VISUAL ARTS

HORIZON

Salon Gallery Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Dunn Place, Hobart Until July 1

Aprivate collection of important 20th and 21st century Australian art, which was gifted to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery last year, is on display in this exhibition.

Donations of such significance are uncommon, and to see the work here is like the unearthing of hidden treasure. There are excellent examples of work by artists such as Fred Williams, John Olsen, Imants Tillers, William Robinson, Euan Macleod, Rick Amor, Jock Clutterbuck, James Gleeson, Clifton Pugh, and Stephen Lees.

Anna and Richard Green’s desire to share their collection, and have it seen, is commendable. The actual works in this show tell an important story of the more recent history of Australian art. More than any individual work or name, we are privileged to be able to see a certain strata of history. Horizon contains artefacts from the nebulous, rolling moment that stretches from the late 1950s through to the beginning of the 21st century. Many of the artists featured belong to a generation that launched or significantly rethought their art practice during the ’60s and ’70s – although that’s not a strict demarcation and there are works from before and after that tumultuous time.

The works are connected by a loose series of ideas: these are artists who began to engage with a notion of the Australian landscape as a place that people were lost in or alienated by. The eras of colonial art and modernism were done, and Australian art had changed.

Themes and ideas aside, there are some outstanding individual works that have been unseen by the public until now. The James Gleeson images are particularly revealing. The artist’s hand is there, but this is very different work by Gleeson, incorporating collage to portray figures struggling in a harsh landscape.

Jock Clutterbuck’s bronze work is also spectacular, with the stained patina of his bronze abstract sculpture invoking a sense that we’re looking at an ancient artefact with an indecipherable function. This was the first time I had seen more than a photo of one of Clutterbuck’s works.

However, it’s the Imants Tillers work that really stands out for me. Tillers is one of the most significant artist practising in Australia, and all his work is worth seeing. His output is strongly postmodern, using text as part of his art with great consistency. He appropriates forms and works with context: this is as much a part of his palette as the paint he uses. This is not just any Tillers work, though: it’s a part of his epic Nature Speaks series, which is a huge investigation of Australian landscape. It’s fantastic to see, but even more fantastic is the juxtaposition of this work with a Fred Williams etching, Sherbrook Forest No.8.

Tillers acknowledges Williams as an influence on his work, and encountering the work of both artists together like this makes Horizon a circle through the history of Australian art, making it essential for anyone engaged with the subject to see.