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Case Studies
Quick questions on John Olsen: HSC Visual Arts case study
9short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is sydney Sun?Show answer
Oil on hardboard, 240 by 180 cm, AGNSW. Originally a ceiling commission for the Sydney Opera House foyer.
What is salute to Five Bells?Show answer
Oil on canvas, 21.34 metres long. Sydney Opera House northern foyer. Responds to Kenneth Slessor's poem Five Bells (1939).
What is joie de vivre?Show answer
Oil on canvas, NGA Canberra.
What is lake Eyre series?Show answer
Multiple paintings of the central Australian salt lake at different times of year.
What is self portrait Janus faced?Show answer
Won the 2005 Archibald.
What is structural frame?Show answer
Olsen's compositions are all-over, with no traditional single focal point. His palette is saturated. His line is calligraphic and gestural, drawing on Tapies and on Chinese and Japanese calligraphic traditions.
What is cultural frame?Show answer
Olsen sits within the Australian landscape tradition (Heysen, Drysdale, Williams). His practice deliberately transformed European landscape conventions to suit the Australian continent. His work has been read against the broader twentieth-century Australian project of developing a national visual language.
What is subjective frame?Show answer
Olsen wrote extensively about his own practice (his diary and letters are published). His attachment to particular landscapes (Lake Eyre, Hunter Valley) is personal as well as observational.
What is postmodern frame?Show answer
Not the dominant frame for Olsen. His practice was sincere and lyrical rather than ironic.