Gareth Sansom and the “Great Outdoors”

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Artists’ CVs are funny things. They are meant to tell us something about the artist, but sometimes they tell us despite themselves. The seventy-six year old Melbourne artist Gareth Sansom is one such example. Looking at his CV, we can see that he is highly regarded, but no one quite knows why. Lots of people think he is good, but their reasons for doing so are not, or at least are contradictory. No real consensus has emerged around his work, and no two critics or curators seem to agree as to why it is important, or conversely—this being the art world—they think it is important because someone else thinks it is important, without knowing why themselves.

Sure, there have been two retrospectives of his work held by the University of Melbourne—Sansom was first a lecturer and then a professor at the Victorian College of the Arts from 1977 until 1991—Gareth Sansom: Paintings 1956-86, held at the then-University Gallery in 1986, and Welcome to my mind: Gareth Sansom: A study of Selected Works 1964–2005, held at the Ian Potter Museum of Art in 2005. (There was also an earlier survey exhibition of his work from 1964 to 1978 at the RMIT Gallery in 1978.) There have been shows, dating back almost to the beginning of his career, that take up at least the dominant technique in Sansom’s work—Collage at the Ray Hughes Gallery in Brisbane in 1977, A Collage Survey at the Holdsworth Galleries in Sydney in 1987 and perhaps most prominently Stick It! Collage in Australian Art at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in 2010.

There have been exhibitions that have sought to locate Sansom... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline

Gareth Sansom, The great democracy, 1968. Oil, enamel, synthetic polymer paint, collage and pencil on composition board, 180 x 180cm. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Gift of Emmanuel Hirsh in memory of Etta Hirsh, 2007. © Gareth Sansom. Courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane.

Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, 6. Sack-o-sauce from the portfolio Bunk, 1972. Colour photo screenprint, colour photo lithograph, collage, 36.2 x 26.8cm. Art Gallery of New South Wales. Purchased 2002. Photograph AGNSW. © Sir Eduardo Paolozzi/DACS. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney 2002.