"1963–1973 Works from the Estate"
Sydney Ball
Sullivan+Strumpf
799 Elizabeth St Zetland Sydney NSW 2017 Australia
P +61 2 9698 4696 e-mail:
30 July > 15 August, 2020
"For me, the whole problem of a painting is the importance of colour. It doesn’t matter about the style. Style for me is quite secondary. I think you can break across style... It’s no longer essential to remain within one..." – Sydney Ball
'Sydney Ball: 1963-1973 Works from the Estate' presents paintings, drawings and a laminated plywood sculpture that are indicative of Ball’s six consecutive series of powerful and stylistically diverse colour abstraction, fuelled by two formative periods living in New York at the epicentre of the post-World War II art world. In the early 1960s, while studying painting and lithography at the renowned Art Students League, Ball immersed himself in the exhibitions of first and second-generation American abstractionists – memorably Hans Hofmann, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland and Mark Rothko. ‘…[T]he whole scene was one of complete energy – it was all there, all happening on the spot – not only painting, but writing, theatre, dance, music – sets by Rauschenberg, music by John Cage.’ Central to this period is the charismatic figure of abstract expressionist artist Theodoros Stamos – lecturer, friend and mentor – who introduced Ball to artists of the New York School such as Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Robert Motherwell and Rothko.
This exhibition covers six of Sydney Ball’s most important series (Band 1963–66, Canto 1967–68, Persian 1967–68 , Modular 1969, Link 1970–71, and Stain 1971–80) created over a short period of ten years, during which time the artist had two periods working and exhibiting in New York (1963–65 and 1969–71). As awards and accolades flowed throughout the 1960s and ‘70s, Ball developed a sophisticated, dynamic and continually evolving visual language – predicated on his ‘holy trinity of colour, space and light’ – which confirmed his status as a leading figure of Australian abstraction.
Text by Wendy Walker
'Sydney Ball: 1963-1973 Works from the Estate' presents paintings, drawings and a laminated plywood sculpture that are indicative of Ball’s six consecutive series of powerful and stylistically diverse colour abstraction, fuelled by two formative periods living in New York at the epicentre of the post-World War II art world. In the early 1960s, while studying painting and lithography at the renowned Art Students League, Ball immersed himself in the exhibitions of first and second-generation American abstractionists – memorably Hans Hofmann, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland and Mark Rothko. ‘…[T]he whole scene was one of complete energy – it was all there, all happening on the spot – not only painting, but writing, theatre, dance, music – sets by Rauschenberg, music by John Cage.’ Central to this period is the charismatic figure of abstract expressionist artist Theodoros Stamos – lecturer, friend and mentor – who introduced Ball to artists of the New York School such as Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Robert Motherwell and Rothko.
This exhibition covers six of Sydney Ball’s most important series (Band 1963–66, Canto 1967–68, Persian 1967–68 , Modular 1969, Link 1970–71, and Stain 1971–80) created over a short period of ten years, during which time the artist had two periods working and exhibiting in New York (1963–65 and 1969–71). As awards and accolades flowed throughout the 1960s and ‘70s, Ball developed a sophisticated, dynamic and continually evolving visual language – predicated on his ‘holy trinity of colour, space and light’ – which confirmed his status as a leading figure of Australian abstraction.
Text by Wendy Walker
 | Sydney Ball |
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