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