John Olsen Goya's Dog

EXHIBITION DATES: Friday 29 October – Saturday 27 November 2021
EXHIBITION LOCATION: NAS Gallery
OPENING HOURS: Monday–Saturday, 11am–5pm
CURATOR: Steven Alderton based on a concept by William Wright AM

Goya’s Dog begins in Spain during the mid-1950’s when John Olsen experienced significant influences of Spanish culture, poetry and music. That time opened a door for the young, emerging Olsen to explore a darker, and perhaps a more vulnerable side, to his personality and experience. Olsen returned to Sydney and then back again to Spain in the mid-1960’s where his palette became dynamic and bold. The exhibition also features Olsen’s work from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. A new and vitally urban Australian ‘voice’ emerged during this time, the voice of the irrepressible ‘larrikin’ that provided such an irreverent vista of this crazy country of ours. The Olsen landscape became like a theatre or a stage; where some human drama is taking place. It is vivacious, teeming with a sort of metaphysical life – in parallel with and embracing real life, ‘making a picture a kind of narrative’, and about paintings being created in a process of evolution.