Geoffrey de Groen is one of Australia’s most outstanding painters. In his new exhibition he shows why.
April 26th, 2012
Now in his early 70s, Geoffrey de Groen is one of Australia’s finest and most exhibited painters. At a time when painting has been reduced more often than not to illustration, de Groen’s work is a reminder that there is a whole tradition of painting going back many hundreds of years.
For painters of de Groen’s generation it was obligatory to fully understand this tradition. And the results are embedded in his work. But you need to look hard and long.
His current exhibition in Canberra shows just one series of work – for de Groen works in series and within this wide scope of activity there is lots of variety.
Many years ago he gave up painting in order to start all over again, beginning with black and white drawings, then on to colour drawing, then to black and white paintings before finally returning to colour.
In the process he developed new techniques which involved working the paint into the surface. The result was a perfect unity, so that the viewer cannot tell where the surface ends and where the painting begins.
In this series he exploits the texture of the canvas to explore his ongoing themes of paradox and illusion. In other series there are figurative elements. In this show, the ectoplasmic forms hint at the world we know (landscapes?), but remain essentially abstract.
Still there is a kind of light which illuminates the pictures. And the longer we look at these luminous but tactile objects, the more we seem to be led into some sublime, cosmic place.
At the end of the day, all good painting helps us to see more clearly. Sight becomes insight, perception becomes vision. And illusion becomes reality.
Paul McGillick is Editorial Director at Indesign Publishing.
Geoffrey de Groen: New Paintings
Chapman Gallery
chapmangallery.com.au
Until May 9.
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
In the bid to balance the desire to live amongst nature with the modest footprint of today’s homes, designer Victoria Azadinho Bocconi looks for inspiration in the depths of the Amazon jungle.
Natural forms meet technological sophistication to produce GH Commercial’s Pattern Perfect® Native Collection of carpets. Step inside the factory to see how local flavours inform the design.
Join us behind the scenes with V-ZUG’s in-house design team, and discover how this Swiss boutique kitchen manufacturer balances art, science and history to create its pioneering Excellence line.
Bidding farewell to mundane and uninspired office spaces, colour has transformed our workplaces into layered and engaging environments. So we sit down with Karina Simpson, Hot Black’s Workplace Lead, to talk about the influence colour has on the workspace landscape through the prism of Herman Miller’s progressive colour philosophy.
Congratulations to Gordon Burns and the team at HBO+EMTB, winners of the 2013 Corian Design Awards Edition 4 Commercial Category.
Furniture wholesaler Table & Chair celebrated the end of 2011 with a party at their Subiaco showroom on Thursday 1 December. 200 of Perth’s designers and architects came to show their support and share a drink.
Production designers on Ridley Scott’s 2012 Blockbuster: Prometheus, cast the net wide in seeking out the right furniture for their futuristic, sci-fi film sets
Dance For Life (DFL) supports ReachOut, a platform for youth dealing with mental health issues. With current statistics stating that up to one in five Australians experience symptoms of mental illness, it is something that many in the design community, and the wider community, come into contact with.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
To mark the official opening of its Design Icons exhibition, Cult hosted an unforgettable event in the Sydney showroom.
The upcoming Blak Design Matters forum in Melbourne will explore First Nations design with panel discussions on ownership of identity, cultural appropriation and misappropriation more.
Entries for the Gaggenau Kitchen of the Year close on April 30!
The Living Space category at the 2023 INDE.Awards showcases homes that are innovative, multi-detailed and beautifully resolved. This category affords the chance to explore what makes a house a perfect home and sets the bar high for residential design right across the Indo-Pacific region.