Historical information

John BRACK (1920-1999)

A key Melbourne artist who lived in Canterbury, Melbourne. This image of a nude is most probably John Brack's wife and is drawn in his studio, a pristine space with immaculate floors often seen in many of his paintings.His most famous work '5 pm Collins Street, Melbourne' featured on an Higher School Certificate (HSC) English exam and gave Melbourne children the opportunity to critically analyse this image.

Brack's large abstract canvas of the Battle of Waterloo, "The Battle", was completed in the early 1980s and features pencils march across the canvas in ordered motion.

This biography was written by Dr Susan Paterson.

Physical description

Framed lithograph in black ink on white paper depicting nude woman, with smaller nude woman image on verso. This work was originally produced to be bound in a book by private press publisher Tate Adams.

The suite of lithographs for the book was started by John Brack in September 1981 and finished and published in December 1982. The book was launched with a series of original conte drawings, from which the lithographs were based, in Realities Galleries, Melbourne. A high cost of production was involved in the binding of the book, and only fifteen copies were originally bound for exhibition and sale at the show. Subsequent to this approximately another thirty copies were bound, making a total finished edition of fewer than fifty copies, far less than the anticipated 200. After many years a number of sheets were discovered through the estate of Brack’s art dealer Rudy Komon (1908-1982). This unsigned work is from Rudy Koman's estate.

Inscriptions & markings

not signed or dated