Gift of Mack Jost, 1992mixed media

Booknon-fictionIllustrated, extensively researched overview of O'Keeffe's life and practice including images of works, photographs by her partner Stieglitz, letters and interviews.painting, abstraction, watercolour

Robert JACKS (1943-2014) Jacks studied sculpture at Prahran Technical College from 1958–1960 and painting at RMIT in 1961–62. His first solo exhibition was held to great acclaim in 1966 and in 1968 his work was included in the landmark exhibition, The Field, at the National Gallery of Victoria. Beginning in 1968, Jacks spent ten years living and working in Canada and the United States. It was during this period that his unique visual language matured, incorporating influences from the major exponents of contemporary abstraction, minimalism and conceptual practice. In 2001 the Bendigo Art Gallery established the Robert Jacks Drawing Prize. In 2006, he was named an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) This item is part of the Federation University Art Collection. The Art Collection features over 2000 works and was listed as a 'Ballarat Treasure' in 2007.art, artwork, robert jacks, the field, abstraction, contemporary art

After a quiet period, interest in bookplates in Australia began to increase in the early 1970s, Entrepreneurial art and book collectors such as Edwin Jewell and others commissioned multiple Bookplate designs from a range of well known fine artists. At a 1997 meeting in Melbourne of the Ephemera Society of Australia Edwin Jewell and others announced the formation of the Australian Bookplate Society. The society was instrumental in promoting the art of the bookplate through establishment of the Australian Bookplate Design competition financed through the Keith Wingrove Trust.Image with central figure of violinist with violin accompanied by a skeletal ghost of a cellist foregrounded with man and woman and national crest. Music bars to top and bottom of image encased in green abstractions and piano pegs and the words ex libris j. hellehate.Pencilled beneath image C3,C4 "Death and Girl" Millo 2018.australian bookplate design awards 2020, kieth wingrove trust

The abstraction and colours refer to the modernist abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko.Nillumbik Prize 2018 Winner. The artist lives and works in Nillumbik. Inspired by modernist abstraction the work is a reflection of current times, exploring our relationship with technology and its’ impact on our social, personal and professional lives. Blurred abstract image in warm colours: yellow, orange and brown. Loading circle in white at the centre of the image.photograph, digital print, rothko, modernism, instagram, abstract, loading

Booknon-fictionBookfeminism, feminist art, exhibition, abstraction, art education

Leslie DUMBRELL (14 October 1941 - ) Born Melbourne, Victoria Leslie Dumbrell was a pioneer of geometric abstraction in Australia. After completing a Diploma of Art (Painting) at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in Melbourne in 1962, Leslie Dumbrell adopted the international style of colour field and hard-edged abstraction. She taught alongside Peter Booth, James Doolin and Alun Leech-Jones at RMIT and Prahran College of Advanced Education. In 1966 Dumbrell was appointed to the Prahran College of Advanced Education teacing with Alan Leach-Jones and Jim Doolin. This item is part of the Federation University Art Collection. The Art Collection features over 2000 works and was listed as a 'Ballarat Treasure' in 2007.Geometric AbstractionA large painted canvas with precise, brightly coloured geometric patterns on a black background. Dumbrell uses colour and line to create optical effects which often convey the illusion of movement. art, artwork, dumbrell, hard-edged abstraction, colour field, leslie dumbrell

Guy STUART (1942 - 06 June 2024 ) Born Canberra, Australia Guy Stuart was a student of John Brack at Melbourne Grammar School (1955-60), and attended RMIT where he studied Painting from 1961-1962. Stuart held his debut exhibition in 1968, at the height of new abstraction, and sold out the entire show of figurative works. 'November Apple' was part of a travelling exhibition called 'Imaging the Apple' which travelled from 2004 to 2005. This item is part of the Federation University Art Collection. The Art Collection features over 2000 works and was listed as a 'Ballarat Treasure' in 2007.Framed painting of an apple exhibited in the travelling exhibition 'Imaging the Apple.art, artwork, guy stuart, stuart, apple, fruit, imaging the apple

