"Two Shadows"
Oil on Canvas
137x183cm
Initialled Lower Left, Signed, Titled & Dated 10/12/98
Prov: Private Collection Adelaide
$5,000-8,000
Dick Watkins is recognised as one of the pioneers of post-war Australian abstraction. Emerging in Sydney during the early 1960s, he was among a generation of artists who transformed the direction of Australian painting through their engagement with international Colour Field painting and Abstract Expressionism. A founding exhibitor in the landmark 1968 exhibition The Field, Watkins helped establish abstraction as a major force in Australian contemporary art while continually reinventing his own practice over a career spanning more than six decades.
Although best known as an abstract painter, Watkins resisted stylistic convention. His work drew inspiration from literature, music, history and popular culture, often incorporating expressive gestures, symbolic imagery and provocative titles that encouraged multiple interpretations. Whether in works such as L’État c’est Je (1992) or the later Two Shadows (1998), Watkins demonstrated an ability to balance energetic painterly expression with intellectual curiosity, creating works that remain both visually compelling and conceptually engaging.
Watkins exhibited extensively throughout Australia and internationally, and his work is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, the Art Gallery of South Australia and numerous regional and university collections. He was awarded the Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1991, and in 2018 was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to the visual arts as a painter, educator and mentor. His enduring influence, both as an exhibiting artist and as a respected teacher at Sydney College of the Arts, has secured his place among the leading figures of contemporary Australian art.
