Robert Jacks: Paintings/Sculptures Melbourne/New York 1967–

This exhibition was built around Robert Jacks’s Red Painting, 1968, in the TWMA collection. It includes a body of work which Jacks commenced at the same time as that painting, dealing with the same issues that intrigued him then. While many of these works have previously been shown in Canada and New York, this is the first ever exhibition of this body of work in Australia.

Red Painting was painted at the beginning of 1968, soon after Robert left Melbourne and settled in New York, where most of these works were conceived. Red Painting represents a move away from Cubist-inspired monochrome compositions to a fresh, energetic foraging into colour field abstraction. Conceptually based cut paper, felt and rubber works are shown with primary-coloured open sculptures that lean up against walls in relationship to the hanging cardboard, string and wire assemblages. These minimal works are juxtaposed with small abstract monuments installed on the floor.