Shadow on the Back Block | Rudy Kistler

  • Rudy Kistler, The Robber Barons II
  • Rudy Kistler, Waiting for the Sun
  • Rudy Kistler, Cockies Smoko
  • Rudy Kistler, Endless Harvest
  • Rudy Kistler, The Passage
  • Rudy Kistler, The Crimson Tide
  • Rudy Kistler, The Nightingale Brothers
  • Rudy Kistler, The Pruner
  • Rudy Kistler, The Robber Barons
  • Rudy Kistler, Tyrone's Run
  • Rudy Kistler, Sisyphe and the Endless Apples
  • Rudy Kistler, The Apples and Sisyphe Triptych
  • Rudy Kistler, Death in the Shadow
  • Rudy Kistler, The Fine Red Loam
  • Rudy Kistler, Wicked Virgin Olives
  • Rudy Kistler, Cowra's Ceiling
  • Rudy Kistler, Curlwaa
  • Rudy Kistler, Happy Little Mandarins
  • Rudy Kistler, In the Shadow of Ruisdael
  • Rudy Kistler, The Chookery
  • Rudy Kistler, The Cruel Wave
  • Rudy Kistler, Coral Diamonds
  • Rudy Kistler, Gail out the Back
  • Rudy Kistler, Jazzie's Knickers (The Rooster Moans)
  • Rudy Kistler, Darryl's Supremes
  • Rudy Kistler, The Garden, Eden, NSW
  • Rudy Kistler, The Robber Barons III
  • Rudy Kistler, Falling Away
  • Rudy Kistler, The Ornamental
  • Rudy Kistler, Crooked River
  • Rudy Kistler, Tuscany in Sanraysia
  • Rudy Kistler, Burning Plums
  • Rudy Kistler, Hazelnut
  • Rudy Kistler, Merbein in Flames
  • Rudy Kistler, Araluen
  • Rudy Kistler, Citrus Web
  • Rudy Kistler, Losing Fruit
  • Rudy Kistler, Naranjas
  • Rudy Kistler, Taking Sides
  • Rudy Kistler, Flesh and Bone
  • Rudy Kistler, Tributaries
  • Rudy Kistler, Valencies
  • Rudy Kistler, Citrus Bough
  • Rudy Kistler, Storm on the Wing
  • Rudy Kistler, Nan's Apples
  • Rudy Kistler, The Watchman
  • Rudy Kistler, Leaning into the Light
  • Rudy Kistler, Merbein Plums
  • Rudy Kistler, Mourquong
  • Rudy Kistler, Cloud Study
  • Rudy Kistler, Pink Arrival
  • Rudy Kistler, Rosemary's Grapefruit
  • Rudy Kistler, The Pink Ladies in Shepparton

Shadow on the Back Block
29 October - 17 November 2009

After completing a BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2001 I left America to pursue painting in Japan. In 2005 I immigrated to Australia to study at the National Art School, and completed my MFA in 2007. 2009 has been a year of inland travel, seeking inspiration from the rural areas of NSW and Victoria. This pursuit has culminated in my current body of work titled ‘Shadow on the Back Block’.

Robert Motherwell said ‘I believe that painters’ judgements of painting are first ethical, then aesthetic, the aesthetic judgements flowing from an ethical content. Without ethical consciousness, a painter is only a decorator.”

‘Shadow on the Back Block’ is my attempt to unite my painting practice with a strong belief in a sustainable future. I think it is fair to say that the attention the media and society have placed on current environmental concerns has led to a massive re-evaluation of our individual lifestyles. My own position led me to consider how I could incorporate these themes into my paintings.

In April of this year, I set out on a 5,000 km journey through the fruit-growing regions of New South Wales and Victoria. As I travelled and painted the vineyards and orchards of the places I passed through, I realized that because of the specific topography, the paintings were functioning more as portraits than landscapes. My interest in the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the agriculture of these areas led me away from spatial imperatives, towards a more specific search for a way to define a locality’s persona.

Over the mountains and across the tablelands, the Australian landscape is alive with colour and bursting with productivity. I have attempted with this body of work to embody the fecundity of the land in bold brushstrokes and fully saturated colour, to offer a new view of what is often thought of as a dry and desolate terrain.

Rudy Kistler, October 2009