John Olsen

The 28-year-old John Olsen arrived in Paris in 1956 where he made his first foray into printmaking at S.W. Hayter's Atelier 17.He returned to Sydney in 1960 but found it impossible to continue to make prints because of the lack of facilities.

It wasn't until 1970, when staying with Clifton Pugh at 'Dunmoochin', Victoria, that he was able to recommence printmaking to a significant extent. Pugh had just returned from Hayter's school full of enthusiasm and the two of them purchased an etching press.

Olsen had first dabbled in lithography in 1963 when he was commissioned by the Art Gallery Society of Victoria to make a print with Janet Dawson at the Gallery A Print Workshop. But it was not until 1979, when the printer Fred Genis invited Olsen to make a series of lithographs, that he became seriously involved in the medium. Genis had established a studio at Dural NSW, near where Olsen was living.

Olsen and Genis collaborated on the series of prints, Down Under. Genis had introduced Olsen to transfer paper, and the directness of the

process allowed the prints to have a freshness and spontaneity not possible with etching.

For Olsen this method was 'fabulous for picking up brush marks, any stain or blot'.

The portfolio was the culmination of various trips to Lake Eyre, and the celebration of life as experienced by Olsen when the lake flooded in 1975 is clearly evident. In riotous profusion, pelicans, kangaroos, fish and other wildlife appear to jump from the paper.

Gordon Darling Fund 1990

Gordon Darling Fund 1990

Gordon Darling Fund 1990

Gordon Darling Fund 1990

Gordon Darling Fund 1990

Gordon Darling Fund 1990

Gordon Darling Fund 1990