Hard Edge

Hard Edge explores one of the most significant periods in the development of contemporary Australian sculpture, the 1960s and 1970s. In this period Australian artists began to embrace a new style of abstraction, with the most adventurous sculptors’ work tending towards the minimal style seen in New York City. Across two foyer levels at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, thirteen abstract sculptures from some of the key Australian sculptors of the period are displayed, including works by Clement Meadmore, Inge King, Jock Clutterbuck, Clive Murray-White, Lenton Parr, Ron Robertson-Swann, C. Elwyn Dennis and David Wilson. Polished and welded steel forms are displayed alongside brightly painted sculptures and video displays. Robertson-Swann’s controversial yellow abstract sculpture, Vault dubbed by the press the ‘Yellow Peril’ was installed in Melbourne’s City Square thirty-five years ago and dismantled after six months of public display. The sculpture is currently located outside ACCA, and the original maquette, or draft model, of the sculpture is on display in the exhibition and accompanied by a multimedia display of archival photographs and newspaper articles. Elwyn Dennis’s red lacquered Evidence of Origin once a familiar form to NGV visitors, is displayed for the first time in several years in the exhibition.