© ATOM 2014 A STUDY GUIDE BY MARGUERITE O’HARA
http://www.metromagazine.com.au
ISBN: 978-1-74295-452-3 http://www.theeducationshop.com.au At eighty-five, John Olsen – widely regarded as Australia’s greatest living artist – embarks on the second largest mural of his career and shares his inspirational philosophy on life.
Curriculum Links Synopsis This program would be a valuable resource for middle and In March 2013, John Olsen was commissioned by property senior secondary students of: developer Lang Walker to paint an 8 X 6 metre mural to be displayed in the public foyer of the new Collins Square • Art subjects including Studio Arts, Creative Arts, development in Melbourne in the Docklands precinct. John Painting and Drawing, Art History and Making Art was 85 years old when he was commissioned to paint this • Australian Studies mural, which was to be named ‘The King Sun’. • Cultural Studies • Biography John lives near Bowral in the Southern Highlands, two • Studies of Society and Environment hours south of Sydney. He decided to paint the mural in a studio on the property of Anna Hewgill and Tony Williams, The activities in the guide are designed to encourage in Robertson. students to explore the approach to painting displayed as we watch Olsen at work and hear his views on painting and The mural is comprised of eight panels made of marine ply, his drive to continue working for as long as possible. The joined together to create one very large painting, the total emphasis is very much on Olsen’s working method as we weight being 688 kilos. John walked on the mural in socks watch him creating this mural The King Sun. This is the first and painted with brushes attached to long sticks. He was film to have recorded the creation of one of his works from assisted by art consultant and friend Ken McGregor, and beginning to end. Olsen says that no other film has cap- SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 artist Carlos Barrios. The mural took four months to com- tured his thoughts so intimately. plete. This documentary captures Olsen’s creative process as we see him working on this enormous work and musing A 2008 documentary film about John Olsen, directed by on the ageing process and his need to keep working. John Hughes, is titled An Unstoppable Force. This 2013 film clearly illustrates that description of Olsen and his work. The The King Sun, featuring John Olsen, is directed by Tony sun and light on the landscape has been a recurrent and Williams. It is produced by Anna Hewgill of Four Donkey central theme in much of Olsen’s work over his career. Films in association with ABC TV and Screen Australia. 2 Biography
John Olsen was born in Newcastle on 21 January 1928 and In addition to painting and drawing, Olsen has worked in moved to Bondi Beach with his family in 1935, which began a wide range of media including printmaking, tapestries, his lifelong fascination with Sydney Harbour. He studied ceramics, ceiling paintings and murals. He is also a prolific art at the Datillo Rubbo Art School in the late 1940s and at writer, poet and inspirational teacher. Olsen published his the Julian Ashton Art School and East Sydney Technical diaries, under the title Drawn From Life, in 1997. College during the early 1950s. Olsen has been one of Australia’s most consistently hon- In 1956, a patron of the arts sponsored Olsen to go to oured artists. His work is represented in all the Australian Europe under the mentorship of Paul Haefliger. Although state gallery collections and the National Gallery of Olsen spent time in England and France, he resided mostly Australia. He has been the subject of a number of books in Majorca, Spain. This experience had a lasting influence and documentaries. He was awarded an OBE for ser- on his art. By the time Olsen returned to Sydney in 1960, vices to the arts in 1977, an Order of Australia in 2001, the his talent and originality were becoming widely recognised. Centenary Medal in 2001, and an honorary doctorate from Olsen’s paintings of the 1960s established him as one the University of Newcastle in 2011. He has also won many of the leading artists of his generation. From 1965–1967, awards over his long career including the Wynne Prize in Olsen returned to London and Portugal with his family, 1969 and 1985, the Sulman Prize (1989), the Australian mainly to study tapestry-making. Creative Fellowship (1993) and the Archibald Prize in 2005 with Self-portrait Janus Faced. In 1968 Olsen set up and ran the Bakery Art School in Sydney. In 1972–1973, he painted Salute to Five Bells, a Some of his most well-known artworks include Spanish mural inspired by Kenneth Slessor’s poem ‘Five Bells’ and Encounter (1960), Entrance to the Seaport of Desire (1964), commissioned by the Dobell Foundation for the newly com- Sydney Sun (1965), Salute to Five Bells (1972–3), the Lake pleted Sydney Opera House. Eyre series (1970s), Golden Summer, Clarendon (1983), Donde voy? Self-Portraits in Moments of Doubt (1989), and Olsen’s work has been marked by a deep engagement with Self-Portrait Janus Faced (2005). the Australian landscape and he has lived for long peri- ods in different parts of the country and travelled widely. Olsen lives near Bowral in New South Wales. Although he has been labelled as an abstract artist, Olsen rejects this accusation, stating, ‘I have never painted an abstract painting in my life’. He describes his work as ‘an SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 exploration of the totality of landscape’. His passionate interests in poetry and literature, nature and Zen Buddhism have also provided a springboard for his creativity. Olsen’s exuberant paintings are often celebrations of Sydney and the harbour, the Mediterranean way of life, food, and sunshine.
