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Musician

John Brack

John Brack

born on 4/4/1950 in Zürich, ZH, Switzerland

died on 1/6/2006 in Zürich, ZH, Switzerland

John Brack

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
John Brack

John Brack working on the portrait of J.R. McLeod circa 1978
Birth name Cecil John Brack
Born May 10 1920South Melbourne, Australia
Died 11 February 1999 (aged 78)Melbourne, Australia
Nationality Australian
Field Painting, Drawing, Printmaking
Training National Gallery School, Melbourne
Movement Antipodeans Group
Works Collins St. 5p.m. (1955)
The bar (1954)

John Brack (10 May 1920 11 February 1999 in South Melbourne, Victoria) was an Australian painter, and a member of the Antipodeans group. According to one critic, Brack's early works captured the idiosyncrasies of their time "more powerfully and succinctly than any Australian artist before or since. Brack forged the iconography of a decade on canvas as sharply as Barry Humphries did on stage."[1]

Life

John Brack was Art Master at Melbourne Grammar School (195262). His art first achieved prominence in the 1950s. He also joined the Antipodeans Group in the 1950s which protested against abstract expressionism. He was appointed Head of National Gallery of Victoria Art School (196268), where he was an influence on many artists and the creation of the expanded school attached to the new gallery building.

Style

Brack's early conventional style evolved into one of simplified, almost stark, shapes and areas of deliberately drab colour, often featuring large areas of brown. He made an initial mark in the 1950s with works on the contemporary Australian culture, such as the iconic Collins St., 5 pm (1955), a view of rush hour in post-war Melbourne. Set in a bleak palette of browns and greys, it was a comment on the conformity of everyday life, with all figures looking almost identical. A related painting The Bar (1954) was modelled on Manet's A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, and satirised the Six o'clock swill, a social ritual arising from the early closing of Australian bars. Most of these early paintings and drawings were unmistakably satirical comments against the Australian Dream, either being set in the newly expanding post-war suburbia or taking the life of those who lived there as their subject matter.

In the 1970s Brack produced a long series of highly stylised works featuring objects such as pencils in complex patterns. These were intended as allegories of contemporary life.

Period and themes

Brack's works cover a wide range topics and themes. He often did a series of works on a particular theme over a number of years. His portraits, including self-portraits, and portraits of family, friends and commissions, and his paintings of nudes were produced throughout his career.

  • War time drawings (194345)
  • Scenes of urban life (Shops, street scenes etc.) (1952-
  • Racecourse (1953-1956)
  • School, the playground (195960)
  • Wedding (196061)
  • Shop Windows (1963-1977)
  • Ballroom Dancers (1969)
  • Gymnastics (197173)
  • Postcards and implements (1976-
  • Pencils and pens (1981-
  • Mannequins (1989-

The catalogue of his work,[2] and a year 2000 exhibition catalogue[3] only cover the period to 1994.

Exhibitions and auctions

A major retrospective exhibition of Brack's work opened at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra on 24 August 2007,[4] the last major exhibition for the gallery before its relocation. Brack's widow, Helen, attended the opening and commented that Brack was not concerned with the social standing of the sitter, but rather the artistic merit of their participation in the piece.[5]

Brack's painting The Bar sold for $3.2 million in April 2006,[6][7] while in May 2007 his painting The Old Time sold for $3.36 million at auction in Sydney, a record for a painting by an Australian artist.[8]

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Images

Notes and references

  1. Thomas, David. Three of the Players, 1953, Deutscher and Hackett. Retrieved 12 November 2012.
  2. Sasha Grishin, The Art of John Brack, (1990) Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-553199-2, ISBN 978-0-19-553199-2
  3. Ted Gott, A Question Of Balance (2000), Hiede Museum of Modern Art
  4. Portraits by John Brack, National Portrait Gallery, Old Parliament House, 24 August 2007 18 November 2007. Retrieved 24 August 2007.
  5. WIN TV news report, 24 August 2007
  6. The Arts | All the latest Arts news | The Australian
  7. Record price for painting, bar none - Arts - Entertainment - smh.com.au
  8. Brack's 'Old Time' sells for $3.36m - Arts - Entertainment - theage.com.au

Further reading

  • Ronald Millar, John Brack, (1971) Lansdowne Press Melbourne. ISBN 978-0-7018-0370-4.

External links

See also

Australian art

This page was last modified 20.03.2013 13:31:02

This article uses material from the article John Brack from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.