Shadow on the Back Block - Artist Statement | Rudy Kistler

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