3 Summary of Olsen’s painting style Robert Berlindm writing for Art In America maga- zine (April 1993) on the John Olsen Retrospective at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1993, describes Olsen’s style in this way:
A typical Olsen painting combines an implied aerial view with an ambiguous and seemingly unpremedi- tated figuration. His characteristically quizzical line and irregular squiggles and dots deftly render count- less organisms, large and minute. Their environment is conjured through loosely brushed and stained expanses of colour (on canvas or hardboard) that are keyed to natural light. Even when he is referring to the outback landscape, usually noted for its auster- ity and inhospitality, Olsen’s imagery teems with life. Yet the same lines sometimes read as geological mappings. In Olsen’s work there is no foreground / middle ground / background schema, nor any sign of European landscape’s concern with “human scale”. Instead he employs simultaneously the contrary vantages of naturalist and geographer or, to put it another way, the viewpoints of frog and eagle. Art works featured in the film (in order of appearance) Time Line for the »» Coopers Creek, John Olsen, 2013 »» Sopa de Pescado, John Olsen, 2013 creation of The »» Desert Flowers, John Olsen, 2013 King Sun »» Lake Eyre with Dragon Veins, John Olsen, 2013 • 12 March 2013 – eight panels delivered to the »» Desert Seeding, John Olsen, 2013 studio at 19 Lemmons Road, Robertson, NSW, »» The Wet – The Christ Bird Arrives, John Olsen, the home of Olsen’s friends Anna Hewgill and 2013 Tony Williams. »» Morning at the Lily Pond, John Olsen, 2013 • 15 March 2013 – John Olsen begins paint- »» Tropical Lily Pond, John Olsen, 2013 ing, assisted by art consultant and friend Ken McGregor, and artist Carlos Barrios. »» Lake Hindmarsh, the Wimmera, John Olsen, 1970 • May 2013 – John is admitted to hospital to have »» Golden Summer, Clarendon, John Olsen, 1983 pacemaker fitted. »» We are all but Toys of the Mind, John Olsen, 1965 • 27 July 2013 – Mural is installed at Collins »» Self Portrait, Janus Faced, John Olsen, 2005 Square in Melbourne. (Archibald Prize–winning portrait) • October 2013 – An exhibition of Olsen paint- »» Entrance to the Seaport of Desire, John Olsen, 1964 ings is opened by Barry Humphries at Osborne »» Sydney Sun, John Olsen, 1965 Samuel Gallery, London »» Spanish Encounter, John Olsen, 1960
»» Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci, 1503–1506 SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 »» Enso, Daido Bunka (1680-1752) »» Talismanic dragon, Yamaoka Tesshu (1836–1888) »» Dragon and tiger, Obaku Sokuhi (1616–1671) »» Hanging Tree Frog, John Olsen, 1979 »» The Leap, John Olsen, 1975 »» Salute to Five Bells, John Olsen, 1973 4 Poetry and Music ‘A poem a day keeps the doctor away.’ – John Olsen For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; One of Olsen’s most important works is the mural Salute Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings; to Five Bells completed in 1973 in the concert hall of the Landscape plotted and pieced–fold, fallow, and plough; Sydney Opera House. Its title and theme comes from And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim. Kenneth Slessor’s 1937 poem ‘Five Bells’ about a drowning All things counter, original, spare, strange; in Sydney Harbour. Like The King Sun, this is a large work Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) commissioned for a significant building. Each work reflects With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim; the artist’s response to two powerful natural elements – He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: water and the sun – each capable of being life-giving and Praise him. destructive. Music In the film John Olsen quotes from some of his favourite poets, including: Most of the music in the film is by 84-year-old Peter Sculthorpe. Sculthorpe is an important Australian com- -- W.B. Yeats who wrote about ageing in several of his poser. The third of his Sun Music series and his string poems including ‘Sailing to Byzantium’ quartets are heard in the documentary as Olsen works -- Basho, a seventeenth-century Japanese poet whose on his painting. best known Haiku is ‘The Frog’ and -- Gerard Manley Hopkins, a nineteenth-century poet whose language often has a painterly quality, especially in ‘Pied Beauty’.
