Diploma Lecture Series 2011 Art and Australia ll: European ... · Pop art and The Yellow House...
Transcript of Diploma Lecture Series 2011 Art and Australia ll: European ... · Pop art and The Yellow House...
Diploma Lecture Series 2011
Art and Australia ll: European Preludes and Parallels
Pop art and The Yellow House
Craig Judd
12 / 13 October 2011
Lecture summary:
Pop Art is a simultaneous embrace and critique of the joys of capitalism- the ubiquity of the already made, the
easily consumed.
This lecture is a brief glimpse into the Australian art and culture c. 1960- 1975 the halcyon days of the “Baby
Boomers” those two post WWII generations of young people who optimistically challenged what they saw as
the strictures of politics, the law, religion, custom and gender. For the first time in History young people created
their own cultural forms, sometimes reactive and revolutionary, always quickly commodified, it began with rock
and roll in the mid 1950s. Surprisingly Australian artists and writers were in the forefront of these youth culture
liberation movements. OZ magazine (1963-69 Sydney 1967-73 London) the brain child of Richard Walsh and
Richard Neville, created new models for journalism and graphic design. Brett Whitely and Martin Sharp
quintessentially imaged the heady energy of London of the mid to late 1960s. Lillian Roxon wrote the first ever
“Rock Encyclopedia “(1969) in New York while her sometimes friend Germaine Greer captured the imagination
of the world with her treatise on women’s liberation “The Female Eunuch” (1969).
There was also the Vietnam War 1962-72 (for Australia our soldiers were there in numbers 1966-1972), Jean
Shrimpton and Twiggy, mini skirts, Cleo magazine and Hippies. There was also “R & R”, Harold and Zara Holt,
John and Bettina Gorton, Billy and Sonia MacMahon, Gough and Margaret Whitlam. There were the Freedom
Rides, Juanita Nielson and the Green Bans, the Moratorium Movements and the 1967 referendum where over
90% of Australians voted to allow Indigenous Australian people to finally become citizens. Cultural practices
attempted to translate this rapidly and radically changing world. Australian artists c.1960-1975 created an
exciting synthesis of both European and North American versions of Pop and Conceptual Art. In galleries that
have become almost mythic – Watters, Central Street, The Yellow House - artists created immediately
recognisable and readable images and forms that are fun and funky, sometimes ironic, critical and challenging.
This is a time of self confident experimentation and consolidation which forms the bedrock of Australian
contemporary art and culture.
Slide list:
1. Mike Brown (1938-1997), Ross Crothall “Festive cavalier personage with robot bodyguards and lipstick,
etc... “ 1961, painting, fibre-tipped pen, ballpoint pen, red wax pencil, enamel, gouache and watercolour
on newsprint on composition board, National Gallery of Australia
2. Mike Brown (1938-1997), “The beautiful one is here”, 1969-70, synthetic polymer, collage on canvas,
Art Gallery of New South Wales
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3. Martin Sharp, “Mister tambourine man”, 1968, poster screen-print, stencil, National Gallery of Australia
4. Martin Sharp, “Still life: (Marilyn), 1973, painting, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, National Gallery of
Australia
5. Vivienne Binns, “Untitled”, 1965, ball point drawing, National Gallery of Victoria
6. Robert Rooney (b.1937), “Canine Capers III’, 1969, painting, synthetic polymer paint on canvas,
National Gallery of Australia
7. Alan Oldfield (1943-2004), “Interior with banana chair”, 1973, synthetic polymer on canvas, Art Gallery
of New South Wales
8. Carol Jerrems (1949-1980), “Vale Street #2”, 1975, St Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria, gelatin silver
photograph, Art Gallery of New South Wales
Bibliography:
Christine France “Martin Sharp: a democratic surrealism” Art and Australia magazine Vol 47 No1 Spring 2009
Anne Loxley “Pop art with a feeling for the deeper meaning” Sydney Morning Herald 23 March 2004
Stephen Sewell “Don’t call pop culture art - it’s rubbish” Sydney Morning Herald 10 February 2010
Joanna Mendelsohn “Richard Larter “The stripped rather than the teased” Art and Australia Vol 30, No.1,
Spring 1992,
Joan Kerr “The Art of Vivienne Binns”, Art and Australia, Vol 30 No 3, Autumn 1993 Peter Wilmoth “The 70’s stripped bare” (Carol Jerrams) 17 July 2005 The Age
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Mike Brown (1938-1997), Ross Crothall “Festive cavalier personage with robot bodyguards and lipstick, etc... “
1961, painting, fibre-tipped pen, ballpoint pen, red wax pencil, enamel, gouache and watercolour on newsprint on
composition board, National Gallery of Australia
Mike Brown (1938-1997), “The beautiful one is here”, 1969-70, synthetic polymer, collage on canvas, Art
Gallery of New South Wales
Martin Sharp, “Mister tambourine man”, 1968, poster screen-print, stencil, National Gallery of Australia
Martin Sharp, “Still life: (Marilyn), 1973, painting, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, National Gallery of
Australia
Vivienne Binns, “Untitled”, 1965, ball point drawing, National Gallery of Victoria
Robert Rooney (b.1937), “Canine Capers III’, 1969, painting, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, National
Gallery of Australia
Alan Oldfield (1943-2004), “Interior with banana chair”, 1973, synthetic polymer on canvas, Art Gallery of New
South Wales
Carol Jerrems (1949-1980), “Vale Street #2”, 1975, St Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria, gelatin silver photograph,
Art Gallery of New South Wales