Diploma Lecture Series 2011

Art and Australia ll: European Preludes and Parallels

Pop art and The Yellow House

Craig Judd

12 / 13 October 2011

Lecture summary:

Pop Art is a simultaneous embrace and critique of the joys of capitalism- the ubiquity of the already made, the

easily consumed.

This lecture is a brief glimpse into the Australian art and culture c. 1960- 1975 the halcyon days of the “Baby

Boomers” those two post WWII generations of young people who optimistically challenged what they saw as

the strictures of politics, the law, religion, custom and gender. For the first time in History young people created

their own cultural forms, sometimes reactive and revolutionary, always quickly commodified, it began with rock

and roll in the mid 1950s. Surprisingly Australian artists and writers were in the forefront of these youth culture

liberation movements. OZ magazine (1963-69 Sydney 1967-73 London) the brain child of Richard Walsh and

Richard Neville, created new models for journalism and graphic design. Brett Whitely and Martin Sharp

quintessentially imaged the heady energy of London of the mid to late 1960s. Lillian Roxon wrote the first ever

“Rock Encyclopedia “(1969) in New York while her sometimes friend Germaine Greer captured the imagination

of the world with her treatise on women’s liberation “The Female Eunuch” (1969).

There was also the Vietnam War 1962-72 (for Australia our soldiers were there in numbers 1966-1972), Jean

Shrimpton and Twiggy, mini skirts, Cleo magazine and Hippies. There was also “R & R”, Harold and Zara Holt,

John and Bettina Gorton, Billy and Sonia MacMahon, Gough and Margaret Whitlam. There were the Freedom

Rides, Juanita Nielson and the Green Bans, the Moratorium Movements and the 1967 referendum where over

90% of Australians voted to allow Indigenous Australian people to finally become citizens. Cultural practices

attempted to translate this rapidly and radically changing world. Australian artists c.1960-1975 created an

exciting synthesis of both European and North American versions of Pop and Conceptual Art. In galleries that

have become almost mythic – Watters, Central Street, The Yellow House - artists created immediately

recognisable and readable images and forms that are fun and funky, sometimes ironic, critical and challenging.

This is a time of self confident experimentation and consolidation which forms the bedrock of Australian

contemporary art and culture.

Slide list:

1. Mike Brown (1938-1997), Ross Crothall “Festive cavalier personage with robot bodyguards and lipstick,

etc... “ 1961, painting, fibre-tipped pen, ballpoint pen, red wax pencil, enamel, gouache and watercolour

on newsprint on composition board, National Gallery of Australia

2. Mike Brown (1938-1997), “The beautiful one is here”, 1969-70, synthetic polymer, collage on canvas,

Art Gallery of New South Wales

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3. Martin Sharp, “Mister tambourine man”, 1968, poster screen-print, stencil, National Gallery of Australia

4. Martin Sharp, “Still life: (Marilyn), 1973, painting, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, National Gallery of

Australia

5. Vivienne Binns, “Untitled”, 1965, ball point drawing, National Gallery of Victoria

6. Robert Rooney (b.1937), “Canine Capers III’, 1969, painting, synthetic polymer paint on canvas,

National Gallery of Australia

7. Alan Oldfield (1943-2004), “Interior with banana chair”, 1973, synthetic polymer on canvas, Art Gallery

of New South Wales

8. Carol Jerrems (1949-1980), “Vale Street #2”, 1975, St Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria, gelatin silver

photograph, Art Gallery of New South Wales

Bibliography:

Christine France “Martin Sharp: a democratic surrealism” Art and Australia magazine Vol 47 No1 Spring 2009

Anne Loxley “Pop art with a feeling for the deeper meaning” Sydney Morning Herald 23 March 2004

Stephen Sewell “Don’t call pop culture art - it’s rubbish” Sydney Morning Herald 10 February 2010

Joanna Mendelsohn “Richard Larter “The stripped rather than the teased” Art and Australia Vol 30, No.1,

Spring 1992,

Joan Kerr “The Art of Vivienne Binns”, Art and Australia, Vol 30 No 3, Autumn 1993 Peter Wilmoth “The 70’s stripped bare” (Carol Jerrams) 17 July 2005 The Age

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Mike Brown (1938-1997), Ross Crothall “Festive cavalier personage with robot bodyguards and lipstick, etc... “

1961, painting, fibre-tipped pen, ballpoint pen, red wax pencil, enamel, gouache and watercolour on newsprint on

composition board, National Gallery of Australia

Mike Brown (1938-1997), “The beautiful one is here”, 1969-70, synthetic polymer, collage on canvas, Art

Gallery of New South Wales

Martin Sharp, “Mister tambourine man”, 1968, poster screen-print, stencil, National Gallery of Australia

Martin Sharp, “Still life: (Marilyn), 1973, painting, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, National Gallery of

Australia

Vivienne Binns, “Untitled”, 1965, ball point drawing, National Gallery of Victoria

Robert Rooney (b.1937), “Canine Capers III’, 1969, painting, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, National

Gallery of Australia

Alan Oldfield (1943-2004), “Interior with banana chair”, 1973, synthetic polymer on canvas, Art Gallery of New

South Wales

Carol Jerrems (1949-1980), “Vale Street #2”, 1975, St Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria, gelatin silver photograph,

Art Gallery of New South Wales