Matthys Gerber

(Netherlands, Australia 1956– )

Title

Clouds #2

Year

1995

Media

Painting

Medium

oil on polyester

Dimensions

300.0 x 189.0cm

Signature & date

Signed l.r., oil "Gerber". Not dated.

Credit

Purchased with funds provided by the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales Contempo Group 2001

Accession number

362.2001.2

Copyright

Location

Entrance court

Further information

Gerber is one of Australia's most interesting conceptual painters and has exhibited extensively in Australia and internationally through the 1980s and 1990s. Gerber takes familiar genres from painting as his subject - realist portraits, romantic landscapes, abstraction - and overloads them to create a saturated and at times surreal version of the same genres. At the same time, Gerber's technical facility and the appeal of his evocative subjects prevents the work from being purely ironic.

Gerber was born in the Netherlands in 1956. He immigrated with his parents to Australia in 1972. Gerber cites his European heritage as being of importance to his painting. From the great European Romantic artists through Surrealism to Richter, Gerber draws on a rich vein of references. He also cites Warhol and his use of ready-made pop culture subjects for art, as a major influence.

These cloud paintings are key works in Gerber's oeuvre, marking the transition point in his practice from hyper-realist painting to abstraction. They also relate to a series of Rorschach paintings and paper cut outs he did prior to these paintings, psychoanalysing the viewer's predisposition to create associations with the subject matter of painting. Whereas 'Clouds #1' is more abstract; the billowing, fleshy forms of 'Clouds #2' suggests human faces and bodily orifices in both a humourous and surreal play on our habit of reading things into the forms that clouds take.

Gerber's 'Clouds' recall the history of romanticism from Wordsworth's "I wandered lonely as a cloud" through Constable's cloud studies. However, they also recall the kitsch 70s posters for the bedroom walls of bonged out teens. There is something about clouds, which like sunsets, are almost possible to take seriously as a subject for art. And yet here they are: lush, billowing, romantic, oscillating between being painfully kitsch and evocatively sublime.

Bibliography (6)

Contemporary: Art Gallery of New South Wales Contemporary Collection (2006), Anthony Bond (England; Australia) (Commissioning Editor), Wayne Tunnicliffe (New Zealand; Australia) (Commissioning Editor), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874).

Art Gallery of New South Wales Annual Report 2002 (2002), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874) (Author), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Sebastian - contemporary realist painting (2000), Alison Kubler (Australia) (Author), Gold Coast City Art Gallery (Australia, estab. 1986), Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia.

Mono Poly - Matthys Gerber (1998), Editor Unknown (Editor), Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia (Australia), Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.

Matthys Gerber (1995), Pamela Hansford (Australia) (Author), BARBERism (Australia), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

1995 (1995), Sarah Cottier Gallery (Australia) (Author), Sarah Cottier Gallery (Australia), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Exhibition history (8)

Sebastian - Contemporary realist painting, (05 May 2000–11 Jun 2000), at Gold Coast City Art Gallery (Australia, estab. 1986).

Sebastian - Contemporary realist painting, (06 Jul 2001–12 Jul 2001), at Hervey Bay Regional Gallery (Australia).

Mono Poly - Matthys Gerber, (06 Mar 1998–29 Mar 1998), at Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia (Australia), 14 Porter St Parkside South Australia, Australia 5063.

Sebastian - Contemporary realist painting, (16 Jun 2000–06 Aug 2000), at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre (Australia), PO Box 393 Gymea 2227.

Sebastian - Contemporary realist painting, (17 Nov 2000–07 Jan 2001), at Orange Regional Gallery (Australia, estab. 1986), Civic Square Byng Street Orange, NSW Australia 2800.

Sebastian - Contemporary realist painting, (18 Feb 2001–08 Apr 2001), at Noosa Regional Gallery (Australia, estab. 1981).

Sebastian - Contemporary realist painting, (18 May 2001–17 Jun 2001), at Toowomba Regional Art Gallery (Australia).

Matthys Gerber, (Mar 1995–Mar 1995), at Sarah Cottier Gallery (Australia), 585 Elizabeth St Redfern, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2016.