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Details
- Other Title
- (Matter painting)
- Date
- 1961
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- synthetic polymer paint and concrete on hardboard
- Dimensions
- 67.4 x 88.4 cm sight; 81.7 x 103.0 cm frame
- Signature & date
Signed and dated l.r., pale grey synthetic polymer paint "R.Balson.61".
- Credit
- Gift of Chris and Susannah Turle 2013. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 11.2013
- Copyright
- © Ralph Balson Estate
- Artist information
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Ralph Balson
Works in the collection
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About
Ralph Balson is renowned as one of Australia's leading abstract artists of the mid twentieth century. Through his rigorous and disciplined approach, Balson demonstrated his single-minded pursuit of pure painting.
This painting belongs to his series of 'Matter paintings' produced in the early 1960s. In his 'Matter paintings' Balson employed fluid and automatic techniques of pouring and trailing paint on large boards. He allowed the paint to slip and bleed across the board's surface. At times the paint would coagulate in heavy layers which cracked or rippled as they dried, creating textural effects.
During his first trip abroad in 1960, Balson saw first-hand the most recent forms of contemporary painting. He visited exhibitions of American minimalist and hard-edge painting; however it was the work of the European Tachists and textual painters such as Burri and Tapiès that made the strongest impression on him.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 3 exhibitions
Ralph Balson: matter paintings, Bloomfield Galleries, Australia, 08 Jun 1988–02 Jul 1988
Ralph Balson and James Clifford paintings (1994), Watters Gallery, East Sydney, 15 Jun 1994–02 Jul 1994
Ralph Balson and James Clifford paintings (1994), Savode Gallery, , 08 Jul 1994–30 Jul 1994
Watters Gallery: 50th anniversary exhibition, S.H. Ervin Gallery, The Rocks, 19 Sep 2014–02 Nov 2014
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Bibliography
Referenced in 3 publications
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David Pestorius, High achievement or creative byway: the erratic reception of Ralph Balson's 'Matter' paintings, 2003, 7, 26, 33, 57 (illus.). plate 8
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Watters Gallery, Ralph Balson & James Clifford paintings, Sydney, 1994, n.pag. (colour illus.). cat.no. 4
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Natalie Wilson and Anneke Jaspers, Foundation Newsletter #22, 'Curators' and coordinators' reports: Australian art', pg. 6-7, Sydney, Jun 2013, 6.
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