We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art stands and recognise the creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country.
Robert MacPherson / Australia 1937–2021 / National art: A simplistic view ‘Queensland series’ 1978 / Synthetic polymer paint on plywood / a: 51 x 43.5cm; b: 54.5 x 42cm; c: 51 x 42.5cm; d: 60.3 x 47.5cm; e: 54.2 x 42.2cm; f: 52 x 43.2cm; g: 60 x 46.1cm; h: 59.3 x 45.5cm; i: 53.5 x 42.5cm; j: 57.2 x 50cm; k: 54 x 42.5cm; l: 54.9 x 42.5cm (irreg.) / Purchased 1993. Queensland Art Gallery Functions Reserve Fund / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Robert MacPherson
Robert MacPhersonNational art: A simplistic view ‘Queensland series’ 1978
Not Currently on Display
National art: A simplistic view ‘Queensland series’ 1978 is a serial work that repeats a simplified map of Queensland, with variations, 12 times. Installed in a line along a wall, the sequence creates a visual rhythm while being ironically reminiscent of a production line.
The work highlights Robert MacPherson’s humorous and sceptical attitude to the idea of national art. It presents the idea of a nation or a state as a manufactured concept that exists only in the minds of those who think about it — in effect, that there are as many Queenslands as there are people who think about Queensland.
The work is like a diagram for illustrating a philosophical idea but, ironically, the units also resemble the shaped, hard-edged Minimalist paintings of the 1960s and the 1970s.
Brisbane-born Robert MacPherson is one of Australia’s leading conceptual artists. A key aspect of his art is the way in which the identity of things is created by how we classify them.
His ‘serial’ works often combine local knowledge and humour with a highly informed commentary on contemporary art through the use of a sequence of similar or identical objects. The continuity suggested by serial, repeatable units, indicates that the work is a detail within a much wider system, a complex grid of interlocking factors that defines the meaning and identity of things.
MacPherson travelled extensively throughout Europe and the US during the 1970s, and held several solo exhibitions at the Ray Hughes Gallery in Sydney and the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane during the 1970s and 80s. In 1977 he received a Visual Arts Board Grant from the Australia Council for a studio in New York , and in 1992 was awarded an honorary doctorate from Griffith University. Five years later, he received the Australia Council’s Artist Emeritus award.
Discussion Questions
1. Look at the artwork. How does the title of the artwork help us understand what the artist is communicating?
2. What is MacPherson trying to achieve through using simplified shapes in the making of this series?
Activities
1. See the way the artist has repeated a familiar shape. Identify familiar shapes that are often repeated. Select one of the shapes to make into an artwork. How many times will you repeat your shape and what materials will you use?
2. Research Conceptual art and Minimalism. Write an essay to explain how MacPherson’s National art: A simplistic view ‘Queensland series’ bridges Conceptual art and Minimalism.