Postmodern painter and writer Imants Tillers titled his latest exhibition in honour of one of his main inspirations, the Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico, who invented a metaphysical style of painting in the early 20th century. Several of Tiller’s 20 all-new works on display will reference de Chirico, reflecting the Sydney-born artist’s interest in the Italian’s output and life, which Tillers also wrote about in Metafisica Australie, a chapter in his 2022 essay collection Credo, published by Giramondo.
De Chirico was a writer, too, and his 1929 novel Hebdomeros “was better than anything André Breton ever wrote”, says Tillers from his home and studio in Cooma, in south-eastern New South Wales. De Chirico’s book references Melbourne, and he also created lithographs with water as zigzags, “which looks very Aboriginal to me”, says Tillers. “There’s a strange resonance with Australia, even though he never came here.”
At 74, Tillers has amassed a body of work that references world cultures, the history of Western art, 20th century European literature and philosophy, and Indigenous Australian culture. For the past three decades, he has been incorporating poetic and philosophical text into his paintings. “Most of contemporary art really is postmodern, so I’m happy to be called a postmodern artist,” he laughs. “Younger artists, even if they don’t know it, are benefitting from the postmodern past.”
Moving 28 years ago from Mosman on Sydney’s North Shore to the Monaro precinct, the gateway to the Snowy Mountains once home to high volcanic activity, “opened up a sensitivity to landscape”, says Tillers. “I became interested in place names. Nothing, really, apart from grass will grow here.”
Metaphysical Journey
Imants Tillers
Bett Gallery
14 February—8 March
This article was originally published in the January/February 2025 print issue of Art Guide Australia.
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