Peter Powditch Coast – A Retrospective

1 “I’m interested in the things I see around me, in popular things, like everyone else.”

Peter Powditch 1969

Extract from and Artists in the Making Craig McGregor, David Beal, David Moon, Harry Williamson, Thomas Nelson Ltd 1969.

3 Peter Powditch Coast – A Retrospective

Painting and sculpture 1962 – 2015

Exhibition 31 March – 21 May 2017

S.H. Ervin Gallery Watson Road, Observatory Hill The Rocks, Sydney

This exhibition is presented in association with Defiance Gallery, Sydney

4 5 Photo Vogue

6 7 Peter Powditch Coast – A Retrospective John McDonald

A few years ago I flew to Byron Bay for the Writers’ One thinks of Samuel Beckett’s “Ever tried. Ever Powditch gives the impression that he has lived Festival, where I was booked into a local B&B. On failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”4 the life of the artist, with all of its attendant cliches, arrival I found a photocopied article from The New Or perhaps Bob Dylan’s “She knows there’s no like an actor playing a role. It was easier to drink York Review of Books lying on the bed. It hadn’t success like failure, and that failure’s no success whisky in the back room at an opening, he told been left by the festival crew but by Peter Powditch. at all.”5 Susan Chenery, than to be standing in the gallery It was ‘The Imitation of Our Lord Don Quixote’ by Powditch was right. Ryckmans’s essay on Don having to “explain” your paintings.7 Simon Leys (AKA Pierre Ryckmans), now collected in Quixote illuminates the life, career and temperament He joined in with the drinking and bravado that his anthology, The Halls of Uselessness (2011).1 of an intensely original artist. In 1972, by his own one associates with characters such as John Olsen Ryckmans was an essayist in the classic style, and admission, Powditch was probably the best known and Ray Hughes, but maintained a sense of inner the piece on Don Quixote is a dazzling example of artist in Sydney. By 2000 he had moved to the NSW detachment. Like a character in a novel by Albert his lucidity and erudition. The premise is that north coast and virtually disappeared. In the ’70s Camus, he went through the motions of life without Cervantes wrote Don Quixote (1605-15) as a pot-boiler he painted big, bold figures and landscapes using attaching any deep meaning to these activities. to bring in much-needed income, and to express his radically simplified forms and bright colours. In Powditch is the very last person to get sentimental disdain for popular novels of chivalry. Yet somehow the 1990s he retreated into small, pastel paintings, about being one of the ‘Brothers of the Brush’. this hefty, repetitive, episodic story, inspired by an produced with the same exasperating reductiveness He has always been a loner, happy to work in utterly trivial literary quarrel, has gone on to be one that drove Giacometti to whittle away his war- solitude, solving the pictorial problems he sets of the most admired novels ever written. Cervantes’s time sculptures until they had become tiny stick himself with slow deliberation. tale has withstood the tests of time and translation. figures. Today Powditch is making complex, three- Even his compulsive smoking, which has ruined It has captivated readers from first publication to the dimensional collages from cigarette packets. his health, is something Powditch contemplates Self Portrait 1962 present day. Powditch is quietly spoken, with a precise memory with detachment. Whereas David Hockney is a acrylic on board 41 x 36.5cm Years later Powditch said to me: “I think that essay and a formidable intelligence, but over the years he militant smoker who champions the fags with the Collection of Campbell Robertson-Swann and Lauren Harvey just about sums me up.” It’s a startling admission has been prone to bouts of rage and depression. same fervour he applies to popularising his theories because most people would consider a comparison On more than one occasion he has smashed up a of art, for Powditch it’s merely something that with Don Quixote to be an admission of failure, of studio and destroyed a quantity of his own work. he does. hopeless eccentricity. One thinks of the elderly, self- He has a story about the years he spent as a high One can imagine him relishing a line from the styled knight errant tilting at windmills. school art teacher – that on the one day he finally Ryckmans essay, which mocks those who consume Ryckmans’s essay redeems Don Quixote from such managed to discipline his unruly students, he quit books from a sense of cultural obligation. “I confess charges. He argues that the exclusively pejorative use the job. “I realised I didn’t want to be that sort of I read only for pleasure,” Ryckmans writes.8 of the term “quixotic” demonstrates that “our culture teacher,” he says.6 There is an obvious connection with Powditch’s has drifted away from its spiritual roots”.2 For it is not There is a pattern in his career of striving after statement to Craig McGregor in 1969: “I’m Don Quixote’s failure that is important, it is his striving. a success that is rejected as soon as it has been interested in the things I see around me, in popular Indeed, the magnitude of the character’s dreams achieved – not wilfully, like the tortured artists in things like everyone else.”9 meant he was doomed to “perpetual failure”. The pulp novels – but through a sudden realisation of his Even in the ’60s, Powditch made a distinction lesson lies in understanding that worldly success should own indifference to such matters. Notwithstanding between the active, difficult, purposeful labour not be an end in itself or the ultimate standard of value. his clear memories of past events and paintings, that went into a work of art, and the banality of his Ryckmans concludes: “The successful man adapts Powditch says he’s not really interested in the things subject matter. The ‘meaning’ of a work could not be himself to the world. The loser persists in trying to he has done, only in what he’s doing at present. separated from its making. There were no messages, adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress Once again, it’s not a neurotic repudiation of the overt or hidden. There was no attempt to align depends on the loser.” 3 past but simply a habit of mind. himself with a fashionable style or movement.

