2012 Peter O'Doherty - In Conversation

Peter O’Doherty In Conversation

Peter O’Doherty In Conversation

Scenic Railway, Luna Park 2011 Acrylic on paper 50 x 67cm

King Street Gallery Peter O’Doherty studio 2012

on William

10am – 6pm Tuesday – Saturday 177 William St Darlinghurst NSW 2010 Australia T: 61 2 9360 9727 F: 61 2 9331 4458 art@kingstreetgallery.com www.kingstreetgallery.com.au

Front: Noughts and Crosses 2011 Acrylic on canvas 122 x 122cm

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Peter O’Doherty In Conversation The more one listens to the soft, muffled language of Peter O’Doherty’s painting, the simpler things become.

Gone are the primary colours, the noise, the hard edges. Gone are the people and the brusque civilian violence of interaction. Instead, here are whispers of memory, made new again in a deliberate exploration of structure and form. O’Doherty looks just beyond the obvious and the figurative for a deeper connection. He removes life’s sharp focus to better show us the truth hidden in a blurred background; found in an oblique glimpse of the everyday.

In this conversation, O’Doherty is a very good listener, intent to hear something from within himself. The artist wrestles with the difficult relationship between subject matter and process; colour and composition.

Certainly the 1950s and 60s aesthetic is not a new theme, and these streetscapes and objects belong to both yesterday and today. But in these distilled and complex portraits, O’Doherty expresses a less complicated sensibility, rephrasing each subject in his very modern lexicon.

Through these broad assemblages of colour and tone that at times nudge the abstract, O’Doherty is sloughing off the detail to better reveal the internal essence of things. But O’Doherty’s take is contemporary, infused with a lightness of touch and palette, and also of spirit. Although indistinct, his view is paradoxically revealing, and he captures each scene with equal measures of brevity and insight, paring back detail like

compositional elements, often as essential as the object/subjects themselves.’

Houses too become anthropomorphised - each frontage is a visage, a face and a character, its windowed eyes blinded and dozey (Murrumbeena Awning), or cock-eyed and loveable (Katoomba Fibro), or its vacant expression impervious to both the elements and the onlooker (Gymea Red Brick). More than mere studies, these are portraits of a generation, records of a relationship, a catalogue of the domestic architecture that moulds O’Doherty’s creativity and expression: ‘I’ve been painting houses and apartment blocks for twenty years. My father was a carpenter/builder and he built all the houses that we grew up in, here and in New Zealand. I see these houses as still lived in, present but gradually disappearing - like history being erased, so [in] my way I’m preserving, recording and archiving them in the face of demolition, development, greed and unstoppable change’.

Through his choice of such everyday subject matter, selective colour palette and broad tonalist style, O’Doherty articulates the quietly dissolving shapes of familiarity. His brush sees a tangle of trees in Botany Bay Foreshore become a haiku, brief and succinct; while a filing-cabinet stack of balconies in Brisbane High Rise

Meldrum’s tonalists or chasing Mondrian down a rabbit-hole of structure and colour. More than just a study of

is transformed into the very fabric of modernity.

a tram or house, a chair or plane, they show us the essence of the thing, how it feels, what it means, what it

O’Doherty stares long and hard at the blurred miscellany in life’s background. Indistinct and dreamlike,

gave us, what is lost.

it holds an illusive truth. The conversation is quiet, intuitive and intimate, and much that is mutually

Chairs become revelatory objects. Settling into these vacant shapes, the onlooker joins the conversation

understood remains undescribed by his brush. O’Doherty reveals what we may have missed: the creative

with their own experience of similar interiors. Each chair strikes a pose; reveals its personality – squaring up to the viewer, or presenting itself obliquely; speaking in stripes or checks, or revealing a cropped glimpse of

powerhouse that is our mutual, humble post-war past, and the divine nature of the everyday, of the very human personalities and relationships inherent in all design and architecture, and of the love of life that

its graphic beauty (Aqua Vinyl). O’Doherty explains: ‘With the chairs, even though most of them may hark

drives such a conversation.

back to previous decades, they are everywhere, either as originals or recreations – I paint them because

Maree Coote

they are integral to all our lives, used by everybody everyday, as solid and substantial as houses. Plus I like

Author of: The Art of Being Melbourne 2012

their architecture.’ There is a characteristic O’Doherty quietness in these works, despite the loud patterns.

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A stillness is also pervasive, anchored by soft-edged shadows that are conjured by the artist as ‘concrete

The Melbourne Book - A History of Now 2003; 2008; 2010.

