Description

Extended Data

Birth Place

Sydney, NSW, Australia

Biography

Tony McGillick is important in Australian art both as a driver behind the eponymous Central Street Gallery and for his paintings. Influenced by hard edge American abstraction, McGillick’s colour field paintings were seen as the forefront of the internationalism of Australian art replacing earlier parochial movements. Named after two of his then communist parents’ heroes, Antonov Carlyle McGillick was born in Sydney in 1941. Later in life, Tony (as he was known) said “My childhood was very happy” (Tony McGillick quoted in Throsby and McCarter, 1992, p. 60). He wandered around Kings Cross barefoot, played in Trumper Park and caught the tram to swim at Redleaf Pool in Double Bay, Sydney. In 1958 he started studying at the Julian Ashton Art School. McGillick also worked in advertising which he continued to do for the rest of his life. In 1960 he went to London where he stayed for six years. During this period, McGillick participated in group exhibitions in London, Edinburgh and Frankfurt. After a short period in New York, he returned to Sydney in 1965. McGillick’s pivotal period was the Central Street years. In April 1966, together with Harold Noritis and John White (his half-brother), he opened Central Street Gallery. This was Sydney’s first 'white box’ gallery and while a diverse group of artists exhibited there, many were 'colour field’ painters. He had a joint exhibition with Roy Harpur and Rollin Schlicht in August/September 1966 and in 1968, his first one-man exhibition which was also shown at Pinacotheca in Melbourne. While McGillick’s paintings could appear to be simple areas of colour, there was much more to them. On his studio wall he had a postcard of Titian’s work A Man with a Quilted Sleeve . He drew the outline of a five sided geometric shape based on the sleeve. This is the shape of each panel in Jasper’s Gesture . This work is held in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. In 1968, he exhibited in 'The Field’ at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, which was later shown in Sydney. This exhibition introduced McGillick’s work to a wider public. In 1970, Central Street Gallery closed but the space continued to be used by the Institute of Contemporary Art for exhibitions. In 1971, he was involved in the magazine, Other Voices . McGillick continued to participate in various group exhibitions until 1973 but largely stopped exhibiting. He continued to paint and unstretched draped canvas works replaced his irregularly shaped geometric canvases. In 1978, he had a one-man exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, titled 'Survey 6 Tony McGillick’ but after this his work was rarely shown. In 1990 his work was included in the exhibition 'Central Street – An exhibition of selected paintings’ at the Charles Nodrum Gallery in Melbourne which was also shown at Sydney’s Ray Hughes Gallery in 1991. In the catalogue essay, McGillick was described as the “main source of (Central Street’s) intellectual and physical energy” (McGillick, 1990). In the early 1990s, McGillick started to think about exhibiting again and was planning an exhibition at Sherman Galleries (Sydney) but this was unrealised due to his sudden death on 3rd November 1992. Instead in 1993, Sherman Galleries had a memorial exhibition and another one-man exhibition was held at Annandale Galleries in 2000. Writers: Stewart Reed Date written: 2008 Last updated: 2010

Born

b. 22 February 1941

Summary

A colour field painter who was also one of the founders and directors of Central Street Gallery in Sydney.

Gender

Male

Died

3-Nov-92

Age at death

51