8 9 Andy Warhol once said that Pop Art is about a shower recess, is a more overtly erotic proposition a curved shape on top signifies “tree” just as began as a comic character and ended as a powerful “liking things”.10 Powditch, who strove to paint the than any of the Sun Torsos, because we see her as a effectively as a Heysen watercolour of some symbol of Christian faith, Powditch’s sculptures, things he and “everyone else” liked, with neither recognisable person, not as a series of geometrical majestic gum. no less than his paintings of bikini girls, nudes and apologies nor excuses, had no desire to be viewed shapes and spray-painted forms that create an Powditch has always had a penchant for pastel landscapes, have a sacramental aspect. He is not as a Pop artist. For Powditch Pop Art was part of almost tactile sensation of summer heat, soft flesh colours, notably soft pinks and browns. Over the past paying homage to a silent, all-powerful God, but the landscape, along with hard-edge abstraction, and stiff fabric. two decades the last strong colours have seeped out to the mysteries of creativity, which can never be Matisse’s cut-outs, Picasso’s collages, and perhaps In an Art and Australia profile of 1974, Peter Brown of his work, perhaps as he has settled into a more unravelled by any number of analyses or expositions. Jean Arp’s wooden relief sculptures. In a painting noted how Powditch’s experiments with print-making introspective frame of mind. The most recent pieces There is a startling purity in the way Powditch has such as Fabulous (1966), which depicts a group of had influenced the Sun Torsos. He also claimed are small sculptures, full of fractured narratives and approached those “popular things” that proclaim people in a room, the reference seems to be to that Powditch “has been able to create classically references. Even a passing glance at 47/48 (2015) his membership of the everyday world, and his belief Michael Andrews’s All night long (1963-64), acquired weighty, grave and authoritative art which still conjures up Picasso’s Glass of Absinthe (1914). that the artist need feel no shame in playing a game by the National Gallery of Victoria in 1964. contains all the associative meanings which only the The current works are more playful than the small, that will always be lost. If he painted advertising signs and lounge rooms, nude can produce”.13 austere torsos and landscapes of the preceding it didn’t imply a critique of consumer society. If he It may sound strange to describe pictures of girls period, right down to the use of cigarette packets johnmcdonald.net.au painted nudes or girls in bikinis, it wasn’t with the in bikinis as “weighty, grave and authoritative art”, with their alarming health warnings that Powditch eroticism of Tom Wesselmann. but the more one looks at the Sun Torsos, the more ignores, as he puffs and coughs. The most remarkable aspect of Powditch’s nudes plausible this seems. They are ‘sexy’ only in the way At heart, Powditch would probably agree with and bikini girls is their strict formality. There is not a we might use the word to refer to something new one of Ryckmans’s more radical pronouncements hint of prurience in all these naked female torsos. and catchy. They represent ‘sex’ as a concept, but do in the Quixote essay: “Creative literature, inasmuch They feel more like altarpieces than Playboy pinups. not seek to titillate the viewer or dwell inordinately as it is artistically valid, can carry no message.”14 They could be architectural details or landscapes, as on the fleshiness of breasts and buttocks, as in Brett The work and attitudes