We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art stands and recognise the creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country.
Rosalie Gascoigne / Australia 1917–99 / Overland 1996 / Painted, warped plywood panels on wood blocks / 25 panels and 16 blocks: 360 x 290cm or 430 x 340cm (installed, variable) / Gift in memory of Rosalie and Ben Gascoigne through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation 2014. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Rosalie Gascoigne, 1996. Licensed by Viscopy, 2017
Rosalie GascoigneOverland 1996
Not Currently on Display
Overland 1996 is a late masterwork from Rosalie Gascoigne, which transforms a stack of beaten old plywood into a harmonious evocation of the Australian landscape.
Inspired by vistas of the Monaro-Canberra region, the 25 gently warped plywood panels of Overland are gridded and carefully spaced to allow a rolling continuity of surface. The work recalls the patchwork effect of a landscape viewed from the air, the subtle undulations of countryside, order rendered through cultivation, and the mottled effects of light and shadow. The tension between uniformity and irregularity creates a rhythmic pattern — a musicality and a geometric certainty, which could extend out in any direction, conveying both a sense of expanse and the particularities of place.
The placement of the panels on the ground further emphasises the undulating horizon and, at this scale and perspective, brings to mind a land pieced together place by place, hill by hill, valley by valley. Overland ventures far beyond illustration to become an iteration of nature, a landscape at peace with its emptiness and richness.
Rosalie Gascoigne, (née Walker) was born in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1917. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Auckland in 1937 before training as a teacher and teaching at Auckland Girls’ Grammar School between 1938 and 1942. Gascoigne arrived in Australia in 1943 to marry Ben Gascoigne, a New Zealand-born astronomer working at Mount Stromlo Observatory near Canberra.
From 1962, she studied ikebana with Norman Sparnon, a master in the Sogetsu School. Her interests continued to expand with her growing engagement in the Canberra art world. Embarking on an expedition through art and nature, she combed paddocks, dumps, factories and junkyards for discarded materials left to weather. She brought everyday life into new frames of reference.
Coming to art somewhat later in life, she held her first solo exhibition at the Macquarie Galleries, Canberra, in 1974 at the age of 57. In 1982, Gascoigne was selected for the 40th Venice Biennale, becoming the first woman to represent Australia. In 1988 she participated in the Australian Biennale where her work gained international recognition. Gascoigne’s prizes include the John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize, and the Grand Prize at the Cheju Pre-Biennale in Korea. She was awarded the Order of Australia in 1994 for her services to the arts.
Endnotes:
Biography of Rosalie Gascoigne, Design & Art Australia Online, 2016.