Plimsoll Gallery
Centre for the Arts
Hunter Street, Hobart
Michaye Boulter, Tim Burns, Geoff Dyer, Kerry Gregan, Patrick Grieve, Christine Hiller, David Keeling, Stephen Lees, Anne Morrison, Ian Parry, Susan Robson, Richard Wastell, Philip Wolfhagen and Bill Yaxley
Preface: Paul Zika, Introduction: Celia Lendis, Essay: Jonathan Holmes
32page catalogue: ISBN 0 86295 083 0
Download PDF: Review – Painting Tasmanian Landscape, Artlink
Catalogue Preface
The first exhibition that I curated for the Tasmanian School of Art Gallery in 1981 focused on the theme of landscape (“Landscape – some interpretations of”). Having recently arrived in Tasmania to teach painting, I was struck by the need to expand the discourse on the theme. The participating artists were all from interstate and the work addressed issues of landrights, enviromental degradation and place-making. The only paintings included were four large canvases by indigenous artists from Papunya. In contrast to the fairly insular “look and put” mentality that dominated landscape painting in Tasmania twenty years ago, the painters in this exhibition are more “worldly” in their conceptual outlook. Despite both the subject matter and the medium of painting each having a considerable history and tradition, the artists have brought a new potency to the enterprise; there is excitement in their endeavours. Many of the artists have moved to Tasmania to specifically paint from the landscape; others have returned, drawn by its spell. All are informed by a broader intellectual vision and bring that to bear on familiar locations. We continue to discover the landscape because of their vision. Paul Zika