Deutscher and Hackett

‘Alun Leach-Jones’ work is characterised by crisp geometric Hard-edged areas of bright colours. This precision is a heritage of his silkscreen printing experience of the 1960s combined with a highly analytical approach to painting and a systematic methodical attitude to producing art. The ‘Noumenon’ series (meaning an object of intellectual intuition), dating from approximately 1966 to 1970 which established Leach-Jones’ reputation as a major Colourfield painter exploited a circle-within-square format reminiscent of Albers’ square-within-a-square series, and provided a vehicle for working colour on colour without the need to worry about format. From 1966 onwards Leach-Jones’ works gradually increased in size, the central circular area with its patterned worm-like motifs becoming increasingly more decorative, flat patterned and colourful, until the 1970s when he began incorporating “trompe l’oeil” patterned areas into the central patterned area. The worm-like shapes of these areas were gradually simplified into coloured bands and arcs isolated on muted ochre or red monochrome backgrounds as in Cream over Red. This general move towards simplification was sympathetic to the changed climate of the 1970s with the emergence of the Minimal Aesthetic.’¹
 
1. Lindsay, R., The Seventies: Australian paintings and tapestries from the collection of National Australia Bank, National Bank of Australasia, Melbourne, 1982, p. 71