FROM ‘SAILING TO BYZANTIUM’ – W.B. YEATS An aged man is but a paltry thing, A tattered coat upon a stick, unless Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing For every tatter in its mortal dress … SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014
‘THE FROG’ – BASHO The old pond; A frog jumps in – The sound of the water.
‘PIED BEAUTY’ – GERARD MANLY HOPKINS Glory be to God for dappled things– 5 QUOTE 1 Drawing from the real world, then abstracting from it … pulling out its essence and the interconnectedness of all things … which goes back to a philosophical idea that comes from Zen Buddhism. – Deborah Hart (Senior curator, National Gallery of Australia) QUOTE 2 Olsen’s work embodies humour, vitality and love of the landscape and its creatures. – Barry Humphries speaking in London at the opening of a 2013 exhibition of Olsen’s work. QUOTE 3 I’m aware that the negative space is as important as the positive space. – John Olsen
Student Activity – watching the film
This documentary film provides us with the opportunity to In what ways can his approach be described as watch a great artist at work on his most recent commission. ‘instinctual’? We are given a rare insight into Olsen’s working method. • What do you understand by his insistence that negative As you watch the film, make notes about his approach to space is as important as positive space? painting and to life. • Describe the perspective that Olsen paints in his work. • What happens to Olsen during his time working on this • How does Olsen manage to create a painting of such painting that temporarily interrupts his progress on the enormous size that is laid flat on a floor rather than work? on a wall? What preliminary work would have been necessary? Influences and development • How do you think the filmmakers were able to film the work in progress in the relatively tight space of the • What are some of the crucial influences on Olsen’s studio where the 8 X 6 metre panels that make up the work, particularly from his time spent living and working picture surface take up most of the floor space? in both Australia and Spain? • What kind of perspectives is the camera able to • In what ways are these countries similar in terms of provide? climate and how people live? • How does Katherine Olsen, John’s wife, describe his • What are some of the recurring themes, motifs and concerns about embarking on this commission? images in Olsen’s work? (A range of images of his • In what ways does Olsen’s method reflect an oriental work can be seen at
that of Renaissance artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci? SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 • How do his drawings and paintings of frogs and pond life, his ‘taking a line for a walk’ illustrate this approach? • Outline Olsen’s process in creating this work from the application of the base colour to the placing of his sig- nature on the work before it is hung in the foyer of the Collins Square building. Describe the colours he uses and how the painting develops. 6 QUOTE 4 You wake in the morning and unexpectedly it’s a beautiful sunny day, but you have no idea what’s going to happen during that day. You are participating in the flux and the joy and perhaps the sadness of life itself. – John Olsen
• Why do you think his work has always been both rec- ognised and admired by many people? Name any other Australian painters whose style is both distinctive and immediately recognisable.
Keeping on keeping on
Some students may be surprised at the energy and vigour of John Olsen, still working at the height of his creative powers at eighty-five. However, this is not uncommon amongst artists, many of whom continue working into later life. Jeffrey Smart, another great Australian painter who ‘I don’t know if being an artist is making me live longer, but died in 2013 aged ninety-one, was still working at that age certainly in terms of keeping me vital and interested and and in his final years produced Labyrinth, a picture many alive in the sense of how I live my life, being an artist is un- regard as one of his finest works. Margaret Olley, who died doubtedly a very important part of that – even when I’m not in 2011 aged eighty-eight, was still producing remarkable well. Normally, I work standing. If I can’t stand, I sit – but I work in the last eighteen months of her life, including her still work. That engagement is very important.’1 final work, a triptych of Sydney Harbour. Inge King, noted Australian sculptor, continued welding into her nineties. Olsen himself considers the process of ageing in this docu- Australian artist Lloyd Rees continued painting his land- mentary when he observes that ‘life is a voyage of attempt- scapes as his eyesight failed and was ninety-one when he ed wisdom and insights and that is rewarding because the painted the award-winning The Sunlit Tower, which reflects quest never ends’. his abiding interest in the effects of light on the landscape. Documentary Australia Foundation Joan Semmel, an American painter of the human body still assisted with fundraising for the production working and exhibiting into her eighties, says: of The King Sun
The Documentary Australia Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that provides information and resources to philanthropic grantmakers, charitable organisations and documentary filmmakers in order to explore, share and enhance their mutual objectives of creating a better society.
