Vox Pop: into the Eighties

Over the past few years, State galleries have interested themselves more consistently in the collection and exhibition of contemporary Australian art than ever before. Vox Pop surveys the new figuration which has come strongly and quickly to the forefront in Australian painting over the past three of four years. Perhaps there is no more surprising tendency in the nascent art of the 1980s than that it should have adopted such a notably expressive, figurative and idiosyncratic stance. Such attitudes could hardly be more different from the “cool”, ideological stances and attitudes of the 1970s. Collectively this tendency signals a renewed desires on the part of the Australian artist to assert that the painter has a direct and nourishing relationship with the world around them. The sheet vigour of the contributors to Vox Pop, the liveliness and the sharply critical attitudes adopted by a number of the painters gives promise that Australian painting is once again entering one of its buoyant phases. Exhibited artists include Peter Booth, Davida Allen, Jenny Watson, Gareth Sansom, Linda Marrinon, Maria Kozic and Juan Davila.

Sourced from: Adapted from Peter McCaughey, ‘Forward’, Vox Pop, Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 1983