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Art and the Approval of Nature: Philosophical Reflections on Tom Roberts, Holiday Sketch at Coogee (1888)

Newall, Michael (2019) Art and the Approval of Nature: Philosophical Reflections on Tom Roberts, Holiday Sketch at Coogee (1888). Curator: The Museum Journal, 62 (1). pp. 53-60. ISSN 0011-3069. (doi:10.1111/cura.12287​) (KAR id:74369)

Abstract

This paper, based on a talk given at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, is presented as an example of philosophy done in an art gallery. Its subject is Tom Roberts’ painting Holiday Sketch at Coogee (1888), and as well as responding directly to the painting in the environment of the gallery, it draws on the author's memories of seeing that painting in other times and places. It draws on these personal experiences to relate Roberts’ painting to a controversial idea laid out by art historian Heinrich Wölfflin, and to more recent conventionalist and resemblance theories of pictorial representation. It finishes by affirming one of Roberts’ important achievements: his discarding of inherited European ways of picture‐making, and his place among the first generation of non‐indigenous artists to represent the real colours of the Australian landscape.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1111/cura.12287​
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Arts
Depositing User: Michael Newall
Date Deposited: 12 Jun 2019 12:11 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Dec 2022 05:12 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/74369 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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