Image: William Robinson Out of the dawn 1987 oil on linen. Collection of Martin and Jan Jorgensen, Brisbane.
William Robinson on painting beyond perspective and into the fourth dimension
Interview with Louise Martin-Chew for Art Guide Australia, 22 Sept 2021
“William Robinson is known as one of Australia’s greatest landscape painters. His symphonic depictions of particular places are tied to his lived experience. Now 85, his legacy is assured: he is the only living Australian artist with an institutional gallery dedicated to his work. His paintings are currently the subject of two new major exhibitions: one in the aforementioned space at QUT and another at HOTA. When Louise Martin-Chew spoke to Robinson in his home studio she found his humour and his absorption in paint intact, albeit constrained by the vagaries of age.
Louise Martin-Chew: In both exhibitions your spiritual connection to the Australian landscape is laid bare, as is the extension of landscape traditions into new directions. How do you feel about this level of recognition?
William Robinson: I suppose, because I am 85 now, recognition doesn’t mean the same thing as it means in middle age. It means fulfilment of a sort and helps to unify everything in my life. When pictures are looked at from different periods of an artist’s life it is difficult to make the connections. These exhibitions show, more and more I think, how I have always related my paintings to what I am doing and where I live at the time.”
Read the full interview online at artguide.com.au