The Prints Of John Olsen: Teeming With Life

By Niall Roeder

John Olsen has had his fingers in a lot of art-pies over the years. He’s a painter influenced by the likes of Hayter and Dubuffet, a champion of Australian landscapes, the owner of a very individual style characterised by quizzical lines and loose brushwork, a master water-colourist, an Archibald winner and has had a long affiliation with the printmaking medium. Teeming With Life at The Arts Centre Gold Coast is a display of the later and is the first time all of Olsen’s etchings and lithographs will be displayed together.

His love affair with printmaking began when he was a fresh faced 28 year old, studying at Stanley Hayter’s prominent Atelier 17 print studio in Paris. From then, although dabbling in other mediums, the prints starting churning out. He’s since collaborated with many big names in the printmaking game, including Fred Genis and Max Miller. Similarly, Olsen has collaborated with Australian print studios Crossley Print Workshop, Port Jackson Press and Victorian Printmakers Group.

“Numbering more than four hundred editions, Olsen’s contribution to Australian printmaking is unequalled. Conceptually, his prints parallel the ideas of his paintings – those of the landscape as a painted map and of the experience of journeying over the land rather than taking a static view from one fixed point in time at ground level… while at the same time it is an autobiographical journey, telling us about the very stuff of his existence: his books, the outback, his wives, lives of admired artists, cooking recipes, favourite restaurants, animals, travels. It’s all there, laid bare for us to see.” – Jeff Makin and Ken McGregor

Pop into QT Gold Coast’s Stingray for post exhibition tipple. It’s a date!

Image: John Olsen, Beckett passing by 1992, colour aquatint. Courtesy of Ken McGregor