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In an interview with Laurie Thomas in 1969 Robert Juniper said, “I think it is a painter’s duty if not his goal to be himself – to paint from his own experience, what’s inside him and not from the glossy magazines.” Thomas considered that Juniper had a poetic feeling for the Australian landscape, though Juniper considered that his interest was more localised than the broader description of Australia. “I feel that I’m developing what I feel is an indigenous thing – indigenous to Western Australia – because I don’t feel any strong influence from anywhere else,”

Juniper was accurate in his self assessment. His work is free from the outside influence of others though his influence on others is recognized. If anyone could lay claim to having an effect on his work, it was probably Sam Fullbrook. On his initial exposure to Fullbrook’s paintings Juniper would say “Fullbrook’s paintings then pulsated with the heat of the north and showed me for the first time a vision beyond the verdant rim, that hot gut of the Australian landscape.” He was to put Fullbrook’s colour guide into sound use though he was never to embrace his glissando technique of painting. Juniper was much more enthused about texture and paint quality to restrict himself to colour unaided.

Moonrise over Gwalia is a major example of Juniper’s unique interpretation of the Western Australian landscape. It is an exotic image that can revive the memories of people that have lived and worked within the region and satisfy the yearnings of those that haven’t made the journey. This is a personal and romantic record of his visit to Gwalia. A quiet time at a bewitching hour as his companion and his Rhodesian Ridgebacks wander quietly among the ruins of the once prosperous town.

The full moon rises and casts subtle shadows across the land, the middle distance takes on the  glow of reflected moonlight as the sun retreats below the horizon. Juniper’s colours imitate the hour and to add the personal touch, he introduces himself into the composition with his trademark Stetson and Cuban heeled boot.

The viewer is in no doubt that Juniper has experienced this scene and recreated the memory in his unique style.

“I advise no girl to marry an artist who hasn’t been an artist herself … otherwise you cannot credit the focus an artist has on his own work.” These are the words of Carl Plate’s widow Jocelyn during an ABC interview in 2011.

Carl Plate was an important post war painter in Sydney and was one of the first exponents of abstract expressionism in Australia. He held one man exhibitions of his work at the Leicester Galleries in London in 1959 and the Knapik Gallery in New York in 1962 – he also held exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne.

Abstract painting in Australia had little market in the post war era as Australians were wary of the non-figurative theory that was sweeping the international art world. The art buyers were also being cautioned by the traditionalists to treat the new works as fraudulent. Those new works included artists of the stature of Pollock, Rothko, Warhol, Motherwell, De Kooning and Nicholson.

Added to the derision of the establishment, a group of well regarded young Australian artists signed the Antipodean Manifesto declaring that their work would remain true to figurative art, irrespective of what was happening overseas. The ideals of the Antipodeans touched the standards of the locals and the abstractionists were shunned as a consequence.

On his return to Australia in 1940 and to provide an income, Plate re-opened the Notanda Gallery in Sydney which became the hub of artistic action. Russell Drysdale and Donald Friend were regular visitors in addition to Lloyd Rees and Desidarius Orban – Notanda was the only gallery in Sydney where people could see reproductions of modern European art in colour and the gallery provided a war weary public some light relief from the incessant headlines of death and destruction.

Though the mainstay of sales was books, post cards and reproductions, art exhibitions were also held but as Plate would only exhibit works that he was interested in they weren’t regular events. Notanda was the first gallery in Australia to exhibit modern English art which included pieces by Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood. A critic at the time said that Nicholson’s work would make a nice design for a place mat.

For over two decades Notanda Gallery remained a cultural landmark in Sydney and it has been claimed that Carl Plate’s art was overshadowed by the success of his gallery. Jocelyn Plate thinks differently – “he was absolutely focussed on being a painter and was only interested in art” she said.

Carl Plate’s works are included in every major collection throughout Australia.

Stacha Halpern would spring into his painting with an energy and vigour that didn’t cease until they were completed. They leave an indelible impression in one’s mind and irrespective of the feeling towards them – they are not easy to forget.

He lived and worked in France for 15 years and developed a reputation as a significant painter. He is considered to be the only Australian artist to make a real contribution to European art and regularly exhibited in solo and group shows in Paris, Amsterdam, Rome and Florence. Mark Rothko, Philip Guston and Helen Frankenthaler were some of those he exhibited alongside and he was represented by the prestigious Galerie Blumenthal in Rue Du Faubourg St Honoure.

A witty and generous man he entertained many of the young Australian painters visiting Europe including Arthur Boyd, Sidney Nolan, John Olsen, Brett Whiteley, Jan Senbergs and Len French. The welcome mat was always out at the Halpern home and many enjoyed his hospitality and friendship.

He returned to Australia in 1966 but the reception he received was disappointing. Those that he entertained and made welcome in France were not reciprocal when he returned to Australia.

The differences between the followers of abstraction and the Antipodean group was still topical and though he had a successful career in France, the Australian public wasn’t ready for an expatriate whose images seemed to have a foot in both camps – figurative with the antipodeans and abstract expressionist with the others.

His lack of sensation was also linked to his brief exposure to the Australian market which was explained by his contemporary Stan Rapotec upon being referred to as an overnight success “…. I firmly and strongly believe now, that to build up an artist in any field you need twenty years of struggle – struggling, battling, performing, experimenting, exercising and, yes, exposing oneself in one’s work to the full brunt of criticism.”

Stacha Halpern had achieved prominence and success over the fifteen years he lived and worked in France, but that didn’t count in Australia, he had to start all over again to receive the accolades he was due. Unfortunately he died through heart disease in 1969, three years after his return.

Halpern’s position and effect in the International art scene of the 60’s is finally being respected in Australia as his work becomes better known and appreciated across a better informed public.

