Title
Rhythmic composition in yellow green minor
(1919)
Artist
-
Details
- Other Title
- Frozen Music, 1919
- Date
- (1919)
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on paperboard
- Dimensions
- 85.3 x 115.3 cm board; 89.5 x 119.9 x 5.0 cm frame
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 1960
- Location
- South Building, ground level, 20th-century galleries
- Accession number
- OA17.1960
- Copyright
- © Estate of Roy de Maistre
- Artist information
-
Roy de Maistre
Works in the collection
- Share
-
About
In this startling work by one of the pioneers of modern Australian painting, Roy de Maistre, visual sensation appears is into pure colour.
De Maistre remains best known for his early collaborative experiments in colour and abstract form with Roland Wakelin in Sydney around 1918-19.
In late 1918, de Maistre collaborated with Wakelin in exploring the relationship between art and music. Their experiments produced Australia's first abstract paintings, characterised by high-key colour, large areas of flat paint and simplified forms. The works received critical acclaim, but modernist developments were largely derided by the conservative establishment.
This painting exemplifies de Maistre's theory of colour harmonisation based on analogies between colours of the spectrum and notes of the musical scale. It is also aligned with de Maistre's search for spiritual meaning through abstraction, akin to other artists, such as the Russian Wassily Kandinsky, interested in the ideas of the theosophy and anthroposophy movements, spiritualism and the occult.
-
Exhibition history
Shown in 7 exhibitions
Project 14 - Roy de Maistre: 1894-1968 (1976), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 04 Sep 1976–04 Oct 1976
Parallel Visions: Twenty-two artists from the Australian collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 Feb 2002–May 2003
Colour in Art - revisiting 1919, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Paddington, 21 Aug 2008–27 Sep 2008
Colour in Art - revisiting 1919, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 23 Mar 2009–12 Jul 2009
Colour in Art - revisiting 1919, State Library of Queensland, South Brisbane, 25 Jul 2009–20 Nov 2009
Sydney Moderns, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 06 Jul 2013–07 Oct 2013
Colour Music, Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra, 15 Aug 2014–28 Sep 2014
Mad through the darkness: Australian artists and the Great War, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 25 Apr 2015–11 Oct 2015
20th-Century galleries, ground level (rehang), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 20 Aug 2022–2023
-
Bibliography
Referenced in 36 publications
-
Kate Bowan, Colour in art: Revisiting 1919, 'The very song of life: A musical context for the 1919 colour in art exhibition', pg.19-21, Sydney, 2008, 5, 7, 20, 21 (colour illus.), 36 (colour illus.), 62.
-
Mary Eagle, Australian Modern Painting Between the Wars 1914-1939, 'De Maistre's war', pg. 42-51, Sydney, 1989, 44, 45 (colour illus.). plate no. 28
-
Deborah Edwards, Australian art: in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 'Moderns', pg. 103-104, Sydney, 2000, 103 (colour illus.), 104, 108 (colour illus., detail), 109 (colour illus.), 301.
-
Adam Geczy, Video Logic, 'Music + Video = I See Music', pg. 67-74, Sydney, 2008, 68, 69 (colour illus.).
-
Sasha Grishin, Australian art: a history, 'The shock of early modernism', pg. 206-217, Carlton, 2013, 206 (colour illus., detail), 208 (colour illus.), 209, 549, 559. plate no. 21.1
-
Lesley Harding, Cubism & Australian art, 'L'Esprit Nouveau 1913-1929', pg. 19-47, Melbourne, 2009, 23, 24 (colour illus.).
-
Helen Verity Hewitt, Patrick White, painter, manqué: paintings, painters and their influence on his writing, 'Strangers in the Motherland', pg. 5-19, Carlton, 2002, 7.
-
Lois Hunter, The Australian art companion - A selection of influential artists, 'Roy de Maistre', pg. 24-25, Balgowlah Heights, (1990), 24, 25 (colour illus.).
-
Bruce James, The Sydney Morning Herald, 'Milking works for a moment in the sun', pg. 13, Sydney, 03 Apr 2002, 13. Review of 'Parallel Visions' exhibition
-
Bruce James, Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, 'Australian Collection: Painting and Sculpture', pg. 102-181, Sydney, 1999, 136 (colour illus.).
-
Heather Johnson, Brought to Light: Australian Art 1850–1965 from the Queensland Art Gallery collection, 'Reality or Religious Fantasy? Roy de Maistre and Herbert Badham', pg. 218-223, Brisbane, 1998, 218, 222, 223 (colour illus.).
