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Soul of a Nation Rendered in Light and Shade
The Sydney Morning Herald 26/01/11
Leo Robba
In casting around for a theme for this year’s Australia Day special, we hoped to choose one that would give the artists scope to explore and celebrate what it means to be Australian. The brief was that the work should be a personal response to our country’s diversity, landscape and culture. Each artist has brought a distinct vision of how they understand and picture our national character, reflecting the wide rang of reactions to the idea of Australia Day. The Herald is proud to have John Olsen, pictured, arguably this country’s greatest living artist, featured on our front page. For more than 60 year Olsen has produced work that expresses his deep engagement with the Australian landscape and a passionate love for life. The cover image, Sunny Morning Tree Frogs, celebrates that passion. This year we also feature another of Australia’s finest painters, Elisabeth Cummings, whose the River Runs Dry is a semi- abstract depiction of the Georges River, exploring the dichotomy between the beauty of the natural world and the pressures we place on the environment through mining. Incidentally, this is a story the Herald covered throughout last year, highlighting community concerns about long-wall mining in the Sydney basin. Art is never far from politics. Lucy Culliton’s Kangaroo Tea Cosy is an image that takes us back to an era of simple pleasures, a time before the tea bag, when people made the effort to brew a pot, to knit a cosy and to chew the fat. We all have our perception of what symbolises our national identity. I hope you enjoy this year’s selection of artists’ works.