Gareth SAMSOM (19 November 1939- ) Born Melbourne Sansom describes a desire to constantly surprise and challenge himself as an artist. He had his first exhibition in 1959. His paintings of the 1960s were characterised by a distorted use of line, shape and colour and were influenced by abstract expressionism, Francis Bacon and Sidney Nolan. Over time, his work has also drawn on punk, dada, Basquiat, T.S. Eliot, urban graffiti, classical Greek philosophy and art theory across a variety of media ranging from drawing, printmaking and collage to photomontage and photography. Sansom lectured in Art at the Ballarat Teachers' college, and was appointed Head of Painting at the Victorian College of the Arts from 1977-1985, and Dean School of Art at the Victorian College of the Arts from 1986-1991. He was artist-in-residence at the University of Melbourne in 1985, which was when he resumed his full-time painting practice with a series of large works on canvas. The Federation University Art Collection features over 1000 works and was listed as a 'Ballarat Treasure' in 2007.'Looking for God in Abstract Art 2' is a play on the debate over the respective virtues of abstraction and figuration that has preoccupied artists and critics for more than a century. Sanson has always walked a wobbly line between the two, adroitly avoiding falling headlong into either camp. It is also a gentle dig at the pretensions to higher spiritual meaning in abstract art. In the centre are two photographs, one of rubber masks and the other of the artist in a lurid fright wig and mask and using a spray can like a young tagger. These images, where the artist wears a mask and teeters on bright red platforms, are wonderfully ludicrous send-ups of the 'fine art' of painting. (Geoff Wallis from 'Gareth Sansom: Alternative Person", Art Gallery of Ballarat, 2012) This work was exhibited and published in the catalogue of the exhibition 'Gareth Sansom: Alternative Person' at the Art Gallery of Ballarat in 2012 item. art, artwork, gareth sansom, sansom, mixed media, oils, enamel, photo-collage

Grand Arch is a five-metre by five-metre steel sculpture by Inge King placed as the centrepiece of Alfred Deakin Place, part of a redevelopment in conjunction with the State Government, City of Ballarat, University of Ballarat and Art Gallery of Ballarat. Grand Arch is representative of King's sophisticated style of abstraction that reflected animal and plant forms through to planets and the cosmos. King was a German-born Australian sculptor who created many significant public commissions including the well-loved Forward Surge (1974) at the Arts Centre, Melbourne. She was at the forefront of the development of non-figurative sculpture in Australia and held more than 26 solo exhibitions and participated in more than 60 group exhibitions in Australia, New Zealand, London and New York over almost 70 years as a practicing artist. The artwork is of artistic significance to the people of BallaratLarge steel sculpture painted matt blackgrand arch, inge king, australian modernism

Hygieia (Ύγεια, lit., “healing”) probably began as an abstraction, which later became personified. She does not appear to be a deity of extremely ancient origin, and there has been much scholarly debate as to exactly where and when worship of her first developed. Her cult most likely arose in the territory of Sikyon, where she was worshipped along with Asklepios, the legendary god of medicine. In later times Hygieia came to be regarded as the daughter of Asklepios, although her cult was not introduced to Epidauros, his principal sanctuary, until at least the 4th century BC. The earliest large-scale devotion to her is found in the aftermath of the Plague of Athens (420BC). The cult of Hygieia was taken to Rome, along with that of Asklepios (Æsculapius), in 293BC, to avert a pestilence. Here she gradually became integrated with the old Italian god Salus. Towards the end of the pagan era both Hygieia and Asklepios lost their specific associations with medicine, and became general protective deities. A beautiful wooden statue representing Hygieia, the Greek goddess of health.The figure is highly polished, which brings out the intricate grain of the timber. In it, the sculptor has endeavoured to combine the qualities of a classical pose with a contemporary yet timeless surreal sensuality. It will stand on a stone pedestal about 90cm high, and be placed in a prominent location in the Melbourne headquarters. The College’s statue is semi-abstract in style, carved from a single piece of jarrah. The piece of timber from which it is fashioned was salvaged from the remains of a century-old shearing shed on Rifle Downs, at Darkan in the south-west of Western Australia.

