Untitled
(1968)
Medium
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
Measurements
200.0 × 200.5 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Michael Machin and family through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2021
© Estate of Robert Hunter/Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
Untitled was included in Robert Hunter’s first solo exhibition held at Tolarno Gallery in 1968. The works featured in this show established the guiding principles that would sustain the artist’s entire career. Characterised by finely nuanced chromatic transitions and an implied grid of simple geometric forms, these paintings reflect a tendency towards hard-edge abstraction that was prevalent throughout certain artistic circles in Melbourne at the time. These works also demonstrate the influence of Ad Reinhardt monochromatic black paintings, which Hunter first saw in the touring exhibition Two Decades of American Painting at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in 1967. In 1968, at the age of twenty-one, Hunter was the youngest artist to participate in the NGV’s landmark exhibition, The Field.