Biography and Qualifications

Born Melbourne, 1947
Currently lives and works at Cape Schank, Victoria

Diploma in Fine Art (Painting), RMIT, 1969
Lecturer in painting at Chisholm Institute

Description of work

John Anderson has described his project as the search for a personal pictorial language able to carry an elusive, open-ended narrative within a spatially flexible structure. This narrative elusiveness (or equally, mysteriousness and inexplicableness) is most often commented upon in his work. His characters are frozen in the midst of compelling dramas, nocturnal power plays and illicit assignations, unknown in origin and uncertain of outcome.

Anderson's technique echoes the apparently random encounters of the sensual, self-absorbed figures in his work. He works in a searching, intuitive manner, with little preparatory drawing, building up form through contrasts of light and dark, in much the same manner as the Baroque old masters' reliance on chiaroscuro. Indeed, the moral ambiguity invoked by the emergence of the chiaroscuro painting style is exploited by Anderson, whose attitude towards the seamy encounters of his characters is never moralistic. Images of the turbulent sea, and shadowy bush settings, show that the natural world can be equally dramatic and mysterious as the actions of his decadent characters.

Awards/Exhibitions

Anderson has held around twenty solo exhibitions since 1972, including ten with William Mora Galleries. Other exhibitions include:

• Ill Met by Moonlight, Sir Hermann Black Gallery, University of Sydney, 2001
• Geelong Contemporary Art Prize (finalist), Geelong Regional Gallery, 1996
• Mornington Contemporary Artists, Mornington Peninsula Arts Centre, Mornington, 1992
• The Alice Prize, Art Gallery of Alice Springs, Alice Springs, 1991

Collections

Artbank, Sydney; Monash University Collection, Melbourne; Deakin University Art Collection, Melbourne; Smorgon Collection, Melbourne; Savoy Plaza Hotel, Melbourne; Western Mining Collection; Gadens Solicitors, Melbourne; Applied International, Melbourne; The Negroni Commission; BHP Collection; Macquarie Bank, Sydney; Yarra

Selected bibliography

McCULLOCH, Susan, State of the Art, Issue 11, Dec-Mar 1994-95

MOSS, Rod, "Nightmoves: John Anderson", OzArts Magazine, Issue 7, 1993, pp 34-7

MOSS, Rod, "John Anderson: The Figurative Tradition", The Walking Dream, ex cat, Mornington Peninsula Arts Centre, Melbourne, 1993

NELSON, Robert, "The purity of getting your hands dirty", The Sunday Age, 1/10/00

NELSON, Robert, "Dark and classic painter", The Age, 13/9/95

Featured Artists

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