-
Heather Johnson, Roy de Maistre; The Australian years 1894-1930, 'Colour music 1919', pg. 29-38, 1988, 35, 36 (colour illus.), 37-8, 97, 121. plate no. 8
-
Heather Johnson, Parallel visions: works from the Australian collection, 'Roy de Maistre / Roland Wakelin', pg. 48-59, Sydney, 2002, 4-5 (colour illus., detail), 48, 49 (colour illus.), 51, 142, 147.
-
John MacDonald, The Sydney Morning Herald, 'Men of colours: Australia's early abstract paintings are music to the eyes', pg. 16-17, Sydney, 13 Sep 2008-14 Sep 2008, 16 (colour illus.), 17.
-
David Marr, Patrick White: A life by David Marr, Milsons Point, 1991, 147.
-
Maura McDonnell, Visual music marathon, 'Visual music', pg. 2-20, Boston, 2007, 4 (colour illus.).
-
Jenny McFarlane, Art and Australia (Vol. 40, No. 2), '"Colour in art" and Alexander Hector's Electric Colour-Music Organ', pg. 292-297, Sydney, Dec 2002-Feb 2003, 292-293 (colour illus.), 296.
-
Jenny McFarlane, Concerning the Spiritual: The influence of the Theosophical Society on Australian Artists 1890-1934, 'Science versus Spirit: Colour-Music in Sydney', pg.122-153, North Melbourne, 2012, 82 (colour illus.), 137, 139-140. Note: colour plate pages in between pg. 82-83 are unnumbered.
-
Boo Patrick, Look, 'Sydney students speak...about Sydney Moderns', pg. 26-27, Sydney, Mar 2014, 26.
-
Annabel Pegus, Look, 'Resonance of colour and music: a parallel vision that reached out to another generation', pg. 12-13, Sydney, May 2002, 12 (colour illus.), 13.
-
Annabel Pegus, Modern times: the untold story of modernism in Australia, '2 Colour in art', pg. 16-21, Sydney, 2008, 18 (colour illus.), 20.
-
Laura Pia, Look, 'Colour music: Composing paintings with colours as notes', pg. 34-37, Sydney, Jul 2008, 37 (colour illus.).
-
Donald Richardson, Art & Design in Australia, South Yarra, 1995.
-
John Rothenstein, London magazine, 'Roy de Maistre', pg. 32-37, London, Aug 1963, 34.
-
Bernard William Smith and Terry Smith, Australian painting 1788-1990, 'Leviticus 1913-32', pg. 167-204, South Melbourne, 1991, 191 (colour illus.). illus.no. 111
-
Daniel Thomas AM (Curator), Project 14: Roy de Maistre 1894-1968, Sydney, 1976. cat.no. 49; not paginated
-
Daniel Thomas, Symposium papers: Colour in art - revisiting 1919 & R-Balson, 'Keynote address: Modern Australia: Colour in art 1910s-1950s', pg. 3-11, Sydney, 2008, 6, 10, 20.
-
Daniel Thomas, Grace Cossington Smith, 'Modernity and inwards', pg. 102-107, Canberra, 2005, 103.
-
Daniel Thomas., The Sydney Morning Herald, 'Painting's influence on literature', Sydney, 14 Sep 1976.
-
Daniel Thomas, Sydney moderns: art for a new world, 'Foreword', pg. 11-12, Sydney, 2013, 11, 20 (colour illus.), 21, 22, 27, 46, 217, 312, 321.
-
Wayne Tunnicliffe and Deborah Edwards, The Sydney Morning Herald, ‘New Australia’, pg. 24-27, Sydney, 08 Dec 1997, 24.
-
Roland Wakelin, Art Gallery of New South Wales Quarterly, 'Post Impressionism in Sydney: Some personal recollections', pg. 91-95, Sydney, Jan 1962, 92, 93 (illus.).
-
Anthony White, The Cambridge companion to Australian Art, 'Foreign natives: Australian Modernism 1915-1955', pg. 109-121, Port Melbourne, 2011, 111, 354. fig.no. 9.2 (colour illus.)
-
Judith White, Look, 'Olympians of Australian art', pg. 16-18, Melbourne, Jul 2000, 18 (colour illus.).
-
J.F. Williams', Art and Australia, 'Modernism & the lost generation', pg. 52-57, Sydney, Spring 1991, 57 (colour illus.).
-
Grace Crowley's contribution to Australian modernism and geometric abstraction, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2010, 127.
-