Background
Mr. Brack was born in South Melbourne, Australia, on May 10, 1920. His father was a labourer at the Abbotsford brewery; his mother a housewife, was devoted to her two sons.
John Brack working on the portrait of J.R. Macleod.
Artist, John Brack, at his home in Surrey Hills, Melbourne, 25 May 1983.
Artist, John Brack, at the Rudy Komon Gallery in Sydney, 5 April 1971.
Artist, John Brack, at the Rudy Komon Gallery in Sydney, 5 April 1971.
John Brack in his studio.
John Brack in his Surry Hills studio, 1988, by Robert Walker.
Painter John Brack with Professor Alex Mitchell and Sir Garfield Barwick.
Mr. Brack was born in South Melbourne, Australia, on May 10, 1920. His father was a labourer at the Abbotsford brewery; his mother a housewife, was devoted to her two sons.
John Brack left school at the age of 15. Mr. Brack worked as an insurance clerk in Melbourne when he was prompted to study art after seeing reproductions of work by Vincent van Gogh. He enrolled in evening drawing classes with Charles Wheeler at the National Gallery of Victoria from 1938 to 1940, continuing his studies full-time from 1946 to 1949 with William Dargie, after a formative period in the army.
Employed from 1950 to 1952 in the National Gallery of Victoria’s print room, Mr. Brack went on to earn his living as a teacher for twenty years, eventually becoming art master at Melbourne Grammar School and, later, Head of the National Gallery School from 1962 to 1968, where he was an influence on many artists and the creation of the expanded school attached to the new gallery building.
In the 1950s came the revealingly ironic paintings of urban life which established his reputation - works like The Barber’s Shop (1952), Men’s Wear (1953), The Bar (1954), and his rather chilling image of clerical workers, Collins Street 5pm (1955). The Bathroom (1954) was the first of his ascetic nudes; over the years John Brack would return many times to painting female figures with a cool, unerotic eye, depicting not so much the individual woman as the essence of womanhood. In between came other series: the schoolyard series of the later 1950s; the racetrack series; the still life shop window series of the early 1960s; the ballroom dancing series of 1968-73; and the marching pencils of the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1959 Mr. Brack participated in the Antipodean Exhibition at Eastern Hill, along with Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd, John Perceval and others. Their manifesto, written by the art historian Bernard Smith, proclaimed an "involvement with life" in opposition to "the triumph of non-figurative art."
Throughout his artistic career Mr. Brack followed his own course, often quite distinct from those of his contemporaries. At a time when almost every aspiring artist or intellectual (including his close friend and colleague Fred Williams) travelled to Europe, he stayed in Melbourne. His first overseas trip was made only in 1972, when he was in his fifties. Yet he was thoroughly immersed in the European painterly tradition, his influences ranging from Bruegel and the Flemish school to the neo-classical Ingres, from Seurat and the post-impressionists to Grosz and German expressionism, and even the industrial primitivism of L.S. Lowry.
Brack's works cover a wide range topics and themes. He often did a series of works on a particular theme over a number of years. His portraits, including self-portraits, and portraits of family, friends and commissions, and his paintings of nudes were produced throughout his career.
Inside and outside (The shop window)
The lamp post
The fish shop
Self-portrait
The car
Souvenirs
The chase
We, Us, Them
Portrait of Fred Williams
The unmade road
Latin American Grand Final
The conference
Collins St. 5p.m.
Two Typists
The new house
The bar
The block
Battle of the Etruscans
Pens
Head of a woman
The breakfast table
Barry Humphries in the character of Mrs Everage
Sketch for 'Latin American grand final'
Mirrors and scissors
The walking frame
In the corner
Study for 'Nude with two chairs' no 2
Reclining nude
One balancing girl
Nude with revolving chair
Study for 'Back to back'
Head and arms (Barbara Blackman)
The telephone box
John Brack remained an essentially private person. He never compromised his artistic vision by painting with an eye to the crowd or the market.
In 1948 Mr. Brack married the artist Helen Maudsley. Their lifelong union produced four daughters.