Read the following statement from their website outlin- ing their reasons for assisting with the production of this documentary:
We believe this will be an invaluable portrait of a great
Australian in the autumn of his life. The film captures the SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 essence of Australia’s greatest living artist. It will educate Australians and international audiences about John Olsen, his artwork and his philosophy on life. It will also serve as a valuable record, brush stroke by brush stroke, of his ap- proach to painting this mural, which will probably be his last major work. It may also help to raise the profile of contem- porary Australian art. 7 QUOTE 5 We’ve looked at remarkable photographs of the sun taken by NASA in which that molten energy, that kind of – that incredible kind of force is coming out of the sun itself, so it’s not a static image, it’s a dynamic image. – John Olsen on the ABC’s 7.30 in July 2013
The film is also relevant to Australian society in terms of played by his helpers, including artist Carlos Barrios? In serving as an inspiration to the ageing population. Given what ways does this kind of support reflect a long tradi- John’s precarious health at 85 years old, the film captures tion in art history where younger artists both assist and the spirit of this great artist and much-loved Australian. learn from established artists? Despite having two major health scares while painting • Do you think it is important to record artists at work and the mural, John remains full of optimism for life. For the to offer them the opportunity of talking about their life, younger viewer, the film aims to increase their empathy work and inspirations? Of what value are records such and respect for the aged, and for the knowledge, experi- as this film to the recording of our cultural identity? ence and wisdom that the elderly have to offer. There is • Who do you think is the most likely audience for this a great need for this in an ageing society that places so film? much emphasis on youth. • Describe your impressions of John Olsen at eighty-five. What do you think are some of the factors that contrib- John Olsen is a figurehead and an inspiration for not ute to his humour and vitality? Is how you age largely a ‘giving up’. His philosophy will encourage the audience matter of genetic inheritance or are there other factors to re-examine their own life and values. The film may at work, such as attitude and optimism? also positively influence attitudes in Australian society • What did you find most interesting and revealing about towards ageing. The contribution the elderly can make is this portrait of an artist at work? often undervalued. Through screening this film to youth • How important do you think the voices and views of and follow up discussion, they will be inspired by learning others are in providing different perspectives on John about John Olsen and can increase their appreciation Olsen? They include the Olsen family – son Tim, wife and respect for the elderly – See more at
• How is Olsen’s approach to work and life reflected in The Sun what we see in this documentary as he goes about completing The King Sun? The sun is so interrogative … taking on the life of the sun, • What part in the process of transferring the design the energy of the sun, the life-giving force of the sun. It’s no of the work onto the large surface of the boards is longer a design – it’s life. – John Olsen
People today understand the sun to be the source of life, as essential to all life as water.
Humans have long recognised the sun’s role in support- ing life on earth, and as a result many societies throughout history have paid homage to the sun by giving it prominent
roles in religions and mythologies. SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014
The religious significance of the sun has its roots in the very earliest of recorded history. The Egyptians, the ancient Greeks and ancient Romans worshipped one or more solar deities and sun worship has been the focus of many other religions.
8 Director, camera, editing Tony Williams
Producer and Sound Anna Hewgill
• In a book of the same name (and a song by Iron Maiden), the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 was described as being ‘brighter than a thousand suns’. What does this suggest about the power of the sun and of atomic bombs? • How have artists attempted to capture the essence and power of the sun in their work?
The Filmmakers
The King Sun was made at Tony Williams and Anna Hewgill’s property at Robertson in NSW. They had a studio that was large enough for Olsen to work in and as Tony Williams explains in his director’s statement below, this arrangement suited both the artist and the filmmakers who were on hand to capture the creative process.
Tony Williams’ director’s statement about making the film
John Olsen was looking for a studio big enough to paint his Lang Walker commission of an 8 metre by 6 metre mural for the Collins Square complex in Melbourne. As it happened we had a studio on our farm that was empty. My wife and I had just completed another documentary, so the timing was perfect.
We built a series of pulleys and ropes so we could hoist a remote camera on to the ceiling with a wide-angle lens. I called it the Olsen-cam. It not only served the purpose of filming an aerial view of the mural for our documentary, but Solar eclipses have long held an absolute fascination for by creating a link to a monitor, John could get a bird’s-eye humans. While we might now be able to explain the pro- view of the mural which was hard to imagine from ground cess that results in eclipses, the phenomenon where the level. We also had other remote cameras in place so that all sun’s light is partially or fully eclipsed by another heavenly corners of the studio would be covered. As director, I was body remains an event for some of cosmic and religious also my own cameraman having once been a DOP, and my significance. wife Anna, who produced, also recorded sound. We could
The sun is often referred to in literature and history as the king. One monarch, Louis XIV who ruled France for seventy-two years in the seventeenth century, took the sun as his emblem and was known as the Sun King (Le Roi Soleil). He believed himself to be the centre of the universe, as powerful as the sun. SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014
• In a group, create a list of descriptive words that you associate with the sun. • In what ways is the sun essential to all life on earth? • How has the sun always been fundamental to painters and their work? • Explain the link between light and colour. • Why is it said to be unwise to stare directly at the sun for any length of time? 9 never have achieved the extent of the coverage had we employed a freelance crew.