of a lifetime suggest that in 10 (I) and 10 (II) (1966), laid in with those trademark Whiteley’s paintings of Wendy in the bath. Where Powditch would make the same claim for a painting sharp edges. He told Craig McGregor this wasn’t Whiteley tends to overstate everything, perhaps or a sculpture. This does not imply that a work with a reference to American abstraction, but because to advertise his own sexually progressive attitudes, a message is worthless; it merely suggests that its he “had grown up in a world of hard-edge feature Powditch is almost chaste in his understatement. value as art diminishes when the artist turns a piece walls, bright lights, clear divisions”.11 Renoiresque Where Whiteley is making a declaration about into the embodiment of an idea. impressionism was out of the question. sexual freedom, Powditch sees the body primarily in Needless to say, a huge proportion of all art aims Powditch’s formal intentions are made clear in his terms of composition. As the painting self-evidently to make a statement, whether it be the heroism of description of the bikini, one of the quintessential represents a woman’s torso, there is no need to our soldiers or the evils of consumer capitalism. It 1 Simon Leys, The Halls of Uselessness: Collected Essays, Black Ink, Melbourne, 2011 symbols of ’60s sexual liberation, as “something emphasise the sexual connotations. is still “art”, but art of a different order to the work 2 Ibid. p.15 12 3 Ibid. p.15 flat on something round”. In the Sun Torsos of the Look to the landscapes then back to the Sun Ryckmans admires. The great artist does not impose 4 Samuel Beckett, ‘Worstward Ho’, in Nohow On: Three Novels, Grove, New York, 1980 early 1970s, he draws hundreds of variations out of Torsos and one can see that Powditch is equally an opinion on the viewer but creates an infinitely 5 Bob Dylan, ‘Love Minus Zero/No Limit’, on LP, Bringing it All Back Home, 1965 6 All artist quotes from an interview with Peter Powditch in Bangalow, 6 March 2017 the same motif. It’s always the female body with its schematic whether he is painting a woman’s hip or suggestive image that allows for many different 7 Susan Chenery, ‘Late Life Drawing of Artist Peter Powditch’, The Saturday Paper, Melbourne, 19 Sept. 2015 familiar curves, but rendered impersonal by cropping the curve of the coastline. shades of interpretation. 8 Leys, Op. cit. p.3 9 Craig McGregor, in Craig McGregor, David Beal, David Moore, Harry Williamson, the face. There are artists who paint torsos that are as Pictures such as Seascape II (1969) or the Study In his recent sculptures Powditch comes closer Australian Art and Artists in the Making, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1969, p.256 10 Andy Warhol, in Gene Swenson, ‘What is Pop Art? Interviews with Eight Painters distinctive as portraits, but Powditch takes his bodies for the Sydney International Airport Mural (1970) to telling a story than ever before, but these small (Part 1)’, Art News 62, New York, November 1963. in the opposite direction, towards abstract design. have the geometric precision of the background pieces are still steeped in ambiguity. If there are 11 McGregor, Op. cit. 12 McGregor, Op cit. A painting such as Recess (1969), which shows landscapes in Piero della Francesca’s paintings. morals or private jokes to these stories, Powditch 13 Peter Brown, ‘Peter Powditch’, Art and Australia, Vol. 11, No. 4, Sydney, April-June 1974, p, 353 the figure of a blonde-haired woman silhouetted in There is no attempt at naturalism. A pole with is not revealing anything. Like Don Quixote, who 14 Leys, Op. Cit. p.6

