John Brack
| John Brack | |
|---|---|
John Brack working on the portrait of J.R. McLeod circa 1971
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| Born |
Cecil John Brack 10 May 1920 South Melbourne, Australia |
| Died | 11 February 1999 (aged 78) Hawthorn East, Melbourne, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Education | National Gallery of Victoria Art School |
| Known for | Painting, Drawing, Printmaking |
| Notable work |
The bar (1954) Collins St., 5 pm (1955) The car (1955) The new house (1957) |
| Movement | Antipodeans Group |
John Brack (10 May 1920 – 11 February 1999) was an Australian painter, and a member of the Antipodeans group. According to one critic, Brack's early works captured the idiosyncrasies of their time "more powerfully and succinctly than any Australian artist before or since. Brack forged the iconography of a decade on canvas as sharply as Barry Humphries did on stage."
John Brack was Art Master at Melbourne Grammar School (1952–62). His art first achieved prominence in the 1950s. He also joined the Antipodeans Group in the 1950s which protested against abstract expressionism. He was appointed Head of National Gallery of Victoria Art School (1962–68), where he was an influence on many artists and the creation of the expanded school attached to the new gallery building.
Brack's early conventional style evolved into one of simplified, almost stark, shapes and areas of deliberately drab colour, often featuring large areas of brown. He made an initial mark in the 1950s with works on the contemporary Australian culture, such as the iconic Collins St., 5 pm (1955), a view of rush hour in post-war Melbourne. Set in a bleak palette of browns and greys, it was a comment on the conformity of everyday life, with all figures looking almost identical. A related painting The Bar (1954) was modelled on Manet's A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, and satirised the six o'clock swill, a social ritual arising from the early closing of Australian pubs. Most of these early paintings and drawings were unmistakably satirical comments against the Australian Dream, either being set in the newly expanding post-war suburbia or taking the life of those who lived there as their subject matter.
In the 1970s Brack produced a long series of highly stylised works featuring objects such as pencils in complex patterns. These were intended as allegories of contemporary life.
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