John Brack

Cecil John Brack (10 May 1920 – 11 February 1999) was an Australian painter, and a member of the Antipodeans group. According to one critic, Brack's early works captured the idiosyncrasies of their time "more powerfully and succinctly than any Australian artist before or since. Brack forged the iconography of a decade on canvas as sharply as Barry Humphries did on stage."

Early life Brack was born on 10 May 1920 in the Melbourne suburb of South Melbourne. Brack's father was Cecil William Brack who worked as a printer and his mother was Edith May, both who were Victorian born.

Style Brack's early conventional style evolved into one of simplified, almost stark, shapes and areas of deliberately drab colour, often featuring large areas of brown. He made an initial mark in the 1950s with works on the contemporary Australian culture, such as the iconic Collins St., 5 pm (1955), a view of rush hour in post-war Melbourne. Set in a bleak palette of browns and greys, it was a comment on the conformity of everyday life, with all figures looking almost identical. A related painting, The Bar (1954), was modelled on Manet's 1882 A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, and satirised the six o'clock swill, a social ritual arising from the early closing of Australian pubs. Most of these early paintings and drawings were unmistakably satirical comments against the Australian Dream, either being set in the newly expanding post-war suburbia or taking the life of those who lived there as their subject matter.

In the 1970s, Brack produced a long series of highly stylised works featuring objects such as pencils in complex patterns. These were intended as allegories of contemporary life.

Period and themes Brack's works cover a wide range topics and themes. He often did a series of works on a particular theme over a number of years. His portraits, including self-portraits, and portraits of family, friends and commissions, and his paintings of nudes were produced throughout his career.

War time drawings (1943–1945) Scenes of urban life (shops, street scenes etc.) (1952–) Racecourse (1953–1956) School, the playground (1959–1960) Wedding (1960–1961) Shop windows (1963–1977) Ballroom dancers (1969) Gymnastics (1971–1973) Postcards and implements (1976–) Pencils and pens (1981–) Mannequins (1989–1990)

The Art of John Brack by Sasha Grishin includes a catalogue raisonné of his work to 1990. The catalogue for the exhibition at Heide Museum of Modern Art in 2000 includes works to 1994.

Exhibitions and auctions

A major retrospective exhibition of Brack's work was held at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra from 24 August 2007 to 18 November 2007; it was the last major exhibition at the Old Parliament House before the gallery was relocated. Brack's widow, Helen Maudsley, an artist in her own right, attended the opening and commented that Brack was not concerned with the social standing of the sitter, but rather the artistic merit of their participation in the piece.

Brack's painting The Bar sold for $3.2 million in April 2006, while in May 2007 his painting The Old Time sold for $3.36 million at auction in Sydney, a record for a painting by an Australian artist.

2020 Laughing Child (1958) was scheduled for auction in Sydney on 24 June 2020. It is a portrait of the artist's daughter Charlotte, aged four, and is described as "one of Australian art's most compelling representations of childhood". 2009 John Brack: Retrospective Exhibition, Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia 2006–2007 The Nude in the Art of John Brack, MacClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin, Melbourne 1999 John Brack – Inside and Outside, works in the N.G.A. collection, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 1998 John Brack and Fred Williams, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide 1987–88 John Brack – A Retrospective, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 1981 Drawings, 1945–79, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne 1977 Paintings and Drawings, 1945–77, Australian National University 1977 Selected Paintings, 1947–77, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Gallery, Melbourne