John OLSEN, Sydney sun
AUSTRALASIAN ART |

John OLSEN

born 1928 Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia

  • Europe 1956-60
  • Spain, Portugal 1965-67
  • Africa 1978


Sydney sun
[King sun] 1965
Painting, oil on three plywood panels
overall 305.0 h x 412.5 w x 5.0 d cm
305 h x 109 w x 5.0 d cm
305 h x 200 w x 5.0 d cm
305 h x 109 w x 5.0 d cm
Purchased with funds from the Nerissa Johnson Bequest 2000
Accession No: NGA 2000.342.A-C
© John Olsen. Licensed by VISCOPY, Australia

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Sydney sun is an optimistic, life-enhancing work that demonstrates John Olsen’s innovative approach to painting and his imaginative response to place that came to the fore in the 1960s. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, he had become interested in the idea of our interdependence with the natural world. This idea was conveyed in Sydney sun, along with his enthusiastic engagement with locality.

In 1960 Olsen had returned to Sydney after three years in Europe, spent predominantly living in Spain. After living in an old Mediterranean culture, he found the local environment of Sydney magically vibrant and alive. He was struck by the brightness of the light and the energy of urban life. Sydney sun encompasses the exuberant vitality of place. From the powerful life-giving energy of the golden orb, the rays of sun become exploratory, meandering tentacles, at one with the plant forms and scatter of pollen, and with the various creatures that have come under its pulsating spell.

The work was originally conceived as a ceiling painting and is one of the most significant examples of a small group of ceiling paintings Olsen created in the 1960s. It was revolutionary at the time it was painted in that it conveyed a sense of place in strikingly fresh ways.