Abstract
The paintings of the artist Sam Byrne (1883 – 1978), which came to the attention of the Australian art world in the 1960s, depicted a landscape in the process of being transformed by heavy industry in and around the mining township of Broken Hill in New South Wales. Art critics frequently described the works of this artist—who had little formal art training and commenced painting relatively late in life—as childlike, simple, and unsophisticated. Such descriptions, however, are based on a misunderstanding of the artist’s work. In this paper, I argue for a different reading of Byrne’s work, one that takes into account several overlooked aspects of his work. These include the artist’s intense focus upon, and celebration of, modern industrial development; his sense of humor, which is sophisticated, subtle, and ambiguous; the artist’s political radicality, which emerges in his frequent depictions of the union movement; and aspects of his technique that can be compared to the work of American artists working in the same period, including Andy Warhol and Robert Smithson. Once we set aside historical prejudices about the work of artists who, like Byrne, enter the art world through unconventional channels, we are in a position to properly assess the nature and significance of their artistic achievement.
Presenters
Anthony WhiteAssociate Professor, School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
