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What I know about Richard Dunlop (2013)
An essay on Richard Dunlop and how he paints by Kylie Elkington.
Here Comes the Sun, Gallery One (2020)
2022
- 2022 oil on Belgian linen, Sold
- 2022 oil on Belgian linen 122 x 100cm, $11,000
- 2022 oil on Belgian linen 90 x 60cm, $7,000
- 2022 oil on Belgian linen 160 x 120cm
- 2022 oil on Belgian linen 210 x 195cm, $36,000
- 2022 oil on Belgian linen 96 x 173cm, Sold
- 2022 oil on Belgian linen 150 x 150cm, $22,000
- 2022 oil on Belgian linen 63 x 127cm, $8,000
- 2022 oil on Belgian linen, $11,000
- 2022 oil, acrylic and iron oxide on handmade antique cross cut saw 20 x 200cm, Sold
- 2022 oil, acrylic and iron oxide on handmade antique cross cut saw 20 x 200cm, Sold
- 2022 oil, acrylic and iron oxide on handmade antique cross cut saw 22 x 208cm, Sold
- 2022 oil on Belgian linen 195 x 185cm
- 2022 oil on Belgian linen 160 x 160cm, $28,000
- 2022 oil on Tasmanian oak panel 61 x 91cm, framed under perspex
- 2022 oil on Belgian linen 120 x 200cm, $20,000
- 2022 oil on Belgian linen 120 x 120cm, $12,000
- 2022 oil on Belgian linen 120 x 120cm, Sold
- In Search of Thylacine in the Great Western Tiers, 2022 oil on Belgian linen 170 x 160cm, Sold
- 2022 oil on Tasmanian oak panel 120 x 90cm, $10,000
- 2022 oil on Tasmanian oak panel 120 x 90cm, $10,000
- 2022 oil on Belgian linen 60 x 120cm, $8,000
“When the realization dawns that you’re likely doing just what the artist did when he made the work, a new appreciation of how well Dunlop shares his vision emerges. This is an artist who not only wants to share what he saw, but how he saw it”. – Andrew Harper
“Richard’s paintings are always gorgeous to look at and they continue his quest for truth and beauty in a visual language that he has painstakingly developed. A language that is earthy and transcendental.” – Phil Brown
“Tuned into the world and environments around him, Richard Dunlop takes specific events, narratives and landscapes as a starting point and transforms them into paintings with continued resonance by pushing forms beyond the literal and into the elusive. The convalescing of specific references with Dunlop’s overarching perspective of their inextricable relationship to wider systems is seen in specific works such as Crossings (2021)
– which was painted during the invasion of Ukraine and refers to contemporary events all the while showing the historical influence of artists such as Grant Wood and Colin McCahon. Another work, In Search of Thylacine in the Great Western Tiers, takes the canonised and mythologised rapid extinction of the Tasmanian Tiger as the starting point to grapple with the colonial mindset in tandem with explorations of the Tasmanian landscape, where the artist lives. With art movements such as the Sublime and Picturesque – at the front of his mind, the artist lets in the layers of any given moment, Short Walks in North Tasmania is both a representation of the contemporary and the enduring.” – Sophie Prince
“There’s a lot of beauty, but Dunlop also finds poetry – he balances the warm breath of a cow, observed as a steaming plume, with a night sky cascading with stars. It’s a beautiful, quite tiny fragment that the artist has clearly been engrossed by, and he really succeeds in capturing the wonder that clearly held his attention. Dunlop has strong ideas and is bold about following his instincts into new territory.” – Andrew Harper
“The earliest auction listing we have for Richard Dunlop is in 2008 and in total 37 works by the artist have been offered for sale, of which 21 (57%) were sold. The highest price recorded for the artist is $19,636 for Anzac Memorial (Flows to River) sold by Menzies in August 2017. No works have been offered for sale this year, and the last sale we have recorded for the artist was in 2021 [at Bonhams Climber 1 and 2 oil on board 20 x 180cm 2003 sold by Jan Murphy for $1200, sold at auction for $15,990 inc. premium].” – Australian Art Sales Digest (who view art as a butcher might view a beef carcass)
“Art that can woo…Dunlop has more than earned his reputation.” – Rebecca Agnew
Maps, Natural History and Quite Ambitious Plans, Jan Murphy Gallery (2008)
2021
- 2021 oil on paper with collage mounted to Tasmanian oak panel 120 x 180cm, Sold
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 80 x 80cm, Sold
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 158 x 195cm
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 158 x 195cm, Sold
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 141 x 160cm
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 102 x 105cm, $10,000
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 119 x 97cm, Sold
- oil on Belgian linen mounted to Tasmanian oak panel 90 x 90cm, Sold
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 100 x 160cm
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 200x204cm, Sold
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 210 x 165cm
