Mark-making
No. 63 Variable 1965
synthetic polymer paint on board
two parts, overall 120.0 x 304.7 cm
Collection of the University of Queensland, purchased 1978
Courtesy of the artists estate
Until 11 May 2008
This exhibition juxtaposes a diverse range of approaches to the expressive mark in art, the works having a relationship that is not necessarily related to chronology. The freedom of the gesture evident in Ian Fairweather’s calligraphic layering and in Tony Tuckson’s reductive expressionism of the mid-1960s at first glance appears also in the works by Robert MacPherson, Imants Tillers and Mike Parr. However, the works of MacPherson, Tillers and Parr are underpinned by a conceptual approach to mark-making. In his ‘Hand Ritual’ series of drawings, MacPherson covered pages ‘with handfuls of graphite using a very structured repeated gesture’ (MacPherson 1992). Tillers brings a postmodern approach to the expressive mark, so that his grid of canvas boards reads as a ‘second-hand’ expression. Parr’s performative action – suggesting an assault on the body – parodies self expression in the way he utilises the print-making process.