Australian painting of the 70s and 80s

The late 1960s through to the early 90s was a period of profound change in both Australian painting and Australian culture. Artists were producing assertive, bold works – distinctly Australian yet international in outlook, clearly influenced by wider debates.

Recent Past traces a modern history of Australian painting through the work of 36 artists, over half of whom worked in Western Australia - vigorously exploring abstraction, representation, politics and local history, the life of the mind and spirit, and the stuff of paint and colour.

Ranging from Sydney Ball’s hard-edged and resolutely abstract Ispahan (1967) to Jurek Wybraniec’s early work Untitled III (1990), a painting clearly influenced by European neo-expressionist figuration, this exhibition considers the broad spectrum of techniques and ideas explored during this critical period.

The exhibition includes a range of major works, from Sidney Nolan’s giant multi-part Flower panels [Paradise Garden series], c. 1968 and The Snake, 1973, through to WA artist Carol Rudyard ‘s Wall hanging screenprint I, c. 1974, and from European émigré Lidija Dombrovska Larsen’s The lonesome traveller, 1989-91 to an early painting by Jeremy Kirwan-Ward (Blue escape,1970).

The works in the exhibition were acquired for the University of Western Australia Art Collection between 1969 and 1990, a 21-year period leading up to the opening of the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, which this year celebrates its 21st birthday. Most have not been exhibited in well over a decade.

Sydney Ball, Ispahan, 1967

The University of Western Australia Art Collection, © The University of Western Australia Art Collection

Lidija Dombrovska Larsen, The lonesome traveller, 1989-91

The University of Western Australia Art Collection, © Lidija Dombrovska Larsen

Carol Rudyard, Wall hanging screenprint I, c. 1974

The University of Western Australia Art Collection, © The University of Western Australia Art Collection

Jeremy Kirwan-Ward, Blue escape, 1970

The University of Western Australia Art Collection, © The University of Western Australia Art Collection