Interview with John Olsen in his studio prior to the opening of Goya's Dog exhibition at the National Art School.

Dinner held 21 January 2018 to celebrate John Olsen's 90th Birthday at OLSEN Gallery, Woollahra

The most comprehensive display ever mounted on one of Australia's greatest living artists This exhibition surveys John Olsen's remarkable seven-decade career, including paintings, ceramics, tapestries and works on paper from collections across Australia. It features some of his most iconic and arresting works, including large-scale paintings of Sydney Harbour and Lake Eyre and his career-defining landscape series The you beaut country. Olsen is renowned for his energetic painting style and his lyrical depictions of the Australian landscape and its life-forms. The exhibition traces the development of his spectacular and idiosyncratic vision, highlighting his lifelong interest in the natural world and his continued pursuit to capture the Australian identity. A National Gallery of Victoria exhibition in association with the Art Gallery of NSW.

John Olsen, is a lover of many things: people, food, literature, and the natural world. Above all, Olsen is a lover of art and life. Listen in as Olsen tells stories of his life, work and an enduring passion for capturing the spirit of the Australian landscape.

Related exhibition:
The You Beaut Country, National Gallery of Victoria

John Olsen: The You Beaut Country offers an unparalleled opportunity to examine Olsen?s consummate place in Australian art history. His You beaut country series, which followed his return to Australia in 1960 after three years travelling in Europe, began what would be a lifelong interest in representing the landscape and Australian identity. These works are presented alongside his more recent paintings, prints and watercolours, including those inspired by the filling of Lake Eyre. The exhibition reveals an artist who at 88 years of age has lost none of his passion for his subject matter, nor his creative vitality and retains a unique ability to capture the spirit of the Australian landscape.

John Olsen is one of Australia's greatest living artists. Daily Review was fortunate to chat with exhibition curator David Hurlston and see Olsen's distinctive works which are on display at The National Gallery of Victoria Ian Potter Centre through until February 2017.

Now at the age of 88, John Olsen has gone home. Arguably Australia's most successful living artist, he is back in the city of Newcastle where he grew up during the Depression. To honour the memories of his early life, he is about to embark on one of his most significant works. It is set to rival his acclaimed 'Salute To Five Bells' mural at the Sydney Opera House.

Philippa McDonald joined John Olsen on his nostalgic return to the Hunter.

"At 85 years young, John Olsen may have created one of his most monumental paintings in a physically-demanding project, complete with dramatic health scare, that has re-energised him." – 7:30, ABC

In March 2013, John Olsen, one of Australia’s greatest living artists, embarked on the second largest mural of his career. He was 85 years old.

In The King Sun, director Tony Williams and producer Anna Hewgill follow the progress of John Olsen’s mural from the arrival of the 8 blank panels to the transportation, delivery and installation of the giant painting in the Collins Square development in Melbourne.

The film is a record of a great Australian at work on possibly his final mural. It’s also an uplifting exploration of a life in art, and a reflection on mortality, optimism and happiness.

The filmmakers take us inside Olsen’s Southern Highland home where Olsen opens up about the eastern philosophies and techniques that have guided his practice, and we hear from Olsen’s wife, son and daughter. John Olsen is in the autumn of his life and in The King Sun he reflects on what he was like as a younger man. We flash back to archival footage of John as a young, vigorous and driven artist working on Salute to Five Bells, and winning the Archibald. And we see how much he has mellowed with time.
– ABC1

The King Sun: John Olsen screened Tuesday 17 June at 10pm on ABC1.

John Olsen, Australia's greatest living painter talks to the ABC 7.30 report about his latest body of work Lake Eyre – The Desert Sea, Ruminations on a Empty Landscape. This latest collection of watercolours, a very personal reflection of an ever-changing landscape that Olsen has visited since the 1970's, depicts the results of the recent flooding to the area and the new life that follows. This episode features interviews John Olsen, his gallerist-son Tim Olsen, grandson James and two young artists Luke Sciberras and Guy Maestri fly across the Lake as well as an interview by Edmund Capon, Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

This Art Nation episode features John Olsen and the exhibition Culinaria with Jamie Oliver and Rick Stein. John Olsen discusses his theories on painting food, as his memories of travel and cooking melt together to celebrate food, art and good company. Rick Stein comments on the exhibition, whilst Jamie Oliver get's involved with cooking up a feast for a delighted artistic audience.

We are blessed with the deliciously tasty Culinaria – The Cuisine of the Sun. An explosive feast that celebrates life and the human experience. Tim Olsen reflects on John Olsen's latest exhibition.

Channel 9 Sunday Program

This wonderful documentary produced by Catherine Hunter and presented by Max Cullen investigates John's enduring passion for the Australian landscape. John revisits Lake Eyre after many years with artist and friend Tim Storrier and discusses his deep love for the desert. Cullen examines other environments that have shaped John's artmaking, including the years spent in Spain in the 1960s; Clarendon, SA and Sydney Harbour, Kings Cross and Hill End, NSW. Fascinating insights are provided by Edmund Capon and Barry Pearce, Art Gallery of NSW.

Archival footage of John teaching drawing at the Julian Ashton Art School and painting in the landscape.

John Olsen's exhibition 'Salute to Sydney: Olsen at Eighty' opened to tremendous acclaim in November 2007 and signalled the official opening of the new Tim Olsen Gallery on Jersey Rd. Tim hosted a red carpet gala event that was attended by many Olsen devotees together with notable artists, actors, writers and television personalities.

John Olsen's exhibition 'Salute to Sydney: Olsen at Eighty' opened to tremendous acclaim in November 2007 and signalled the official opening of the new Tim Olsen Gallery on Jersey Rd. Tim hosted a red carpet gala event that was attended by many Olsen devotees together with notable artists, actors, writers and television personalities.

Long time friend and director of the Art Gallery of NSW Edmund Capon opened the exhibition that marks an important shift in Olsen's paintings from the vast dry interior to Sydney's harbour and beaches.  In the excerpt of the evenings events John Olsen also reflects on his childhood spent on Sydney's shores that provides the central motivation for this beautiful collection of paintings.

Filmed and edited by Noah Hutchison of artcine.com.au