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.
John Nelson / Australia b.1952 / Untitled (detail) 1990 / Synthetic polymer paint, steel hook, string and felt on wood / 14 x 6.5 x 4.2cm / Purchased 1995. JR Tate Estate / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © John Nelson
John NelsonUntitled 1990
Not Currently on Display
Autobiographical content is central to much of John Nelson’s work, and especially so in this painting. The artist’s father was a schoolteacher, and his portrait on this old blackboard eraser has direct personal significance. Untitled 1990 is an elegant example of Nelson’s capacity to combine a variety of materials until one seems right, unlocking ideas and memories as though he had chanced on the combination of a safe.
John Nelson is an artist whose works are non-conformist. His paintings not only combine a variety of different objects and materials but also a variety of styles, including photo-realism. Nostalgia and memory are important to his system of making art, but should not be misinterpreted as a mere fondness for old things found in junk shops or in the rubbish.
His approach to making art reflects the disorderliness and incongruity of normal daily experience, not for the sake of recreating chaos, but to recreate the process whereby individuals find their own logic in the complexities surrounding them.