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 145 x 196cm, Sold
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 156 x 202cm, Sold
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 140 x 200cm
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 74 x 75cm, $8,000
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 132 x 200cm, Sold
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 145 x 96cm, Sold
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 120 x 120cm, Sold
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 120 x 120cm
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 140 x 206cm, Sold
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 196 x 172cm, Sold
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 170 x 206cm
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 140 x 200cm
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 150 x 150cm, Sold
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 208 x 168cm
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 200 x 140cm, Sold
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 140 x 200cm, Sold
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 160 x 203cm, $24,000
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 94 x 130cm, Sold
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 100 x 160cm
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 152 x 136cm
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen 67 x 124cm, $9,000
- 2021 oil on canvas 102 x 84cm, Sold
- 2021 oil on Belgian linen, $16,500
“Only when one is standing at exactly the right angle can you see and comprehend a new thing fully and for the first time.” – Lao-Tzu 6th Century BC
“I have to record the glimpse seen at the highest point of affection – points of optical ecstasy, where romanticism and optimism overshadow any form of menace of foreboding. I have to paint pictures that have an effortless naturalness, not artificial or synthetic, not manufactured. I have to paint pictures that have no affectation through mental tricks, but are graceful and according to nature… Every part should be poetic and responsible for its own existence. It should be easy to take. I try to change the meaning of the thing painted into a new image – an elevated feeling.” – Brett Whiteley re ‘Lavender Bay’ paintings
While most of the risks Dunlop takes are well considered, some are quite the opposite. He describes painting as “an arena almost like a boxing ring…I don’t do preparatory drawings [and] the final paintings carry some signs of decisions made en route, erasures and changes of mind, remnants of under-painting all add to the ‘archaeology’ of a ‘picture’, an artificial thing like a novel or film.” The process, like his subject matter, is quite organic. Dunlop takes further risks by introducing random acts of violence to each work, and then attempts to resolve them, as would “occur in any natural settings.” Though, fittingly, he allows “earlier layers to persist…to give a sense of memories and the passage of time, just out of reach.” – Eric Nash, Curator
“Your pictures give me energy in the morning.” – Adam Hudson, serial entrepreneur and philanthropist
2020
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 168 x 170cm, Sold
- 2020 oil and ink on plastic and paper 29 x 20cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 150 x 90cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on whiteboard panel 30 x 180cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on canvas 40 x 30cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 145 x 200cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 120 x 100cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian Linen 35 x 13cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 125 x 205cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 13 x 35cm
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 125 x 90cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 100 x 200cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 100 x 200cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 120 x 90cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 158 x 200cm
- 2020 oil and enamel on Belgian linen 115 x 100cm
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 85 x 85cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 13 x 20cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 145 x 200cm
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 13 x 35cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 120 x 200cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 185 x 200cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 25 x 20cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 61 x 61cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgiaan linen 92 x 90cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Tasmanian oak 11 x 41.5cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 122 x 52cm, $7,500
