1999 Melbourne Niagara Galleries BRUSH DE BOOGIE Bad attitude, the conservator brooding on the bentwood 1999 oil and wax, paintbrush, metal, mixed media, Variable sizes Private Collections Terry Batt’s 1999 ‘Brush De Boogie’ exhibition at Niagara Galleries presented a series of seven small timber figures engaged in some way or another with a chair. These were the culmination of Batt’s ongoing exploration of modern art and design and poked fun at art world personalities and some of its familiar types. Diminutive icons of 20th century modernist furniture design are paired with painted timber figures that reference another doyen of European modernism, the Dutch De Stijl co-founder, artist Piet Mondrian (1872-1944). Mondrian had escaped war-torn Europe for America in 1940 only to die a few years later. However, this was not before he had painted his modern masterpieces, the revolutionary abstract-geometric Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942-43, and its unfinished companion Victory Boogie Woogie, 1942–44. Mondrian’s enthusiasm for New York’s architecture and the gridded city centre as well as his love of jazz combines in these two works to produce an eloquent essay on the rhythms of music and the chromatic pulse of a dynamic city. Similarly, Batt plays with colour, form, gesture, posture and gait to convey the idea of a rhythmic musical score. Each figure exists independently of the other but all can be reconfigured so that they interact. A brush with the shrink and Bad attitude, the conservator brooding on the bentwood indicate a narrative thread, however, the viewer is left to ponder and create their own story. For Batt, this open-ended text correlates to the experience of life as a series of dislocated memories and fragments that we collate and arrange. L-R: A brush with the shrink, Bad attitude, 1999
oil & wax, paint, brush, metal and mixed media Indicative size 12 x 12 x 12 cm |
L-R: Bad attitude, The conservator, Brooding on the Bentwood, 1999
oil & wax, paint brush , metal and mixed media Idicative size 12 x 12 x 12 cm L-R: The conservator, and others, 1999
oil & wax, paint, brush, metal and mixed media Indicative size 12 x 12 x 12 cm |