10 11 Quick Fill 1964 Night and Day 1965 acrylic on board 67.5 x 91.5cm acrylic on board 72 x 84cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

12 13 Blue Robe 1969 acrylic on board 18.5 x 12cm Sketch for Cut Out 1966 Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery oil on board 34.4 x 18cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Untitled c1964 Bikini Study VIII 1968 pencil on paper 19 x 14.2cm painted timber 10.8 x 7.1cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

Nude Study 1969 Tech Comp 1962 acrylic on board 34.4 x 18cm acrylic on board 40 x 56cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Resting 1966 Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery oil on board 20.8 x 32.6cm Sketch Couple II 1964 Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery acrylic on board 20.7 x 17.3cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

Untitled c1968 acrylic on board 26.5 x 13.5cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery More Fish 1966 oil on board 27 x 37.5cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Seated Figure 1966/68 Ghost Gums 1968 acrylic on board 28 x 19cm acrylic on board 30.5 x 30.5cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Private collection

14 15 “I’m interested in where things meet not what they look like.”

Peter Powditch 1969

Lolita I 1966 Lolita II 1966 Lolita III 1966 acrylic & lace on masonite with wood acrylic & lace on masonite with wood acrylic & lace on masonite with wood 54 x 30 x 9cm 54 x 30 x 9cm 54 x 30 x 9cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

16 17 10 (I) 1966 10 (II) 1966 enamel board cut out 60 x 90.3cm enamel board cut out 60 x 90.3cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

18 19 “His originality, his particular creativity is a pleasure to witness.” Campbell Robertson-Swann 2017

Figure on Steps 1966 Penny 1966 Surfer Girl 1966 painted timber 23.4 x 15.2 x 6.4cm painted timber 32.3 x 16.4 x 5.6cm painted timber 32.4 x 9.5 x 7cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

20 21 The director of the Australian Galleries, Stuart Purves, sees the evolution of a man who is “the real thing, a real artist”. He sees the paintings thin and become abstracted. “He has broken it down very slowly. He is sort of like a slow-motion surgeon, slicing and carving away. At the end of the operation there is less there but you still see the same thing.”

Untitled (nude) 1966 acrylic assemblage on board 19.5 x 29.6cm Excerpt from the article Late life drawing by Susan Chenery, first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on 19 September 2015. Collection of James Powditch

22 23 Study Bather I 1968 acrylic relief 92 x 61cm 1966 Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

24 25 Study Bather II 1968 acrylic relief 92 x 61cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

26 27 Sunbathing Couple 1968 acrylic relief 61 x 92cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

28 29 “I think people will go back to those early works and they will start to look like classics of the period. I have rarely seen a piece from Pete that I didn’t think was a bit of an eye-opener.”

John McDonald 2015

Photo In the Making

Seascape II 1969 oil on plywood 244 x 244 x 7.5cm Crowdy Head 1963 Art Gallery of New South Wales oil on board 44.1 x 39.7cm Purchased with funds provided by an anonymous Courtesy of the artist Excerpt from the article Late life drawing by Susan Chenery, first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on 19 September 2015. purchase fund for contemporary Australian art 1970

30 31 His family had a share in a house at Crowdy Head and his coastal connection to that place has imbued and informed much of his work. When later he had four children of his own, he brought them there to holiday. “They regard it as a spiritual home. I suppose I am happy near the sea.”

Crowdy Head IV 1969 oil enamel acrylic on carved pyneboard 51 x 49cm Collection of James Powditch Excerpt from the article Late life drawing by Susan Chenery, first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on 19 September 2015.

32 33 34 35 Awning 1968 enamel on board assemblage 91.5 x 61cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

36 37 Dawn 1967 mixed media and board 45.5 x 40cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

38 39 40 41 “Nobody paints summer like my father. From the landscapes, the still lifes and those rude nude girls – you can hear the cicadas, smell that salt and feel that old rough verandah. He’s a genius at capturing that bleached-out essence.” James Powditch

Untitled 1969 acrylic, oil and enamel on board 141 x 122cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Excerpt from the article Late life drawing by Susan Chenery, first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on 19 September 2015.

42 43 Fabulous 1966 Gallery A 1966 acrylic on board 295.7 x 366cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

44 45 “I try to paint only as much as I know. Now and again I seem to extend myself, not through research or experimentation but more through a gameness to jump backwards – to break a manner that develops and so leads away from my taste, by stating both, literally and arbitrarily.” Peter Powditch 1969

Mateship 1969 acrylic on board 185 x 246cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Extract from , Present Day Art in Australia.

46 47 North Coast 1972 enamel and varnish on board 60.4 x 91.6cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

48 49 Sun Torso XXXVIII 1971 Sun Torso XXXIII 1971 enamel on board 70.5 x 61cm enamel on board 91.5 x 61cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

50 51 Sun Torso XXVII 1970 enamel on board 64.5 x 89cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

52 53 Recess II 1969 acrylic, oil and enamel on board assemblage 178 x 135.5cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

54 55 “I’m basically interested in the way things fit together – or don’t fit. I like the organic thing, the human body, against the flat thing of clothes. That’s why I started putting bikinis on my nudes; something flat on something round.”

