Nicholas Blowers
Zoë MacDonell
Tom Adair
Scotty Marsh
Renata Pari-Lewis
Chen Ping
Paul Ryan
Morten Lassen
Mathew Lynn
Louis Pratt
Laura Matthews
Kyle Turney
Kim Leutwyler
Katy Woodroffe
Kathryn Ryan
Justine Muller
Jun Chen
Jonathan Dalton
Jason Cordero
James Rogers
James Powditch
James Drinkwater
Gria Shead
Desmond Freeman
Dee Smart
Christopher Horder
Blak Douglas
Ben Smith
Adam Nudelman
Aaron Kinnane
In the late 1880’s, the Australian Impressionists known as the “Heidelberg School” began to paint on the lids of used cigar boxes as an immediate and portable alternative to linen.
It would forever intertwine the scent of tobacco and oil paint in the mythology of Australian art history. Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin, Arthur Streeton, Charles Conder and Jane Sutherland, amongst others, used these boards on their frequent painting expeditions. The resulting works would form the first avant-garde painting exhibition in the history of Australian art. The 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition was held in the Buxton Rooms on Swanson Street, Melbourne, in August 1889.
While dubiously received by critics, the exhibition caused a sensation in a city that was still basking in wealth from the gold rush years. 183 impressionistic paintings—all roughly nine by five inches in size—were exhibited in the rooms that had been decorated in the fashionable Japonisme aesthetic of the day. The paintings themselves were exquisite—direct recordings of moments of dazzling light and implied detail that captured fleeting moments in life and the landscape. It was an exhibition that clarified the shift in antipodean painting from the more mannered colonial period.
Described at the time by critics as “preliminary sketches”, the works are now regarded as significant examples of Australian landscape painting—tightly held in major institutions throughout the country.
In 2020, the world became isolated, yet, somehow we found new ways to come together through technology. In holding the 9 by 5” painting exhibition at Nanda\Hobbs, we found an old way to build an artistic community. A collective project, this exhibition brings our artists and friends to the walls of the gallery to speak of where we live and how we can share our experience.
Anthony Hodgkinson and Ralph Hobbs
January, 2021
Australia January
2021 \ Oil on board \ 12.7 x 22.86cm
SOLD
Berlin Factory
2021 \ Oil on board \ 12.7 x 22.86cm
SOLD
Black water, Bundanon
2021 \ Oil on board \ 12.7 x 22.86cm
SOLD
Impromptu Landscape No.2
2021 \ Oil on board \ 12.7 x 22.86cm
SOLD
Kagaloon, en Plein Air
2021 \ 12.7 x 22.86cm
SOLD
Sirius Bright
2021 \ Acrylic polymer paint on panel \ 12.7 x 22.86cm
SOLD
Sirius Bright II
2021 \ Acrylic polymer paint on panel \ 12.7 x 22.86cm
SOLD
The Day's End
2021 \ Oil on board \ 12.7 x 22.86
SOLD
The Grand Canal seen through the facade of the Cei' d'oro, Venice
2021 \ Pen and ink on Arches 180gsm rag paper on board \ 12.7 x 22.86cm
Traces, Hobart Town 1825
2021 \ Acrylic and ground pigment on board \ 12.7 x 22.86cm
SOLD
Your monthly art news on the run plus invitations to Nanda\Hobbs exhibitions and events
