The Queensland Art Gallery will present the first significant exhibition in almost two decades on one of Australia’s finest post-World War II painters, Sam Fullbrook, from April 5 to August 10.
Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Director Chris Saines said ‘Sam Fullbrook: Delicate Beauty’ would celebrate Fullbrook’s exceptional use of colour with more than 30 paintings and works on paper.
‘Included in ‘Delicate Beauty’ are key works from the Gallery’s holdings as well as works on loan from the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Rockhampton Art Gallery, The Brisbane Club and several private collections,’ Mr Saines said.
‘The exhibition is the latest in the ongoing Glencore Queensland Artists’ Gallery program, a partnership which tells the stories of artists and artwork from Queensland.
‘In my vision statement last year, I reaffirmed our commitment to the research and exhibition of Queensland art. Glencore’s valuable support allows us to pursue this core part of our mission with the necessary vigour,’ he said.
Born in Sydney, Fullbrook (1922–2004) travelled extensively and had strong connections with Queensland, living in Buderim on the Sunshine Coast hinterland, the inner suburbs of Brisbane and, later, on a property at Oakey on the Darling Downs.
Training under William Dargie at the National Gallery School in Melbourne in 1946, Fullbrook was influenced by Tonalism, the spontaneous recording of generalised areas of light and dark to create a figurative image. While he moved beyond the movement’s conservative roots he continued to explore traditional genres, though always with a facility for playfulness and the unexpected.
The exhibition will be accompanied by the first substantial publication on Fullbrook’s work in almost two decades. It will features new scholarship on the vibrant paintings and works on paper that Fullbrook created throughout his long and productive life.