John always arrived with a story, a poem, or a joke. He would paint for a few hours and then suggest lunch at a local restaurant. His feet became painful from standing on the huge mural in socks, and painting with brushes taped to long sticks. Eventually it all became too much and his doctor told him to slow down. Less wine, less food and less dancing on a painting the size of a tennis court. John rested, then came back to work at a slower pace.
On one occasion, John suggested we have lunch together in Bowral, but we had something else we had to do, and so declined. An hour later, he collapsed and was in an ambu- lance on his way to hospital. He was fitted with a pacemak- er. We became concerned that John might not be able to finish the painting, and this was on John’s mind as well. He made a final push to complete the mural, and then called us to say he was on his way to sign it.
A few weeks later we all travelled to Melbourne to cover the installation of the mural. We congregated at Collins Square at 8am. The mural would be up by midday we were told. But there were difficulties making the panels line up and the team began to work into the night. It became too much for John who retired back to the hotel. We finally were able to shoot the last panel fixed to the wall at midnight. John came back the next morning and found it hard to believe
the scale of the mural he had created, which now filled the enormous foyer.
References and resources
The Documentary Australia Foundation website: http://www.documentaryaustralia.com.au/films/ details/1703/the-king-sun/ Watch a 2013 video report where Olsen takes the audience through his work on The King Sun: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2013/s3813701. htm Explore the process of creating Salute to Five Bells, Olsen’s earlier large mural at the Sydney Opera House: http://dl.nfsa.gov.au/module/1664/ Olsen Irwin Gallery:
http://www.daao.org.au/bio/john-olsen/biography/ SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 http://www.evabreuerartdealer.com.au/artists/ john-olsen/biography-b1928/ Collections in Australia – Next time you have the chance to visit a national, state or regional gallery holding some of Olsen’s work, have a look at the pictures to develop your understanding and appreciation of both the fluidity of his line and the intensity of his colour. 10 Selected Bibliography 28-39, Ch. 29 ‘Reprise: John Olsen’ pp. 404-415, The Slattery Media Group, Melbourne, 2012 John Olsen, Salute to Five Bells: John Olsen’s Opera House Journal, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1973 Films John Olsen, My Complete Graphics, 1957-79, Gryphon Books, Melbourne, 1980 Not a Job For Boys with John Olsen – ABC 1975 – 48 mins John Olsen with Mary Durack, Geoffrey Dutton, Vincent John Olsen: Journey Through ‘You Beaut’ Country – 1992 Serventy & Alex Bortignon, The Land Beyond Time: A – 60 mins Modern Exploration of Australia’s North-west Frontiers, The John Olsen: A Life - from Sunday Afternoon with Peter Ross Macmillan Company of Australia, Melbourne, 1984 1995 – 58 mins John Olsen, Drawn from Life, Duffy & Snellgrove, Sydney, 1997 John Olsen: A Wandering Minstrel – Channel 9 Sunday Deborah Hart, John Olsen, Craftsman House, Sydney, Second Program, presented by Max Cullen – 2002 – 18 mins ed. 2000, First ed. 1991 An Unstoppable Force: Betty Churcher with John Olsen – 2008 Jenny Zimmer & Ken McGregor, John Olsen: Journeys into – 26 mins the ‘You Beaut Country’, MacMillan Publishers Australia, Family Fortunes – The Olsens – ABC c. 2008 – 27 mins Melbourne, 2007 Hidden Treasures inside the National Library of Australia: with John Olsen, Culinaria: The Cuisine of the Sun, Tim Olsen Betty Churcher – John Olsen’s Opera House Mural 2008 Gallery, 2010 – 5 mins Ken McGregor & Jeffrey Makin in consultation with John Olsen, (Endnotes) Teeming with Life, John Olsen: His Complete Graphics 1955- 1 http://www.artnews.com/2013/05/20/making-art-after-8/ 2011, MacMillan Publishers Australia, Melbourne, 2011 Janet Hawley, Artists in Conversation, Ch. 2 ‘John Olsen’ pp
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