John Olsen

(Australia, England, Spain, Portugal 21 Jan 1928– )

Title

Goyder Channel

Year

1975

Media category

Watercolour

Materials used

watercolour, gouache on torinoko paper

Dimensions

190.3 x 99.7cm image; 191.6 x 101.1 x 3.0cm frame

Signature & date

Signed and dated l.r. corner, brown watercolour "John Olsen/ 75".

Credit

Purchased 1980

Accession number

15.1980

Copyright

Location

Not on display

Further information

Relating his experience at Lake Eyre in the centre of Australia during the early seventies, when this salt-encrusted desert flooded for only the second time since European settlement, Olsen reflected c.1989:
"The enigma of it all. It is a desert and it can be full. After the rains it is so incredibly abundant; so what you are looking at in one place, as if through an act of the Dao, becomes full. It is a very profound thing ... It has an effect on you when you are there because all the time it is impossible for you to accept fully the sense of impermanence and transitorinesss. Somehow it affects you ... you realise that you are looking at an illusion really. I don't think that there is anything more Buddhist than that."

It was the largest flood for 500 years and the first time in recorded history that Lake Eyre north had flooded through the Goyder Channel into Lake Eyre south, covering a distance three times the size of Sydney Harbour, over 175 kilometres.

Throughout the decade, Olsen's work became increasingly diversified as he extended the theme of the miraculous rebirth of the lake in different media, exploring the shifting mood and atmosphere and complex subtleties of light, sky, land and water, using watercolour, gouache, oil and the etching process.

Australian Art Department, AGNSW, 2000

Bibliography (9)

INK: Whiteley and Others, Sydney, 2006. List of works

Andrew Sayers (Australia, b.1957) (Author), Australian art, Oxford, 2001, 184 (colour illus.), 185. plate no. 105

Barry Pearce (Australia) (Author), Australian art: in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Domain, 2000, 250 (colour illus.), 301.

Hendrik Kolenberg (Netherlands; Australia) (Author), Australian watercolours 1880s to 1990s, Sydney, 1995, 6 (colour illus.), 7 (colour illus.), 113. plate no. i. The illustration on page 6 is a detail of the image.

Deborah Hart (South Africa; United Kingdom; Australia, b.1959) (Author), John Olsen, East Roseville, 1991, 139 (colour illus.). cat.no. 87

Hendrik Kolenberg (Netherlands; Australia) (Author), Twentieth century Australian watercolours from the collection, Sydney, 1989. cat.no. 61

Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874) (Author), Three years on: a selection of acquisitions 1978-1981, Sydney, 1981, 19 (illus.). cat.no. 29

Each man's wilderness: reflections by Australian artists 1980, 1980, 71 (colour illus.).

Max Germaine (Author), Artists and galleries of Australia and New Zealand, Sydney, 1979, 598 (illus., upside down).

Exhibition history (11)

John Olsen recent paintings (1977), Australian Galleries, Melbourne, 02 Aug 1977–16 Aug 1977.

Three years on: Acquisitions 1978-81, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 15 Oct 1981–01 Dec 1981.

John Olsen - in search of the open country (1986), Heide Park and Art Gallery, 05 Aug 1986–14 Sep 1986.

Twentieth century Australian watercolours from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 05 Apr 1989–25 Jun 1989.

John Olsen retrospective (1991-92), National Gallery of Victoria [St Kilda Road], 01 Nov 1991–02 Feb 1992.

John Olsen retrospective (1991-92), Art Gallery of New South Wales, 08 May 1992–28 Jun 1992.

Australian watercolours 1880s to 1990s, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 18 Nov 1995–14 Jan 1996.

Australian watercolours 1880s to 1990s, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 1996–1996.

Australian watercolours 1880s to 1990s, City of Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, 1996–1996.

Australian icons: twenty artists from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 04 Aug 2000–03 Dec 2000.

Ink: Whiteley and others (2006), The Brett Whiteley Studio, 29 Apr 2006–20 Aug 2006.

Collection

John Olsen