When the bus arrived at my bus stop yesterday bearing the sign “Art Gallery”, I knew it was my cue to wag [play hookey from] the Sydney Quilt Show. Intensely Dutch is among the current exhibitions at the Art Gallery of NSW and I enjoyed the boldness and variety of the works. My particular favourite was “Yellow Command” by Jan Riske – a large canvas covered in layers of oil paints seemingly extruded straight from the tube with a little “mushing” hear and there. The resulting texture is remarkable – it looks like stiff woollen yarn or even a woven tapestry. Unfortunately I cannot find an image online but these other paintings by Jan Riske give you a vague idea.
Elsewhere in the gallery, another highlight was Cadence#1 – a short span of time by Robert Owen. I’m drawn to linear works and colour and this has both:
“Owen’s very personal response to the imprecise science of predicting the weather was to devise his own chart to record his emotions over an 80-day period. ‘I thought if they can measure atmosphere, I must be able to measure emotions. So using a colour tabulation, I intuitively picked how I felt every half hour during the day.’…The grids that form the structuring terms in this suite of paintings have been designed with a computer program in which Owen could insert the colours that reflected his emotional state into a chart or graph. Owen concurrently worked with a colour specialist to mix over 2500 colour tones to translate the charts into these paintings.”
It was refreshing to meander around the city on a sunny but brisk winter’s day with no commitments apart from a lunch date with a former colleague. Today I’ll be heading back to the Sydney Quilt Show.
Judy says
Brenda,
Sounds as if you are having a great time in Sydney, webt via your link to see the Jan Riske Paintings I can just about viualise the “Yellow Command” after seeing his work. Thanks for the link.
Judy says
Brenda,
Didn’t know you could get such lovely pegs.