Carl Plate: Hard Colour, Paris Works 1970–1971

Overview

Annette Larkin Fine Art hosts their first-ever Carl Plate exhibition this month, with a show focusing specifically on his Paris Works 1970–1971.

So who is Carl Plate, you ask? He was an influential modernist painter and collage artist in post-war Sydney, and arguably the first Australian non-figurative artist to secure solo shows in NYC and London — a big deal at the time. He traveled extensively through Europe and was excited by what he saw of the modernist movement. Drawn to abstract, non-representational language, he was a life-long fan of collage throughout his career, using materials sourced from papers and magazines to create poetic, lyrical worlds of shapes, lines and forms.

This show captures a time in his work where he broadened his colour palette dramatically, pared back the details and returned to a purer form of collage (solely cutting and pasting), creating a series hailed as 'luxurious' and 'sumptuous' by the critics of the day. You've got from October 11 till November 11 to have a squiz.

Image: Carl Plate, Untitled No. 85 (1970), PVA on vinyl bonded French cotton.