Peter Powditch 1969

The big towel 1969 oil on composition board 183.6 × 122.4cm National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Samuel E. Wills Bequest, 1979

56 57 Study for Sydney International Airport Mural 1970 enamel and acrylic on board 15 x 70cm Courtesy of the artist

58 59 Sun Woman V 1969 Sun Woman relief (8) 1969 lithograph Ed 20 of 20, 90 x 41cm enamel on board relief 92.8 x 35.5 x 8cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

60 61 Sprint II 1971 enamel on board 122.2 x 76.3cm Gold Coast City Gallery Purchased 1972

62 63 3 Fitzroy Place, Surry Hills 1973

Sun Torso 37 1971/76 Sun Torso 52 1971/76 enamel on board 24 x 52.7cm enamel on board 29.5 x 43.2cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

64 65 Sun Torso 145 (bunch) 1972 synthetic polymer paint on hardboard 100.5 x 121 cm Collection of Campbell Robertson-Swann and Lauren Harvey

66 67 S-T 67 1971 enamel on board 81.9 x 61cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

68 69 Sun Torso 132 (bunch) 1972 synthetic polymer paint on hardboard 122 x 92cm Collection of Campbell Robertson-Swann and Lauren Harvey

70 71 Sun Torso 140 (bunch) 1972 synthetic polymer paint on hardboard 136.8 x 91.4cm board Art Gallery of New South Wales, purchased 1976

72 73 “Peter’s wry humour reveals the traffic between optimism and despair, between art as self-embodiment and the threat of self-effacement.” Michael Buzacott

Sun Torso (pants) 1971/72/76 enamel on board 54.1 x 70.7cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

74 75 Sun Torso XXXI 1971 enamel on board 89.5 x 59.7cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

76 77 S-T 71 1970/71/73 enamel on board 85 x 60cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

78 79 “His paintings and sculptures have always been about improvisation and finding things and putting them together to make an image. The works often hark back to the home renovated beach house – his life has been punctuated by family Christmas holidays at Crowdy Head; with sun, pink flesh, sand and the sea.” Ray Hughes

Cover 4 (Side Long) 1975 acrylic on board 132 x 61cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

80 81 Arousal 15 1985 acrylic on board 90 x 122cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

82 83 Verandah 1991 Camouflage 2003/4 93 x 84 x 7cm acrylic on board 119 x 122cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

84 85 Backbone 2003/2004 mixed media on board 35 x 85cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

86 87 “With my earlier work – the Sun Torsos – probably I wanted the thing to jump off the wall. But I think what I have done with my later work is in a way just amused myself. The art looks after itself, it is very hard to explain.”

Peter Powditch

Coastal III 2007 mixed media on board 43.2 x 45.7cm Excerpt from the article Late life drawing by Susan Chenery, first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on 19 September 2015. Private collection

88 89 Dunes 2 2004 Coastal VII 2007/8 acrylic on board 91 x 88cm acrylic on board 58 x 60cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

90 91 Coastal IX 2008 Coastal X 2008 oil and wood on hardboard 46.5 x 40.8 x 1.5cm board oil and wood on hardboard 46.5 x 40.8 x 1.5cm board Art Gallery of New South Wales Collection Art Gallery of New South Wales Collection

92 93 Momento 2012 dimensions variable

94 95 “He will send me strange things or I will send him strange things. He likes found objects and so do I and he likes rubbish and broken things.”

Reg Lynch

Green Vase 2007 Flower Piece 2008

Excerpt from the article Late life drawing by Susan Chenery, first published mixed media 21.5 x 8 x 7cm mixed media 45.5x 85cm in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on 19 September 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Private collection

96 97 “Has anyone else made sculpture entirely out of health warnings on cigarette packets?”

Michael Buzacott

15 2009 Untitled 2009 P16 2010 mixed media 11.2 x 16 x 7cm mixed media 15 x 25 x 19cm mixed media 13 x 9 x 4.5cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

98 99 18 2009 Cactus 2 2009 47/48 2015 33 2015 mixed media 24 x 11.5 x 11.5cm mixed media 21 x 10.5 x 10cm mixed media 22.8 x 11.5 x 10.4cm mixed media 19.4 x 15 x 4.2cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

100 101 House III 2008 House 2009 46 2013 mixed media 17 x 24 x 10cm mixed media 13 x 32 x 9cm mixed media 26 x 19 x 7cm Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery Courtesy of the artist and Defiance Gallery

