Feature Article Jan/Feb 2012

Setting their Sights

Brian McKay with ‘Acrobat’, detail, aluminium with automotive enamel on etched and
sealed aluminium, 2011.

Pushing boundaries and aiming for change, the short lived Perth Group is a highlight this Summer at Mundaring Arts Centre from 3 February to 11 March.

It was early 1960s in Perth when a small band of artists pulled together, engrossed in the notion of post modernity. For a fleeting moment in time their departure from tradition beckoned an exciting change. For the first time the three-year life of the Perth Group is being explored in the exhibition Setting their Sights at Mundaring Arts Centre. Curator Philippa O’Brien said the Group were not highly organised but were instrumental in the formation of the arts in Western Australia, and the identity of the Hills as a haven of creativity.

Led by Guy Grey-Smith, the group consisted of Robert Juniper, Tom Gibbons and Brian McKay. O’Brien says it was a burst of energy, of doing things differently. “It was a short period, but was an important catalyst for the artists and the small audience who were interested in modern art and international culture.”

‘Advice to Civic Leaders’, oil on hardboard, 1964 by Brian McKay, inspired by a tablet in the British Museum written in ancient English in ‘Setting their Sights’. Janet Holmes á Court Collection.

Brian McKay says Grey-Smith saw a need to move away from the Perth Society of artists, mainly consisting of women painters such as Portia Bennett and Elizabeth Durack. “It wasn’t that Guy was suggesting a male group. It just so happened the four people who were pushing boundaries were men. Tom was doing some extraordinary work, almost conceptual. I was experimenting with different malleable material, using boiled up papier mâché and mixing it with industrial paint and blasting it on to hardwood surfaces, totally outside the path I’d been on at that time, which was landscape influenced by Streeton and Heysen. I was a romantic kid from country Northam, fixed on gum trees and distant blue hills, but then you start to think there’s got to be another dimension somewhere, and I leapt into pure abstraction.”

Grey-Smith suggested they exhibit at Skinner Galleries, the first private gallery in Western Australia. Rose Skinner was unwilling to take a financial risk with Gibbons and McKay in the group. An agreement was struck where the group hired the gallery, providing invitations and refreshments at their own expense. Skinner was convinced it wouldn’t succeed without her contacts, but the first show was practically a sell out, as was the second. When Guy proposed a third exhibition she wanted to go back to the old system with 25% commission. “This outraged Guy,” says McKay. “To him this is the way it should be - cut out the middle man. Rose put her foot down and they had a blazing row, with him saying he would never show with her again. Guy called Bob Juniper and I, because he expected us to follow him to a new path, wherever he was going to lead us.”

‘Ikon: Annunciation’, 1962 by Tom Gibbons. Private collection.

With the two deciding to stick with Rose, Grey-Smith confronted McKay. “Guy came round to see me and he was bloody angry saying I didn’t have the courage of my convictions. He said Rose was a schemer and a profiteer. Bob and I both saw our future lie with Rose, who promoted us both fantastically. It allowed us to meet up with artists like Bert Tucker and Sid Nolan, who suggested I go away overseas - the best advice I ever had. So the Perth Group disappeared.”

O’Brien, who has known the artists since she was eighteen, says she is delighted to be invited to curate the show. “I have often written about their work in books and catalogues. I’m also pleased to bring this show to Mundaring Arts Centre because the gallery began its life in some very enthusiastic meetings around my dining room table many years ago. Many are familiar with the work of Juniper and Grey-Smith, but perhaps not the less often seen work of McKay and Gibbons. These two have very long and focused careers, and both have created works of outstanding beauty and significance.”

Archived Articles

2008

2009

2010

2011