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Coming Up Gertrude Street 2011 Acrylic on canvas 61 x 61cm

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City Circle 2011 Acrylic on canvas 51 x 46cm

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Parking 2012 Acrylic on board 20 x 20cm

Botany Bay Foreshore 2012 Acrylic on board 25 x 25cm

On Broadway 2012 Acrylic on canvas 122 x 152cm

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Taxiing 2012 Acrylic on board 20 x 20cm

Boarding 2012 Acrylic on board 20 x 20cm

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Luna Park Palms 2011 Acrylic on paper 52 x 62cm Midday, Brisbane 2011 Acrylic on paper 54 x 56cm

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Diamonds 2012 Acrylic on board 31 x 31cm

Racing Stripes 2012 Acrylic on board 31 x 31cm

Striped Lounge Chair 2012 Acrylic on canvas 122 x 122cm

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Aqua Vinyl 2012 Acrylic on board 25 x 25cm

Cup Chair 2012 Acrylic on board 25 x 25cm

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Four Buttons 2012 Acrylic on canvas 153 x 153cm

Polka Dots 2012 Acrylic on canvas 153 x 137cm

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Noughts and Crosses 2011 Acrylic on canvas 122 x 122cm

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Blue Stripes 2011 Acrylic on canvas 122 x 122cm

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Katoomba Fibro 2011 Acrylic on paper 31 x 31cm

Preston Depot 2011 Acrylic on canvas 61 x 71cm

Brisbane High Rise 2011 Acrylic on canvas 122 x 152cm

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Via North Melbourne 2011 Acrylic on canvas 61 x 61cm

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Fitzroy Tram 2011 Acrylic on canvas 61 x 71cm

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Gold Coast Night # 1 2012 Acrylic on board 21 x 21cm

Gold Coast Night # 2 2012 Acrylic on board 21 x 21cm

Parramatta Road 2012 Acrylic on canvas 122 x 153cm

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Oakleigh Awnings 2011 Acrylic on canvas 61 x 71cm

Apollo Bay Fibro 2011 Acrylic on canvas 122 x 153cm

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Gold Coast Motel 2011 Acrylic on canvas 61 x 71cm

3 Sisters 2012 Acrylic on canvas 71 x 71cm

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Peter O’Doherty Born 1958

Auckland, New Zealand

Solo Exhibitions 2012 In Conversation King Street Gallery on William, Sydney 2011 Double Vision Australian Print Workshop [with Chris O’Doherty aka Reg Mombasa] Melbourne 2010 North and South Doggett Street Studio, Brisbane Paper and Canvas King Street Gallery on William 2009 New Paintings King Street Gallery on William 2008 Malabar Sydney Grammar School, Sydney 2007 Built Up NG Art Gallery, Sydney 2006 Interiors/Exteriors Mary Place Gallery, Sydney 2005 Paintings Span Galleries, Melbourne 2004 Peter O’Doherty Gadfly Gallery, Perth New Works Barry Stern Galleries, Sydney 2003 New Paintings Barry Stern Galleries Recent Paintings Doggett Street 2002 New Paintings Barry Stern Galleries New Paintings Jackman Gallery, Melbourne Peter & Susan O’Doherty Bowen Gallery, Wellington, NZ 2001 Recent Paintings Barry Stern Galleries Recent Paintings Doggett Street Gallery Recent Paintings Jackman Gallery 2000 Recent Paintings Mary Place Gallery Recent Paintings Jackman Gallery Recent Paintings Mary Place Gallery 1999 Paintings Jackman Gallery 1998 Paintings Atrium Gallery, Sydney 1997 Recent Paintings Mary Place Gallery 1996 Paintings Mary Place Gallery 1993 Peter O’Doherty POD Gallery, Sydney

