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The Great Tasmanian Wars at Switchback Gallery

14 September 2005

A stunning exhibition of works by Sydney-based artist James Morrison is on show at Monash's Switchback Gallery at Gippsland campus until 13 October.

James Morrison 'The Great Tasmanian Wars' 2004 Oil on canvas 55 panels, each 30x30cm Tarrawarra Museum of Art Collection Courtesy of the artist and Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney

It is the first time the exhibition The Great Tasmanian Wars has been shown at a regional gallery in Australia, and follows its international debut at Dunedin Art Gallery in New Zealand last month, and previous showings in Sydney and Melbourne.

The exhibition, presented by the Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), features three definitive works by the artist.

The centerpiece is an epic panoramic work comprising 55 panels each 30cm square, titled 'The Great Tasmanian Wars' 2004. The work is on loan from the TarraWarra Museum of Art located in the Yarra Valley.

The narrative painting, the subject of a cover story in the latest issue of Art & Australia magazine, is based on the artist's observations and imagination. Each panel features a highly colored and richly detailed figurative painting.

MUMA curator and collections manager Ms Geraldine Barlow said the work showed the world as it is, as it has been and as it might be.

"Morrison draws upon experience and invention to create the world of this work, the rich forests and feather-wearing locals of his childhood in Papua New Guinea, his experience as a florist in early adult life, as well as a playful pleasure in confabulation," Ms Barlow said.

"This freize of life and death offers us a journey of discovery. Like the early explorers and ghosts of conquistadores pictured, we encounter wondrous landscapes and exotic people."

The other two works featured in the exhibition are: 'The Island' (2001), a painting of "great colour and verve", from the Monash University Museum of Art Collection; and a performance narrative video in which the artist appears.

MUMA artistic director Mr Max Delany said the exhibition was selected for the Switchback Gallery because of the Gippsland area's strong relationship to the traditions of colonial and landscape painting.

"Gippsland has a marvellous tradition of artists engaging with the landscape," Mr Delany said.

"'The Great Tasmanian Wars' is a work of empirical observation and imagination, and one of the most exceptional and fascinating landscape paintings in Australia. It is a masterpiece among recent landscape painting and we are pleased to present it at Monash's Switchback Gallery."