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Sydney Ball, Song No. IV, 1965, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, Power Collection, © Estate of Sydney Ball
A major new exhibition at the Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney features works from one of Australia’s largest collections of late modernist art.
Light and darkness examines art from the 1960s to the 1980s and features internationally renowned artists of the era such as Bridget Riley, Roy Lichtenstein and Colin McCahon, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Robert Rauschenberg.
The free exhibition builds on the University’s Power Collection, established in 1967 after JW Power bequeathed his fortune to the University to put Australians “in more direct contact with the latest artistic developments in other countries. “. Acquisitions ceased in 1989, shortly before the collection was moved off campus to form the basis of the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art.
Created at a time when most Australian museums and universities took a cautious approach to contemporary art, the Power Collection is an exceptionally rich collection.
“The Power Bequest enabled the University to purchase works, which were not acquired by other Australian institutions at the time,” said the museum’s senior curator, Dr Ann Stephen. “As a result, we have one of the few collections of major op and kinetic art in the country by artists such as Riley, Victor Vasarely and Takis.
“The concepts of light and dark underlie this exploration of the collection.
‘Light’ works were a major theme of the 1960s acquisitions of avant-garde artists based in Europe who sought to liberate their work from tradition through alliances with science and new technologies. Such utopian optimism collapsed in the face of the Vietnam War, environmental destruction and racism. Robert Rauschenberg, Edward Keinholtz, Richard Serra and Louise Nevelson are among the artists who represent this dark turning point in the Power Collection.
In the 1980s, post-modernists took on the cloak of darkness, said Dr Stephen, “to symbolize the end of modernism or to question avant-garde originality.” By this time, the collection had been reoriented to include Australian, Aboriginal and Maori art.
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