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Peter Upward
On Chrome No. 1, 1960
mixed media on board
55.50 x 38.00
signed and dated l.r.
Exhibited: Peter Upward, Gallery A, Melbourne, June 1960
(the present exhibition, as 'Untitled' - our thanks to Eric Riddler at the AGNSW for his help researching the correct title)
Literature & references: The Subject of Art by Peter Upward, Gallery A, exhibition catalogue, 1960, illustrated;
Christine France, Abstraction in Victoria Street, Art and Australia: Vol. 29 No. 4 Winter 1992, p. 474-475 Of the [Victoria Street] Group, it was probably only Rapotec and Upward who could be said to practise a full gestural abstraction. In breaking away from perceived and logical images, Upward had studied the American Beat writers Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Like many other artists he had studied Eugen Herrigels Zen and the Art of Archery and developed a strong interest in calligraphy. Jazz was of particular importance to him, particularly improvisation which he saw as a parallel to his painting in its attempt to reach beyond known experience. Upwards great gestures of pigment in polyvinyl acetate are not seismographs of emotion but simply a homage to their own creation.
Further works by the Artist
Since its establishment in 1984, the Charles Nodrum Gallery’s exhibition program embraces a diversity of media and styles - from painting, sculpture & works on paper to graphics and photography; from figurative, geometric, gestural, surrealist & social comment to installation & conceptually based work.