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Artist
David Larwill
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Born
1956
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Died
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Title
RIP Reason
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Date of Production
1999
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Medium
oil on linen
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Dimensions
184 x 368 cm (2 panels 184 x 184 cm)
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Credit Details
Purchased with funds from the Colin Hicks Caldwell Bequest Fund, 1999. © David Larwill
David Larwill
RIP Reason
Born in Ballarat, David Larwill attended Prahran College of
Advanced Education (1976) and Preston Institute of Technology
(1980) briefly before travelling overseas to Europe and America
where he was influenced by the European CoBra movement with its
interest in prehistoric and primitive art.
In 1982 in a reaction against the contemporary art
establishment, David Larwill, along with artists Mark Schaller,
Sarah Faulkner and Mark Howson, established Roar Studios. As leader
of the group Larwill quickly achieved independent success and his
use of tribal figuration together with skeletal images and surface
writing was further influenced by the work of Jean Michel Basquiat
after he visited New York in 1992-3.
A visit to Central Australia in 1990 developed Larwill's
interest in Australian Aboriginal art and he later visited remote
settlements in Arnhem Land with Michael Leunig. In 1998 Larwill,
with Mark Schaller and Peter Walsh, participated in a
campaign to raise revenue for the traditional owners of
Kakadu in their fight against mining in the park. RIP
Reason is Larwill's comment on his perception of the stalling
of the reconciliation process between indigenous and white
Australians in the late 1990's.