With a career spanning over 30 years as a painter, Stieg Persson is a well known figure within the Australian and international art world. Persson’s work is celebrated for his distinct (yet eclectic) style, which consists of elements associated with abstraction, figuration and decorative art, as well as the artist’s deeply intellectual interrogation of Australian culture and society. In this work titled, Duck and quail eggs, Italian herbs, Persson reflects on contemporary parallels in changes of taste and the desire for decadence as a political and social drive. Inspired by Brighton’s iconic Church and Bay Streets, the artist addresses the social currency of luxury and high-end cuisine by depicting rococo style blackboards which offer the latest in fine dining, alcohol, exercise classes, skin treatments and lavish linens. Persson is presenting a subtle critique of the contemporary obsession with food; as contemporary society places greater significance on the connoisseurship of eating, it does so in lieu of engagement with culture as it is traditionally conceived (music, theatre, literature and art).oil on linenstieg persson, brighton, signage, graffiti, food, chalkboard, bayside, painting

David NEWBERRY (1925-2003) Born Eltham, Victoria David Newbury's painting career started with late 1950s abstraction. He worked for four decades, until 1997, when his final works were created on his last trip to Venice. Newberry was the son artist A.E. Newbury, and painting after World War 2 at RMIT, teaching there from 1955 - 1959,. He then taught at Bendigo Teachers College 1959 - 61 and Melbourne Teachers' College/Melbourne College of Advanced Education 1962 - 83. Among his students were Robert Jacks, Peter Smales and Gareth Sansom. ‘You must capture change. One day the landscape is violet, another it’s bluer or it has pinkness, its darker or lighter. Things change in front of you.’ (David Newbury c.1985) This item is part of the Federation University Art Collection. The Art Collection features over 2000 works and was listed as a 'Ballarat Treasure' in 2007.Framed painting.art, artwork, david newbury, birds, newbury

Alun LEACH-JONES (1937- 24 December 2017) Born Maghull, Lancashire, United Kingdom Arrived Australia 1960 Alun Leach-Jones is recognised as one of Australia's leading abstract colour painters. He spent his childhood in the Welsh village of Glasfryn, Denbighshire. At the age of 14 he started a three year apprenticeship with the Solicitors Law Society, Liverpool illuminating manuscripts and hand copying legal documents. While working with the law society Leach-Jones studied painting and drawing in the evenings at the Liverpool College of Art between the years 1955-57. He immigrated to Australia in 1960, settling in Adelaide and attending the South Australian School of Art, after which he travelled and exhibited throughout Australia and abroad. In 1966 Leach-Jones celebrated Noumenon series was shown with Australian Galleries in Melbourne and he was immediately recognised as being part of what was then labelled as ‘the New Abstraction’ in Australian art. Later in 1968 his work was included in the influential exhibition "The Field" held at the National Gallery of Victoria. This item is part of the Federation University Art Collection. The Art Collection features over 1000 works and was listed as a 'Ballarat Treasure' in 2007.art, artwork, alun leach-jones, leach-jones, printmaking, screenprint

