Imitation realism and Australian art
Date
2010
Authors
Gunn, Anthea Caroline
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The work of the Imitation Realists has rightly been seen as marking the start of the
widespread use of assemblage and popular culture by Australian artists during the
1960s. Viewed within the context of their training and the debates of the Australian
art world in the 1950s, it can be seen that the impetus for their work was to find an
alternative form of 'Australian' art. The stated objective of this thesis is to
demonstrate how the work of the Imitation Realists adapted and contributed to
changes to art in Australia. This is achieved by considering the work of Mike
Brown, Ross Crothall and Colin Lanceley in the context of the debates that shaped
the reception and production of art in Australia, including changing ideas concerning
materials, exhibition display and the national identity. Their art, exhibitions and
statements are closely analysed to show how the group formed, worked together and
why they later disbanded.
It is argued in this thesis that Imitation Realism arose as a response to what the
artists saw as the inadequacy of local art practice. This was a result of a
disconnection that they saw between contemporary art and daily life in Australia.
The Imitation Realists found that both abstract and figurative painters were at a
remove from modern urban life as they experienced it. They tried to form an
authentic mode of art that connected with the materiality of the everyday.
Assemblage enabled the artists to break through the impasse they perceived in
contemporary art. Their work was one instance of a widespread interest in the
'primitive' and assemblage shared by artists in Europe and the United States. As
virtually no precedent existed for their art in Australia, it is contextualised
internationally in this thesis. This identifies that the Imitation Realists shared the
practice of using deliberately naive techniques and styles to create work that sought
to capture creativity at its most basic level. The Imitation Realists used assemblage
to respond to modern life as a whole, not just to modernism within the visual arts.
Description
Keywords
Citation
Collections
Source
Type
Thesis (PhD)