exhibition history
Shown in 10 exhibitions
- 100 years of Australian painting (1948), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 19 Apr 1948–17 May 1948
- A retrospective exhibition of Australian painting, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 25 Sep 1953–25 Oct 1953
- New South Wales Travelling Art Scholarship 1900 to 1956, National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Apr 1956 -
- The Arts Festival of the Olympic Games (1956), National Gallery of Victoria [Swanston Street], Melbourne, 18 Nov 1956–15 Dec 1956
- The Real Thing, Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Melbourne, 08 Dec 1997–22 Feb 1998
- Cuisine and country: a culinary venture in Australian Art, Orange Regional Gallery, Orange, 06 Apr 2007–20 May 2007
  
  Cuisine and country: a culinary venture in Australian Art, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, Booragul, 08 Jun 2007–22 Jul 2007
  
  Cuisine and country: a culinary venture in Australian Art, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Mornington, 28 Aug 2007–21 Oct 2007
  
  Cuisine and country: a culinary venture in Australian Art, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, Australia, 26 Oct 2007–09 Dec 2007
  
  Cuisine and country: a culinary venture in Australian Art, Riddoch Art Gallery, Mt Gambier, 15 Dec 2007–15 Feb 2008
  
  Cuisine and country: a culinary venture in Australian Art, Broken Hill City Art Gallery, Broken Hill, 26 Mar 2008–05 May 2008
  
  Cuisine and country: a culinary venture in Australian Art, Manly Art Gallery and Museum, Manly, 16 May 2008–15 Jun 2008
  
  Cuisine and country: a culinary venture in Australian Art, Cairns Art Gallery, Cairns, 01 Jul 2008–15 Aug 2008
  
  Cuisine and country: a culinary venture in Australian Art, Artspace Mackay, Queensland, 31 Aug 2008–30 Sep 2008
- Australian Cubism, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 24 Nov 2009–08 Apr 2010
- Sydney Moderns, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 06 Jul 2013–07 Oct 2013
- Art of parts: collage and assemblage from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 Sep 2016–13 Nov 2016
- 20th-Century galleries, ground level (rehang), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 20 Aug 2022–2023
Bibliography
Referenced in 24 publications
- Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of New South Wales picturebook, Sydney, 1972, 105 (colour illus.).
- Professor Joseph Burke, The Sydney Morning Herald, 'Art in Australia', pg. 10, Sydney, 04 Feb 1954, 10. General reference
- Helen Campbell, Look, 'Stuck on you', pg. 16-19, Sydney, Sep 2016, 16.
- Edmund Capon AM, OBE and Jan Meek (Editors), Portrait of a Gallery, 'Australian 20th Century Art', pg. 71-89, Sydney, 1984, 85 (colour illus.).
- Sue Cramer and Lesley Harding, Cubism & Australian art, 'Re-picturing the Modern World 1940-1949', pg. 109-143, Melbourne, 2009, 127, 130 (colour illus.).
- Paula Dredge, Sydney moderns: art for a new world, 'Colour and modern paint in the interwar decades', pg. 118-119, Sydney, 2013, 118, 211 (colour illus.), 317, 324.
- Douglas Dundas, Eric Wilson Memorial Exhibition Souvenir Catalogue, Sydney, 1947. cat.no. 14; titled 'The kitchen stove', one of seven pictures under the heading 'Abstracts'; not paginated
- Douglas Dundas, Art and Australia (vol. 12, no. 1), 'Eric Wilson', pg. 48-57, Sydney, Jul 1974-Sep 1974, front cover (colour illus.), 56.
- Deborah Edwards, Australian art: in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 'Moderns', pg. 103-104, Sydney, 2000, 131 (colour illus.), 302.
- Juliana Engberg (Curator), The Real Thing, Australia, 1997, 26 (colour illus.), 90.
- James Gleeson, Masterpieces of Australian painting, Melbourne, 1969, 131 (colour illus.). plate no. 50
- Bruce James, Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, 'Australian Collection: Painting and Sculpture', pg. 102-181, Sydney, 1999, 148 (colour illus.).
- Sandra Jane, Art is ... making, creating and appreciating 2, Milton, 1999, 9 (colour illus.).
- Ewen McDonald, AGNSW Collections, 'From Colonialism to late Modernism', pg. 7-106, Sydney, 1994, 51 (colour illus.).
- Andrew Sayers, Eric Wilson, 'Introduction', pg. 6-13, Newcastle, 1983, 10-11, 50 (colour illus.). cat.no. 47
- Andrew Sayers, Contemporary Australian collage and its origins, 'The modern collage in Australia', pg. 29-38, Roseville, 1990, 30.
- Andrew Sayers, Drawing in Australia: drawings, water-colours, pastels and collages from the 1770s to the 1980s, 'Junk culture and calligraphic palimpsets', pg. 239-249, Melbourne, 1989, 239.
- Lisa Slade and Rachael Kirsten, Enter Art, Sydney, 2000, sheet number 16 (colour illus.). Education kit produced by the NSW Dept of Education and Training as teaching resource for primary school teachers.
- Linda Slutzkin, Interiors - from the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1981, 11, 21 (colour illus.). cat.no. 14
- Bernard Smith, 100 years of Australian painting, 'Foreword', pg. 2-4, Sydney, 1948, 10. cat.no. 55; titled 'Abstract'
- Bernard William Smith, Place, taste and tradition: a study of Australian art since 1788, 'The modern movement in Australia', pg. 181-213, South Melbourne, 1979, 12, 201, 204 (illus.). plate no. 80
- Tony Tuckson, New South Wales Travelling Art Scholarship 1900 to 1956, Sydney, 1956, 10. cat.no. 19
- Sydney Ure Smith (Editor), Australian present day art, Sydney, 1943, 97 (illus.).
- Gavin Wilson, Cuisine & country: a gastronomic venture in Australian art, 'Cuisine & Country', pg. 9-66, New South Wales, 2008, 22, 24 (colour illus.), 88.