Title
Dry Salvages
1956
Artist
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Details
- Date
- 1956
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on hardboard
- Dimensions
- 119.0 x 90.9 cm board; 133.2 x 105.0 x 2.8 cm frame
- Signature & date
Signed and dated u.r. corner, black oil "John/ Olsen/ 56".
- Credit
- Gift of Mrs EM Gardiner in memory of her daughter Marie Gardiner 1972
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 68.1972
- Copyright
- © Estate of John Olsen/Copyright Agency
- Artist information
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John Olsen
Works in the collection
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About
My painting takes on its particular abstract quality because only in this way can I express my search for direct mystical experience. There is the feeling of an abyss, a void between oneself and everything outside, and one has the impulse to bridge it. The thing which I always endeavour to express is an animistic quality – a certain mystical throbbing throughout nature.
John Olsen, 1956
Taking its name from the title of a poem by TS Eliot, 'Dry salvages' explores the idea of being immersed in the natural world – an idea which was essential to John Olsen’s approach to painting. The painting was shown in the benchmark exhibition 'Direction I', held at Macquarie Galleries in Sydney in December 1956.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 5 exhibitions
Direction 1, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 04 Dec 1956–10 Dec 1956
Project 41: The mosaic -The grid (1983), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 25 Mar 1983–24 Apr 1983
New Directions 1952-1962, Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest, Emu Plains, 08 Feb 1991–24 Mar 1991
John Olsen retrospective (1991-92), National Gallery of Victoria [St Kilda Road], Melbourne, 01 Nov 1991–02 Feb 1992
John Olsen retrospective (1991-92), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 08 May 1992–28 Jun 1992
John Olsen The You Beaut Country, Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne, 16 Sep 2016–12 Feb 2017
John Olsen The You Beaut Country, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 10 Mar 2017–12 Jun 2017
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Bibliography
Referenced in 10 publications
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George Berger, Meanjin, 'Notes on Sydney's art life-1956', pg. 74-76, Carlton, Autumn 1957, 74, 75. exhibition review
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Sarah Couper, Look, 'Backstage: Deborah Edwards, Senior curator Australian art', pg. 11, Sydney, Nov 2015, 11 (colour illus.). Deborah Edwards photographed standing in front of Olsen's 'Dry Salvages’
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James Gleeson., The Sun, 'Color, life in art', Sydney, 04 Dec 1956. exhibition review
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Deborah Hart, John Olsen, 'The Pacific loan exhibition and direction one', pg. 25-31, Sydney, 1991, 29, 30 (colour illus.). cat.no. 13
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David Hurlston and Deborah Edwards (Editors), John Olsen: the You Beaut Country, Melbourne, 2016, 55 (colour illus.).
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Macquarie Galleries, Direction 1, Sydney, 1956, n.pag.. cat.no. 3; priced 100 guineas
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Barry Pearce, Australian art: in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 'Landscape and gesture', pg. 239-240, Sydney, 2000, 242 (colour illus.), 301.
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Barry Pearce, Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, 'Australian', pg. 13-35, Sydney, 1988, 30.
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Virginia Spate, John Olsen, 'John Olsen', pg. 1-14, Melbourne, 1963, 6-7, 17, (colour illus.). colour plate no. 1
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Project 41 - the mosaic, the grid, Sydney, 1983, 4 (illus.). cat.no. 6
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