28 - 30 October 2011

Having been musing on the idea of “picture-making” as part of an on-going consideration of the art object, the artist Gunter Christmann seemed like a natural selection for an exhibition at Society, due to his dedicated painting practice that spans over 40 years and which consciously addresses what it is to make a picture. Having arrived in Sydney from Berlin in 1959, Christmann came to prominence through his association with Central Street Gallery and his inclusion in the seminal exhibition The Field at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1968. While his paintings engage with the styles of colourfield and hardedge abstraction - which gave Central Street and The Field their notoriety – they do so with a unique approach that moves freely and with wit across the representational modes of abstraction and figuration.

AVAGOYAMUG brings together a selection of recent paintings by Christmann that further his use of the ‘float tank’ and ‘dry box’, with  one of the first paintings he produced using this compositional strategy Figum Square (1975). This technique involves the construction of containers that are filled with selected detritus from the environment surrounding his Darlinghurst studio and home. Chosen for their colour or form, these objects are either floated in water or shaken to create an infinite number of compositional arrangements. The arrangements that  please Christmann the most are selected and translated to canvas.

Throughout his practice and central to the paintings presented here, is the fact that Christmann paints his frames. As a part of the picture, the painted frame highlights the importance of the works edge. The frames mark the complete reality of the picture, the limitations of the containers that enable the arrangements within its confines to occur. Within these confines the objects selected from the street take on new life as abstracted motifs, while their often-recognisable forms and suggestive arrangements disrupt the typical austerity of abstraction.

A conversation with Gunter Christmann will not be published at the artist’s request.

Gunter Christmann is represented by Niagara Galleries, Melbourne

Image 1: (from left to right), Europa 2011, acrylic on canvas, 82.0 x 82.0; The Backroom Boys 2011, acrylic on canvas, 120.0 x 91.0; Epimetheus 2011, acrylic on canvas,82.0 x 82.0
Image 2: Installation view, (back wall left to right) Oui 2011, acrylic on canvas, 98.0 x 62.0; Egan 2011, acrylic on canvas, 98.0 x 62.0
Image 3: (from left to right) Natalia M 2011, acrylic on canvas,120.0 x 91.0; Cybocracy 2011, acrylic on canvas,120.0 x 75.0; AVEAGOYAMUG 2011, acrylic on canvas,120.0 x 75.0
Image 4: Figum Square 1975, acrylic on canvas, 80.0 x 80.0

Photos: Susannah Wimberley