Alun LEACH-JONES (1937 - 24 December 2017) Born Maghull, Lancashire, United Kingdom Arrived Australia 1960 Alun Leach-Jones is recognised as one of Australia's leading abstract colour painters. He spent his childhood in the Welsh village of Glasfryn, Denbighshire. At the age of 14 he started a three year apprenticeship with the Solicitors Law Society, Liverpool illuminating manuscripts and hand copying legal documents. While working with the law society Leach-Jones studied painting and drawing in the evenings at the Liverpool College of Art between the years 1955-57. He immigrated to Australia in 1960, settling in Adelaide and attending the South Australian School of Art, after which he travelled and exhibited throughout Australia and abroad. In 1966 Leach-Jones celebrated Noumenon series was shown with Australian Galleries in Melbourne and he was immediately recognised as being part of what was then labelled as ‘the New Abstraction’ in Australian art. Later in 1968 his work was included in the influential exhibition "The Field" held at the National Gallery of Victoria. This item is part of the Federation University Art Collection. The Art Collection features over 1000 works and was listed as a 'Ballarat Treasure' in 2007.Framed screenprint.art, artwork, printmaking, alun leach-jones, abstract colour, south australian school of art

Alun LEACH-JONES (1937-24 December 2017) Born Maghull, Lancashire, United Kingdom Arrived Australia 1960 Alun Leach-Jones is recognised as one of Australia's leading abstract colour painters. He spent his childhood in the Welsh village of Glasfryn, Denbighshire. At the age of 14 he started a three year apprenticeship with the Solicitors Law Society, Liverpool illuminating manuscripts and hand copying legal documents. While working with the law society Leach-Jones studied painting and drawing in the evenings at the Liverpool College of Art between the years 1955-57. He immigrated to Australia in 1960, settling in Adelaide and attending the South Australian School of Art, after which he travelled and exhibited throughout Australia and abroad. In 1966 Leach-Jones celebrated Noumenon series was shown with Australian Galleries in Melbourne and he was immediately recognised as being part of what was then labelled as ‘the New Abstraction’ in Australian art. Later in 1968 his work was included in the influential exhibition "The Field" held at the National Gallery of Victoria. This item is part of the Federation University Art Collection. The Art Collection features over 2000 works and was listed as a 'Ballarat Treasure' in 2007.Pastel drawing on Stonehenge paper. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program by David Thomas and Brenda Martin, 2011Signed verso lower left 'A. Leach-Jones'art, artwork, leach-jones, alun leach-jones, cultural gifts program, new abstraction, the field

Alun LEACH-JONES (1937- 24 December 2017) Born Maghull, Lancashire, United Kingdom Arrived Australia 1960 Alun Leach-Jones is recognised as one of Australia's leading abstract colour painters. He spent his childhood in the Welsh village of Glasfryn, Denbighshire. At the age of 14 he started a three year apprenticeship with the Solicitors Law Society, Liverpool illuminating manuscripts and hand copying legal documents. While working with the law society Leach-Jones studied painting and drawing in the evenings at the Liverpool College of Art between the years 1955-57. He immigrated to Australia in 1960, settling in Adelaide and attending the South Australian School of Art, after which he travelled and exhibited throughout Australia and abroad. In 1966 Leach-Jones celebrated Noumenon series was shown with Australian Galleries in Melbourne and he was immediately recognised as being part of what was then labelled as ‘the New Abstraction’ in Australian art. Later in 1968 his work was included in the influential exhibition "The Field" held at the National Gallery of Victoria. This item is part of the Federation University Art Collection. The Art Collection features over 2000 works and was listed as a 'Ballarat Treasure' in 2007. Purchased by the Council of State College of Victoria, Ballarat, 1974art, artwork, leach-jones, alun leach-jones, abstract

Ian Parry (born 1947) is a Melbourne-born artist living in Tasmania, active since 1974 and collected by National and State Collections. He was winner of the 1990 ACTA Maritime art Prize. He also took part in 2006, to the ANL Art Prize organised each year at the Mission since 2003. In his biography on his website: Ian Parry was born into a family of seafaring descent. His extensive career as a respected practising artist and teacher, has uniquely included a fishing fleet apprenticeship and years as a single handed fisherman in Bass Strait. "In the early 70's when I first showed at the renowned Powell St gallery in Melbourne, the paintings were large, abstract, with allusion to the experience of the world of water, sky and land. My visual world has always been permeated with the wet parts of this place and continues to be so to this day. Maritime and geological charts and the daily necessity of plotting a course, appear in paintings where necessary, as a means of getting a schematic representation of the subject into play, trying to free the work from the tyranny of the horizon line but frequently returning. Now-a-days I am returning to abstraction, making paintings that allow me free rein with colour and composition, aiming for a sense of permanence and independence in each work." Maritime ArtLarge moulded gilt wood frame, non glazed painting of shipping, oil on canvasSignature and date bottom right corner: "Parry 89"p & o nedloyd, shipping, melbourne ports, docklands, wharfside, wharves, ian parry, maritime art, acta maritime art prize, artwork-paintings

