Guy Grey-Smith : Guy Grey-Smith's Landscapes of Western Australia
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Edith Cowan University Research Online ECU Publications Pre. 2011 1996 Guy Grey-Smith : Guy Grey-Smith's landscapes of Western Australia Annette Davis Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks Part of the Painting Commons Davis, A. (1996). Guy Grey-Smith : Guy Grey-Smith's landscapes of Western Australia. Perth, Australia: Edith Cowan University. This Book is posted at Research Online. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks/7139 Edith Cowan University Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorize you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: Copyright owners are entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. A reproduction of material that is protected by copyright may be a copyright infringement. Where the reproduction of such material is done without attribution of authorship, with false attribution of authorship or the authorship is treated in a derogatory manner, this may be a breach of the author’s moral rights contained in Part IX of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Courts have the power to impose a wide range of civil and criminal sanctions for infringement of copyright, infringement of moral rights and other offences under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Higher penalties may apply, and higher damages may be awarded, for offences and infringements involving the conversion of material into digital or electronic form. .. I 759. 994 GRE r /, GUY GREY-SMITH'S LANDSCAPES OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA EDITH COWAN UNIVERSITY PERTH WESTERN AUSTRALIA Exhibition Curator: Annette Davis Guy Grey-Smltb's Landscapes oflVestern Australia is proudly sponsored by Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia. Organising Institution: Edith Cowan University, Curatorial Services. Robert Vallis, Curator; Melanie Morgan, Assistant Edith Cowan University contributors to this sponsorship: Curator; Mount Lawley Campus, 2 Bradford Street, Mount Curatorial Services, Division of Facilities and Services; Lawley Western Australia 6050 Kurongkurl Katitjin, School of Indigenous Australian Studies; Telephone (09) 370 6429 Facsimile (09) 370 2910 The Vice Chancellor; Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts; Alumni Association; Community Affairs Office. Catalogue Design: Wohlnick Design Printer: Frank Daniels Pty Ltd Published by Edith Cowan University Reproduction Photography: John Green and Peter Northcott, Copyright 1996 Edith Cowan University and Annette Davis, Media Photographics, Edith Cowan University; Greg Woodward, Exhibition Curator Art Gallery of Western Australia (Catalogue number 7 and 17); Guy Grey-Smitb's Landscapes ojlf!estern Australia Ed Bennett, Curtin University of Technology (Catalogue number 20) ISBN 0 - 7298 - 0229 - 9 Exhibition Tour Manager: ART ON THE MOVE GPO Box M937 Perth Western Australia 6001 Telephone (09) 227 7505 Facsimile (09) 227 5304 This exhibition has been assisted by the National Exhibitions Touring Structure for Western Australia !ne through the Exhibition Development and Touring Funds. The State of Western Australia has made an investment through the Department for the Arts in ART ON THE MOVE the National Exhibitions Touring Structure for Western Australia Inc. ART ON THE MOVE is assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. b i '-i [1 EDITH COWAN ART ON THE MOVE UNIVERSITY The National Exhibitions Touring PERTH WESTERN AUSTRALIA Structure for Western Australia Foreword Introduction 2 A Monumental Vision 3 Biographical Notes 10 List of Lenders 11 CONTENTS Selected Bibliography 12 Catalogue of Works 13 Plates 17 ITINERARY 1996 Geraldton Kalgoorlie Esperance Albany Perth Bunbury Karratha Geraldton Art Gallery Goldfields Arts Centre Old Cannery Arts Centre Vancouver Arts Centre Lawrence Wilson Bunbury Art Galleries Karratha College Library February 2 - March 17 March 29 -April 21 May 3- 26 June 7- 23 Art Gallery September 6 - October 20 November 8 - 29 Telephone (099) 216 811 Telephone (090) 220 905 Telephone (090) 713 599 Telephone (098) 416 0 I I University of Telephone (097) 219 656 Telephone (091) 596 700 Western Australia July 7 -August 25 Telephone (09) 380 3707 Left: Studio built by Guy Grey-Smith used as printmaking studio, July 1976. (P!Joto: Courtesy of t!Je Art Ga/le1y of Westem Australia) Middle: Pottery studio, July 1976. (Pboto: Courtesy of tbe Art Gallery of Westem Australia) Right: Guy Grey-Smith, 1972. (Pboto: S. Kaplan) FOREWORD Edith Cowan University is proud to sponsor this important touring exhibition Guy Grey-Smitb's Landscapes of Western Australia. The exhibition is a timely