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| Antipodeans Group | |
|---|---|
| Name | Antipodeans Group |
| Formation | 1959 |
| Dissolved | 1960s |
| Location | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Notable members | Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd, David Boyd, John Brack, Robert Dickerson, Clifton Pugh |
Antipodeans Group The Antipodeans Group was an Australian artists' collective formed in Melbourne in 1959 that advocated figurative painting in opposition to international Abstract Expressionism, and it brought together painters and critics who engaged with debates around National Gallery of Victoria, Victorian Arts Centre, Heide Museum of Modern Art, National Gallery of Australia, and the broader Australian visual arts scene. The group mounted a landmark exhibition and published a manifesto that linked members such as Arthur Boyd, John Brack, Charles Blackman, David Boyd, Robert Dickerson, and Clifton Pugh to discussions involving figures like Sidney Nolan, Joy Hester, Albert Tucker, Russell Drysdale, and institutions including Museum of Modern Art, Tate Gallery, and Art Gallery of New South Wales.
The group's origins trace to debates in Melbourne art circles in the late 1950s among participants in exhibitions at Museum of Modern Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Heide Museum of Modern Art, and private galleries such as Peter Bray Gallery and Toorak Art Gallery, and to critical responses from writers affiliated with The Age (Melbourne), The Bulletin, and the Victorian Artists Society. Members issued the Antipodean Manifesto in 1959 as a reaction to the ascendancy of Abstract Expressionism, citing international exhibitions at Tate Gallery, Museum of Modern Art, and touring shows from the United States that influenced Australian curators like John Reed (Australian art patron) and critics such as Geoffrey de Groen. The 1959 exhibition at the Victorian Artists Society and appearances in venues across Melbourne and Sydney provoked responses from curators at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and commentators linked to Arts Council of Great Britain-influenced programs.
Key signatories and participants included Arthur Boyd, John Brack, Charles Blackman, David Boyd, Robert Dickerson, Clifton Pugh, and allied figures such as John Perceval (artist), Joy Hester, Sidney Nolan, Albert Tucker, Russell Drysdale, Fred Williams, Wyndham Lewis, Brett Whiteley, Sydney Nolan (note: alternate name), Geoffrey De Groen, John Passmore, Ian Fairweather, Rex Battarbee, Ethel Carrick, Vera Scantlebury Brown and others active in Melbourne and Sydney circles. Critics and supporters included Donald Brook, Graham Sutherland, Bernard Smith (art historian), Patrick White, and patrons like John Reed (Australian art patron) and institutions such as National Gallery of Victoria and Heide Museum of Modern Art.
The Antipodean Manifesto asserted a commitment to figurative representation and narrative painting in opposition to dominant currents exemplified by exhibitions at Museum of Modern Art, Tate Gallery, and major shows of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and other Abstract Expressionism practitioners, while aligning with traditions associated with Francis Bacon, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Gustave Courbet, and Eugène Delacroix. The group articulated aims to foreground human subjectivity and storytelling linked to local subjects such as Australian landscape, Melbourne, Sydney, Victorian bushfire iconography and references resonant with works by Sidney Nolan and Russell Drysdale, positioning themselves against critics aligned with internationalist modernist trends promoted by curators from Museum of Modern Art and commentators such as Clement Greenberg, Harold Rosenberg, and Australian figures including Bernard Smith (art historian).
The 1959 Antipodean exhibition in Melbourne assembled major paintings by John Brack (including works contemporaneous with his series exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria), Arthur Boyd (echoing themes later shown at Heide Museum of Modern Art), Charles Blackman (related to canvases associated with Joy Hester and works acquired by National Gallery of Australia), David Boyd and Clifton Pugh, attracting attention from curators at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Victoria. Subsequent solo and group exhibitions by members were mounted at venues such as Museum of Modern Art, Tate Gallery, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Victoria, and commercial spaces including Peter Bray Gallery and Toorak Art Gallery, while key works entered collections at National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, and regional institutions influenced by acquisitions from patrons like Dame Elizabeth Murdoch and collectors associated with John Reed (Australian art patron).
Contemporary critical response was polarized: supporters in publications such as The Bulletin and commentators like Patrick White defended figurative commitments, while critics influenced by Clement Greenberg, Harold Rosenberg, and Australian modernist advocates including Bernard Smith (art historian) argued for the internationalist trajectory promoted by exhibitions at Museum of Modern Art and Tate Gallery. Debates played out in forums including The Age (Melbourne), The Sydney Morning Herald, gallery lectures at National Gallery of Victoria, and academic discussions at institutions like University of Melbourne, producing controversy over national identity and the place of narrative painting in exhibitions curated by figures such as John Reed (Australian art patron) and programmers connected to the Arts Council of Great Britain.
The group's short-lived campaign influenced subsequent Australian art histories, museum collecting policies at the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, and Art Gallery of New South Wales, and debates in academia at University of Melbourne and University of Sydney about representation versus abstraction. Their legacy appears in later generations of painters including those exhibited alongside Brett Whiteley, Fred Williams, Sidney Nolan, and in retrospective surveys at Heide Museum of Modern Art, National Gallery of Victoria, and international loans involving Tate Modern and Museum of Modern Art. The Antipodeans' stance continues to be discussed in scholarship by historians like Bernard Smith (art historian), critics such as Donald Brook, and curators at institutions including National Gallery of Australia and Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Category:Australian artist groups