102 103 104 105 Making significant art for half a century John Carrick

Peter Powditch established a notable and creatures, with showing him how to see. A passion for teaching makes a parallel career presence from his first Sydney exhibition in Powditch’s first exhibition was at Gallery A, then Dedication to teaching art students was a core 1966. Through the decades since, he has one of the most adventurous commercial galleries. part of Powditch’s career over 40 years. At first he produced distinctly individual art, holding Australian artists exhibiting there included John taught at a high school and later at the National Firth-Smith, Rosalie Gascoigne, Michael Johnson, Art School, the Sydney College of the Arts, and the regular solo shows at leading commercial Robert Klippel, Clement Meadmore, Ron Robertson- College of Fine Arts, becoming a head teacher of galleries. His works are represented in all Swann and Ann Thomson. The gallery also showed painting. of the main public galleries in Australia and work by leading US artists including abstract painters Powditch said that teaching was a vocation for in corporate and private collections. of the New York school, burgeoning at that time. him, as much as his own work was. He did not teach Powditch was born in 1942 on the mid north coast Powditch stayed with Gallery A through the second merely to sustain himself while preparing his next of New South Wales, a region that has produced half of the 1960s, exhibiting in Sydney and Melbourne, exhibition. He sought to interest students in ideas, writers and other artists. At school in Taree, for winning support from critics and collectors. to encourage them, to foster their future careers. example, he was a year behind Les Murray, who Powditch’s early works included paintings that he His students included Reg Lynch and Cathy Wilcox, became Australia’s leading poet. He grew up with called ‘Sun Torsos’, bikini-clad figures and Australian who became successful cartoonists. brothers Ron and Campbell Robertson-Swann, who beach scenes, depicted in a hard-edge style. Paradoxically, Powditch said, the harder he both became sculptors. Campbell is also the principal Although the beach paintings drew objections from worked at teaching, the more effort he devoted to of Defiance Gallery, which now represents Powditch. some feminist critics at the time, Powditch said that producing his own art. The Powditch family used to holiday at unspoiled he was mainly exploring formal qualities in the works, In 2001, he left Sydney for Byron Bay, eventually Crowdy Head, a fishing village next to a national contrasting organic curves with the flat geometry settling in nearby Bangalow, where he now lives. park. In later years, Powditch continued the tradition of the bikini fabric. His beach-themed works remain Two of his children live in the district, and seven of by taking his wife Janthia and four children for among those most avidly collected. his ten grandchildren. holidays there. This kept him close to the region’s In 1971, when Max Hutchinson left Gallery A for Powditch’s son James, an artist living in Sydney, hills, forests, sea and long horizons, which he evokes New York, Powditch moved to the Rudy Komon entered a portrait of his father, an inveterate in his landscape paintings, although not as specific Art Gallery, which showed many artists then at the cigarette smoker, in the 2009 . locations. Powditch said that he draws and paints forefront, such as John Brack, Robert Dickerson, The picture, Peter Powditch is a Dead Man Smoking, from memory, rather than directly and immediately. John Olsen and Fred Williams. Powditch exhibited was a finalist. Powditch did not mind the stark title. After school, Powditch studied art for three years with Komon from 1971 to 1982. He thought the picture was terrific and should have at East Sydney Technical College, which later Highlights of a rewarding decade included a mural won the prize. became the National Art School. There he was commission for Sydney Airport in 1970, a Sulman In 2014, Powditch’s work was placed in a global influenced by Lyndon Dadswell, one of Australia’s Prize in 1972 and an Australia Council grant in 1974 context when two of his paintings were included in outstanding sculptors, the first to be appointed an that enabled Powditch to live and work in New York Pop to Popism, a worldwide survey of the Pop Art official war artist. City for a year. In 1981 he was appointed a Member movement shown at the Art Gallery of New South Learning to see with artist John Olsen of the Order of Australia for services to art. Wales as part of the Sydney International Art Series. Powditch sought further inspiration beyond Powditch changed galleries in the early 1980s after the college course. The artist John Olsen had just Ray Hughes included some of his work for the first John Carrick interviewed Peter Powditch for this profile. returned to Australia after living for years in Spain. time in a group exhibition in Brisbane. Thereafter, For twelve months Powditch attended a private Ray Hughes Gallery in Sydney staged regular solo class that Olsen taught. He credits Olsen, an acute shows of Powditch’s work through the following observer and idiosyncratic painter of Australia’s land decades until recent years.

