When the ideas, the formal elements and the medium all work together a sculpture will ‘sing’ with a kind of rightness. It takes on a life, a presence, which is removed from this world. It belongs to a mythical other life without a place in time.¹

Bronwyn Oliver’s impress

Smart’s was an observational aesthetic. He presented ‘freeze frame’ mental snapshots captured while scanning the urban environment. These images, unusual events and odd placements were then carefully arranged into compositions in his studio. Smart’s compositions are always arresting and myst

Sidney Nolan’s Sandstorm, 1985, is an impressively scaled and highly individualistic painting that comprises three oil on canvas panels. Conceived as a thematic installation work, the triptych was exhibited together with four other multi-panel works at the S. H. Ervin Gallery in Sydney in 19

The Royal Touch was painted in the same year as Ceremony,¹ in 1996. The two paintings are of identical dimensions and are two very significant paintings in Garry Shead’s Royal Suite series. Both are set against the dusty red earth of central Australia, with Uluru somewhere on the

The French artist and writer, Maurice Denis (1870-1943) called Maillol a ‘primitive classic’. Looking at the simple geometry and timeless repose of La Montagne, you can sense what he meant. Maillol was one of the most important sculptors of the twentieth century and La Montagne is one of his

Fred Williams’s mantle as Australia’s most important landscape painter was first claimed in the late 1960s. The ‘Australian Landscape’ series and ‘Silver and Grey’ paintings from 1969-70 confirmed his place in the upper echelon of Australian art. By 1973 the influential art critic Patrick Mc

Sculptor Lynn Chadwick is regarded as one of the twentieth century’s most well-respected British artists – he was one of few sculptors of this time who combined great imagination with an immense technical ability. He is recognised for his distinctive style, his theme of organic, figurative o

Fernand Léger’s China Town of 1943 is a rare and singularly accomplished painting that was created during the artist’s longest visit to America. Its visually arresting compositional attributes are distinctively typical of the sixty-two year old artist’s mature oeuvre in the

Brett Whiteley’s Chelsea Flower Show has a disarming provenance: for thirty-six years it hung in the private collection of his mother.

As first glance, and after reading its title, one is almost im

The years following the Second World War were lean times that brought families back together seeking common ties and a meaningful life...