Widely acclaimed for his bold, expressive paintings on canvas, this big exhibition - there are more than 100 works - reveals drawing is the core of Ben Quilty's art.
The title
drawing indicates the contents of the exhibition but also suggests the actionof drawing. Featuring rarely seen prints and drawings, the dense display of works from 1994 to 2013 offers a look into Quilty's work methods, themes and interests. There are drawings in colour and in monochrome using pencil, texta, brush and ink, gouache and pen and ink.
There are recurring subjects: cars (his favourite Holden Torana), mates, portraits (self and otherwise), nudes, devils, demons, skulls. And there are etchings drawn directly onto plates in front of subjects like the Maggots (a gang of friends) and the artists Margaret Olley and John Olsen.
One series of seated figures with skull heads is a morbid fantasy. Another series from 2004 couples a nude and a skeleton like a medieval dance macabre of death and maiden.
Quilty's colour pencil portraits, executed with a crispness and attention to detail, fall somewhere between tight realism and flights of fantasy. Two drawings of his children, for example, are not just drawn as he sees them but are made in an imaginative, cooperative way, Quilty asking 'how would you like to be seen? - with huge claws? Sure, I'll do that!' The artist's skill as a draftsman gives logic to fantasy.
Altogether, the jostling of media and the mix of framed and unframed works, makes for a lively and powerful presentation showing that drawing for Ben Quilty is 'visual thinking'. His drawn lines are driven more by ideas than the desire to produce a finished work on paper or a study for a painting.
drawing is a remarkably revealing exhibition. Including personal and intimate works, it’s the back story to the high-octane paintings Ben Quilty has produced - before and
After Afghanistan.*
*
After Afghanistan is on view at Western Plains Cultural Centre, Dubbo NSW, until 30 March 2014.
Ben Quilty is one of the most exciting Australian artists of his generation. He won the Archibald Prize in 2011 and the same year travelled to Afghanistan as the Australian War Memorial's official war artist. His exhibition After Afghanistan 2013 has been critically acclaimed. In January 2014 he won the Prudential Eye Awards. His work is included in Dark Heart, the upcoming Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia. In July 2014 London's Saatchi Gallery will present a solo show of his new works.
Ben Quilty is represented in Australian national and state galleries. A major retrospective:
BEN QUILTY LIVE! was held in 2009 at the University of Queensland Museum of Art.
Press release courtesy Tolarno Galleries.