8 recommendations

I recommend this...

Hans Heysen

Editorial Review

Editorial Review

15 November 2008-8 February 2009
Art Gallery of South Australia
North Terrace, Adelaide

Hans Heysen was a prolific artist who helped shape an iconic image of the Australian landscape from the turn of the 20th century through to the 1960s. This year marks the 40th anniversary of his death and, in celebration of his artistry, the Art Gallery of South Australia mounts a huge retrospective of his work that will be touring nationally through till 2010.

A South Australian who emigrated from Germany with his family at the age of seven, Heysen sold one of his first works into the Art Gallery of South Australia collection and bequeathed a large mass of his works to the institution, many of which are represented in the exhibition. Heysen joined a relatively new tradition of Australian artists who set about painting the landscape as they saw it, rather than aiming to re-create a European landscape resplendent with moody lighting and beautified European flora as many colonial artists had done previously. This new breed of artists, starting with the famous Heidelberg School, made it their aim to capture the specific uniqueness of the Australian landscape in which the harsh Australian light and the seemingly unyielding bushland were key visual links to representing the land as it was, instead of how they wished it to be.

Heysen was paramount to this movement; Christopher Menz, the gallery's director, believes Heysen "was one of those rare artists who changed the way we view the Australian landscape. His distinctive gum trees have become part of our national imagery." At a time when Australia was moving towards federation and developing a new sense of identity and independence from England, these artists were carving out the aesthetic equivalent of our independence by highlighting our unique differences from the mother country.

Julianne Gill