An invisible place made manifest

2001, oil on canvas
133 x 178 cm

For sale:  Contact Esa Jaske  akunabay (at) yahoo.com.au

Reproduced in 'JAMES GLEESON  DRAWINGS FOR PAINTINGS',
ISBN 0 7347 6340 9, by Hendrik Kolenberg and Anne Ryan, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2003, page 123.
(Published to accompany an exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 12 April to 15 June 2003.)

"The Surrealist art of James Gleeson finds masterly expression in this major painting, An Invisible Place Made Manifest, where the explorations of an enquiring mind are matched by images of the phantasmagorical. Given its dramatic presentation and theatrical splendour, this futuristic landscape could be straight out of a science fiction film. It might also rise up from the past, for time is not linear in Gleeson’s art, all blending in one. A sense of the epic flows throughout his art. His rich literary background evokes stirring tales of Homer’s Ulysses wandering across wine-dark seas to foreign strands, of mythological terrors of Cyclopean ferocity, of the crustacean genus, or journeys to the limits of the universe. Such imaginative recollections of ancient sagas, however, are nothing compared with the apocalyptic horrors of the present and the monsters that the future may spawn."
David Thomas, Excert from Mossgreen Catalogue Entry, October 2008

JAMES GLEESON


1915 - 2008

Biography

1934-6 East Sydney Technical College, Sydney
1938 BA Dip Ed, Sydney Teachers Collage
1939-40 Teachers Collage Scholarship, two years training general Primary School Teaching
1943 President, Contemporary Art Society, New South Wales Branch
1945-46 Lecturer-in-art, Sydney Teachers Collage - techniques and art history
1947-49 Traveled extensively London. Pairs. Holland. Italy.
1949 Returned to Sydney. Never Returned to teaching
1949-72 Art critic for The Sun newspaper
1962-72 Art critic for The Herald Sun newspaper
1971 Director, Sir William Dobell Art Foundation
Judge, Sao Paolo International Bienal
1972 Appointed to Commonwealth Art Advisory Board
Foundation Member of the Australian Division of International Art Critics
1973 Australian Commissioner, 12th Sao Paulo International Bienal, Brazil
Chairman, Acquisitions Committee, Australian National Gallery
Judge, Tokyo International Bienal of Prints
1974 Awarded AM - Member of Order of Australia
1975-78 Visiting Curator of Australian art, Australian National Gallery
1976-82 Member of the First Council of the Australian National Gallery
1989 Degree of Doctor of Letters, Honoris Causa, Macquarie University, Sydney
1990 Awarded AO - Officer of the Order of Australia

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

1950
Macquarie Galleries, Sydney

1951
Macquarie Galleries, Sydney

1954-56
Macquarie Galleries, Sydney

1958
Macquarie Galleries, Sydney

1961
Macquarie Galleries, Sydney

1963
Skinner Galleries, Perth
South Yarra Gallery, Melbourne

1964
Johnstone Gallery Brisbane

1965
Von Bertouch Galleries, Newcastle

1966-67
Macquarie Galleries, Sydney

1968
South Yarra Gallery, Melbourne

1969
Bonython Gallery, Adelaide

1970
Macquarie Gallery, Sydney

1971
Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane

1973
Prouds Gallery, Sydney

1981
Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne

1982
Watters Gallery, Sydney

1983
Watters Gallery, Sydney

1986
Pinacotheca, Melbourne
Watters Gallery, Sydney

1987
Black Swan Gallery, Fremantle
Pinacotheca, Melbourne
David Jones Art Gallery, Sydney

1988
Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane
Pinacotheca, Melbourne
Watters Gallery, Sydney

1989
BMG Fine Art, Adelaide
Pinacotheca, Melbourne

1990
Watters Gallery, Sydney
David Jones Art Gallery, Sydney

1991
Pinacotheca Gallery, Melbourne

1992
Watters Gallery, Sydney
David Jones Art Gallery, Sydney

1994
Watters Gallery, Sydney
Paintings from the last decade,
National Gallery of Victoria

1999
Watters Gallery, Sydney
Pinacotheca, Melbourne

2000
Charles Nodrum Gallery
Watters Gallery, Sydney

2001
Charles Nodrum Gallery
Watters Gallery, Sydney

2002
Watters Gallery, Sydney

2003
Watters Gallery, Sydney
Eva Breuer Art Dealer, Sydney
Charles Nodrum Gallery
Art Gallery of New South Wales

2004
National Gallery of Victoria

2005
National Gallery of Australia

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

1938
Sydney Teachers College, May Marsden's Students

1939-41
Annual Exhibitions, Teachers Federation Arts Society, Sydney

1939-46
Inaugural Exhibition, Contemporary Art Society, Melbourne, June

1939
Annual Exhibitions, Contemporary Art Society, Sydney

1948
Joint Exhibition with Robert Klippel, London Gallery, London

1949-50
Annual Exhibitions, Contemporary Art Society, Sydney

1950
'110 Years of Australian Art', Blaxland Gallery, Sydney

1954
The Blake Prize for Religious Art, 2nd Prize

1955
Exhibition of Contemporary Art in conjunction with the Olympic Games,
'Contemporary Australian Painters', Pacific Loan Exhibition on board SS
Orcades - Sydney, Auckland, Honolulu, Vancouver, San Francisco; then exhibited at the Art Gallery of New South Wales

1961
'Recent Australian Paintings', Whitechapel Gallery, London

1963
Australian Painting, Tate Gallery, London

1978
'Contemporary Australian Drawing', Traveling Exhibition,
Joint Exhibition with Robert Klippel, Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney

1985-89
'Modern Australian Painting', Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne

1986
'Oz Drawing Now', Holdsworth Contemporary Gallery, Sydney
'33 Male Artists', Heide Park and Art Gallery, Melbourne
'The New Romantics', Macquarie Gallery, Sydney

1987
'The Age of Collage', Holdsworth Galleries, Sydney

1988
'The Self Portrait', David Jones Art Gallery, Sydney
The University of Sydney - Pictures from the collection

1988-89
'Creating Australia', Traveling Exhibition to all States

1989
'Levels of Consciousness', David Jones Art Gallery, Sydney

1990
'The Painters Poet', David Jones Art Gallery, Sydney

1991
'The Medium Pastel', David Jones Art Gallery, Sydney
'Australian Surrealist Painting', Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne

1993
'Surrealism in Australia', Australian National Gallery

2001
A Century of Collecting: 1901-2001, Ivan Dogherty Gallery, UNSW
Male Nude - A Private View, Charles Nodrum Gallery
Meditations, Mass Gallery, Melbourne

2002
Charles Nodrum @ Satudio 91B, Studio 91B, Adelaide

Collections

Works by James Gleeson are represented in all major galleries, including:

National Gallery of Australia
National Gallery of Victoria
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Queensland Art Gallery
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
Bendigo Fine Art Gallery
Ballarat Fine Art Gallery
McClelland Regional Art Gallery
Perc Tucker Regional Gallery
Rockhampton City Art Collection
University of Sydney
Macquarie University
La Trobe University

as well as many prominent private and corporate collections Australia-wide and overseas, including

the Agapitos / Wilson Collection (Sydney)
Joseph Brown Collection (Melbourne)
James Fairfax Collection
ICI Australia (previously Melbourne, now Kerry Stokes Collection (Perth)
The Holmes à Court Collection (Perth)
Derwent Collection (Hobart) and others.