George JOHNSON (18 August 1926- ) Born Nelson, New Zealand Arrived Australia 1953 George Johnson's formalised abstractions usually feature a pattern of small related geometrical shapes which give life, luminosity and fluidity to forms which might be mechanical and lifeless. Later his forms become become much larger and more architonic. The work of George Johnson debuted at the Herald Outdoor Art Show in 1953. The George Johnson Mural was commissioned by the Ballarat Teachers' College Students' Representative Council in 1965. It was purchased with funds raised by staff and students. At the unveiling of this work at the Ballarat Teachers' College Johnson's work was described at belonging to the "Hard Edged" school of abstract painters who had set themselves far above the mass of abstract painters by the vitality and artistic ability displayed in their work. Of the work John JOhnson said "We are all part of life and are growing and developing in many different ways, the process of development is often taking place without us even being aware of it. In my painting the embryo shapes appear and grow. I have tried to make the mural symbolic of life and growth. I do not thank that anything has been left to chance in the mural. Everything is working, and, I feel, working well. It has balance and harmony - and perhaps discord, as does life - one malfunction or imbalance throws everything out." This item is part of the Federation University Art Collection. The Art Collection features over 2000 works and was listed as a 'Ballarat Treasure' in 2007.A painted mural in three panels, including hession collage. art, artwork, george johnson, johnson, ballarat teachers' college art collection, mural, hard edged

This piece of fabric, known Fälter (butterfly), was designed by Mathilda Flögl (1893-1958), who worked in the textile department of the Wiener Werkstätte in Vienna. It is a remnant of the fabric that was used to make a bedspread for Karl and Slawa’s bed in their Vienna apartment where it lay decoratively over a gold brocade eiderdown. The purchase demonstrated Slawa’s interest in and knowledge of modern design and her commitment to the idea of enriching everyday life with beautiful objects, a principal of the Viennese Secession. Following the Duldigs removal from Vienna, the original bedspread and remnant were safeguarded and preserved by Slawa’s sister, Rella, in the basement of her Paris apartment. In 1948 the bedspread and this remnant were sent to Australia. The bedspread was a much-loved item but deteriorated over the years. In 1955 it was made into curtains, which are held in the Duldig Studio Collection. The Photographs of the bedspread in its original location are also held in the collection. The remnant is in pristine condition. The Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshop) was a guild of designers and craftsmen that was founded by the architect Josef Hoffman (1879-1956) and the designer Koloman Moser (1868-1918). The firm manufactured a range of interior furnishings between 1903 and 1932. The textile department opened in 1900, and produced about 1,800 designs, mainly for printed fabrics for furnishings and apparel. The designs were characterised by simplified forms and vivid colours, and inspired by Eastern European peasant art and geometric motifs in contemporary painting. The workshop had a profound impact of European art and design, and its work is still celebrated today. Mathilde Flögl was born in the Czech Republic in 1893, and studied at the Kunstgerwerbeschule in Vienna. In 1916 she began working at the Weiner Werkstätte, and where she designed more than 120 textile patterns. This fabric Fälter or Butterfly was designed in 1924. The butterfly was a favourite motif of Flögl. In this design she plays with a variety of whimsical abstractions and arrangement of both the butterfly and the snail on a background of abstract colour stripes and blocks. Ann Carew 2016The fabric is of great aesthetic interest as an example of the work of the Viennese workshops, and the noted designer textile designer Mathilde Flögl. The original pencil drawings, pencil and gouache designs, and fabric swatches for Fälter are held in the MAK Museum in Vienna, and the Victorian and Albert Museum in London have a sample of piece of the silk fabric in an alternate colour wave. The Museum of Applied Arts in Sydney holds a swatch book of textiles from the Wiener Werkstätte, however Flögl’s work is not represented. The National Gallery of Victoria holds a similar swatch book. The remnant has an excellent provenance, is associated with a powerful personal narrative, and is significant and rare item relating to history of the Wiener Werkstätte in Vienna, and the oeuvre of Matilda Flögl.   Ann Carew 2016Remnant of a block-printed silk fabric used to make the bedspread for Karl Duldig and Slawa Horowitz-Duldig's bed in Vienna.

