Robert Jacks: Order & Variation
The first large-scale retrospective of pioneering abstract Australian artist Robert Jacks will open at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Australia.
Titled Robert Jacks: Order & Variation, the exhibition will present more than 200 works that span Jacks’ entire career. The works include his minimal and conceptual works, which were produced during his time in the United States, and his monumental late paintings and sculptures.
Jacks was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1943 and his debut solo exhibition was held to great acclaim in 1966. Jacks’ work has since charted a distinctive and influential path through late 20th and early 21st century Australian art and spans the disciplines of painting, sculpture, drawing and printmaking.
During the late 1960s, Jacks left Melbourne for Toronto spent the next decade living and working in Canada and the United States. He settled in New York in 1969, and it was while living in the thick of the city’s downtown arts scene that his unique visual language matured. As one of very few Australian artists who experienced Minimalism and conceptual practices at their source, Jacks’ influence on subsequent generations of artists was significant both as a teacher and mentor. It was also this experience that made him a unique figure within the history and development of 20th century Australian art.
Robert Jacks: Order & Variation will be on display at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia from Friday 3 October until Sunday 15 February 2014.
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