Kevin Connor
(Australia 1932– )
- Title
- Figure in a Haymarket winter park
- Year
- 1963
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on hardboard
- Dimensions
-
122.0 x 154.0cm board; 137.0 x 168.5 x 4.5cm frame
- Signature & date
- Signed and dated l.l. corner, brown oil "Connor 63".
- Credit
- Purchased with funds provided by the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales 1998
- Accession number
- 218.1998
- Copyright
- © Kevin Connor
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
'Figure in a Haymarket winter park' may well be considered the artist's finest masterpiece and most important of the paintings of Connor's 1963-64 Haymarket series, which centred on the theme of his life up to that time. The leaning figure is a recurring life symbol of the artist's determination. Alluding to the difficult task of painting well, it makes painful progress along the road into the city.
First visiting the area during childhood, Connor has returned to the Haymarket again and again over ensuing years, inspired by its industry and its memories. As he said in 1988:
"I can always remember the bright sunny morning - I was about six years old - walking out of Central Railway Station on the mezzanine level where the trams used to come, walking out and looking across Sydney ... It was a distinct feeling of love for this place and all the infinite possibilities of life in this day in Sydney - an awareness of the one forever day ... I want to paint that feeling in every picture".Australian Art Department, AGNSW, 2001
- Bibliography (4)
-
Barry Pearce (Australia) (Author), Kevin Connor, Roseville, 1989, 25, 61.
'The City, The Source: Recent Sydney Paintings' by Barry Pearce, pg. 92-97., Art and Australia (Vol. 27, No. 1) Spring 1989, Spring 1989, 92, 97 (illus.).
'Collections', pg. 15-19., Art Gallery of New South Wales Annual Report 1998 1998, 1998, 15 (colour illus.).
Barry Pearce (Australia) (Author), Hendrik Kolenberg (Netherlands; Australia) (Author), Kevin Connor - paintings and drawings 1947-88, Sydney, 1989, 6 (colour illus.), 8.
- Exhibition history (7)
-
Kevin Connor: recent paintings (1963), Australian Galleries, Sydney, Jul 1963 -.
Kevin Connor: Haymarket Paintings 1962 - 1974, Macquarie Galleries, 22 May 1974–03 Jun 1974.
Kevin Connor (1974), Toorak Gallery, 23 Jun 1974–06 Jul 1974.
Kevin Connor: paintings and drawings 1947-88, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 01 Sep 1989–15 Oct 1989.
Unknown, Toorak Gallery.
Unknown, Australian Galleries, Sydney.
Unknown, Macquarie Galleries.
