T h e   E s a   J a s k e   C o l l e c t i o n
Inquiries: akunabay (at) yahoo.com.au

BRUCE LATIMER


 


 


Bush Full of Cats

1999, Etching, edition 7/17.
25.5 x 35 cm
Exhibited: 2000 ‘Bruce Latimer Etchings’,
     Australian Galleries Works on Paper, Sydney


Joanna Mendelssohn, Imprint Vol 35 no 2:

'The cats lie in their tree, reflecting mirror images.  Their bodies make black and white Rorschach blots against an elaborate pattern of branches and the depth of green leaves.  In its whimsical use of animals as pattern, Bruce Latimer's Bush Full of Cats is almost, but not quite, quoting his Gardens Full of Dogs, a quintessential image of Australian art of the 1970s.  Bush Full of Cats is both a virtuoso exercise in colour etching and a gentle acknowledgment that Latimer will always be remembered as the creator of an image which still symbolises the innocence and exuberance of the years when Gough Whitlam was Prime Minister of Australia and the life of an artist was made legitimate.

Bush Full of Cats also shows how Latimer's technique and sensibility have matured with the years.  Back in the 1920's, in his classic manual on the art of etching, E.S.Lumsden wrote that etchers were spared the "full tornado of Cubism" because "to be a great etcher a man must be peculiarly sane and yet sensitive and alive."  On a following page Lumsden accidentally betrayed his argument by praising the etchings of one Pable Picasso.  How could he know that the artist who produced the Wollard Suite also made Les Demoiselles D'Avignon?  Behind the confusion of the writing there is a fundamental truth.  The nature of the medium does shape the art.  Because the creation of an etching is such a prolonged act, because the printing must be precise in order to create an edition, the medium encourages a subtlety of thought and an understanding of the complexity of line, tone and shade.  The act of etching teaches the etcher the value of accident and the purpose of art.

In Bush Full of Cats the whimsical images of the feral moggies are printed a la poupee, a technique that requires a special precision in inking.  The dense layered foliage, printed using two plates to give an added richness of colour, makes a crisp contrast to the black and white cats, a homage to the tradition of illustrated books,  The point where the cats meet is also where the print can be folded, making yet another layer of ambiquity.'


BRUCE LATIMER


1951 Born Sydney, Australia
1970-73 Diploma of Fine Arts (painting), National Art School, Sydney
1974 Diploma of Education (Art), Sydney Teachers College, Sydney
1975-76 Teacher at Condell Park High School (Art)
1976-91 Lived and worked in New York City, USA
1991 Part-time lecturer in Painting, Post Graduate Department, Sydney College of the Arts, J.J.
1991Cahill Memorial High School (Art)
1993-2003 Part-time Lecturer of Printmaking, National Art School & Meadowbank, Hornsby, St.
1993-2003 George & Seaforth Colleges of T.A.F.E.
2004 Part-time lecturer of Printmaking, National Art School & College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales

Solo Exhibitions

2008
'Natural Wonders', Australian Galleries, Sydney

2005
‘Etchings’, Watson Place Gallery, Melbourne

2003
‘The Natural Order’, Gallery 482, Brisbane
‘The Natural Order’, Australian Galleries Works on Paper, Sydney

2001
‘Etchings’, Gallery 482, Brisbane

2000
‘Etchings’, Australian Galleries Works on Paper, Sydney

1988
‘Paintings and Drawings’, Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney
‘Paintings and Drawings’, Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane

1987
‘Paintings and Drawings’, P.A.C.A. Gallery New York, USA

1979
‘Brisbane – New York, New York – Brisbane’, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane

1975
‘Art From The Home’, Watters Gallery, Sydney

1974
‘Three Works’, Watters Gallery, Sydney

Group Exhibitions

2007
‘Artists Ink: printmaking from the Warrnambool Art Gallery collection’
    Warrnambool 1970 – 2001’, Warrnambool Art Gallery, Victoria

2006
'50th Anniversary Exhibition', Australian Galleries, Melbourne
'Art Interchange’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Hongik University, Korea
‘Five Sydney Artists’, Adele Boag Gallery, Adelaide

2004
‘In the presence of all creatures great and small’, Australian Galleries Works on Paper, Sydney

2003
‘Prints by Bruce Latimer & David Fraser’, Beaver Gallery, Canberra

2002
‘Landscapes’, Australian Galleries Works on Paper, Sydney

2001
‘The Studio Tradition – National Art School 1883 – 2001’, National Art School, Sydney
The Manly Art Gallery & Museum
‘The Macau International Exhibition of Prints’, Museum of Macau, China

2000
‘Sydney Suburb’, Museum of Sydney, Sydney
‘Dog’, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

1999
‘Shell Fremantle Print Award’, Freemantle, WA
‘Norwegian International Print Triennale’, Fredrikstand, Norway

1998
‘International Print Triennial’, Cracow, Nuremburg & Rio de Janeiro

1997
‘City of Hobart Art Prize’, Hobart
‘Perspecta Fibro’, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Sydney

1996
‘People, Prints and Patronage: The Development of the Geelong Art Gallery Print collection’, Geelong Art Gallery, VIC
‘Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery Biennial Print Acquisitive’ Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, VIC
‘Shell Fremantle Print Award’, Fremantle, WA
‘University of Western Sydney Macarthur National Printmedia Acuisitive’ University of Western Sydney

1994
‘Shell Freemantle Print Award’, Freemantle, WA

1992
‘Henri Worland Memorial Print Award’, Warrnambool Art Gallery, VIC

1991
‘Tony Coleing & Friends – an exhibition of collaborative prints’, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
‘Off the wall/in the air, a seventies selection’, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne

