Survey 8

The NGV’s Survey series profiled the work of a prominent contemporary Australian artist. From 1978 to 1981, sixteen artists had a Survey exhibition at the NGV.

Ivan Durrant, the subject of Survey 8, grew up in an orphanage, and despite being untrained in art went on to become ‘one of the most accomplished Photo Realist painters in Australia’ (Robert LIndsay, 1979). In the late 1970s, he was also one of the country’s most provocative, due to his performance art ‘happenings’, which included dumping a slaughtered cow in the foyer of the NGV (The slaughtered cow happening, 1975), convincing the Sydney press that he had cut off his own hand and would donate it to the Gallery of NSW (The severed hand happening, 1975), and inviting guests to dinner only to tell them that if they wanted to eat they had to slaughter their own pigeon at the table (Chopping block, 1976).

Durrant’s Survey exhibition featured some of his most enduring work, including his incredibly photorealistic paintings of rural life, depicting horse racing, landscapes and the brutal reality of animal butchery. It also featured his work Butcher Shop, a mixed-media installation that resembled a real-life butcher shop window. This was one of the NGV’s most popular works in the 1970s and 80s and was on regular display.