presentation of the work of one of Western Australia's most significant artists from the post-war period. From the University's point of view, this exhibition represents an ideal avenue for the promotion of its own philosophy and aims. The University has identified the strong educational role of the exhibition, in presenting Guy Grey-Smith to generations who have not previously had the opportunity to view a comprehensive body of his art. The educational influence of Edith Cowan University extends beyond the Perth metropolitan area to regional centres throughout Western Australia. The tour of this exhibition clearly links with and supports this regional focus of the University's activities. In addition the University prides itself on its commitment to the arts in Western Australia, through its extensive art collection and the Western Australian Academy of the Performing Arts. This exhibition is a further demonstration of the University's support of the State's visual culture. The exhibition curator, Annette Davis, is to be congratulated on her achievements with this exhibition. Robert Vallis, Curator of Artworks, and Melanie M01·gan, Assistant Curator, have provided the driving force behind the University's involvement in this exhibition and their energy and enthusiasm is much appreciated. Thank you also to ART ON THE MOVE for its support of the development and tour of this exhibition. Professor Roy Lourens Vice Chancellot· Edith Cowan University 1 INTRODUCTION "The painter goes through the land and sees what nobody else has which gave him the freedom to express the monumentality of these seen because landscape painting comes from inside and not out. It natural features, resulting in powerful interpretations of the depends entirely on who he is. Nature is stronger than the strongest landscape. man and there is no going against it. It finds its way into his Grey-Smith often interpreted a particular location in several media, . imagination via all his senses; it becomes part of his spirit, and then, starting with an ink drawing or watercolour done in situ, with great care and sensitivity, it may be brought back again by hand simplifying the image in woodcuts and screenprints, and using into the visible world and somehow recognised" .1 colour and paint texture to fully express the strength of the This exhibition focuses on the landscapes of one of Western Australia's landscape in large oil paintings. This exhibition brings together most significant artists, Guy Grey-Smith (1916-1981). Working in forty six works in a range of media - drawings, woodcuts, Western Australia for more than thirty years from 1948 to 1981, Grey screenprints, etchings, watercolours and oil paintings - from a thirty Smith offered audiences a fresh, new interpretation of the Western year period to show the development of Grey-Smith's style and to Australian environment. give insight to the attist's creative process. Throughout his career Guy Grey-Smith painted stilllifes, figures and Twenty years after the 1976 Guy Grey-Smith Retrospective portraits. However landscapes were his major focus and it is in these presented by the Att Gallery of Western Australia, and fifteen years that he invested the most meaning. He had a lifelong fascination with since the artist's death in 1981, it is timely to again look at a range the power of nature as manifest in the karri trees of the south-west, the of this artist's work. This exhibition will make the work better rugged red expanse of the north-west, or the waves of the southern known to a younger generation and to regional audiences. ocean crashing against coastal cliffs. He developed his own unique Travelling to six regional venues, this exhibition will take some of style, based on his emotional response to nature and his imagination, the images back to the environment from which they emerged. 2 A MONUMENTAL VISION The decades following the Second World War brought massive social, economic and cultural change to Australia. By the early 1970s Australia had a new sense of its identity; the election of the Whitlam Labor Government in 1972 was the political sign of the nation's readiness for change, a mood that stirred at social, economic and cultural levels of society. It marked the emergence of a new maturity, bringing a climate of excitement and confidence in which Australia's own cultural identity was celebrated for its uniqueness. The shadow of Britain became increasingly indistinct as Australian culture developed on its own terms. The emergence of a strong national cultural identity paralleled Guy Grey-Smith's artistic development. During the 1950s and 1960s he conscientiously applied what he learnt from studying the work of European a1tists. In the 1970s he combined the results