Publication Details Hardcover, 256 pages, 280 x 240 mm, 160 illustrations plus all works of art illustrated in the exhibition checklist, also includes archival photographs. ISBN 978-1-921668-48-7
Author and/or Editor name/s Elle Freak – Curator and Editor. Cheri Donaldson, Brendan Casey, Maria Zagala, Elspeth Pitt, Tracey Lock, Arthur Cantrill, Stephen Mould, Ralph Body, Bernice L. Murphy
Author and/or Editor bio/s Elle Freak is Associate Curator of Australian Paintings and Sculpture pre 1980 at the Art Gallery of South Australia. She previously worked at the Anne and Gordon Samstag Museum of Art. Elle has a special interest in mid-twentieth-century Australian art and has contributed to a range of exhibitions and publications in this field, including Dorrit Black: unseen forces. She recently co-curated the major rehang of AGSA’s Elder Wing of Australian Art in 2018, which positioned the paintings and films of Dušan and Voitre Marek within the context of Australian Surrealism and the Pacific region.
Year of Publication 2021
Publisher Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Abstract Dušan and Voitre Marek: Surrealists at sea is the first major publication on the art of under-appreciated Czech-Australian brothers, Dušan and Voitre Marek. Taking its cue from the artists, the publication embraces a variety of methodologies to consider the poetry and innovation that defines Dušan and Voitre’s art. It brings together the voices of eleven writers with varying histories and relationships to the artists and their work. Their essays loosely track six decades of Dušan and Voitre’s unwavering commitment to their art, as they moved with ease between figuration and abstraction, and across diverse media: paintings, drawings, sculpture, films, prints, photographs and jewellery. The subject of the sea provides a uniting theme. The publication follows Dušan and Voitre’s voyage to Australia, Dušan’s experiences working on boats in New Guinea and Voitre’s life as a lighthouse keeper in Kangaroo Island. In later chapters, Dušan’s experience floating on the water of the Coorong is explored alongside his experiments in abstraction and film.
This large publication accompanied a major exhibition of the same name at the Art Gallery of South Australia. With over 200 works drawn from private and public collections across Australia, it was Dušan and Voitre’s first major survey and their only joint exhibition since 1949. The publication and exhibition affirmed the Adelaide-based artists’ position within Australian art history, highlighting their major contributions to a wave of post-war innovation in Australian art and design.
You must be logged in to post a comment.