Done’s colour run north to the Coast
GREAT Australian artist and philanthropist Ken Done’s body of work is as colourful as the city hosting his latest exhibition — the Gold Coast.
The world renowned, Sydney-based former Gold Coast gallery owner’s energising new collection, Paintings You Probably Haven’t Seen, Selected Works 2000 — 2017, opens for summer today at Gallery One, at Southport’s Brickworks Centre.
“I’ve had 50, 60 exhibitions in various parts of the world but I’m really pleased to see them in this space,” Done said yesterday.
“They look wonderful. There’s a continuing theme that interests me but essentially it’s all about colour and how much I love colour.”
Gallery One manager Karen Spooner, a long-time fan of Done’s work, was delighted when he accepted the gallery’s invitation to bring a collection north for summer.
“You know, I’ve got a big gallery in Sydney (at The Rocks) which is mostly where my work is and I exhibit overseas and in other galleries in Australia but these people came and my kids, who work with me, came up and looked at the space,” Done said.
“We loved the look of the space and then when we met the people we liked the people. In the end you only want to show work in places that you like with people you like.”
Done, the Coast and its people go way back.
“I was brought up on the North Coast of NSW. The first time I came here, Surfers was an intersection with one set of traffic lights,” he said.
“1946 was probably the first time that I remember seeing Surfers and so to have seen it grow to what it is now and the sophistication that it has now is very exciting.”
The collection’s fun, typically upbeat works include vibrant oils and acrylics on linen, canvas and paper depicting coral reefs in full bloom and the Surfers beach and skyline and a series of bespoke nudes on paper entitled ‘Gold Coast girl’ that pay homage to the Matisse figure.
“It’s a girl I’ve had in my head for at least 70 of my 77 years,” Done said, chuckling.
Done, who created a series of works for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, has a firm view on the art to showing off our city during the Commonwealth Games.
“(The images) should be about the optimism of Australia, about how beautiful the beach and the Hinterland, the landscape is and something about the openness of the people,” he said.
“The images need to be sophisticated. There’s enough ‘tat’ (rubbish) in the world — tat in the sense that there’s enough badly designed merchandise in Surfers Paradise.”
Is Done inspired to create something for our Games?
“All I’ll say is I’m thinking about it,” he said.
Watch this (gallery) space.
(THE IMAGES) SHOULD BE ABOUT THE OPTIMISM OF AUSTRALIA, ABOUT HOW BEAUTIFUL THE BEACH AND THE HINTERLAND, THE LANDSCAPE IS AND SOMETHING ABOUT THE OPENNESS OF THE PEOPLE KEN DONE