Past and Present Of Australian Painter
The early settlement of European artists in Australia paved the way for a new perspective in painting and arts. John Eyre produced the first recorded paintings of the 19th century. Condrad Martens produced some delicate and refined water colours using space, light and color. In 1831, John Glover arrived in Tasmania from London and pioneered landscape painting as well as giving individuality in his masterpiece. Louis Bavelot was known for landscape painting with insight.
In 1851, more European artists arrived in Australia; one of them was Samuel Thomas Gill whose lithographs gave a clear picture of colonial life. Quality artists known during this time were John Skinner Prout, William Strutt and Nicholas Chevalier. In 1870’s, national art museums and galleries were erected in Melbourne and some colonial cities. Frank Mahony during this period pursued landscape painting and drawing. In 1885, Tom Robert gathered a group of painters to create the Heidelberg school. These artists included Sir Arthur Streeton who was the most influential figure in the group, landscapist Frederick Mc Cubbin, Charles Conder and portraitist Sir John Longstaff. This school played a significant art movement in the country. Tom Roberts was known to be the first painter to take an art course at London’s Royal Academy of arts. He was full of enthusiasm when he studied impressionism in 1881. Mc Cubbin was the first Australian-born white artist and the most impressionistic among his colleagues.
During the 20th century, modernism in painting was born with Nora Simpson as the pioneer in this field. Modernism includes experimentation and innovation using the art techniques like expressionism and cubism. Grace Cossington Smith was known for her painting “The Sock Knitter”. The so-called contemporary group was introduced in 1926 together with Roy de Maistre and Roland Wakelin. Margaret Preston was a painter influenced by both modernism and aboriginal art. She was also known for her flora and fauna prints, oil paints and hand -decorated ceramics. The symbolic surrealists like Sydney, Nolan, Arthur Boyd and Albert Tucker created a new era in Australian art. Russell Drysdale depicted nationalism in his paintings by changing a vision of the bush.
The period between 1950s and 1960s were known to be the war between the conservative and modernist forces: the abstractionists and the figurists. Jack Olsen was best example of this genre. The recent development in Australian art is the pop art that started in the early 60’s. Brett Whitelay is the pioneer in this period known for his eclectic style. Richard Larter known as the grandfather of pop art in Australia and his main theme were human figure and women. Michael Johnson is an abstractionist whose rectangular and shaped canvasses are dominant in his works. The last in the list is contemporary artist Lindy Lee who was popular in the 1980s and her works were based from the past like Rembrandt and Delacroix.
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