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Selected Group Exhibitions 2011 Sydney’s Contested Landscapes: Art meets science Art & About Customs House Forecourt, Sydney 2010 In Two Art Maitland Regional Art Gallery, NSW 2008 Art Fellow Sydney Grammar School, Sydney Urban King Street Gallery on William 2007 Alan Gamble Memorial Art Prize Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney 2006 Group Show Heiser Gallery, Brisbane Painted Egg Charity auction for Sydney Children’s Hospital Sydney Art Fair Fox Studios, Sydney 2005 Salon Des Refuses Exhibition SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney Paddington Art Prize Marlene Antico Fine Arts, Sydney 2004 Dublin Art Fair, Dublin 2003 Salon Des Refuses Exhibition SH Ervin Gallery 2002 Salon Des Refuses Exhibition SH Ervin Gallery 2001 Salon Des Refuses Exhibition SH Ervin Gallery Sulman Prize Exhibition Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney ANCA Gallery, Canberra Urban Dreams Bartley Drey Gallery, London, UK 1999 Salon Des Refuses Exhibition SH Ervin Gallery Black and white painting show Level Gallery, Sydney 1998 Group Show [with Mental As Anything] Chapel off Chapel Gallery Melbourne; Grafton Regional Art Gallery, Grafton; Manning Regional Art Gallery, Taree; Tamworth Regional Art Gallery, Tamworth; Orange Regional Gallery, Orange; Wollongong City Gallery, Wollongong, NSW Redlands Westpac Art Prize Mosman Art Gallery 1997 Redlands Westpac Art Prize Mosman Art Gallery Salon Des Refuses Exhibition SH Ervin Gallery Group show [with Mental As Anything] Manly Art Gallery and Museum, Sydney 1995 Guitar Shaped World Tamworth Regional Art Gallery 1993 Mentals II [with Mental As Anything] Tamworth Regional Art Gallery, Lismore Regional Gallery, NSW Mentals II Westpac Gallery, Melbourne

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Prizes, Awards & Residencies 2011 Winner Allan Gamble Memorial Art Prize Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney 2009 Artists in Residence [Taronga Foundation Program], Taronga Zoo, Sydney 2008 Art Fellow, Artist’s Residency, Sydney Grammar School, Sydney 2007 Winner Alan Gamble Memorial Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney 2005 Winner Paddington Art Prize, Marlene Antico Fine Arts, Sydney Bibliography 2012 Cootes, Maree: ‘The Art of Being Melbourne,’ Melbournestyle Books 2010 Schwartzkoff, Louise: ‘Collective Vision’, Sydney Morning Herald; Arts and Entertainment, March 20-21, p6 2009 Meacham, Steve: ‘A sleepless lion, three giraffes and one for the birds,’ News SMH, May, 20, p3 ‘Australia Day 2009, Beach Life’ Sydney Morning Herald, Jan 26, p2 Meacham, Steve: ‘Oh if I could just chalk with the animals,’ Sydney Morning Herald, Feb 28-Mar 1, p3 2007 Bevan, Scott: Interview - The 7.30 Report, Jan 9 Faine, Jon & Hutchinson, Tracee: Lisa Miller and Peter O’Doherty, ABC Melbourne Features Apr 17 2006 Lobley, Katrina: ‘Events-Peter O’Doherty,’ Domain-Sydney Morning Herald, Apr 27, p4 Lacey, Stephen: ‘Eclectic as anything,’ Domain-Sydney Morning Herald, Mar 9, p5 2005 Backhouse, Megan: ‘Uncommon ground,‘ The Critics-The Australian, p23 Fortescue, Elizabeth: The Daily Telegraph, Apr 16,p3 Ellis, Shaun: ‘Mental as any outback,’ Wentworth Courier, Dec 2004 Zampatti, Lesley: Gadfly ‘Peter O’Doherty,’ boxoffice, the sydney magazine, p117 2002 Zuel, Bernard: ‘Sentimental as anything,’ Sydney Morning Herald, June 29 Cardy, Tom: ‘Wedded to their art,’ The Evening Post, Apr 18 2000 Richards, Morgan: ‘Familiar Chords,’ Monument, Issue 35, Apr/May, p30 Smee, Sebastian: ‘Gentle as Anything,’ Sydney Morning Herald, May ‘Investing in Art-Target an emerging Australian,’ The Age, Aug 14 Richards, Morgan: ‘Familiar Chords,’ Monument, Iss 35, Apr-May, p30 Published by King Street Studios P/L 2012 ISBN: 978-0-9807666-7-7 Essay by Maree Coote Graphic Design by Sam Woods

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Peter O’Doherty

King Street Gallery on William

10am – 6pm Tuesday – Saturday 177 William St Darlinghurst NSW 2010 Australia T: 61 2 9360 9727 F: 61 2 9331 4458 art@kingstreetgallery.com www.kingstreetgallery.com.au Director: Robert Linnegar Director: Randi Linnegar

Member of the Australian Commercial Galleries Assocation Registered Valuer with the Australian Government Taxations Incentives for the Arts Scheme

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