Earth encompasses terrain, flora, fauna, geology and climate. It is a cosmological concept, one that reaches to the sky and deep beneath the ground. For First Nations people, the earth guides and informs culture. The Earth has its rhythms—albeit irregular and at times volatile—as do the myriad visual productions made in response to this dynamic restlessness. Artistic interpretations of our landscapes have arguably been the most persistent form of artmaking in Australia.
Drawing on works from TarraWarra Museum of Art’s permanent collection, this exhibition celebrates the leading figures in Australian art who have explored and vividly expressed the rhythms of the Earth—Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Angelina Pwerle, Judy Watson, Fred Williams, John Olsen, Mandy Martin, Brett Whiteley, Arthur Boyd, and Godfrey Miller. The exhibition also includes artists who have more specifically observed humanity’s relationship to environments ravaged by drought, such as Russell Drysdale, or the impact of industrialisation on the landscape, in the case of Robert Juniper and Jeffrey Smart.
Showing together with Sonia Leber and David Chesworth: Where Lakes Once Had Water
Image: Mandy Martin (1952–2021), Romantic Coastal Landscape 1986, oil on canvas, 180 x 240 cm. TarraWarra Museum of Art collection, Gift of Eva Besen AO and Marc Besen AO. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program 2013.
