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Title

Head [Nixon/Parr]

1989

Artists

Mike Parr

Australia

1945 –

John Nixon

Australia

13 Sep 1949 – 18 Aug 2020

Alternate image of Head [Nixon/Parr] by Mike Parr, John Nixon
Alternate image of Head [Nixon/Parr] by Mike Parr, John Nixon

  • Details

    Date
    1989
    Media category
    Print
    Materials used
    plyblock prints on Fabriano Tiepolo 290gsm paper
    Edition
    AP, from an edition of 10 + 3 AP, 1 PP
    Dimensions
    dimensions variable :

    a - left panel, 99.5 x 67.9 cm, sheet

    a - left panel, 99.3 x 68 cm, sheet

    Signature & date

    Signed and dated [part b] l.r., pencil "John Nixon / Mike Parr/ 1989".

    Credit
    Gift of Mike Parr 2019. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
    Location
    Not on display
    Accession number
    215.2019.a-b
    Copyright
    © Mike Parr © Estate of John Nixon

    Reproduction requests

    Artist information
    Mike Parr

    Works in the collection

    79

    Artist information
    John Nixon

    Works in the collection

    31

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  • About

    A significant aspect of Mike Parr's practice since the early 1970s has been collaboration. Nearly all of Parr’s artistic endeavours have involved some element of collaboration or involvement with other people, including family members, audiences, curators and fellow artists. Between 1989 and 2012, Parr and neo-constructivist John Nixon collaborated on approximately 15 artworks together, their cooperation predicated on a critical engagement with some authoritarian and repressive aspects of modernism.

    According to the writer Adam Geczy, 'This is where the artists meet: At the attempt to revise the un revisable, since modernist formalism presents its own deadlock, much as any system, political or psychological, that leaves no space for something supplementary' [1].

    'Head [Nixon/Parr]' is among the first works Nixon and Parr collaborated on together in 1989. We see both artists 'butt heads', and tackle the self-portrait genre from their respective practices.

    1. Adam Geczy, 'Collaboration' in Mike Parr: language and chaos, NGA, Canberra, 2016, p 42

Other works by Mike Parr

See all 79 works

Other works by John Nixon

See all 31 works