Kevin Connor is one of Australia’s best known artists of the contemporary urban environment.
His bold and expressive images of city streets and their inhabitants have been part of the visual vocabulary of Sydney since the early 1960s. Kevin Connor cuts through the mirage to reveal the true Australia. He uses deliberately exaggerated Scale and proportion with grotesque figures contrasting with miniature landmarks.
His works are huge which gives them an expressive authority
Kevin Connor (born 1932, Sydney), is an Australian artist who has won the Archibald Prize twice; Firstly in 1975 for The Hon Sir Frank Kitto, KBE, and in 1977 for Robert Klippel. He was also a finalist in the 2010 Archibald Prize.
He won the Sulman Prize in 1991/92 with Najaf (Iraq) June 1991 and again in 1997 with The Man with itchy fingers and other figures Gare du Nord.
He won a Harkness Fellowship for 21 months in the United States in 1966.
He is the only artist to have won the Dobell Prize for Drawing twice. Firstly for the inaugural Dobell Prize in 1992 with “Pyrmont and the City”. The second time in 2005 with “Le Grand Palais, Clémenceau, de Gaulle and me”.
As a distinguished painter and draughtsman of expressive urban landscapes, figure compositions and portraits, Connor’s exhibition is a reflection encompassing Sydney’s daily life, his memories of places ventured and of passers by.
Liverpool Street Gallery is showing Kevin Connor’s solo exhibition titled Paintings on view from 19 May – 14 June 2012.
Connor has traveled extensively and painted and studied in London, Paris, New York, Spain, Egypt, Europe, the Middle East, Canada and the United States of America.
Connor has exhibited widely and consistently in galleries throughout Australia; he has held over 60 solo exhibitions since 1962 and has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Australia and overseas.
In 1992, Connor spent several weeks in Iraq, drawing and painting the war-damaged areas around Amman and Baghdad after the Gulf War. Some of these works are in the permanent collection of the Australian War Memorial and in Baghdad, Iraq.
About Kevin Connor
Born in Sydney 1932
Kevin Connor has lived and worked in Sydney most of his life, apart from periods of painting and studying in London, Paris, New York, Spain and Egypt with extensive travels in Europe, the USA and the Middle East.
Connor began his career at age 15 working as a commercial artist and like others of his generation studied drawing and painting at East Sydney Technical College.
From 1954 Connor travelled extensively throughout Europe, being influenced by the environment of the inner city in places like London and Paris.
Upon his return to Australia, Connor found that inner city Sydney and particularly the Haymarket area provided the source material for his work. Connor continued to travel throughout his career.
In 2006 the Art Gallery of New South Wales honoured Connor with an exhibition of his sketchbooks, drawings and prints detailing his travels.
Connor remains a significant artist by being one of very few artists concentrating on the figure within an urban context.
circular quay sydney
Connor’s work is represented in the National Gallery of Australia and state, regional and university galleries as well as public collections, including Parliament House, Canberra and in private collections throughout Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
Publications include: Kolenberg, H, Kevin Connor – The Haymarket Drawings, Centaur Press, Berrima, 1990; Pearce, B, Kevin Connor, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1989 and Kolenberg, H, Sketchbook, drawings by Kevin Connor in Sydney, Paris and London, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2006.
Kevin Connor
“Drawing from Experience”
Kevin Connor, winner of the 2005 Dobell Prize for Drawing, speaks to Connell Nisbet about his art.
First published ‘Last Word’, Look, Art Gallery Society of New South Wales, August 2004, p. 54
For artist, Kevin Connor, honestly “seeing” a subject and being able to recreate its essence on paper is the paramount enjoyment of drawing.
It is the foundation on which most of his art rests and the most important lesson he can offer aspiring artists. But he doesn’t believe this is the main force driving entrants of art awards, nor the criteria for judging them.
He won the first Dobell Drawing Prize in 1993 and judged the same award in 1996.
What are your preferences for drawing?
I work on the basis of drawing from life in sketchbooks. In my sketchbook I use a brush or a pen. I use the pen because it doesn’t actually give you anything much so you can concentrate on the drawing. You’re not trying to produce something that looks good. I also love drawing with Indian ink and gouache, then out of that comes painting. (That’s where an argument could begin – is that painting or is it drawing? But drawing is in everything. To my mind you could put a painting into a drawing prize and say “I’m putting in the drawing in that painting”).
What effect has drawing had on your approach to painting?
I could live without painting and making sculptures but I just could not live without drawing. Drawing is the very basis of everything. I could happily take my sketchbook and draw for the rest of my life and show nobody. I was drawing in the Wesley Food Hall near Westminster in London. A lot of ministers and priests eat there and poor people. And a priest came over to me and asked, “Are you a priest?” and I said, “No”. He said, “I just thought you were.” I think it was because I was so content. There is nothing really content about painting though. Some of my best paintings have started with no drawings, but they are always based on knowledge of the subject by drawings. For a portrait I do lots and lots of drawings until I really know the subject and then I tend not to bother with the drawings again until that subject is before me – like, let them come out of the paint.
How does drawing differ from other mediums as a discipline?
The main thing about drawing is that it’s the joy of not having to resolve something. When you do a painting or a sculpture or an installation there is a need to resolve the work. So there is that basic difference. With a drawing prize like the Dobell, all the drawings tend to be resolved. They’re exhibiting pieces not just for the love of drawing. So unfortunately it almost destroys what it aims to encourage.
But would you encourage young artists to enter awards like the Dobell?
I don’t see anything wrong with exhibiting the work in a superb setting like the Art Gallery of New South Wales with a chance of winning some money and letting maybe 50,000 people look at it, whereas with a one-person show 1,000 people see your work if you’re lucky. I think that’s great. It’s better to win an art prize than to write out a long screed applying for a grant.
Is the Dobell Prize growing in prestige?
I think it is. It was a good idea to move it away from the others because it can be an event in its own right. It needs a bit of a push, publicity and all of that. A catalogue every five years would be a good thing. The other thing is that it’s got some very good works into the collection.
What made you submit Pyrmont and the City 1992 into the first Dobell Prize over other drawings you might have had?
I think I thought it was an exhibition piece. If I was to be completely honest I might have put in a four inch by four inch little sketch that I liked better but there wouldn’t have been any point. I’m not too sure who said it first – I think it was Arthur Boyd – there was a feeling that it was a painting. He said, “If the artist says it’s a drawing, it’s a drawing!” and that’s true.
As the Dobell judge why did you choose Pam Hallandal’s Self Portrait in 1996?
I think it has a living presence. It is a good, finished looking drawing. I didn’t have any nightmares over it, which I have had for judging other prizes. Getting it down to the twenty-odd that is difficult. To be hung amongst a limited number is never good luck, but not to be hung is often bad luck. Judging art prizes is not an exact science.
Anything you would like to add?
I don’t want to be the old artist, advising … I’m the young artist … when you are up against a brick wall or in doubt, draw!
2011
2010
“Monumentality, painterly vigour and bold contrasts of colour characterize his work – as well as his pungent often impetuous imagery…I believe he is making his best work now, in his senior years.” (Hendrik Kolenberg, Paintings and Drawings, Liverpool Street Gallery, 2009)
“Connor is a tireless, indeed obsessive observer of contemporary urban life, and especially of the transient sociability of railway stations, public galleries and coffee shops. He scrutinizes the attitudes and gestures characteristic of people in these places…Connor is anything but a detached, dispassionate spectator…Connor has a nature narrative gift…” (Christopher Allen, Painting and Drawing, Liverpool Street Gallery, 2007).
2007
2006
