Roland Wakelin / New Zealand/Australia 1887–1971 / The bridge under construction 1928 / Oil on composition board / 96.5 x 118cm  / Purchased 1994. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant. Celebrating the Queensland Art Gallery’s Centenary 1895–1995 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Estate of Roland Wakelin

Roland Wakelin
The bridge under construction 1928

On Display: QAG, Gallery 12

The Sydney Harbour Bridge became a symbol of modernity for artists in the 1920s and 1930s. A fine example of cutting-edge design and engineering, it symbolised everything that was progressive in Australia.

Roland Wakelin’s The bridge under construction 1928 demonstrates the principles of Synchromism. Influenced by artists such as Paul Cézanne, Wakelin uses both colour and form to give us the feeling of being ‘pulled’ down the slope. Like Cézanne, Wakelin uses colour to build form, with blue-violet being the dominant tone. Orange-yellow is used as the secondary colour, with patches of blue and green filling the gaps.

Blocks of colour build monumentally to a focal point, just where the curve of the bridge’s arch begins to soar. The eye is swept upwards with the arch and then falls away again to the buildings on the left, from where it follows the road downwards and around again, in a swirl of colour and form.

Roland Wakelin is considered one of the founders of Australian Modernism and was a member of the Contemporary Group — a group of artists who saw themselves as being at the forefront of art.

By 1928, Wakelin had experienced a variety of artistic influences:

  • His early training was at the Royal Art Society, New South Wales.
  • He had modern concepts explained to him by fellow artist Norah Simpson on her return from studying at the Westminster School of Art, London.
  • He discovered first-hand Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin and other post-impressionists during his time in England.

In December 1928, Wakelin published an article on Cézanne and modern painting — one of the first to try to explain Modernism for an Australian audience. In it, Wakelin argued that the contemporary focus on realistic representation destroyed the ‘rhythmic flow of line — that concentric feeling’ in a work. His article emphasised the importance of what was called ‘significant form’, and was influential in art circles in both Sydney and Melbourne.

Discussion Questions

1. Clive Bell’s theory of ‘significant form’ is explained in his book Art published in 1914 as ‘lines and colours combined in a particular way, certain forms and relations of forms, [that] stir our aesthetic emotions’. What is the significant form in Wakelin’s painting? Is the painting itself a significant form?

2. Are your emotions stirred up by The bridge under construction 1928? What is the difference between a standard emotion and an aesthetic emotion?

3. Discuss the importance of the elements of directional line and colour in the composition of this painting. How do they work to move the viewers’ eye around the image? What effect do the lighter cool colours have on the eye compared to the saturated warm colours?

Activities

1. Lightly apply an angular grid to a sheet of paper as a first step in creating a modernist artwork. Still drawing lightly, begin to illustrate your composition by following the lines of the grid. Instinctively take liberties to free your design from the grid with the aim of bringing the proportions, angles and orientation of each element in your image into a shared perspective. Render each element by applying a selection of blue-violet and yellow-orange watercolours with varying degrees of pressure to create tonal variations of colour. Use a paint brush and water to activate the colour. Be careful not to allow your colours to bleed into neighbouring shapes.

2. Label a colour wheel with musical notes. Translate the notes of a few bars of a chosen music score into a series of colours. As you listen, visualise the notes and their colours and record them in a way that best captures the feelings and emotions triggered.