106 107 108 109 Peter Powditch biography

Born 1942 Sydney

Solo Shows Selected Group Shows Collections 2017 Coast – A Retrospective, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney 2014 Pop to Popism, Art Gallery NSW, Sydney 1972 The Australian Landscape Adelaide Festivals and State Galleries Australian National Gallery Canberra Peter Powditch at the Yellow House, Sydney 2012 Sexualising the City Gold, Coast City Art Gallery Georges Invitation Art Prize Melbourne Art Gallery of NSW Life Drawings & Lithographs Defiance Gallery, Sydney Life’s a Beach, The Hughes Gallery, Sydney Australian Prints Victoria and Albert Museum, London Western Australian Art Gallery 2014 60s and 70s Figures, The Hughes Gallery, Sydney 2005 Wild Thang, Gold Coast City Art Gallery The Australian Printmakers Pratts Graphics Centre, New York Art Gallery of South Australia 2012 Momento, Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney 2003 The Powditch & Powditch Show, Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney Sir William Angliss Memorial Art Prize, Canberra National Gallery of Victoria 2008 Cape Gallery, Byron Bay 1990 Niagara Galleries at Hill Smith Fine-Art Gallery, South Australia 1971 International Young Painters New York Queensland Art Gallery 2004 Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney 1988 Artists for Another Biennale Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney Georges Invitation Art Prize Melbourne Horsham Art Gallery 1999 Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney Mollison Show ANG, Canberra Print Council of Australia Interstate Galleries and Poland Shepparton Art Gallery 1996 Niagara Galleries, Melbourne 1987 Drawing Show Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane Travelodge Art Prize Melbourne Travelodge Collection 1995 Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney Contemporary Art in Australia MOCA, Brisbane 1970 Australian Art Today South East Asia Transfield Collection 1993 Niagara Galleries, Melbourne Australian Masters 1987 Solander Gallery, Canberra Georges Invitation Art Prize Melbourne Lismore Regional Gallery 1991 Niagara Galleries, Melbourne 1985 The First Exhibition Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney First Leasing Art Prize All State Galleries Taree Council 1991 Australian Galleries, Sydney Sydney Art of the 1960s Garry Anderson Gallery, Sydney 1969 Four Sydney Painters Gallery One Eleven, Brisbane Gold Coast City Gallery 1990 Niagara Galleries, Melbourne 1984 Painters, Sculptures ACAA, Melbourne Original Lithographs and Serigraphs Gallery A, Sydney and Melbourne Newcastle City Art Gallery 1988 Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney Australian Works on Paper from 1940 Gary Anderson, Sydney 1968 Group 2Gallery A, Sydney and Melbourne Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery 1987 Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney 1983 Survey 83 Commonwealth Bank, Sydney 1967 New Generation, Sydney Gallery A, Melbourne Mildura Arts Centre 1987 Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane The Nude Garry Anderson Gallery, Sydney 1966 The Nude in Australian Art Gallery A, Sydney and Melbourne Geelong Arts Centre 1987 Niagara Galleries, Melbourne Sydney to Ballarat Golden Age Gallery, Ballarat 1965 Young Sydney Painters Gallery A, Melbourne Ballarat Fine Art Gallery 1985 Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney La Trobe University, Melbourne University of Queensland 1985 Niagara Galleries, Melbourne 1982 Landscape Now Solander Gallery, Sydney University of Western Australia 1984 Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane 1981 Second Sydney Annual David Reid Gallery, Sydney Prizes / Awards / Commissions Phillip Morris Collection 1983 Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane The Figure in Painting and Drawing Axiom Gallery, Melbourne LaTrobe Valley Arts Centre 1982 Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney 1980 First Sydney Annual David Reid Gallery, Sydney 1981 Member of the Order of Australia (AM) Art Bank 1979 Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney 1978 Contemporary Australian Drawing State Galleries of WA, QLD and NSW 1975 La Trobe Valley Purchase Award, VIC Wollongong Art Gallery 1975 Solander Gallery, Canberra International Drawings Christchurch Arts Festival, New Zealand 1974 Darnell De Gruchy Art Prize, QLD Parliament House Collection, Canberra 1975 Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney Group 4 Show Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne Sir William Angliss Memorial Art Prize, Melbourne Western Mining and numerous other collections. 1974 Desborough Galleries, Perth Landscape and Image Indonesia Geelong Corio Three-Star Whiskey Purchase Award, VIC 1974 Atelier 72, Adelaide 1976 Contemporary Survey Exhibition Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne 1972 Maude Vizard Wholohan Prize, SA 1973 Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney 1975 The Australian Landscape Peking, Nanking – China, Art Gallery of NSW Georges Invitation Art Prize, Melbourne 1973 Reid Gallery, Brisbane The John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize National Gallery of Victoria, VIC Taree Art Prize, NSW 1972 Gallery A, Melbourne Women in Art, Sixth Invitation Art Exhibition WA Institute of Technology Gold Coast City Art Prize (Purchase), QLD 1971 Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney 1974 50 Years of the National Art School Bonython Gallery, Sydney Wollongong Art Prize (Purchase), NSW 1970 Gallery A, Sydney 1973 Georges Invitation Art Prize Melbourne , Sydney 1969 Gallery A, Sydney 1973 Inaugural Exhibition Desborough Galleries, Perth 1970 Mural Commission, Overseas Air Terminal, Mascot, NSW 1969 Gallery A, Melbourne Drawing Exhibition II, Realities Melbourne 1969 Taree Art Exhibition (Drawing) 1966 Gallery A, Sydney 1973 Contemporary Australian Painting and Sculpture,1973 New Zealand Lismore Art Prize, NSW Recent Australian Art Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney 1963 Mirror – Waratah Watercolour, Sydney The Biennale of Sydney Sydney Opera House

