Garry Shead

(Australia 1942– )

Title

Bondi

Year

1968
re-worked 1998

Media category

Painting

Materials used

synthetic polymer paint, collage on board

Dimensions

216.5 x 137.5cm stretcher

Signature & date

Signed and dated l.r.corner, white oil "Shead 68".

Credit

D G Wilson Bequest Fund 1999

Accession number

47.1999

Copyright

Location

Not on display

Further information

Co-editor of the publication 'Arty Wild Oat' (1962) with Martin Sharp, Garry Shead is one of the central artists of the Sydney cultural scene of the 1960s, which included Brett Whiteley, John Firth-Smith, Richard Larter, and Albie Thoms. Experimenting with mediums as diverse as printmaking, film, cartoons and painting, Shead's significant output of cartoons, mostly satirical reflections of upper-middle class suburban life, appeared in the 'Bulletin', the 'Sydney Morning Herald', 'Honi Soit', and 'Oz', which he co-founded with Sharp.

A great admirer of D.H. Lawrence, an appreciation he shared with Whiteley, his parodies of life in the Sydney suburbs had close affiliations with Pop artists of Britain and the United States. Like the anecdotal assemblages of American satirist Ed Kienholz, Shead protracts human memory through the application and manipulation of discards such as photographs, girly magazines, torn bits of fabric, cigarette packs, even plastic dolls, which he scavenged for use in relief paintings such as 'Bondi'.

In 1968, Noel Hutchinson reviewed Shead's exhibition held in Sydney at Watters Gallery, at which 'Bondi' was shown for the first time:
"Shead paints with the attitude of that onlooker who is always around in parks and public places. Looking to see the obscene, Shead finds, and celebrates it. He is a moralist, and yet salivates over the joys of human exposure. 'Bondi' [encourages] an attitude of shocked love for lewdness. The prudish are confronted and decimated by their own guilt complexes".

Australian Art Department, AGNSW, 2001

Bibliography (11)

'Thanks to a generous benefactor' by Michael Wardell, pg. 14-15., Look Oct 2003, Oct 2003, 15.

'Brett at the beach', pg. 6., Look Mar 2003, Mar 2003, 6 (colour illus.).

'Important purchases: what the Society and Contempo bought for the Gallery in 2001', pg. 16-17., Look Dec 2001-Jan 2002, Dec 2001-Jan 2002, 17.

Council of the City of Sydney (Australia) (Author), City of Sydney Yearbook: 1999, Sydney, May 2000, 59 (colour illus.).

Art Gallery of New South Wales Annual Report 1999 1999, 1999, 21 (colour illus.).

Charles Nodrum Gallery (Australia, estab. 1984) (Author), Australian Paintings 1950-1990, Richmond, 1996, (illus.). cat.no. 26; not paginated

Author Unknown (Author), Sotheby's - Melbourne. 100 works from the Museum of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, 16 Jun 1991. cat.no. 66

Geoffrey Legge (Compilator), The Caddy collection, Sydney, 1988, 38, back cover (colour illus.). cat.no. 34

The Sydney Morning Herald 04 Sep 1968, 04 Sep 1968.

Sunday telegraph 01 Sep 1968, 01 Sep 1968.

'The view!' by Noel Hutchison, pg. 14., The Sydney Morning Herald 22 Aug 1968, 22 Aug 1968, 14.

Exhibition history (3)

Garry Shead (1968), Watters Gallery, 21 Aug 1968 -.

The Caddy Collection, Watters Gallery, 08 Nov 1988–26 Nov 1988.

Australian paintings 1950-1990, Charles Nodrum Gallery, Oct 1996–Nov 1996.