FREE LECTURE: 2009 Salek Minc Lecture

Dr Butler’s lecture is titled: Is Imants Tillers the last Australian or the first post-Australian artist? Imants Tillers launched a revolution in the art in this country when he started painting in the 1980s. Dr. Butler’s question, though, is whether it was it to save or to destroy the notion of Australian art? His lecture takes up this through an examination of the place of landscape in Tillers’ practice and the place of Tillers in the history of Australian landscape painting.

In his talk—titled 22 paragraphs—Imants Tillers will cover the twenty-two works in his current exhibition at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery. Tillers’ paintings exist as part of a long continuing series, or like a poem in many fragmented verses. His remarks will trace a twenty-five year history from the early 1980s through to recent works, including the great painting Lacrimae Rerum (for Dzidra), which was recently acquired for the UWA Art Collection. Following the lecture is the launch of a catalogue published by the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery which documents the exhibition—Imants Tillers:The long poem—currently at the Gallery. This major catalogue includes reproductions of all of the featured works, photographs of the exhibition in situ and an essay by Gallery Director and exhibition Curator, John Barrett-Lennard.