1989
‘Prints and Australia: Pre-Settlement to Present’, National Gallery of Australia

1986
‘Church and State’, Zeus Trabla Gallery, New York
‘Art Attack Against Racism and Apartheid’, P.A.C.A. Gallery, New York
‘War/Peace on Earth’, P.A.C.A. Gallery, New York

1983
‘Taste, Place and Transition’, Expatriates in New York, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney

1982
‘Australian Screenprints’, Print Council of Australia, Travelling exhibition

1980
‘The Dog Show’, Robin Winter’s Loft, New York
‘Contemporary Australian Printmakers’ Organised by the University of Oregon, USA

1979
‘Bradford Print Biennale’, Bradford, UK
‘Tokyo Print Biennial Exhibition’, Tokyo, Japan

1978
‘Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award, Freemantle Arts Centre, WA

1977
‘Some Contemporary Art From the East Coast of Australia’, Pender Street Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
‘Contemporary Australian Prints’, Festival of Perth and Tokyo
‘Watters at Pinacotheca’, Pinacotheca Gallery, Melbourne

1976
“Mornington Peninsular Arts Centre Print Biennial, Mornington Peninsular Arts Centre, VIC
‘Pederson Prize for Printmaking’, Oueensland Art Gallery, QLD

1975
‘Mildura Sculpture Biennale/Sculpturescape’, Midura, VIC
‘Philip Morris Trust Collection Exhibition’
‘The Road Show’, Shepparton City Art Gallery, Shepparton, VIC
‘Outlines of Australian Printmaking’, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Ballarat, VIC

1974
‘Project Show’, Contemporary Art Society, Sydney
‘Three Sydney Printmakers’, Chapman Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne

1973
‘Nine Young Sydney Painters’, Llewellyn Gallery, Dulwich, S.A.

Bibliography


Books
de Groen, Geoffrey; Some Other Dreams, The Artists, The Artworld and The Expatriate, Hale and Iremonger, 1984
Germaine, Max; Artist and Galleries of Australia and New Zealand, Lansdowne, 1984
Grishin, Sasha; Australian Printmaking in the 1990’s, Lansdowne 1997
Kempf, Franz; Contemporary Australian Printmaking, Lansdowne Editions, 1982

Periodicals

Allen, Christopher; “Images of the Visionary and the Clown”, Sydney Morning Herald, 22 April 1988
Catalano, Gary; “Artists as Printmakers”, Imprint, No.2 1976
Gleeson, James; “Fantasy and Funk”, The Sun, 29 May 1974
Gleeson, James; “Into the Dream World”, Sun Herald, 2 June 1974
Holloway, Memory; “Sleepy Look at Screenprinting”, The Age, 9 February 1983
Langer, Gertrude; “New York – Brisbane Collage, Pop Fantasy”, Courier Mail, 21 February 1977
Legge, Geoffrey; “Bruce Latimer’s Prints”, Art and Australia, Vol.15 No.1 September 1977
J.M; “Mural From Junk”, Vogue Australia, April 1977
Johnson, Mitch; “Review”, Honi Soit, June 1974
Mendelssohn, J; “Bruce Latimer”, Imprint, Vol. 35 No.2, Winter 2000
Mendelssohn, J; “The Arts on Friday”, The Australian, 29 August 1997
Mignacca, Eneide; “Review”, Nation Review, 7 June 1974
Pratt, Julie; “Undercroft Shows Are Poles Apart”, Sunday Times WA, 4 April 1984
Thomas, Daniel; “Review”, Sydney Morning Herald, 25 May 1974
Thomas, Daniel; “The Dealer as Patron”, Sydney Morning Herald, September 1974
Thomas, Daniel; “The New Modesty”, Sydney Morning Herald, 9 September 1974
Thomas, Daniel; “Loss of Energy is Artist’s Problem”, Sydney Morning Herald, 10 October 1974
Thomas, Daniel; “Review”, Sydney Morning Herald, 11 November 1974
Thomas, Daniel; “Not a Great Year for Art in Sydney”, Review, December 1974
Thomas, Daniel; “Old Contemporaries”, Sydney Morning Herald, 1974
Thomas, Daniel; “Nothing But the Best”, Sydney Morning Herald, 23 January 1975
Thomas, Daniel; “Brisbane Plugs Into the Wide World”, The Bulletin, 5 March 1977
Webb, Penny; “Etched in Memory”, The Age, 1 July 2005

Awards


2005 Geelong Acquisitive Print Award
1982 Patron Print Commission, Print Council of Australia
1977 Visual Arts Board Grant
1976 Pederson Prize for Printmaking
1973 Rowney Print Prize
1971 National Art Students Union Prize
1970 National Art Students Union Prize

Collections

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery of Queensland
Art Gallery of South Australia
Bathurst Fine Art Gallery, NSW
Family Courthouse, Brisbane
Fremantle Arts Centre, WA
Geelong Art Gallery, VIC
La Trobe Valley Arts Centre, VIC
Macquarie University, NSW
Mornington Peninsula Art Gallery, VIC
Museum of Contemporary Art, Brisbane
National Gallery of Australia
National Gallery of New Zealand
National Gallery of Victoria
Newcastle Region Art Gallery, NSW
Noumea Art Gallery, Noumea
Queen Victoria museum & Art Gallery, Hobart
Queensland University of Technology, QLD
Shepparton Gallery, VIC
Tasmanian College of Advanced Education, TAS
Townsville Teachers College, QLD
Warrnambool Art Gallery, VIC
Western Australian Institute of Technology, WA





T h e   E s a   J a s k e   C o l l e c t i o n
Inquiries: akunabay (at) yahoo.com.au