Justin O'Brien: Image and Icon

AG312802
Published by Craftsman House, Sydney 1987
172 pages, hardcover
ISBN: 0947131043

Signed copy

Justin O'Brien once said, 'A painting should have a reality of its own'. This overview of the artist's life and work now presents an opportunity to examine this statement after fifty years of painting and drawing.

As a young man, Justin O'Brien returned to Sydney in 1944 after three-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war. His highly stylised work was a vehicle for deeply felt experience and could be seen in direct contrast to the prevailing naturalism in Sydney art of that period.

O'Brien's belief in the specific reality of painting is emphasised by his continued reference to art of the past in both style and theme, while in his more recent naturalistic works he sets up a debate between things intended to be real and painted versions of reality. The re-combining of motifs from his own previous works stress the reality of the painting compared to that of the naturalistic world.

Although O'Brien's work exhibits strong formalist qualities - paying equal attention to line. colour and composition - his work has remained figurative: he delights in dealing with a still-life within an interior space leading to an exterior space.

O'Brien's work has a timeless quality. The introduction of a biblical scene to a landscape, or a naturalistic still-life can both suggest the deeply felt moment, irrespective of time.

In presenting O'Brien's paintings, this timely book discusses the works in the context of the artist's life and the times in which they were produced.

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