In the Birdcage 2002

ROBERT DICKERSON (1924-2015)

In the Birdcage 2002

synthetic polymer paint on canvas
120.0 x 180.0 cm; 140.0 x 200.0 cm (framed)
signed lower right: DICKERSON
signed and inscribed on stretcher verso: ROBERT DICKERSON "IN THE BIRDCAGE" 120x180cm ACRYLIC ON CANVAS

Provenance:
Greenhill Galleries, Perth
Private collection, Perth
Acquired from the above, private collection, Melbourne
Art Index, Sydney, 2021
Private collection, Sydney

Exhibited:
Robert Dickerson, Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane, 3-28 September 2002, cat.2 (illus. exhibition catalogue)

Estimate: $90000 - 120000

Result Hammer: $80000

The racing industry is alive and well in Australia. It is a somewhat divisive beast, always coming to a head during the Spring Carnival when anti-racing groups can be seen waving placards at the entrance of racetracks while industry professionals and jovial spectators eagerly enter the track. Robert Dickerson has always been one of these spectators; his love for racing was as strong as his love for art, and the two sometimes collided to create some of the most sought after works within his oeuvre.

Dickerson’s passion for racing started as a teenager, when there was not much money to spare but there was always the chance to win plenty more. Amazingly, Dickerson’s career as an artist owes its origins to a bet at the track; in 1957 he was commissioned by Australian Women’s Weekly to decorate a promotional Kelvinator fridge. Dickerson took his 100-pound fee and placed a bet on a race, his winnings funding a career change from menial entrepreneur to full-time artist.¹ 

Growing up during the Depression, Dickerson learned the value of hard work early on. After school, he spent hours in his family’s backyard factory in inner-city Sydney, producing tin mirror backs and distributing them locally. He later took a job in a factory in Annandale, earning a meagre wage for a gruelling 44-hour week. Although his surroundings were not salubrious, Dickerson thrived in the inner city, viewing the streets as his playground and a place he could escape to.² Dickerson never completed his formal education nor attended art school.  Instead, he was a true student of life, having held multiple jobs, boxed professionally, and served in the Royal Australian Air Force – all before he turned 20. Dickerson’s innate passion for art drove him to study the works of the European Masters and pioneers of 19th century modernism. This self-directed learning undoubtedly shaped his distinctive artistic style.   

Dickerson’s 1969 exhibition at the Johnstone Gallery in Brisbane explores the work of the European Masters as referenced in the exhibition title: A Homage to Breughel, Manet, Daumier, Picasso, Degas, Rembrandt, Goya, Renoir by Robert Dickerson. All these artists had a profound influence on Dickerson yet arguably none more so than Edgar Degas (1834–1917). Degas too was an avid racing spectator, whose love for horses was matched only by the ballet. The French master created racing scenes throughout his career, producing some 45 oil paintings of the subject. Rather than documenting the feverish action of the race itself, Degas chose to focus on the moments just before the start, when both horse and rider are filled with nervous energy, much like the present work. 

In the Birdcage 2002 depicts the parade ring from a vantage point inside the ‘birdcage’ – an exclusive, invitation-only area at Flemington Racecourse. The lone figure, a perennial motif in Dickerson’s art, stands centrally, clad in a chocolate brown coat with a cap perched atop his head; his hands firmly scrunched into his pockets. Three thoroughbreds circle the ring behind him; the jockeys are all dressed in their silks, their feet ready in their stirrups. A thick band of grey cloud occupies the top third of the canvas, starkly contrasted against the vivid green of the turf. Compositionally, the present work may be likened to Degas’ Racehorses at Longchamp 1871 (see Figure 1), where a small number of well-poised elements are combined to create a mise-en-scène. Both artists invoke a narrative; Degas choosing to capture the dynamic movement of jockeys and riders ahead of a race and Dickerson highlighting an onlooker keenly scoping out combinations before the race commences. 

In 1971, Hal Missingham, then Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, wrote ‘the most enduring thing about Bob’s pictures is that they are about humans, not effigies or abstractions, not cerebral adventures but a straight-out interest in people and their astonishing situations and commitments.’³ Dickerson painted subjects that interested him and the world around him and his interest in racing will be forever solidified within his personal narrative. It is his ability to candidly seize the different shades of human experience that allows his work to remain relevant and to continue to engage contemporary viewers. In his twilight years Dickerson resided at Cambewarra, near Nowra on the New South Wales South Coast. There were two tracks for horses on his property; the longer one stretching over 2400 metres - the length of the Caufield Cup - which Dickerson walked daily.⁴

Footnotes

1. ‘Artist Profile: Robert Dickerson’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, accessed October 2024: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/dickerson-robert/

2. Dickerson, J., Robert Dickerson: Against the Tide, Pandanus Press, Brisbane, 1994, p.18

3. ’Artist Profile: Robert Dickerson’, op. cit.

4. Wilson, A., ‘Robert Dickerson: For the Love of Art’, The Australian, Australia, 28 June 2014, accessed October 2024: https://www.ashleighwilson.com.au/Robert-Dickerson 

Clementine Retallack 

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