John Glover, Russel Drysdale, Lauren Berkowitz & Barbara Reid

Throughout history the unique and commuteable Australian grace has inspired a diverse array of aesthetical responses. Impressios of its motive and beauty, expressions of individuals responses, emblematic religious orientation, the range of adorn art works extends onwards. A great instance of the vast variations of styles stooge be seen in the artworks of Glover, Drysdale, Berkowitz and Reid. potty Glover Constitution Hill at sundown avant-garde Diemans Land, from near Mrs Ransons ordinary House, June 29th 1840.Oil on keepvas, 76. 8 ? 114. 9 cm. H3 cxx3. La Trobe externalise Collection. tin can Glover, artist. Birth 18 February 1767, Houghton-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire, England Death 9 December 1849, Van Diemens Land (Tasmania), Australia. He accepts the emptiness that dominates the Australian bush, and this was a huge change from Lorrain, Hansen says. He was the first great Australian keystoneer of emptiness, a tooth root that obsesses painters to this day. (www. t heage. com. au/articles. )John Glover was an early colonialist painter and was one of the pioneers of an Australian adorn painting. He was an acclaimed adorn painter in England and France, just he was never seen as an artist who pushed the boundaries. This changed when he moved to Tasmania in 1831, age 64. He saw the Australia landscape with new eyes and was keen to become the side by side(p) English Claude. Thus galore(postnominal) have dubbed him The father of Australian landscape painting. The impressionistic painting Constitutional Hill at sunset is perhaps one of Glover most renowned.While he was initially criticised for not paying close enough attention to the local characteristics, he did hold an individuality in his work through the landscape and atmosphere of Tasmania. His image of the Tasmanian light is bright and clear and his gum corners are precise convincing, with their stalky wee and sparse and scraggly foliage. However the strong influence of sentimentalis t artists Claude Lorraine and Gaspard Poussin lingers in his work. Hence Glovers work has a very European flavour. It is also very picturesque and has an air of a peaceful utopian land. This romantic, pictorial and esthetically pleasing style of painting has striking differences to the delicious techniques used by Russell Drysdale, Lauren Berkowitz and Barbara Reid Napangarti. Russell Drysdale Red landscape (1945) Vaucluse, Sydney, oil on bit board, 51. 9 x 67. 0 cm, inscribed in black paint Russell Drysdale Mr and Mrs Rupert Murdoch Birth 1912, Bognor Regis, England Dearth 1981, Sydney, Australia Russel Drysdale moved from England to Australia when he was only eleven days old. Throughout his lifetime he travelled extensively however his artistic focus remained on outback hoidenish Australia.Because he spent the legal age of his life in Australia his paintings show minimal European influence. This in itself creates a great contrast between Glover and Drysdale. Another significa nt difference is that Glovers paintings are impressionistic while Drysdales artworks are expressionistic. This expressionist style broke outside(a) from the tradition Australian landscape art practices present in his era. unalike Glover, Drysdale preferred to work form from sketches, photographs and his memory when composing.When Drysdale worked on his paintings he worked hard, however it would quite often be a long and agonising experience. He was the first artist to investigate the desert and rural outback-Australian life for a prolonged period of time. This intensive exploration gave rise to the central themes of many of his artworks. Some of these themes included the issue of alienation of indigenous people, isolation of rural life, multiculturalism and national identity. The Red landscape is a perfect example of these themes. It shows the landscape surrounding Mount Olga in the Northern Territory.The dead twisted tree trunks, and extremely vivid colours express a strong imag e of isolation and desertion. Although the artwork is not as realistically precise as Glovers Constitutional Hill at sunset, it manages to express the true essences of the Australia desert. at that place is a house and washing blowing in the wind but in that respect is no presence of human being, or anything living for that matter. This gives a bleak, discourage feeling. Lauren Berkowitz Strata, 1999, sand and gravel, 14 x 7m Mc Clelland Gallery, Victoria Photo John GollingsBirth 1965, Melbourne Lauren Berkowitz is a contemporary installation artist. Installation art can be described as a three-dimensional painting, sculpture, poem, and prose work, which is normally brief and site-specific. This very modern art practise makes Berkowitzs expression of Australian landscape is wholly different to the previous two artists, Glover and Drysdale. Her work is make with an almost obsessive attention to detail after painstaking research and, ultimately, total dedication to the moment o f making.Similarly both Glover and Drysdale were very pore and particular about their artworks. Unlike Glover and Drysdale, Berkowitz does not use paint at all, nor does she depict the landscape realistically. Instead she collects materials and items from the specific environment and creates a symbolic sculpture. Often they evoke complex thoughts, longings, and moods and have multiple meanings. Her works usually revolve rough the themes of land degradation, environmental disasters and the human impact on the land.We can see these themes displayed in the artwork Strata, which gives a give a compelling moral message of our obligation and responsibility to the earth and its sustainability. adept can also draw many parallels between this artwork and aborigine artwork. For example like indigenous art Strata is based around symbolism. in like manner the earthy colours depicted are very similar to that of indigenous desert artworks and, like traditional Australia tribal artists, Berko witz is not interested in constructing lasting monuments but rather temporary works that can be returned to the landscape.Although it is not as extreme in Drysdales work, one can also draw parallels between his use symbolism and Berkowitz. WOMANS HEALING ordinance Medium Acrylic on Belgian linen. Image Size 120 x 75 cm- illustrated Australian Encyclopedia Aboriginal Artists, page 256, Barbara Reid Napangarti (B. 1962-) Barbara Reid Napangarti Barabara Reid Napangarhi was innate(p) in Tjukurla, in Western Australia. She belongs to the Pintupi tribe and is the daughter of the world-renowned artist Nigura Napurrula.Ried paints all-important(prenominal) cultural stories of womens dreaming associated with her region. The paintings explore the unique desert country of her fatherland. Although Drysdale cogitate on a similar landscape they both portrayed the stripped area in two very different ways. This is because Reid has a completely different art practice to Drysdale and Glover. Ho wever she does share some similarities with Berkowitz. For example they both use symbols, lines and patterns to show the Australian landscape.The painting titled Womans mend ceremony depicts the ceremonial site of the healing ceremony in her homeland Tjukurla. Like all her paintings it carries a deep spiritual meaning. This is what differentiates her work form the three earlier artists. Glover simply gives an impression of the beautiful landscape around him, Drysdale gives a more expressionistic depiction of the Australian landscape and Berkowitz gives a symbolic personal message about the Australian landscape. Reid however includes the landscape into her dreamtime stories through symbolism that is common to her people.