John Worth
Solo exhibition "The Eye of the Beholder"
Exhibition Dates; 2nd May - 26th May 2012
A new series of works engaged with surface texture and found objects offering glimpses of mystery.
Official Opening - Saturday 5th May 6pm.
John Worth is a veteran Australian artist of international stature. Born in Perth, he trained in Germany and England. He has worked as a sculptor and painter and published writer and this new series forms a synthesis of all these media. While walking along the Brisbane River after the 2011 flood he started collecting the detritus and flotsam of the river. All these objects show evidence of the violent treatment of unbridled nature. John has fashioned these objects over a long period of reflection into elegant assemblages that hint at a complex history. They are works of subtlety that reflect John's strong aesthetic. A thought provoking show for the discerning viewer.
The following images are a selection only of the works in the gallery.
See below for Opening Speech by Robyn Bauer.
"Voss" John Worth, bronze, stone and wood, 72cm high, SOLD
"Ironica", John Worth, iron and steel, 80cm wide, $4,000
"The Midnight Special", John Worth, Assemblage 80x90cm, SOLD
"Stele for Apollo", John Worth, 80x90cm, Assemblage, $2,400
"Nautilus", John Worth, 80x90cm, Assemblage, SOLD
"X marks the spot" John Worth, Assemblage 60x60cm, $,1,200
"Terra Incognita" John Worth, Assemblage 80x90cm, $2,400
"Scutch" John Worth, Assemblage 80x90cm, $2,400
"Roxy Dreaming" John Worth, Assemblage 60x60cm, $1,100
"Bayou Landing", John Worth, Asseblage, 60x60cm, SOLD
"Belvedere", John Worth, Assemblage, 60x60cm, $1,200
"Heartbreak Hotel" John Worth, Assemblage 60x60cm, $1,200
"Scherzetto in D", John Worth, 80x90cm, $2,400
"Summer Story Board", John Worth, Assemblage, 60x60cm, $990
"Broadside", John Worth, Assemblage, 80x90cm, $2,400
Shiva Dancing Bronze 33cm $1,400
New World Order Bronze 30cm high $1,500
An Upright Stance bronze 25cm $1,400
Sentinel bronze 38cm
John Worth is an Australian artist of international stature.
Tonight we are surrounded by all new works. These wall hung assemblages had their genesis in John’s daily walks along the riverbank at Bulimba. After the 2011 flood, the mangroves held tangles of flotsam, all bearing evidence of violent treatment by the rain and the river. John started to collect interesting pieces and then to assemble them as he says “In a way helping these dumb witnesses to tell their story”.
John was born in Wiluna, Western Australia and grew up in the central goldfields town of Meekatharra. He worked as a carpenter/joiner, wood carver, manual arts teacher and he worked on the rabbit proof fence.
His wood carvings caught the eye of a German friend and he was encouraged to study sculpture in Europe. When he arrived in Germany he worked on a set of wood carvings depicting the Stations of the Cross for a Bavarian church. He then enrolled in a folio prep school for the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. As English was his native language he was urged by his mentor to present his folio for entry to an English school. His folio was in essence a German one. He was accepted by the Guildford Art School and later the Kennington Art School in South London. He studied life modelling, stone carving and bronze casting. After several years of extensive travel to North Africa, Turkey and Eastern Europe he returned to Australia and started his own bronze foundry. Together with two other sculptors he started up the Western Australia Sculptor’s Society.
In 1973 he was invited to participate in an international sculpture symposium outside Vienna and also did a commission for the Vienna City Council.
He eventually moved to the east coast of Australia, firstly to Melbourne and then to Qld where he set up the Australian bronze foundry on the Sunshine Coast and where he also taught at Sunshine Coast University.
John’s work has been essentially as a sculptor but he eventually turned to painting and when the Watling Gallery opened in 2003 John was the inaugural exhibitor with an exhibition of paintings. Not surprisingly he carries from his earlier discipline a preoccupation with surface texture and the use of space. He has never been concerned with pictures telling a story or light weight nostalgia or sentimentality. I remember when John first came to the gallery here and we were looking at an artwork he said to me “It is so important to not tell the whole story” “You don’t have to tell the whole story, leave something for the viewer to do”.
This brings us to these new works. These pieces are an amalgam of John’s previous concerns and experiences. They are between sculpture and painting and contain the best of both disciplines. They are a natural progression and a development.
The found materials are paramount. They have an integrity and a history of their own. John manipulates them and creates a harmony and an elegance that provokes a response from the viewer that is not literal. He seeks deeper reactions that are not verbal. John has described working on these pieces to me as “working until something suggests itself and then working with that”. The titles reflect this, - eg. “Nautilus” has a maritime feel. He plays with words such as Scutch for a suggestion of something vaguely heraldic, musical terms such as Scherzetto in D and of course a playful focus on the found objects such as “X marks the Spot” or “V8 thunderbird”. He doesn’t attempt to provide explanations but describes the titles as access keys.
When I look at the work and know a little of John’s background I imagine I can perceive a sense of the Western Australian goldfields, and of rural and also urban Australia. There are things that look like bits and pieces from gold mines, metal nuts and bolts, carpentry mouldings, nails, paint brushes, rope and hessian, worm eaten woods, and distressed painted timber which hints at layers of its own narratives. John is telling his own history in his choice of found objects and in their placement he reveals his own strong individual aesthetic. So these works are also a culmination of a lifetime of influences and experiences. It is his history and it is also ours.
The touches of colour are interesting also. John gave me a book on Rembrandt and he said that Rembrandt told his students, “Use blacks and whites, and other colours only sparingly”. John has followed this advice to great effect.
I hope these words motivate you to look more closely.
