Saleable Items - Prints - Australian Artists

Imagine the thoughts and feelings of artists arriving in Australia in the late 18th century when they first glimpsed the unfamiliar landscape of Australia. The earliest artists like the convict, John Eyre and the renowned Conrad Martens produced representational works in the European tradition.

John Glover was the first to break away from the traditional style by depicting the bright, clear, sometimes harsh, light of Tasmania thus paving the way for an "Australian Tradition."

From this time Australia has been at the forefront of cotemporary art trends.

"The diverse and overwhelming beauty of the Australian landscape has played a defining role in our culture. The first significant art movement in Australia began in the 1880's with the birth of the Heidleberg School, named after a village near Melbourne, painters Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Frederick McCubbin camped and painted in the open air. These artists worked in the European tradition of impressionism and landscape became their muse. Among the most famous works are Robert's "Shearing the Rams"(1890) and "Lost"(1886) which define the hardships of life in the bush.

While painters of the Heidleberg School were Melbourne based, modernism began in Sydney. The shift to freer, more experimental approach saw the introduction of cubism and expressionism. Thea Proctor, Margaret Preston and Grace Cossington-Smith were at the forefront of this movement. Modernism embraced the new technologies of the 1920's and the energy of the urban environment. Cossington -Smith's "The Sock Knitter" (1915) is among the earliest modernists works completed in Australia. Margaret Preston remains one of Australia's most loved artists. Famous for her use of Australian flora in paintings and prints, Preston was also one of the first artists to champion the significance of Aboriginal art.

The 1940's saw the emergence of the "Angry Penguins", a modernist, literary movement which sought to shake up the conservative art establishment. Members included Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd and Albert Tucker. These artists use symbolic realism to express deeper and darker levels of the human psyche. Boyd painted powerful commentaries on the individual deranged by war, and later, on the conditions and lives of Aboriginal Australians. Of particular renown are his Half-caste Bride paintings. Sidney Nolan, arguably the most original artist in post war Australia, is best known for his paintings of bushranger Ned Kelly begun in 1947. Around this time Russell Drysdale traveled to the bush, but unlike those of the Heidleberg School, his paintings show the outback as a harsh, empty space devoid of hope. The conflict between conservative and modern forces continued into 1950's and 1960's. 'The Antipodeans" was a group of Melbourne artists including John Brack, Arthur Boyd and Charles Blackman. As successors to the expressionist movement, they rejected "new" art coming from Europe. Brack's "Collins Street,5pm (1956), a bleak portrait of office workers exiting the city suburbia, is typical of his depictions of urban living. Some of the best abstractionist works came from Sydney artist John Olsen whose works capture playful humour in his investigations of a national identity.

American and European "colour-field" abstract painting had a significant impact on Australian art in the 1960's, followed by increasingly varied mixes of influences from abroad. This eclecticism can be seen in the works of Brett Whiteley. "(Extract taken from "Welcome to Australia" web site).

Prints currently held by artists highlighted throughout the text are as follows:

Artist	Description	Sale price
Charles Blackman	Night Window	$35
	Goodbye Feet	$35
Arthur Boyd	Irrigation Lake, Wimmera	$35
	Riverbank with Bathers and Mars	$35
Grace Cossington-Smith	Interior in Yellow	$35
Russell Drysdale	The Cricketer	$60
	Two Children	$35
Frederick McCubbin	The Lost Child	$35
	Lost 1886	$35
	Home Again	$35
Sidney Nolan	Ned Kelly	$15-$35
Tom Roberts	Mosman Bay	$60
Arthur Streeton	Circular Quay	$35
Brett Whitley	Remembering Lao Tse	$40
	Park under Sunlight	$40
	Screen as Bathroom Window	$40
	Interior with Time Past	$40