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Jan Nelson / Australia b.1955 / Walking in tall grass, Matt 2007 / Oil and liquin on linen / 81.5 x 62.5cm / Purchased 2007. The Queensland Government’s Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Jan Nelson/Licensed by Viscopy
Jan NelsonWalking in tall grass, Matt 2007
Not Currently on Display
Jan Nelson’s ‘Walking in tall grass’ works are a group of portraits painted from photographs rather than from life, executed in cinematic style and with brilliant colour. Her subjects are teenagers, dressed in the latest fashions, self-consciously aware of their own developing sense of style and its expression. Nelson refers to fashion magazines, advertising and to the visual language of realist painting in these works.
While part of a larger body of work, each young person photographed and then painted by the artist is an individual: each is named and appears as per their wishes. Despite distinctive looks, each wears recognisably popular clothes and accessories. The teenage years are marked by great transitions; as the artist has noted, the series is constructed on the notion of the space between the actual world we exist in and the one we desire.
Born in Melbourne in 1955, Jan Nelson continues to live and work there. She has held solo exhibitions since 1984, most recently the 2015 ‘Sympathy for the Devil #1’, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne and her works have appeared in numerous major group exhibitions, including 2016’s ‘Painting, More Painting – Chapter 2’ at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) in Melbourne and ‘Women Who Work in Process, New Galleries: Australian Art’ at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the ‘In the Flesh’ exhibition (2014) at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra; and the National Gallery of Victoria’s ‘Mix Tape: 1980s Appropriation, Subculture, Critical Style’ in 2013.
Discussion Questions
1. How does this teenager’s clothing compare to your own wardrobe? Are these clothes similar or different to those belonging to you and your friends?
2. Think about the different uniforms and outfits that people wear. What statements do you think our clothes make about who we are? Do you think that what we wear can make us more confident or important?
Classroom Activities
1. Cut out an advertisement for a product or item of clothing pitched to a teenage audience. What selling techniques are used? Analyse their effectiveness.
2. Aside from sight, what other senses could be triggered by this image? Research other artists who also incorporate techniques to heighten the senses.