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Poetry in paint GALLERIES Phil Brown
BURNING BRIGHT … Gordon Shepherdson’s works include (clockwise from top) Still life; Morning Redland Bay, 21 May 1997 and Kneeling figure in landscape.
I’ve always regarded Gordon Shepherdson’s paintings as dark romantic poems. It’s not surprising to me at all that his son, Nathan, became an acclaimed poet. Growing up with Gordon’s richly evocative (if sometimes disturbing) paintings obviously rubbed off. Gordon is one of those larrikin painters of a certain generation, like Robert Dickerson, Sam Fullbrook and his good friend and fishing buddy Gil Jamieson. These painters were all knockabout blokes. In the catalogue essay accompanying Gordon’s latest show at Philip Bacon Galleries, arts writer Louise Martin-Chew points out that this show is a little poignant because Gordon, now aged 83, who is represented in major galleries including QAGOMA, is in a nursing facility “to care for his increasingly frail body”. That’s sad but what an amazing artistic and poetic legacy he has created. His paintings are mostly very dark with flashes of light and colour. Louise quotes from Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot to elucidate. “ ... the light gleams an instant, then it’s night once more”. When I look at Gordon Shepherdson’s paintings, I tend to think of Goya. The fact that Gordon’s best known motif is of the dying bull
seems to confirm the Spanish connection although it refers to his years working in an abattoir. His early paintings of beasts at the abattoir are shocking and beautiful in equal measure. This exhibition spans his career from the poetic Aerial (albatross and eagle) painted in 1987, to the achingly beautiful High Swans from 1993 and exquisite Morning Redland Bay, 21 May 1997. The flowers in Still life, bursting out the darkness like the beginning of creation, take your breath away. Gordon has always found inspiration in the natural world and Louise says other motifs emerged from that – human figures, swimmers, waders, mysterious winged figures and others. His evening landscapes, gorgeous nocturnes, are moody and meditative. But there are tough paintings too such as the 2008 piece Bullock and still life in dark landscape. There’s that bullock again, a central motif with all the passion and power of Christ crucified, derived from a most unusual occupation for a painter. But the abattoir obviously had its benefits and somehow managed to inspire some of Queensland’s greatest paintings.
GORDON SHEPHERDSON Until Mar 10, Philip Bacon Galleries, 2 Arthur St, Fortitude Valley philipbacongalleries.com.au
MUSICA VIVA PRESENTS Experience Fantasia, a musical fairytale performed by legendary clarinettist Sabine Meyer with the brilliant piano and saxophones of the Alliage Quintett.
TICKETS musicaviva.com.au/meyer | 1800 688 482 (no booking fees through Musica Viva)
qtix.com.au | 136 246
SABINE MEYER & ALLIAGE QUINTETT Thursday 1 March 7pm