Saturday, July 01, 2006

The Wynne Prize 2006

26 April 2006


Exhibition: Wynne Prize
Landscape
Art Gallery of NSW
25 March – 28 May 2006


Run in conjunction with the Archibald and the Sir John Sulman Prize, the Wynne Prize has produced a magnificent collection of styles and subject matter. While purporting to be for landscape painting or figurative sculpture, some of the pieces seem to fall far outside these criteria.

For example, although an interesting allegory, the blanket covered furniture and everyday objects that create Homeland Security by Kenny Smith are neither traditional landscape nor figurative. The mixed media piece by James Powditch using found objects and titled On the Beach also stretches the criteria of this exhibition. Mounted on board, this collection of Penguin book covers, prints, signs and plastic model cars is not the conventional idea of a landscape, yet it bridges the gap between painting and sculpture. His use of old illustrative prints which includes white swans floating under willow trees, and toy plastic cars inserted between bare timbers somehow evokes the beach side holiday of our childhood.

Certainly the winner of this prize, The Gap by John Bennett, a large monotone of wax and oil on canvas, which has a soft misty post-impressionist feel, is a worthy recipient. The use of wax softens the texture of the pointillist like brush strokes and the soft greys give it a more European feel than other paintings in this exhibition which often use Australian desert tones.

For those preferring a realistic style there is Ocean Violet Green No.81 by Chris Langlois. One can almost smell the sea and feel the misty cloud while looking at this work. His definite horizon line draws us into the picture and the variation of grey to blue to green gives the depth evocative of gazing seaward on a cloudy day.

Other pieces that also have a realistic style are the charcoal, ashes and acrylic After the Fire at Kariong by David Rose and the outback dust storm of Ian Waldron titled Who Knows What Lies Beyond the Bloodwood Scrub. The dramatic centrally placed orange tree trunk of Rose’s almost photographic realism is highlighted by the real ashes giving texture to the nearby rocks and the painted grey ash disappearing into the background under the burnt trees. Waldron’s piece is dominated by what appear to be totem poles within and without the main view. Framed by a black border top and bottom the work is reminiscent of an oncoming dust storm viewed through a windscreen or widescreen TV. Perhaps the poles represent telegraph poles being passed by on the road. The heavy marbling of paint in Aboriginal colours of black, red, ochre and white gives the poles a certain significance and adds to the mood of the painting by contrasting with the softer yet dramatic rolling dust-storm in the background.

Despite containing elements of realism in his rendition of plants and the bushfire ravaged fence, John Wolseley’s watercolour, Poet’s Fence 1 has a much softer abstract composition. Mandy Martin’s work, Boonderoo Rocks and Japonism which uses oil, ochre and pigments on linen, also mingles the harshness of the Australian landscape with muted colours to create a pleasing tableau. Her use of sprayed on warm orange in the lower foreground and the ochre which stands out from the surface of the canvas contrast around the slightly right of centre, tree and cloud of green and black evoking remembered images of Chinese mountains. The Japonism in the title is clearly reference to the composition of rocks and tree, however given her involvement with environmental issues, perhaps there is also a deeper meaning in this work. Then again it may just represent her way of looking at a landscape in more than one way within a work.

Showing the Australian landscape in cooler colours, and showing mist in a different mood to Chris Langlois’s Ocean, Cloud on the mountain, Jamberoo by Guy Warren has introduced just enough orange to contrast with his predominately, green, white and blue contemporary depiction of this Illawarra valley. Here the mist is looked down on from the hills above and is shown giving a white cloak to the trees. His expressive use of free flowing brushstrokes and diagonal line gives movement to the mist as it swirls through the trees and around the gullies.

One of the last pieces in this exhibition seems to have combined all of the criteria in a light hearted manner. By Anita Larkin and titled, terra firma this fibreglass sculpture of the female figure is covered in maps which are stitched together to create a patterned skin which draws the eye to closer examination.

This exhibition showcases the talents of Australia’s current artists even as it stretches the idea of what constitutes a landscape or figurative sculpture. The varied and interesting styles and mediums used in the different works for this exhibition have combined to make viewing it, an extremely memorable experience.


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