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Details
- Place where the work was made
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Sydney
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New South Wales
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Australia
- Date
- 1960
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on hardboard
- Dimensions
- 107.0 x 122.0 cm
- Signature & date
Signed l.r., oil "JP". Not dated.
- Credit
- A.H. Smith Bequest Fund 1960
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- OA10.1960
- Copyright
- © John Passmore Museum of Art
- Artist information
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John Passmore
Works in the collection
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About
It was in the middle of the 1950s that Passmore began to move from the figurative motifs that had previously occupied him into wholly abstract forms. His participation in the landmark exhibition 'Direction I', held in Sydney in 1956 and which included works by John Olsen, William Rose, Eric Smith and Robert Klippel - all past students of Passmore - heralded his commitment to 'the act of painting as a form of meditation in itself'. Speaking many years later about Olsen, Passmore said:
"Olsen was tenacious and a very good thinker ... he said a totally new way of seeing things had taken over ... it's got a completely new lot of rules now ... you are not looking at nature at all. You are looking at a theory about painting. What one does is a painting. It is not nature at all. He seized on that ... I had my old way and Olsen's new way, and for a while they did get mixed up with one another."Reviewing Passmore's exhibition at Terry Clune gallery, where 'Red ochre' was first shown, in March 1960 shortly before his departure for Europe, James Gleeson wrote:
"... there is a kind of apprehension in his work. He paints as though all his senses were extended to their fullest range of receptivity in an effort to understand the reasons for this apprehension. Vulnerability has given him an extraordinary sensitivity and has made him into one of the most important painters this country has yet produced."Australian Art Department, AGNSW, 2000
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Places
Where the work was made
Sydney
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Exhibition history
Shown in 9 exhibitions
Farewell Exhibition of Old and New Works by John Passmore (1960), Clune Galleries, Sydney, Mar 1960 -
Purchases and Acquisitions for 1960, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 Mar 1961–23 Apr 1961
Recent Australian Painting, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, Jun 1961–Jul 1961
Recent Australian Painting, Exhibition Venue Unknown, , 20 Jan 1962–10 Feb 1962
Australian landscape painting 1837-1964, National Gallery of Victoria [Swanston Street], Melbourne, 29 Oct 1964–19 Dec 1964
The Australian Landscape (1972-73), Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 03 Mar 1972–03 Apr 1972
The Australian Landscape (1972-73), Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 04 May 1972–04 Jun 1972
The Australian Landscape (1972-73), National Gallery of Victoria [St Kilda Road], Melbourne, 04 Jul 1972–04 Aug 1972
The Australian Landscape (1972-73), Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 05 Sep 1972–01 Oct 1972
The Australian Landscape (1972-73), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 14 Nov 1972–17 Dec 1972
The Australian Landscape (1972-73), Newcastle Art Gallery, Newcastle, 17 Jan 1973–11 Feb 1973
The Australian Landscape (1972-73), Queensland Art Gallery, South Brisbane, 01 Mar 1973–01 Apr 1973
John Passmore Retrospective (1984-1985), Newcastle Art Gallery, Newcastle, 12 Jul 1985–18 Aug 1985
New Directions 1952-1962, Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest, Emu Plains, 08 Feb 1991–24 Mar 1991
I had a dream: Australian Art in the 1960's, National Gallery of Victoria [St Kilda Road], Melbourne, 25 Apr 1997–16 Jun 1997
Australian icons: twenty artists from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 04 Aug 2000–03 Dec 2000
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Bibliography
Referenced in 16 publications
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Art Gallery of South Australia, The Australian landscape, Adelaide, 1972. cat.no. 47
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Arts Council of Great Britain and Whitechapel Art Gallery, Recent Australian painting (1962), 'Catalogue', pg. 11-16, London, 1962, 15. cat.no. 32
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Kym Bonython, Ross K Luck, Laurie Thomas and Elwyn Lynn, Modern Australian painting, 1950/1975, Adelaide, 1980, 71 (colour illus.).
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Kym Bonython and Ross K Luck, Modern Australian painting, 1960/1970, Adelaide, 1970, 33 (colour illus.). colour plate no. 31
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Kym Bonython and Elwyn Lynn, Modern Australian Painting, 1970/1975, Unknown, 1976, 71 (colour illus.).
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Christine France, New Directions 1952-1962, 'New directions 1952-1962', pg. 7-19, Sydney, 1991, 26 (colour illus.), 44. cat.no. 70
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Elwyn Lynn., The Weekend Australian, 'Retrospective puts Passmore in order', Sydney, 29 Dec 1984-30 Dec 1984, page unknown.
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Angus Maude (Editor), The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 09 Mar 1960. NOTE: incorrectly titled 'Yellow Ochre'
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Frances McCarthy, Ian North and Daniel Thomas AM, Australian landscape 1802-1975, 'The Australian Landscape', Adelaide, 1972. cat.no. 47
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Ian North., Special exhibitions at the Art Gallery of South Australia: Seventh Adelaide Festival of Arts 1972, 'The Australian Landscape', Adelaide, 1972. cat.no. 46
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Barry Pearce, John Passmore 1904-84, Sydney, 1984, 18, 78 (colour illus.). cat.no. 51
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Barry Pearce, Australian art: in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 'Landscape and gesture', pg. 239-240, Sydney, 2000, 243 (colour illus.), 301.
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Jennifer Phipps (Editor), I had a dream: Australian art in the 1960s, Melbourne, 1997.
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Simon Pierse, Art and Australia (Vol. 42, No. 2), 'Recent Australian painting: Australian artists in London in 1961', pg. 226-235, Sydney, Dec 2004-Feb 2005, 235 (colour illus.).
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John Douglas Pringle, Australian Painting Today, London, 1963, 75 (colour illus.).
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Author Unknown, "You beaut country": Australian landscape painting 1837-1964, Melbourne, 1964. cat.no. 43
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