110 111 Acknowledgements

Defiance Gallery wishes to thank and acknowledge Photography credits Beth Powditch and the extended Powditch family for their involvement and support of this retrospective. Stephen Oxenbury 16, 23, 32, 46, 67, 71, 80, 83, 85, 86, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 95, 96, 97, 98, 100 (right), 102, 103 (left) Thank you to Jane Watters, Director, S.H. Ervin Gallery. Ian Hobbs 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 24, 27, 28, Directors: Campbell Robertson-Swann and Lauren Harvey Many thanks to the public and private lenders to the 30 (left), 36, 39, 42, 45, 49, 50, 51, 52, 47 Enmore Rd, Newtown NSW 2042 Australia exhibition, who have kindly lent artworks from their 55, 59, 60, 61, 64, 68, 75, 76, 79, 84, defiancegallery.com collections. Our thanks also to John McDonald, 100 (left), 101, 103 (right) for his support of this project and his insightful Rick Harris 3, 4, 6, 17, 25, 35, 40, 41, 44, 53, 65 Title: Peter Powditch Coast – A Retrospective Co-ordinator: Lauren Harvey catalogue essay. Robert Walker 7 (top), 21, 29, 65, 107 (top) R. Ian Lloyd 104-5 Artwork photography: Stephen Oxenbury, Ian Hobbs Louise Beaumont 7 (bottom) Thank you to Diane Adair from Plumbob Creative Mike Buick 107 (bottom) Publisher: Defiance Gallery Pty Ltd who produced this beautiful catalogue. James Powditch 99, 115 ISBN: 978-0-646-96960-2

© Copyright 2017 artists, writers, publishers © Copyright of the essay text is held by John McDonald © Copyright of the biographical text is held by John Carrick © Copyright of the photographs is held by Stephen Oxenbury © Copyright of the photographs is held by Ian Hobbs Special thanks to Rent My Brain for their generous © Copyright of the photographs is held by Rick Harris sponsorship that enabled many works to be restored, © Copyright of the photographs is held by Robert Walker reframed and photographed. © Copyright of the photographs is held by R. Ian Lloyd © Copyright of the photographs is held by Vogue Australia © Copyright of the photographs is held by Louise Beaumont Thanks also to International Art Services and © Copyright of the photographs is held by Mike Buick Art Van Go. © Copyright of the photographs is held by James Powditch

All images have been produced with permission of the artist. Copyright for the text in this publication is held by the authors and may not be reproduced without their permission. No photographs may be reproduced without permission of the copyright owners.

Peter Powditch is represented by Defiance Gallery.

Peter Powditch Coast – A Retrospective was exhibited at the S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney from 31 March – 21 May 2017.

112 113 Front cover image: Peter Powditch Twin Set 1969 (detail) oil on canvas 58.5 x 35.5cm

Back cover image: Peter Powditch Seascape II 1969 (detail) oil on plywood 244 x 244 x 7.5cm

114 116