David STRACHAN (1919–1970) Born 25 June 1919 at Salisbury, Wiltshire, England Arrived 1920 Adelaide, Australia: 1921 Creswick, Victoria David Strachan attended Creswick State School and Geelong Church of England Grammar school. By the age of 16 he wanted to be an artist. Accompanying his mother to London in 1936, he enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art, where he met Godfrey Miller. In 1937 he attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris, and painted at Cassis on the Mediterranean Sea. He returned to Australia in April 1938 and studied at the George Bell School, Melbourne. He had a growing interest in classicism blended with a fascination for the dream-state which was reinforced in his work after he moved to Sydney in 1941. There he was befriended by Jean Bellette and her husband Paul Haefliger, who were to be driving forces behind the Sydney Art Group (founded 1945). He lived on the top floor of the Haefligers' house at Double Bay, and together the three artists drew from models whom the Haefligers hired. In this period Strachan painted and exhibited some of his most poetic works—mainly figurative and landscape subjects, and still-lifes of haunting beauty. His flowers, bowls of fruit, birds, and angelic figures glimmered out of the darkness as things not of this world, evoked faintly, like mythological personages in a gently spoken narrative. He 'spent an erratic war' painting camouflage at Bankstown aerodrome with other artists, among them (Sir) William Dobell, and dancing minor roles with Hélène Kirsova's ballet company. In 1948 Strachan settled in Paris. His paintings, included by Peter Bellew in an exhibition at the Musée National d'Art Moderne, had been well-received by French critics two years earlier. In 1950 he began tentative experiments in etching. These led to the formation of the Stramur-Presse, a business venture which published etchings and lithographs of leading French and English artists. His most important project was a series of twenty-two colour etchings illustrating Alister Kershaw's book of poems, Accent & Hazard (Paris, 1951). Strachan continued to exhibit in Australia and maintained a lively social life with Australian friends. From Paris, he went for weekend painting trips with Moya Dyring in her car and, after 1957, visited the Haefligers on Majorca. He lived in London in 1955-57. His paintings became progressively less soft in effect, his palette brightened, and his forms, especially the still-lifes, became spikier. In the late 1950s his attention drifted towards the study of Hindu philosophers and Jungian psychology. For most of 1957-58 he was enrolled at the C. G. Jung-Institut, Zürich, Switzerland. In 1959 he worked in Silvio Daneo's silkworm factory at Bricherasio, Italy. In May 1960 Strachan returned to Sydney. He lived at Woolloomooloo before buying a house at Paddington in 1963. Over the ensuing years he involved himself energetically with the art scene, exhibiting, teaching (1960-65) at East Sydney Technical College, fund-raising for memorials for Thea Proctor and Dyring, and as the last president (1965) of the Society of Artists. His paintings were out of harmony with the prevailing fashion for abstraction, but he won the Wynne prize for landscape painting in 1961 and 1964 (shared). Perhaps the most moving works of Strachan's last ten years were the mining landscapes, including those he painted near Hill End, leading up to his vast canvas, 'Lewers Freehold Mine'. This was a history picture, depicting the mine as it might have appeared in 1874. He presented it to the Creswick Historical Museum in 1970 in memory of his father. (Barry Pearce, 'Strachan, David Edgar (1919–1970)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/strachan-david-edgar-11786/text21083, published first in hardcopy 2002, accessed online 6 January 2016.) This item is part of the Federation University Art Collection. The Art Collection features over 1000 works and was listed as a 'Ballarat Treasure' in 2007.Framed still lifefeaturing fruit and flowers.art, artwork, strachan, david strachan, still life, flowers, flora, available

