Robinson Swann Sydney 2016

roN robertsoN-swaNN Landscape, Still Life, The Figure and More A Sur vey 23 August - 11 September 2016

Au s t r a l i a N Ga l l e r i e s SYDNEY

Gonzalez’s absinthe glass 2014 painted steel 62 x 33 x 33 cm

AU S t R A L i A N GA L L E R i E S SYDNEY

invites you to the opening

roN robertsoN-swaNN Landscape, Still Life, The Figure and More A Sur vey tuesday 23 august 2016 6pm to 8pm 15 Roylston Street Paddington NSW 2021

to be opened at 6.45pm by Dr Michael Hill Head of Art History and theory, National Art School, Sydney

Current until Sunday 11 September 2016

Open 7 days 10am to 6pm t 02 9360 5177 sydney@australiangalleries.com.au australiangalleries.com.au

Jacqueline’s tower 2015 painted steel 24 x 33.5 x 24.5 cm

Located at Australian Galleries Porcupine Ridge Sculpture Park, Central Victoria

Lunar chariot 2003 painted steel 182.5 x 124 x 81 cm. Exhibited at Cottesloe, Perth, 2003

Inner sanctum 2011 painted steel 159 x 165 x 164 cm Above: Exhibited at Bondi, Sydney, 2011 Below: Exhibited in Denmark, 2015 Located at Australian Galleries Porcupine Ridge Sculpture Park, Central Victoria

Landscape, Still Life, The Figure and More Ron Robertson-Swann often starts with something that

Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne) visual weight

is lying around his home, like a ball or a spoon. it will

was increased by concealing the imprint of the internal

have a shape and a weight that prompt response. Should

frames via uncommonly thick steel plates, thereby making

it sit on the ground or be suspended in the air? What

the rectangular prisms seem solid. Ron then used yellow

intervening space and shadow result when another

to reverse the effect, because he also wanted Vault to

thing is put beside? How far can it be transformed

spring from the bluestone of its original civic location.

before something else emerges? Ron makes things,

Colour counterpointed both the form and the setting.

although rarely from scratch. His sculpture expresses a

the sculpture was heavy and light at once.

material relationship with the world, one that is filled with possibility. things are pauses in a continuum. A ball

Colour comes at the end of the process. it expresses

prepares to roll, a spoon waits to be grasped. And as

mood, beyond protection and weight. Ron’s favourite, as

things change, so space is altered. A right-angle becomes

both a sculptor and a painter, is yellow. He says it makes

an inside, while a convexity creates a behind. One looks

lovely shadows, but that it is difficult to operate in such

at Ron’s work with eyes that are alive and moving.

a high key, since any false step is revealed. the mood of yellow borrows from the one allied to flowers, which in

this active and ambiguous quality is what allows Ron’s

turn binds back on the challenge of its shallow tone. it is

art to be called playful. in the 1970s, he earned a

brief and brittle, yet tense and suggestive.

reputation for being solemn and precise. Yet movement is at the core of even his monumental sculpture: Elvira

On that note, one might finish rather than begin with

Madigan (1971, Queensland Art Gallery), for example,

his biography. in the early 1960s, Ron worked in London

holds its upper beam aloft by a ribbon, while the nearly

under Anthony Caro, who would create a new language

static Weighty Matters (2013), squashing its bottom layer

of modernist sculpture. Returning home, in 1968 he

of space, is offset enough to suggest the parts are arrayed

appeared in The Field exhibition, a herald of international

in step. Playfulness is also in the making. Smaller works

contemporary art in Australia. the following decade,

are scaled to the manipulation of the fingers, and thinly

Ron helped establish the Visual Arts Board; in 1973, he

profiled like blades. Games are played with hands.

was included in the inaugural Sydney Biennale. twentyfive years later, he became the first artistic advisor

Ron paints his sculptures bright colours. He learnt the

to Sculpture by the Sea, an annual exhibition that

value of colour in the studio of Anthony Caro, and in fact

reinvigorated the profession after time in the doldrums.

Ron was the painter tasked with dragging heavy coats

Finally, over almost fifty years Ron has taught students at

of magenta, yellow, and green - which he likened to nail-

the National Art School that it’s the work that matters.

polish - across Caro’s Month of May (1963). When he

Ron takes prides in making things.

returned to Australia from London, critics were hostile to decorative colour, which seemed to violate the principle of truth to materials: in 1967, the brilliant contrarian

Dr Michael Hill

Donald Brook said that coloured metal was either

Head of Art History and theory,

spurious or a joke. Ron replied that colour protects the

National Art School, Sydney

otherwise rusting steel and controls the visual weight. the

July, 2016

second role refers to how gravity is conveyed, and often works best by contrast, making apparent the form rather than the material. in his famed Vault (1978, Australian

Hot belly blues 2009 copper 16 x 64 x 55 cm

Miro’s dream bird 2014 painted steel 45 x 33 x 25.5 cm

RON ROBERtSON-SWANN

Sentinel 2014 painted steel 95 x 51.5 x 50 cm Cover : Queen of the night 2014 painted steel 171 x 132 x 59 cm

AU S t R A L i A N GA L L E R i E S MELBOURNE: Derby Street 03 9417 4303

Stock Rooms 03 9417 2422

SYDNEY: Roylston Street 02 9360 5177

enquiries@australiangalleries.com.au australiangalleries.com.au Design and Production by

Publishing Member Australian Commercial Galleries Association