- 2020 oil on Tasmanian oak board 61 x 91cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Tasmanian oak 28 x 205.5cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on canvas 120 x 56cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Tasmanian oak 40 x 120cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 80 x 124cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 98 x 97cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 200 x 165cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Tasmanian oak 28 x 244cm
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 20 x 13cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Tasmanian oak 31 x 206cm, $11,000
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 161 x 168cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on panel 45 x 180cm, $10,000
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 80 x 124cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 120 x 80cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Tasmanian oak panel 120 x 90cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 120 x 80cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on Belgian linen 96 x 105cm, Sold
“Virtuosic sense of place, of Tasmania… honestly, I don’t get how you do that.” – Stephen Lees
“The portrait of me by Richard Dunlop, Tim Olsen: The Man in Black, hung in the 2008 Archibald, was my Dorian Gray moment. Once a handsome young man, by then the sins, weaknesses and the decadence of my life were written all over my face, exposed in the most visited exhibition in Australia, for the whole world to see. It is the darkest, most lugubrious version of a beaten-up art dealer who has been poisoned by celebration. Expressing my amazement that it was hung at all to Edmund Capon, he replied: ‘It does have a certain likeness. He’s really captured you.’” – Tim Olsen, Art Dealer, Sydney and New York, 2020
“Dunlop’s work here is very much about fragments [of North Tasmania] that seize his attention and there’s a lot of movement captured in them – birds drift across a distant estuary, a waterfall gushes and sprays. Parallel to this, Dunlop also captures some beautiful panoramic visions that literally stretch themselves out, long and thin. He’s not averse to working within the physical shape of a painting either – some works are impressively massive and feel as though they are dripping over the edges, while others are elegant wisps of colour that stretch into the distance. These long works are particularly engrossing – you literally have to turn your head to take them in – and when the realisation dawns that you’re likely doing just what the artist did when he made the work, a new appreciation of how well Dunlop shares his vision emerges.” – Andrew Harper 2020
“Every time I go to create a new painting following a new train of thought, I realise that you have already explored it in images at least a decade beforehand.” – Anonymity preferred, correspondence from prominent Sydney artist
“It reminds us of some of the infinitely complex and subtle things that go into the art of painting… In fact, a painter looks at the world but no more copies it than a novelist or a filmmaker does. Even when a particular site is the subject of a landscape, or a set of objects on a table the basis of a still life, the painter has to translate elusive and changeable visual data., and even more importantly the intangible presence latent in what is seen, into objects of an entirely different order, composed of layers of pigments that must be brought into harmonious relations with each other; and these painted artificial forms must be subordinated to the abstract geometry of the picture plane and the frame.” – Sound advice from Christopher Allen, Art Commentator
“When I noticed that there were actually very few landscape paintings made about Queensland or North Tasmania, two places I dearly love, I decided some time ago to fill the void.” – RD 2020
“A compelling painter of light, the movement and moments of weather and terrain.” – Trudi Curtis, Art Dealer
“Piguenit animated the Tasmanian landscape with clouds, Fred Williams with fallen foliage on Flinders Island, and I’ve tried to do the same with birds, whose wings can appear to literally ‘sail’ with no weight through light. I listen to classical music while I paint, benefiting from the pulse of the musician’s compositions, and the birds have tended to resemble musical notations and scores, as they are used to play with formal elements of depth of field and shifting perspective.” – RD 2021
Painted Collage
- 2006, Sold
- 2006, Sold
- 2006, Sold
- 2007 oil and paper onboard, 180 x 90cm, Sold
- 2011 oil and pencil on paper on board 90 x 60cm, Sold
- 2011 oil on paper mounted to wood panel 90 x 60cm, Sold
- 2011 oil on paper with collage on marine ply 60 x 90cm, Sold
- 2012 oil and pencil on paper on board, 180 x 90cm, Sold
- 2013 oil and pencil on paper on board, 90 x 60cm, Sold
- 2014 unique combination of oil, acrylic, graphite and collage on panel 120 x 180cm, Sold.
