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Details
- Date
- (1954)
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on hardboard
- Dimensions
- 41.0 x 85.0 cm board; 58.5 x 102.0 x 2.3 cm
- Signature & date
Signed l.r., oil "JP".
- Credit
- Bequest of Carlyle Greenwell 1961
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- OA6.1961
- Copyright
- © John Passmore Museum of Art
- Artist information
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John Passmore
Works in the collection
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About
"By the end of 1953 Passmore's gestures were getting broader. His paint, no longer applied in crisp washes of green, thickened. Though by no means aggressive, it assumed a distinct physicality. Beneath the surface, the influence of Tintoretto was beginning to emerge. Chiaroscuro, much abstracted, appeared. Such are the more obvious characteristics of a series of paintings of boys and fishermen on wharves, piers, and beaches. These images were projected with the same meditative totality as his still-lifes. The quarrelling figures in 'Fish stealer', or the informal yet energetic grouping of 'If you don't believe me ask the old bloke', do not read as human dramas. Fishermen, air, pier, and water are all concretions of the same nameless substance, subtly knit together. Postures are deliberately clumsy and angular, the bodies are lumpish. Passmore's line, with muffled eloquence, runs forward, stops, thickens, gropes, turns a corner, and fades again. The awkward figures repeat the ungraceful carriage of most Australians: more important, however, their gawkiness is a deliberate guard against too florid or fluent a gesture of the brush."
Robert Hughes, 'The Art of Australia', Penguin, 1966
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Exhibition history
Shown in 6 exhibitions
Purchases and Acquisitions for 1961, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 04 Apr 1962–25 May 1962
Aspects of Australian art: Art Gallery of New South Wales Travelling Art Exhibition 1976, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1976–1977
John Passmore Retrospective (1984-1985), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 19 Dec 1984–10 Feb 1985
John Passmore Retrospective (1984-1985), Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 27 Feb 1985–07 Apr 1985
John Passmore Retrospective (1984-1985), Newcastle Art Gallery, Newcastle, 12 Jul 1985–18 Aug 1985
Australian icons: twenty artists from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 04 Aug 2000–03 Dec 2000
Favourites: Margaret Olley and Jeffrey Smart (2002), S.H. Ervin Gallery, The Rocks, 12 Jan 2002–24 Feb 2002
The art of the picture frame, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 26 May 2003–12 Sep 2003
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Bibliography
Referenced in 6 publications
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Deutscher-Menzies Fine Art, The Sydney auction: Australian and International Art: Fine Art, 4 March 2003, Sydney, 2003, 76. lot no. 43, 'Newcastle Beach', 1955, oil on composition board, 33 x 83 cm, relates to the Gallery's painting and 'The fish stealer' is refered to in this catalogue entry.
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Paula Dredge, Margaret Sawicki, Steven Miller and Lindsay Parker, S.A. Parker Framing Works, 'Works in the collection with known Parker frames', pg. 27-68, Sydney, 2004, 66 (illus.).
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Robert Lindsay., Aspects of Australian Art: Art Gallery of New South Wales travelling art exhibition 1976, 'John Passmore', Sydney, 1976, (illus.). cat.no. 60; not paginated
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Margaret Olley and Jeffrey Smart, Favourites: Margaret Olley and Jeffrey Smart selections, Sydney, 2002. NOTE: no catalogue numbers; Jeffrey Smart selection.
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Barry Pearce, John Passmore 1904-84, Sydney, 1984, 65 (colour illus.). cat.no. 38
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David Thomas, Society of Artists Spring Exhibition, 'Works from the Wesfarmers collection of Australian art part 1: lots 1-23’, pg. 24-25, Sydney, 1912, 24.
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