Roger Kemp

Private collection, Melbourne

Christopher Heathcote, A Quest for Enlightenment: The Art of Roger Kemp, Macmillan, Melbourne, 2007, p. 192 (illus.)

Very good original condition. Recent frame. Abrasions and small paint losses at edges of masonite support.
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In his recent monograph on the artist, Christopher Heathcote notes that 'the turning came for Kemp in the mid-1960s.'¹ Twenty years on from his first solo exhibition, twenty years of quiet, dedicated struggle and critical neglect and Kemp was suddenly 'discovered', being awarded the Darcy Morris Prize and the Albury Prize in 1964 and the Georges Prize and the Transfield Prize the following year. Bracketing these wins, and equally important in the transformation of the artist's career were two highly successful commercial exhibitions, in Sydney in 1962 and in Melbourne in 1966.²

It is particularly telling that the Sydney exhibition was opened by Dr John Swann, head of the biology division of CSIRO, while the Melbourne show a few years later was opened by a Jesuit priest, Fr Michael Scott. Much influenced by Theosophy and Christian Science in the late 1930s, Kemp was something of a metaphysician, concerned with the great cosmic truths, and with art 'as a state of spiritual alertness.^'3 There are elements of both science and religion in his iconography, and his paintings resonate with this ambiguity, this tension. They can look like a diagram of cell structure or a Gothic stained glass window. Their bars and circles could be spokes and gears or crosses and haloes. As Bernard Smith put it at the time of the Melbourne show in 1966: 'Bound always to the cosmic order, Kemp's man is at times, Icarus, the aspiring humanist; and at times Christ, the crucified God. But whether rising or falling they always seem to remain emanations of the eternal wheel and sphere of things.'⁴ The present work was painted between these two landmark shows, circa 1962-64, and reflects what Heathcote calls '... a new phase in Kemp's output.

His pictures exhibited a blend of bluntness and extravagance that was to be symptomatic of his oeuvre for the rest of his career. We see these traits evolving over pieces like World Rhythm (1960-62), Untitled (1962-64) [the present work], Developing Rhythm (1964-66) and Conception (1966-67). The painter's hand seemed to move more easily as he brushed each Masonite panel with swathes of enamel. His palette was unaltered – mottled crimson, purple, ultramarine, teak, glossy black, a dull orange, greyish white – and remained sombre, yet there was a shift in prevailing mood. The works seemed less strained or deliberated over...'⁵

The present work well is a fine example of the early 1960s works which first brought the artist wide acclaim. It forms a compelling abstract unity, a coherent and dynamic pictorial gestalt, and fully justifies the critics' perceptions of Kemp's 'conviction', his 'sincerity', his 'intensity and dedication.'⁶

1. Christopher Heathcote, A Quest for Enlightenment: The Art of Roger Kemp, Macmillan, Melbourne, 2007, p. 95
2. Farmer's Blaxland Gallery, Sydney, 22 August -1 September; Gallery A, Melbourne,12 April – 7 May 1966
3. Heathcote, op. cit., p. 52
4. Bernard Smith, 'Local prophet worthy of honour', The Age, 6 April 1966, p. 5
5. Heathcote, op. cit., p. 96
6. John Henshaw, 'Not on the band-wagon', The Bulletin, 8 September 1962, p. 32; Wallace Thornton, 'Adamant Sincerity In Victorian's Art', Sydney Morning Herald, 22 August 1962, p. 2; Smith, op. cit.