Press and Editorial
GEOFFREY DE GROEN - in to the distance
2 August 2011Bill Gregory
» View GEOFFREY DE GROEN - in to the distance exhibition
“Do not despair, one of the thieves was saved. Do not presume, one of the thieves was damned. “– Samuel Beckett.
In that symbiotic relationship between an artist and his viewer nothing can be taken for granted. Indeed, without that relationship there is no art. Nor is there any art if either party rests content with formulas, with second-hand experience or with seduction.
Geoffrey de Groen, now in his early 70s, belongs to a generation of artists committed to an on-going interrogation of their own work. Painting did not take itself for granted and every picture had to justify its existence.
De Groen’s pictures may seem superficially beautiful, but they are difficult. And that’s the whole point. They demand that we engage with them. We can’t walk away, because their ambiguities – ambiguity of depth, form and light – challenge us. The pictures simply don’t make sense unless we take on the challenge of resolving those ambiguities.
– Dr. Paul McGillick
The Great Dividing Range itself is a liminal space, dividing the eastern coast of Australia from the inland, marking changes in climate, vegetation and even the patterns of settlement across the country. Without wishing to stretch the metaphor too far, the Range may be seen as analogous to the content or the subject of Geoffrey’s paintings: the canvas becomes a field where conflicting visual ideas clash. His most recent paintings made over the last two years, for example, provoke the eye – forms enter into dialogue with each other, dissolve and reappear, space shifts and the result is a pictorial resolution that is never quite static.
But Geoffrey is not a landscape painter. His method of painting is synonymous with ‘meaning’ for any interpretation of his work derives from within the painting itself, not in reference to the world beyond. The narrative in Geoffrey’s paintings lies in the paint itself.
– Wally Caruana, Caruana Fine art
un homme qui pense (a man who thinks)
Geoffrey De Groen lives alone on a hill overlooking a very small town in the Southern highlands not far from Goulburn. He moved there about fifteen years ago to escape the life he had been living as a painter and a teacher in Sydney. The artist had concluded that the vagaries and the politics of the art world and the pace of life in the city were not in the best interests of either his art or his life - in his case two things that are essentially one and the same. When I questioned him about the influence of his natural surroundings, De Groen shared my enthusiasm for the clarity of light outside the studio windows, but clearly his painting is not about any surrounding views. They are more innerscape than landscape. These are paintings about the interaction of the act of painting with the interiority of the man.
We are very proud to be presenting the first exhibition in a commercial gallery in Sydney for a number of years of the paintings of Geoffrey De Groen. The exhibition will hang in all 240 metres of exhibition space at Annandale Galleries. The show of primarily but not exclusively recent work has been timed to coincide with a retrospective exhibition at the Drill Hall Gallery in Canberra (ending August 14th). Geoffrey De Groen has had over fifty solo exhibitions since 1966. His work hangs in most State galleries and the National Gallery of Australia.
– Bill Gregory, Director Annandale Galleries
28 PAGE FULL COLOUR CATALOGUE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
For further press, information, visuals or interviews with the artist please contact Annandale Galleries.
» View GEOFFREY DE GROEN - in to the distance exhibition
“Do not despair, one of the thieves was saved. Do not presume, one of the thieves was damned. “– Samuel Beckett.
In that symbiotic relationship between an artist and his viewer nothing can be taken for granted. Indeed, without that relationship there is no art. Nor is there any art if either party rests content with formulas, with second-hand experience or with seduction.
Geoffrey de Groen, now in his early 70s, belongs to a generation of artists committed to an on-going interrogation of their own work. Painting did not take itself for granted and every picture had to justify its existence.
De Groen’s pictures may seem superficially beautiful, but they are difficult. And that’s the whole point. They demand that we engage with them. We can’t walk away, because their ambiguities – ambiguity of depth, form and light – challenge us. The pictures simply don’t make sense unless we take on the challenge of resolving those ambiguities.
– Dr. Paul McGillick
The Great Dividing Range itself is a liminal space, dividing the eastern coast of Australia from the inland, marking changes in climate, vegetation and even the patterns of settlement across the country. Without wishing to stretch the metaphor too far, the Range may be seen as analogous to the content or the subject of Geoffrey’s paintings: the canvas becomes a field where conflicting visual ideas clash. His most recent paintings made over the last two years, for example, provoke the eye – forms enter into dialogue with each other, dissolve and reappear, space shifts and the result is a pictorial resolution that is never quite static.
But Geoffrey is not a landscape painter. His method of painting is synonymous with ‘meaning’ for any interpretation of his work derives from within the painting itself, not in reference to the world beyond. The narrative in Geoffrey’s paintings lies in the paint itself.
– Wally Caruana, Caruana Fine art
un homme qui pense (a man who thinks)
Geoffrey De Groen lives alone on a hill overlooking a very small town in the Southern highlands not far from Goulburn. He moved there about fifteen years ago to escape the life he had been living as a painter and a teacher in Sydney. The artist had concluded that the vagaries and the politics of the art world and the pace of life in the city were not in the best interests of either his art or his life - in his case two things that are essentially one and the same. When I questioned him about the influence of his natural surroundings, De Groen shared my enthusiasm for the clarity of light outside the studio windows, but clearly his painting is not about any surrounding views. They are more innerscape than landscape. These are paintings about the interaction of the act of painting with the interiority of the man.
We are very proud to be presenting the first exhibition in a commercial gallery in Sydney for a number of years of the paintings of Geoffrey De Groen. The exhibition will hang in all 240 metres of exhibition space at Annandale Galleries. The show of primarily but not exclusively recent work has been timed to coincide with a retrospective exhibition at the Drill Hall Gallery in Canberra (ending August 14th). Geoffrey De Groen has had over fifty solo exhibitions since 1966. His work hangs in most State galleries and the National Gallery of Australia.
– Bill Gregory, Director Annandale Galleries
28 PAGE FULL COLOUR CATALOGUE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
For further press, information, visuals or interviews with the artist please contact Annandale Galleries.