The Day the Flowers Blossomed 1967

JOHN OLSEN (1928-2023)

The Day the Flowers Blossomed 1967

oil on board
121.0 x 90.0 cm; 125.0 x 94.0 cm (framed)

Provenance:
South Yarra Gallery, Melbourne, 1967
Private collection, Melbourne
Thence by descent, private collection, California

Exhibited:
John Olsen, South Yarra Gallery, Melbourne, 25 July - 11 August 1967, cat.5

Estimate: $50000 - 70000

Result Hammer: $80000

Created on the back of John Olsen’s time in Spain and Portugal, The Day the Flowers Blossomed 1967 embodies a defining moment, one which laid the foundations for Olsen’s continuously evolving practice. In a diary entry from April 1966, Olsen noted, ‘My new work will demonstrate clearly that I do not intend to rest on my laurels.’(1) The present work illustrates a shift away from the insistent calligraphic lines of his earlier work towards bold and rhythmic compositions. Wet paint is applied over dry; gestures, sweeps and considered markings are placed with a pigment-loaded brush and done so in one action, without reworking. A flower crafted from vivid reds and yellows bursts from the canvas in the upper left corner. Large solid blocks of navy and plum-brown flesh out the middle of the composition; a nod to his recent explorations of the expressive and constructive possibilities of colour.(2) Animated shapes and patterns that for a fleeting moment, morph into faces and objects, enliven the bottom third of the composition. Everything within this painting conveys the power of deliberation, without a skerrick of timidity or hesitation.

Olsen held two exhibitions on his return to Australia in the late 1960s; one at Clune Galleries in Sydney and another at South Yarra Gallery in Melbourne, where the present work was shown.  The two exhibitions received a mixed reception from critics and younger artists amid an emphatic shift to new modes of abstraction and Olsen’s romantic temperament and figurative imagery began to appear outmoded. James Gleeson nonetheless expressed enthusiasm for Olsen’s new work, writing, ‘It is impossible to think that any other painter today who conveys so rich and full a sense of the joys and mysteries of life … radiance is incredibly yet convincingly combined with earthliness … things of the mundane are painted with the incandescence of a nova.’(3)

The Day the Flowers Blossomed 1967 is a critically important painting – one which not only marks a shift in Olsen’s early career, but notably anticipates his work in the following decades. Olsen moved to the beat of his own drum, remaining largely oblivious to the artistic fashions of the time to become a mainstay of modern Australian art. 

Footnotes:

1. John Olsen, quoted in Hart, D., John Olsen, Craftsman House, Sydney, 2000, p.85
2. Hart, D., op. cit., p.86
3.Gleeson, J., The Sun, Sydney, 10 May 1967

Clementine Retallack

• 

  Cameron Menzies, Chairman & Head of Private Sales

  cmenzies@menziesartbrands.com
  +61 (0) 466 636 142 

• 

  John Keats, Chief Executive Officer

  jkeats@menziesartbrands.com
  +61 (0) 3 9832 8700
  +61 (0) 403 159 785

• 

  Catherine Baxendale, Senior Art Specialist

  cbaxendale@menziesartbrands.com
  +61 (0) 2 8344 5404
  +61 (0) 423 067 180

• 

  Asta Cameron, Art Specialist

  acameron@menziesartbrands.com
  +61 (0) 3 9832 8700
  +61 (0) 400 914 088

• 

  Clementine Retallack, Art Specialist

  cretallack@menziesartbrands.com
  +61 (0) 2 8344 5404
  +61 (0) 478 493 026