- 2015 unique combination of oil, acrylic, graphite and collage on panel 90 x 60cm, Sold
- 2020 oil on paper collage on panel 120 x 90cm, Sold
“Collage is a new element within Dunlop’s oeuvre. The artist has created large paintings that incorporate collaged reproductions of nineteenth century botanical illustrations. These re glued down to a plywood substrate, torn edges and meeting points between the sheets marking out a haphazard grid, and forming a tacit homage to one of Dunlop’s most admired artists, Ian Fairweather, who used sheets of cardboard abutted against each other as a painting surface. Over these paper records of old world/ new world discovery and exploration, Dunlop has applied his characteristic swathes of colour in broad brushstrokes, where meandering linear marks flow through the compositions to unite the disparate elements contained within.” – Marguerite Brown Curator MFA
“Collages take you more directly to the hand of the artist and deeper emotions of the hand-made and modesty of means.” – Advice from Mark Bradford
“If you are prepared to enter the microworld of one of Dunlop’s paintings they are worth the experiential journey, unlike a body of pictures being made by anyone else today.” – Evelyn Prusenhauer
2019
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 120 x 120cm
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 152 x 135cm (signed vertically, lower left)
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 120 x 120cm
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 183 x 91.5cm, $17,000
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 40 x 30cm
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 91.5 x 183cm, $18,000
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 180 x 90cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen (mounted) 72 x 82cm
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 160 x 140cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 150 x 200cm, $28,000 (signed on the left)
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 150 x 235cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 120 x 120cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on archival paper on panel 100 x 100cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on board 80 x 100cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 152 x 152cm, $26,000
- 2019 oil on board 90 x 120cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on panel in hand carved Tasmanian colonial oak frame purchased in Campbelltown 40 x 61cm (image size) 62 x 83cm (framed size), Sold
- 2019 oil on panel in hand carved Tasmanian colonial oak frame purchased in Campbelltown 40 x 61cm (image size) 62 x 83cm (framed size), Sold
- 2019 oil on panel in hand carved Tasmanian colonial oak frame purchased in Campbelltown 40 x 61cm (image size) 62 x 83cm (framed size), Sold
- 2019 oil on panel 30 x 120cm
- 2019 oil on panel 30 x 120cm
- 2019 oil on panel 30 x 120cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on wooden panel 30 x 120cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on Tasmanian oak 20 x 120cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on Tasmanian oak 20 x 120cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on panel 30 x 120cm, $6,000
- 2019 oil on panel 30 x 120cm
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 13 x 20cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 13 x 20cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on canvas 145 x 120cm
- 2019 oil on linen 61 x 61cm
- 2019 oil on linen 60 x 60cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 130 x 200cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on linen 101 x 101cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on canvas 13 x 20cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on panel 122 x 90cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on linen 61 x 61cm
- 2019 oil on Tasmanian oak 20 x 120cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on panel 19 x 180cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on panel 18.5 x 183.5cm, Sold
- 2017-2019 oil on Tasmanian oak panel 126 x 162cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 155 x 140cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 150 x 195cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 120 x 80cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 150 x 95cm
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 150 x 95cm
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 90 x 90cm
- 2019 oil on linen 60 x 60cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on Belgian linen 40 x 30cm, Sold
- 2019 oil on Tasmanian oak, Sold
“[Dunlop] is emphatic in the fact that his sole goal is to put something beautiful in the world; something that was not there before.” – Frances Vinall, 2019
“Dunlop’s imagery has an unusual feeling. He is not simply painting a landscape, but cracking it open, his eye swimming in to find the specific components, and how they are constructed. There is a sense that Dunlop is pulling things apart with his work, fragmenting and reforming to understand what it is that he sees.” – Andrew Harper, 2019
“We do not find many cases of artists trying to rebuild a language for representing the world, in particular through the primary media of drawing and painting.” – Christopher Allen 2019
“Each painting asks its own set of questions.” – Cecily Brown 2019
“The Great Western Tiers (including Cradle Mountain and the Highlands Lakes District) is a wilderness area of Tasmania, adjacent to Deloraine where Richard Dunlop now lives. It is mostly world heritage listed, as it should be, being some of most pristine territory remaining on earth, and hard-fought to keep that state. There, Dunlop experiments with perspective, often conjuring a ‘floating’ interior which allows the picture plane, like language to open into ambiguous space, and allows the viewer to vicariously enter the work.” – Tattersalls Prize 2019
James Makin Gallery Publications
Sydney Contemporary Catalogue 2018 – Free digital download available.
“I now see that it is only late in life that a man can read. When you are young your aim is to finish the book. When you are old you want to slow down. Re-reading a book for the second or third time you are struck by the details.” – Edgar DeGas, 1888
Still Life, Still Death Catalogue 2011 – Free digital download available.