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Rollascape 2, Janet Dawson
  •  
    Janet Dawson
  • Born
    1935
  • Title
    Rollascape 2
  • Date of Production
    1968
  • Medium
    acrylic paint on shaped composition board
  • Dimensions
    1500 x 2750 mm (irregular)
  • Credit Details
    Purchased with the assistance of the Visual Arts/Craft Board, Australia Council, 1988

Janet Dawson

Rollascape 2

Dawson, who studied at the National Gallery School, Melbourne and later at the Slade School, London, was a pioneer of abstraction in Australia.  Rollascape was exhibited in the Field exhibition in 1968 at the National Gallery of Victoria.

In a letter to the Director of the Art Gallery of Ballarat circa 1988, Janet Dawson said of this work that "There is a very vivid memory in my head of the first idea for Rollascape"… Ruminating, as usual, about the problem of image-field - shape as we all were, in those days and having gone through the old "if the image is not in the
painting then the painting itself is the image" routine I kept muttering to myself," I don't want to do shaped paintings but they keep wanting to sneak out and roll away"… The image of the rectangle broken by sheer energy, and then rolling off into a landscape analogy presented itself - I was very suspicious of the idea as it seemed too pat.  But it was so clear that I decided to try it. …..When its displayed it must have the wall shadows underneath it showing up well.  It doesn't matter if the shadows are multiple… in fact that's good!....the shadows are part of the work."