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Innovative printmaker’s works feature at GalleryThe Latrobe Regional Gallery will feature its first exhibition of a major Australian artist from Saturday 9 August, since its reopening. By Latrobe Shire Council - 30th July 2003 - Back to News Latrobe Regional Gallery Collections Manager, Rodney Scherer, said the exhibition, ‘George Baldessin 1939—1978’, features prints, drawings and sculpture from the estate of the seminal printmaking figure George Baldessin, who died tragically in a car accident in 1978.
"The Baldessin exhibition is significant in that it relates to part of the permanent collection of the Latrobe Regional Gallery which will be hung in the accompanying exhibition ‘Brotherhood’. George Baldessin was a key figure in the resurgence of printmaking in Australia during the 1960’s," Mr Scherer explained.
"Within the space available the exhibition will give an overview of Baldessin's output from early 1963 works etchings of circus performers through to drawings completed in Paris and a small group of sculptures. The cohesiveness of Baldessin’s images and the translation from drawing to print through to sculpture is masterful and clearly indicates Baldessin as one of Australia’s top artists at the time and is why he was selected to represent Australia on the international stage," Mr Scherer said.
"Unfortunately for the Australian art world when Baldessin died, he was at the height of his career, producing some extraordinarily innovative works. We will never know what could have been," Mr Scherer said.
A work by Baldessin and Australian artist Imants Tillers, whom Baldessin met at the Sao Paulo Bienal was purchased by the Gallery in 1984. Baldessin and Tillers created the suite of prints ‘According to Des Esseintes’ after meeting in Paris and Italy, sending the plates to each other. The suite was eventually printed in Nice. ‘According to Des Esseintes’ forms the nexus between the two exhibitions.
The related exhibition which also opens at the Gallery on 9 August, ‘Brotherhood’, highlights the artists that were associated with George Baldessin.
"Brotherhood is a collection of works by Baldessin and his colleagues and friends, many of whom are now major senior artists in Australia. This group was one of the first groups of artists to work in the Flinders Lane precinct in Melbourne in the 1970’s which has subsequently become Melbourne’s leading commercial gallery precinct," Mr Scherer said.
"The exhibitions bring together works by key artists of the time with Baldessin as the central figure. It is a way of making sense of the collection and answers that question which often crosses the public’s collective conscience when looking at collections - Why did they acquire these works?
"We are extremely fortunate to be given the opportunity to display these works from the estate. Australian Galleries in Melbourne who manage the estate for the family has been very generous in assisting the Latrobe Regional Gallery bring these works to the community. To show how important these artists were and still are, helps to make sense of things within the collection," Mr Scherer added.
The exhibition will be formally opened at 5pm on Saturday 9 August by Anne Ryan assistant Curator of Prints Drawings and Watercolours at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. Anne is a specialist who has mounted a focus survey on the Baldessin work ‘Occasional Views from a City Chamber’. Anne will give a slide lecture on Baldessin on Saturday at 11am. To book a seat for this lecture, please telephone 5128 5700. Seating is limited. The Latrobe Regional Gallery is located at 138 Commercial Road, Morwell, and is open Tuesday to Friday 10am-5pm, and on weekends 11am–4pm. The gallery is closed Mondays and Public Holidays. For further information about exhibitions at the gallery, please telephone 5128 5700, or visit the gallery web page: www.latroberegionalgallery.com
Source: www.gippsland.com Published by: news@gippsland.com
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