Roger Kemp is a leading figure of the Australian avant-garde whose early forays into abstraction and experimental modes of expression established him as one of the great modern painters of his generation. While living and working in London between 1970 and 1972, Kemp was encouraged to explore printmaking by Australian artist Arthur Boyd. It was at this time that Kemp began to translate his distinctive ‘all-over’ technique from painting into the printed medium by building up a density of etched lines until tone, texture and space emerged. By the mid-1970s Kemp’s abstractions incorporated highly activated and airier spatial fields as his visual language achieved maturity. This exhibition comprises a selection of Kemp’s most ambitious and sophisticated etchings from this seminal period.
Image: Roger Kemp, Relativity 1972, etching; edition of 20, Geelong Gallery, Gift of Anthony Scott through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2024, © Estate of Roger Kemp, Photographer: Andrew Curtis.
Geelong Gallery
55 Little Malop Street
Geelong VIC 3220
T: 03 5229 3645
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The Public Galleries Association of Victoria (PGAV) acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the lands where our office is located, and all Traditional Owners of country throughout Victoria and Australia. We recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples enduring traditions and continuing creative cultures. We pay our respect to Elders past, present and emerging.
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