John Olsen AO OBE (1928–2023), painter, was one of the major figures in 20th-century Australian art. Born in Newcastle, he studied art in Sydney with Antonio Dattilo Rubbo and at the Julian Ashton Art School and held his first exhibition in 1955. At this time, he and his friend Robert Klippel were trying to 'paint of the bloodstream' – to commit to the act of painting as a total experience, a totality of random sensations. The pair's 1956 exhibition launched abstract expressionism on the Sydney art scene. Olsen was hailed as a master immediately, and in 1957 a Sydney businessman paid him to go to Majorca to paint. Returning to Sydney in 1960, he cemented his reputation with a series of views of Sydney Harbour and the You Beaut Country series. Over the 1980s and 1990s Olsen's work became increasingly meditative, as he explored ways to express 'a certain mystical throbbing throughout nature'. He won the Archibald Prize with the scratchy, abstract Self-portrait, Janus-faced in 2005.
Gift of the Bardas families, in memory of Sandra Bardas OAM and David Bardas AO 2024. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
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