This sculpture is a bronze cast of Karl Duldig’s 1956 terracotta sculpture titled 'Moses'. The terracotta sculpture won the 1956 Victorian Sculptor of the Year award, an honor given by the Victorian Society of Sculptors. The National Gallery of Victoria purchased the original terracotta sculpture for the Gallery’s collection in 1956. In 1979 the NGV allowed Karl to cast the original terracotta sculpture in bronze (to a limited edition of 5). The National Gallery of Victoria holds one of these casts and one is in Duldig Studio collection. The original terracotta sculpture was exhibited in 1956 at the Olympic Arts Exhibition in Wilson Hall at the University of Melbourne. Two other works by Karl were also exhibited, a sandstone titled 'Adam and Eve' and a work titled 'Fountain'. The catalogue for the Olympic exhibition, which promoted modernism across a variety of disciplines, noted that Australia’s post war immigration program had given ‘further momentum to the modernist cause’. The identification of émigré artists, such as Karl Duldig, with the acceptance of modernism in Australia became a major theme in any discussion of art and design in the post war period. Ann Carew 2016The subject Moses and the tablets of law is an important theme in the history of art. For example the National Gallery of Victoria collection includes paintings on this topic by the Australian Aboriginal artist, Queenie McKenzie (1991), prints by the Russian-French modernist artist, Marc Chagall (1956), and a painting by 19th century British academic painter, John Rogers Herbert (1870s). Michelangelo’s sculpture of Moses is perhaps the most famous sculptural interpretation of the subject. In Karl’s hands we have a modern interpretation of the theme. His simplification and abstraction of form and attention to surface modeling is masterly. The figure has an emotional intensity and despite its relatively small scale, a ‘forceful monumentality’. The sculpture is aesthetically significant for its craftsmanship, expressive qualities and modernity. It is historically significant because of its associations with the 1956 Olympic Arts Festival. The Duldig Studio’s bronze cast of the sculpture was exhibited in the exhibition '1956: Melbourne, modernity and the XVI Olympiad, Museum of Modern Art at Heide.' Apart from the formal qualities of a work like Moses, its relevance as a motif in Judaism and Christian faiths ensures its place as a work of spiritual significance. Ann Carew 2016Bronze cast from terracotta sculpture. Depicts Moses as in Exodus 32 when he returns from Sinai with the tablets of the law to find his people worshipping the golden calf, in his fury he holds the tablets aloft above his head before crashing them down on the ground.

This work was completed during Harper's Laughing Waters residency at Boomerang House, 2001. The Laughing Waters Artist in Residence Program was run by Nillumbik Shire Council (in partnership with Parks Victoria) 2001-2015. "My painting is about colour and form, and their relationship. I am interested in what one colour does to another colour, the weight of a colour and the feeling of a colour. Colour is very complex; I am looking and responding to what I see and what interests me." Melinda Harper in Artist Profile journal article by Melissa Pesa, 2015.The painting is representative of Harper's artistic practice and the vivid colours and abstraction particular to her work. Small-medium sized oil painting of vivid, bold, coloured shapes arranged in a kaleidoscope pattern. There is an array of colours each placed in proximity to each other to create a vibrant, lively atmosphere. Anna Schwartz sticker on back of canvas. harper, untitled, 2002, contemporary, laughing waters, boomerang, abstract