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Ralph Balson / Australia 1890–1964 / Constructive painting 1947 / Oil on composition board / 69.5 x 90.7cm / Purchased 1984 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Ralph Balson Estate
Ralph BalsonConstructive painting 1947
On Display: QAG, Gallery 12
Melancholic in its use of a blue-grey palette, this painting was produced at a time when Australian artists were turning their attention to abstraction.
Writer Candice Bruce has noted: ‘While Balson’s earlier work in the 1940s made use of the circle as a definitive shape and circular motion as a compositional device, in Constructive painting 1947, squares and rectangles seem to “float” randomly across the canvas, shifting above, below and behind one another’.1 Here, the layering of two-dimensional shapes creates the illusion of three-dimensional depth.
Endnotes:
1 Candice Bruce, ‘Built on each other’, in Brought to Light: Australian Art 1850–1965, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1998, p.228.
Born in England in 1890, Ralph Balson came to Australia in 1913. Earning his living as a house painter, it was not until 1920, at the age of 30, that he began his artistic career.
Balson attended Sydney Art School under Julian Ashton and Henry Gibbons for several years. In the early 1930s, he became involved in modern art through fellow artists Frank Hinder, Grace Crowley and Rah Fizelle.
In 1941, Balson opened ‘Constructive Paintings’, an exhibition of his abstract works. As the first non-figurative solo exhibition to be held in Australia, it was highly controversial.
Discussion Questions
Although the shapes are two-dimensional, how has Balson created an image that appears three-dimensional?
Classroom Activities
Using different papers (e.g. tissue paper, cellophane or coloured paper), make geometric shapes by cutting and pasting the papers onto a cardboard backing. Use the cut-out paper shapes to construct an artwork that has a layered effect. Consider size, transparency and colour when you make your artwork so that certain shapes stand out or appear suspended.