Since arriving in Australia William Boissevain has established a reputation as a leading painter of still life, landscape and figurative works. He has ranked in the top 25 traded Australian artists at auction for the past 15 years and is one of the few Australian painters that sells his artwork into every state in Australia.

The son of a career diplomat, Boissevain visited his mother in Perth in 1947 and decided to stay. The gentle and uncomplicated lifestyle that Western Australia offered compared most favourably to the frantic post war years of France and Greece, where he had spent the post war years broadening his experiences. The war years had been spent in England studying at Bedales School in Hampshire.

Boissevain was one of the first Western Australian painters to be able to live from the sales of his paintings, his style struck a chord with the art buying public that has remained just as strong today some six decades later.

Portraits, landscape, still life and wildlife, he is at ease with any of those subjects. His draughtsmanship is the envy of many and his sense of design is impeccable. Boissevain’s audience spans two generations and is marching steadfastly into the third.

His works are represented in, the Art Gallery of Western Australia; the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; HRH Prince of Wales Collection; the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart; the University of Western Australia; Murdoch University; Curtin University and numerous other institutional and corporate collections.

Though she lives and works in Sydney, Nola Farman has strong ties to Western Australia. She was born in Subiaco and studied at Perth Technical College before travelling overseas where she studied at Canada’s OCAD University. She became an OACA (Associate of the Ontario College of the Arts) before returning to Australia to complete her doctorate at the University of Western Sydney.

As an interdisciplinary artist Farman works across a variety of different media from painting, drawing and sculpture to both static and sound installations. She is also involved in book making and publishing and is one of those devoted individuals more interested in making art in all its’ different forms than applying herself to commercial popularity.
Her work is represented in the collections of the Art Gallery of WA, the Art Gallery of NSW, the National Gallery of Australia (library), the University of Western Australia, Curtin University, Edith Cowan University, MOMA (library) New York, Yale University (library), the Tate Gallery (library), Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris and numerous collections both public and private across the world.

Some of the major projects she has completed include The Life of Claisebrook in East Perth, The Subterranean Listening Device in Mundaring, The Tidal Indicator in Brisbane, The Wind Tree at Griffith University Queensland, The Ice Tower at Flinder’s University and The Cascade in Singapore.

During a brief communication with the artist (to determine the authenticity of this work) she admitted to being rather careless about signing her works and failing to keep accurate records.

Nola Farman is another of those important Western Australian artists that has not required a high profile. Her works are rare.

Following his discharge from the army at the end of WWII, Wigley joined the 1949 AP Elkins anthropological expedition into central Australia as the official artist. It was from that expedition that he developed an empathy for Australian aboriginals and their life.

After travelling and studying in Europe he returned to Australia and eventually settled in Port Headland in1957 where he formed a friendship with Don McLeod the aboriginal activist. It was then that Wigley commenced recording aboriginal life which was to become the theme for much of his future work.

This painting depicts a traditional aspect of that life. It is the time of the day just before the sun appears over the horizon and is often referred to as Piccaninny Dawn. It’s the time when an experienced aboriginal hunter carrying little more than his traditional hunting implements and a sack over his shoulder chooses to set out on a journey to find a quarry that will provide for himself and other members of his group. He and his dogs appear tiny in the vast landscape which gives the impression of being desolate and unyielding and one wonders how the hunter could succeed in a place so bleak.

The title of the work appears to be a misnomer as the land gives no hint to the inexperienced that is has supported traditional aboriginal life for many thousands of years and if left in its traditional state would continue to provide.

This is a social realist work and was painted in Port Headland a few years before the area would undergo extensive mining that would yield a different kind of bounty. Wigley was to record that change to the region and the displacement of the traditional owners in a masterful work The Arrival of the Machines – The Hunter gives no insight of what is about to occur in the immediate future.

The Hunter is an important work from Wigley’s oeuvre and was included in the exhibition of Australian Landscape Painting 1837-1964 that was held at The National Gallery of Victoria in 1964.

There is elegance in Robert Junipers landscapes that few of his contemporaries could emulate. He has a style and technique that is quintessentially his, irrespective of the subject. His works are to be studied as the answers are never immediately apparent as this painting After the Bush Fire demonstrates.

Flight aided Robert Juniper in his depiction of the landscape. From thousands of metres above, in the security of an aircraft, he discovered order out of chaos, and splendour out of the rugged. He was the first Australian painter to consistently apply the aerial perspective to his landscapes and devoted himself to that discipline from 1980 onward. However in 1970 when this work was painted, Juniper was interested in the Japanese screen painters and he started to borrow from them in his landscape composition.

This is one of the first works where Juniper applied Japanese screen design to the Australian landscape. In contrast to the flowing rivers and green mountains of the Japanese scenery, Juniper in this work After the Bushfire depicted the dryness and unforgiving nature of Australia’s outback after being ravaged by fire.

The meandering river of the Japanese screen has been replaced with the meandering fire line of burnt undergrowth. The towering mountains of the Edo masters have been traded for the vague featureless horizon that fails to distinguish between earth and sky. The lush colours and gold leaf of the Japanese have been replaced with a muted palette that identifies with the arid, and the smooth surface of the screens has been enhanced by the impasto that Juniper is so fond of.  

Even though the subjects are diametrically opposed, the sentiment is similar, quiet, still and contemplative. Juniper has managed to apply centuries of Japanese artistic tradition to the Australian landscape, he was the first Australian artist to manage this achievement.

After the Bush Fire is a pivotal work in Juniper’s oeuvre and is an early example of his interest in Japanese composition. It is a fore runner to his 1977 piece The River Dies in January, a large diptych that is included in the collection of the Art Gallery of NSW.