Lot #49 - John Olsen
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Auction House:Mossgreen
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Sale Name:The Lowenstein Collection of Modern & Contemporary Australian Art
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Sale Date:07 Mar 2017 ~ 6pm
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Lot #:49
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Lot Description:John Olsen
(born 1928)
Rabbit Warren – Rydal, 1997
oil on canvas
107 x 121 cm
signed lower right: John Olsen -
References:Sasha Grishin, Accounting for Taste: the Lowensteins Arts Management Collection, Macmillan Art Publishing, Melbourne, 2013, p. 178 & 190 (illustrated)
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Notes:John Olsen’s recent retrospective at the National Gallery of Victoria demonstrated how the artist earned the eminent place he holds in twentieth century Australian art history. Examining his life story and reviewing his work, one marvels and admires his unflagging courage to follow his instinct and tenacity to succeed, even in the face of adversity or critical neglect. Even as he nears his ninetieth year, it cannot be denied that John Olsen is an inspiring artist, made in equal parts of wit and grit. His appetite for a nomadic way of life, in search of new visual nourishment, has taken him around Australia and the world. In the early months of 1990, however, John and his wife Katherine settled into a sprawling 72-hectare property in Rydal, in New South Wales’s Central Tablelands. Instantly captivated and inspired by the countryside, he confidently declared: ‘I’m done with moving – they can carry me out of here feet first.’1 Although he did eventually seek new pastures, his time at Rydal – where the present work was painted – coincided with a renaissance, both in his artistic output and critical recognition. In 1991 and 1992, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, respectively, organised what Edmund Capon predicted to be ‘a grand, eloquent and comprehensive retrospective’2. The ‘91-92 twin-city exhibition was Olsen’s first major review of his life’s work. On seeing the show, art historian Christopher Heathcote did not moderate his words when he claimed that: ‘in the past 50 years, Australian art has produced only two great landscapists: Sidney Nolan and John Olsen.’3 In a country brimming with fine painters of the genre, this praise was of the highest order. There were several aspects to Olsen’s art that separated it from the balance of Australian landscape painting. Although in the 1950s he was flirting with earthy abstraction inspired by the likes of Graham Sutherland – with more than a hint of the late Catalan painter, Antoni Tapies – Olsen suddenly found his own visual idiom in the early 1960s. Since then, he has pursued a unique, personal and consistent style – almost to a fault. That is not to say that his paintings are the fruit of stale formulas or hackneyed processes. His art is more akin to the art of freestyle cooking – like the cooking of a paella, if we are to use one the dishes he is famous for cooking his guests. Like the greatest chefs in the world, – to continue the metaphor – he would not follow recipes or measure every ingredient precisely. Rather, he is dictated by experience, a gut feeling of what’s needed and a refined taste for fine aesthetic judgement. But like every master chef, he had to complete his apprenticeship to learn from the old guard. He attributes this ability to select and match the right ‘ingredients’ to his art education: ‘it not only teaches you about what to put in, but also, importantly, it teaches you what to leave out’, he once said. 4 Although one can imagine Olsen absorbed a great deal of technical and theoretical knowledge from the classes of Datillo Rubbo Art School, and later with John Passmore and Godfrey Miller, there is a sense that they only acted as catalysts for his artistic flowering than progenitors of his style or technique. Rabbit Warren, Rydal displays classic stylistic and technical elements common in John Olsen’s best work. The downward perspective, scattered in all directions, is no doubt inspired by the artist’s experience of flying over Australia. The high horizon almost skims the edge of the canvas – just enough to give some earthly bearings to the space. The canvas is almost entirely covered in an ochre-red and toasty-brown base, dusted with hints of saffron-yellow. A source of water, Rydal Dam perhaps, cuts through the painting from the right like an acute arrowhead. The ground is sprinkled with a disorganised array of thinly gnarled trees, and emerald-green bushes that wriggle their way skyward. Despite the desert-like environment, the scene is dramatic and playful at once. Two birds with ready talons look menacingly at the curious wide-eyed rabbit poking its head out of a warren at the edge of the canvas. Sasha Grishin sees in Olsen’s art, ‘a generosity of spirit […] where humour is often combined with a very positive and joyful outlook on life.’5 The whimsical character of his paintings is as much a reflection of the artist than any real-world subject he is trying to represent. His natural joie de vivre is detectable in just about every picture he paints, the present work being no exception. It is this optimistic spirit that has made John Olsen one of Australia’s most loved artists. Tom Lowenstein once declared: “If I were ever stranded on a desert island and had to select one person as company (other than my wife or a family member), I think it would be John Olsen! He is an unbelievable character, a great bon vivant.’ In Olsen, he sees ‘a great conversationalist with a wonderful sense of humour and a great insight into many issues.’6 Rabbit Warren, Rydal displays all the wit, grit, charm and optimism that characterises the wide Australian landscape. In turn, it is an eloquent reflection of one of its greatest living interpreters. Petrit Abazi 1 Cited in Janet Hawley, ‘Journey to the centre of the art’, Good Weekend, 31 March 1990 2 Edmund Capon in a letter to John Olsen, cited in Darleen Bungey, John Olsen: an artist’s life, Harper Collins, Sydney, 2014, p. 416 3 Christopher Heathcote, ‘Olsen’s “You-Beaut” years were a time of greatness’, The Age, 5 November 1991 4 Cited in David Hurlston (ed.), John Olsen: the You Beaut country, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2016, p. 4 5 Sasha Grishin, Accounting for Taste: the Lowensteins Arts Management Collection, Macmillan Art Publishing, Melbourne, 2013, p. 176 6 Ibid., pp. 10 & 13
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Estimate:A$120,000 - 150,000
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Realised Price:
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Category:Art
This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.
