 Artist: John OLSEN (1928-) Title: Fruitta Misto del Mare 1991 Medium: mix media - ENLARGE Image size: 99.5 x 95.5cm Price: $98,750 |
 Artist: JOHN OLSEN (1928-) Title: Two Men in Landscape Medium: mix media - ENLARGE Image size: 51.5 x 54.5 cm Price: $38,500 |
 Artist: JOHN OLSEN (1928-) Title: Shadows in a Gypsy Caravan, 1992 Medium: mix media - ENLARGE Image size: 95.5 x 100.5 cm Price: $75,000 |
 Artist: JOHN OLSEN (1928-) Sydney Sun 1965 Provenance: National Gallery of Australia (Nerissa Johnson Bequest) |
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John Olsen Biography click John Olsen full biography John Olsen is a master water-colorist and acknowledged as Australia's greatest living artist, literally a "living legend". Olsen is only one of two living important Australian artists, his painting “Love in the Kitchen” sold for $1.09 million October 15th, 2006 at Mossgreen. John Olsen is the highest priced for a living Australian artist. John Olsen's contemporary, Charles Blackman painting sold for $1.2 million. | |||||
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OLSEN,
John | Sydney sun
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.
John Olsen (born 1928 in Newcastle, New South Wales) is a great Australian artist. Olsen's primary subject of work is landscape, even though he has been labeled as an abstract artist. However Olsen rejects the accusation, stating, "I have never painted an abstract painting in my life". Olsen attempts to display the living experience of landscape. He describes his work as an exploration of the "Totality of landscape". The influence for Olsen's work is said to be derived from his travels to Spain where he developed an interest in Spanish culture. Olsen then returned to Australia and wanted to represent Australian Culture in such a way that the whole world would see the diversity between the changing seasons. John Olsen's son, Tim Olsen, owns several private gallery spaces in suburban Sydney, and has become well known around Australia for his expertise in the dealing of art. Olsen's life has been marked by a generosity of spirit, by the vitality of his friendships with men, including many of Australia's leading painters, and with women, and by his personal struggles which have led to some of the greatest works of Australian landscape painting. These include his 'Lake Eyre' paintings and more recent works such as 'Golden Summer, Clarendon'. Olsen's mural 'Salute to Five Bells' is in the Sydney Opera House. In 1957 a Sydney businessman recognizing the immense talent of the young John Olsen, paid him to go to Majorca and paint. The businessman sold most of the paintings for a profit and Olsen was transformed by the influences of European art and the Mediterranean. On his return to Sydney in 1960 the extent of his talent was soon widely acknowledge. In 1968 Olsen set up and ran the Bakery Art School, and in 1972-73 he painted 'Salute to Five Bells', inspired by Kenneth Slessor's poem. Olsen's work has been marked by a deep engagement with the Australian landscape, and he has lived for long periods in different parts of the country and travelled widely in it. He has served on the boards of the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the National Art Gallery.
1928
Born in Newcastle, NSW John Olsen is certainly acknowledged as Australia's greatest living artist and literally a "living legend". Essentially an abstract artist with a figurative element applying to many of his works. His career now spanning well over half a century has been one of success after success. He is represented in virtually every major state institution and in every major collection. He is recognized nationally and internationally as one of Australia's most significant accomplished and innovative artist since the 60's. Born in Newcastle in 1928, Olsen moved to Bondi at the age of seven. He studied at the Julian Ashton School , the Orban School, in Paris and in Spain. In 1955 his first major success occurred when the National Gallery of Victoria purchased a work. In 1957 he went overseas and during this time he sent exhibitions back to Sydney and Melbourne. Since his return to Sydney in 1960 he has held numerous solo exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne. From 1969 to 1971 Olsen lived at the Dunmoochin artists colony, outside Melbourne, working with Clifton Pugh, Fred Williams, Albert Tucker and others and in 1970 he was commissioned by the Dobell Foundation to paint the Sydney Opera House mural Salute to Five Bells. In 1974 he began a series of tours through Central Australia, and later Egypt, Kenya and South Africa which has fuelled his love of the landscape and its inhabitants. He has been awarded many prizes and awards including an OBE in 1977. Olsen major retrospective travelled Australia 1991-92. He is represented by the Australian National Gallery and most Australian state and regional galleries as well as private and corporate collections. Art Encyclopedia www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/olsen_john.html Veteran Australian painter John Olsen has won the 2005 Archibald Prize for his painting Self Portrait Janus.
John
Olsen is a master water colorist witness a series of large works
(often around 8 feet high) on Japanese torinoko paper with titles
such as The Rookery, Dying Creek Bed and Owls at Cooper's Creek.
These exquisite and humorous paintings bear comparison with the best
of Zen sumi tradition without ever striking a false note. Another
group of paintings, begun in 1987 and dominated by tar blacks and
heavy umbers, adumbrates themes of Spanish village life, literary
references and autobiographical probing, all in a tragicomic mode. A
purely Olsen touch appears in the darkness that is animated by
scrawly images in Donde Voy? Self-Portraits in Moments of Doubt: a
squiggly little fried egg, hovering in space where one of the
figure's genitals would be in a fuller rendering, refers playfully
to Velazquez, a symbol of redemption and a particular not- quite-
cooked bit of breakfast. Olsen's work has not yet been seen in the
U.S., yet this retrospective would more than hold its own at any of
our major venues". A typical Olsen painting combines an implied
aerial view with an ambiguous and seemingly unpremeditated
figuration. His characteristically quizzical line and irregular
squiggles and dots deftly render countless organisms, large and
minute. Their environment is conjured through loosely brushed and
stained expanses of colour (on canvas or hardboard) that are keyed
to natural light. Even when he is referring to the outback
landscape, usually noted for its austerity and inhospitality,
Olsen's imagery teems with life. Yet the same lines sometimes read
as geological mappings. In Olsen's work there is no foreground/
middle ground/ background schema, nor any sign of European
landscape's concern with "human scale." Intend he employs
simultaneously the contrary vantages of naturalist and geographer
or, to put it another way, the viewpoints of frog and eagle.
Selected Bibliography: | |||||
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Selected Major Exhibitions
Selected Group Exhibitions
Awards
Selected Bibliography |
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Title: Fruitta Misto del Mare
1991
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Title:
Shadows in a Gypsy Caravan, 1992
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Title: Two
Men in Landscape |
