Sunday Evening at the movies with George Russell Drysdale!!!
Week Four Live Journal Entry No: 2
I absolutely love the Art Gallery and walking down there, through the domain. It is like walking down the aisle at church, and when you get to the altar, wondrous things await you to see and ponder on. There are great spaces in there where you just stand back and let your visual sense take you on an utmost amazing adventure, your interpretation of the works. There is one particularly huge window, glass floor to ceiling, which looks out over the Woolloomooloo Wharf. When you actually stand back it seems like a real life picture. Looking out at different angles will give you different pictures and perspectives on the outside. That’s to get your mind working so you can appreciate what is on the inside.
Whilst we were there, there were many groups of schools ranging from infants right through to secondary. I was listening to a group of probably Kindergarten or 1st class; they were looking at “The coffee shop” depicted here by one of Australia's famous early modernist women artists, Grace Cossington Smith. This picture is of the coffee shop that was in David Jones, the Art Deco wall lights are fantastic. The Art Deco period was so decadent, rich and grand. The Art Guide was asking them what they saw. They were all commenting on the strong primary colours, the linear brushstrokes and especially the red chairs. Then one little boy said ‘I see a monster underneath the table behind the red chair’ and was pointing to his imaginary monster in the picture. The wonderful imagination of a child.
Many of the picture and displays all have unique appeal but I liked Russell Drysdale’s “Sunday Evening” 1941 Oil on Canvas
This picture “Sunday Evening” appeals to me because it is a typical Aussie picture and family from outback/country. A typical family getting ready for the beginning of a new week, baths the kids, throw a ball around with them and just enjoying the moment. The family consisting of father, mother and three children. Typically Aussie, the gum smack bang in the middle of the picture, the clothes line, which hangs in between the tree and post, the dunny outback. There is also the washbowl in the foreground where the baby has just been washed and is being dried off. The daughter standing near mum, just in case she may need some help. The boy next to his dad with a cricket ball in the foreground before them. The rainwater tank that sits behind their home made of corrugated iron. The bike leaning against the gum, their only mode of transport. He paints the figures elongated, thin and tall like the gum possible portraying them as he sees the gum. He paints them thin due to the fact that there was not a lot of food, but survive on the bare minimum like the gums, which do not need a lot of nourishment or water. The Aussie battlers. The gum is a hardy, sturdy and strong tree, which withstands anything out there in those treacherous and harsh conditions. The parents are the only ones that have shoes on and there are really not a lot of clothes on the line. Therefore, this shows that they are not that well off and are just managing out here. The colours, which surround them, are rich earthy colours and the sky well she’s ‘TRUE BLUE’, with only a small amount of the sky showing some overcast conditions. This may symbolize the hardships they face. The picture has many “Aussie Icons”. As does his other work “Group of Aborigines” - 1953
Here are our True Aussie Icons with their Acubra hats and not as thin as our family from Sunday evening. They are a well feed lot and are at one with this harsh land, it is their mother and she always provides. The colours are beautiful and rich just like their culture. He has painted them with clothes, and maybe this is to show that they had accepted some parts of our culture.
Russell Drysdale depicts a true Australia and its people. His works are typically Australian and you could pick out his works if you were looking at different artist in a gallery. A great Aussie artist. I find that Australian literature and the artworks tie in well with each other, they complement one another. The link to the past painted by these artists is a great learning journey one that I shall continue to explore. So take heart Henry Lawson, you did not die in vain. With your picture hanging up in one of our most celebrated galleries, staring out at us, you still inspire us (some more than others).
“Russell Drysdale skins the desiccated outback to the bone. Astringent portraits of the eroded bush jolt Australians into sharp awareness of the harsh existence in the interior. His outback is a silent, lonely world of baking heat and glittering stars: his children are stringy, his aborigines stoic, his trees skeletal. In his dusty frontier lands, iron-roofed shanties with peeling walls rise like castles of desolation…….”.
“Their attraction was partly because, for him, they represented a more complete integration between humans and the environment which he had always respected and depicted in his art.”(An interview with the ABC).
