While Lands of Light focuses on Lloyd Rees’s (1895-1988) late paintings inspired by the Tasmanian landscape, these are contextualised with works made near his Sydney home, his Brisbane birthplace, and his trips to Europe. As Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) lead curator Peter Hughes says, “Lloyd Rees may be the best draughtsman that Australia has produced. The exhibition is about the Tasmanian aspect of his practice, but these later works need the introduction to his genius.”
Rees began visiting Hobart consistently, twice a year, after his son Alan moved there in 1967, and this exhibition was developed through the ongoing association with his family. The Tasmanian paintings, created between 1967 and 1988, reflect a level of stimulation drawn from both a new landscape and the change in light (with Hobart’s lower humidity and latitude). Although Rees’s practice was never bound by the details of place, often opening to architectural structures and humanist interpretations.
The exhibition culminates in the later paintings Rees made when his sight was impacted by macular degeneration. “This condition meant he had to change his style,” explains Hughes. “Rees was addicted to art making. He couldn’t and didn’t stop. These later works reflect a strategy to continue with the shortcomings of his age and eyesight. He adapted, using a broader brush, and more abstraction, focusing on colour, light and tonality.”
The later works grew larger in scope: they became open, in their luminosity, to the spiritual. In paintings like The Great River (an impression of the Derwent), 1983-85, what dominates is the capture of light over the harbour. As Hughes writes in the exhibition catalogue, “The articulation of space through detail and careful composition, while not entirely absent, gives way to an expansive vision, suggesting the infinite.” Through Lands of Light, Rees’s shifting perspectives throughout his esteemed, long practice are articulated with new insights.
Lands of Light: Lloyd Rees and Tasmania
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
On now—27 October
This article was originally published in the July/August 2024 print edition of Art Guide Australia.
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