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19/2/2004

Rover Thomas

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

JANET HOLMES A COURT TO OPEN ROVER THOMAS EXHIBITION

Janet Holmes à Court will open a major exhibition by one of Australia's great artists, Rover Thomas on Friday 20 February at 11am at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Drawing on works from the Holmes à Court Collection and State gallery collections from across the country Rover Thomas: I want to paint features 19 seminal works and celebrates Rover Thomas' contribution to contemporary art.

Thomas was first and foremost a great painter. His paintings are a form of visual language where stories of 'country', present and past, are a counterpoint to his direct observation of the landscape and its culturally significant features.

His is a unique vision and style that while reflecting aspects of East Kimberley rock art and ceremonial body paintings owed little to other well known forms of Aboriginal art. The deceptively simple yet powerful imagery of his paintings unequivocally stamps his work as a form of sophisticated, modernist abstraction of universal appeal.

Rover Thomas (c.1926-1998) was born at Gunawaggi, Well 33, on the Canning Stock Route in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia. In the late 1970s he began to paint inspired by the Gurirr Gurirr, a ceremonial dance cycle that came to him in his dreams.

Within just a few years, Rover Thomas gained national and international recognition. In 1990 Rover Thomas and Trevor Nickolls, were the first Indigenous Australian artists to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale.

In the image: 'Two men dreaming', 1985. WHEN: 11am Friday 20 February 2004

MEDIA INFORMATION:
Virginia Lovett, Press Office
Telephone: (02)9225 1791 Mobile 0417662749

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery Road, The Domain, Sydney NSW 2000
Telephone 02 9225 1744 or Toll Free 1800 679 278 Website

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