Australian Painting 1788-1990

by Bernard Smith

This new paperback version of the 1990 third edition includes a detailed account of the great changes which altered the art scene during the 1960s, such as abstract expressionism, Pop Art and colour painting. Peter Fuller, writing in the Independent - ` As a study of its chosen subject, the book is a tour de force, unlikely ever to be superseded.' As in the first and second editions, the relationship between new influences from abroad and the changing political, social and artistic environments in Australia remains the central theme. Painting as an art form underwent a crisis throughout the world in the 1960s. Australian artists responded in different ways. Terry Smith examines the response during the 1970s of the older generation typified by Arthur Boyd and Fred Williams, and the colour painters who were prominent during the 1960s. He looks at the challenge of Conceptual Art and the impact of dissenting politics, on painters. This disruption was matched, paradoxically, by growth in government support, a booming art market, and an expanding educational system. The advent of feminism in the late 1960s in Australia ensured a significant representation of women painters in the following decades. The challenge to women artists working within a patriarchal society and the development of major young painters such as Susan Norrie and Jenny Watson is examined. The vibrancy and symbolic imagery of recent Aboriginal painting has created enormous interest and excitement both locally and internationally. The role of painting in traditional Aboriginal communities as well as the remarkable emergence of art by Aborigines living in the major cities, is discussed in detail. During the 1980s postmodern theories were prominent in both painting and art writing. Australian artists such as Imants Tillers and Juan Davila evolved a unique form of Post-Conceptual painting in which questions of meaning and identity were explored in new ways. The final chapter concludes with a survey of the work of younger painters, and a review of Australian painting during the past three chapters. Australian Painting 1788-1990 discusses the achievements of Australia's leading artists and a great many lesser known ones. All facets of Australian painting are generously illustrated. This new paperback edition contains the most significant selection of paintings yet published.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, History, Australia

603 pages, Paperback

First published August 10, 1972

About the author

Bernard Smith (1916–2011) was arguably Australia’s greatest art historian and one of the most important humanist thinkers internationally on ideas concerning cultural contact.

Reviews

[Digby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Smith, ever the colonialist at heart, narrates a fairly didactic history of Australian painting from the arrival of the first fleet until the 1960s.

The highlights of the book were the period covering Louis Buvelot and Roberts and his Heidelberg school of art which became a central focus Smith returned to throughout.

The scope felt pretty dated now that feminism and post-colonialism is so entrenched in art history and philosophy but this aside the formal analysis was very engaging.

I never knew Sidney Nolan lived such an illustrious life and went to the Venice Film Festival as a delegate for Australian cinema nominating a documentary called Back of Beyond…the title of Scott Murray’s book!

[Joel Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conrad Mertens (1801-78) was the most prolific, if not the most important, of Australia's colonial painters.

Many artists who worked on the American, NZ and Australian frontiers began life as surveyors.

William Charles Piquonit (1836-1914) was the first Australian born landscape painter of any significance.

Louis Buvelot (1814-88) was called the Father of landscape painting in Australia.

Tom Roberts (1856-1931) established an Australian school of painting in Heidelberg between 1885-90 with McCubbin. Aim was create distinctly Australian art.

Plein-air sketching = painting outside.

It was images of the country and of country life, not of the city, which finally captured the public imagination and brought the greatest fame to the members of the Heidelberg school.

Charles Condor was the only Australian artist on record who, after beginning his career in Australia succeeded in making a genuine contribution to European art.

The young Australian society of the 1880's was neither rich enough, nor populous enough, nor educated enough to support the fine arts.

John Russell was relatively unknown in Australia but lived in Paris and was friends with Van Gogh and Monet who both admired his work. He painted a portrait of Van Gogh.

Modern movement is a term that came out of French impressionism under the influence of Van Gogh etc. Artist no longer sought to imitate nature.

Modern art - greater emphasis on the expression of the artist's personality in the work - mood and feelings.

Exhibitions by Drysdale, Sidney Nolan and Tucker in the 1950's showed Australia had its own style of art.

Abstract art offers an experience confined within very narrow frontiers. It has no content. We cannot relate it to ordinary life. The experience exists as a thing in itself, isolated in the art gallery by the movement of sensation.

Figurative painting - clearly derived from real object sources - in contrast to abstract art.

Aboriginal art is an art which has evolved in isolation from the rest of world art.