Feature Article
FOUR TASMANIAN PAINTERS
for the first time in Perth Tasmanian artists Philip Wolfhagen, David Keeling, Tim Burns and Richard Wastell feature at Holmes à Court Gallery until 16 August.
Initiated by the Bett Gallery in Hobart and the Holmes à Court Gallery in East Perth, the two galleriespresent Four Tasmanian Painters until 16 August. The four painters, Philip Wolfhagen, David Keeling, Tim Burns and Richard Wastell, who have never before exhibited in Perth, bring new opportunities for discussion and exploration of works unfamiliar to Perth audiences. The isolation factor, so commonly attributed to Western Australia's point of difference, is often equally attributed to Tasmanian artists.
Far from remote and disadvantaged, Dick Bett, a second-generation Gallerist who founded Bett Gallery in Hobart in 1986, sees Tasmania very much as a centre of art. "Tasmania has an outstanding training institution with an art school which has been operating well over one hundred years. In the past, when Tasmanian artists had an opportunity to exhibit elsewhere, they would pack up and leave," he said. "With the advent of information technology and cheap flights, that trend has been stopped and even reversed. Artists now move to Tasmania to make art, because of the creative stimulation of the burgeoning art community."
'Photo opportunity,' oil on linen by David Keeling.
Dick says Tasmania is safe, and a place where artists can forget about paying big city rents and concentrate on making art. "And the landscape is utterly amazing," he says. "That's an attraction in itself."
Taking advantage of the stunning landscape is artist Philip Wolfhagen who literally uses the accessible and changeable view from his garden in Northern Tasmania as inspiration for his work. Winner of the Wynne Prize in 2007, and awarded the Centenary Medal in 2001 for his contribution to the arts, Philip's work has become so sought after there is a waiting list of around 250 people who wish to purchase his work, which in this exhibition is priced at $18,500 for a canvas 120 x 96cms.
In the catalogue essay for the exhibition Peter Timms writes not only is Philip 'working from home', "but he is cultivating the roots of the European landscape tradition, for so long neglected. Like Corot, he adapts the classical landscape to express his deep, spontaneous love for the countryside without idealising it as a place of escape from the banality of city life."
Artist Richard Wastell has a very different approach to the landscape. A finalist in the 2009 City of Hobart Art Prize, who, like other artists in this show has exhibited from Tasmania to Victoria and New South Wales. This young artist in his thirties uses the canvas as an outlet to vent his outrage at the loss of old growth forests in Tasmania for the production of woodchips. In an essay on Wastell's work in 2006 Richard Flanagan noted that to evade the ever-growing public anger of woodchipping, the industry had exercised more control over Tasmanian life. "Both major parties in Tasmania, and much of the Tasmanian media frequently give the appearance of existing only as a client of the woodchippers." He said the State and industry seemed so aligned, "anyone questioning the woodchipping industry's actions is attacked by leading government figures as a traitor to Tasmania." In Richard Wastell's works, such as High tide, Derwent River, though we are unsure of the event preceding the image, we are aware it is not a natural occurrence, but an occurrence shaped by man interfering with nature.
'Study for escarpment ll,' oil on linen by Philip Wolfhagen.
Sydney born and Tasmanian based since 1988, artist Tim Burns won the 2008 Fleurieu Prize, and the City of Hobart Prize in 1994. He was a finalist in the Wynne Prize in 2004, and in the Tasmanian Glover Prize for Landscape Painting from 2006 - 08. Two seemingly different styles are presented in this exhibition, one in bold abstract lines, the other a reverie of a dark, lush garden.
David Keeling brings an intriguing tone to the exhibition. A previous student of the Swinburne Film and Television School in Victoria, the Tasmanian School of Art and the Alexander Mackie School of Art in Sydney in the 1970s and early 80s, David's depiction of straggly, but beautifully rhythmic tree formations are sometimes populated with awkward, enquiring looks aimed at the viewer as in Photo opportunity, where the children of Asian tourists seem ill at ease in a foreign landscape.
Artists Philip Wolfhagan and David Keeling have been represented by Bett Gallery since the inception of their careers. Dick Bett prides himself on being to detect quality of original creative imagination early on. "When we identify talent, we make a commitment of fifteen or twenty years to the artist," he said. "We don't do that lightly."
Four Tasmanian Painters continues to 16 August at Holmes à Court Gallery, Level 1, 11 Brown Street, East Perth. Gallery hours are Wednesday to Sunday 12 - 5pm or by appointment.
Visit www.holmesacourtgallery.com.au