WINTER LANDSCAPE, MELBOURNE, 1979
MICHAEL SHANNON
oil on canvas
121.5 x 91.5 cm
signed and dated lower left: Shannon 79
bears inscription verso: MICHAEL SHANNON WINTER LANDSCAPE – MELBOURNE
Probably: Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne
Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
The National Australia Bank Art Collection, acquired from the above in October 1979 (label attached verso)
The Seventies: Australian Paintings and Tapestries from the Collection of National Australia Bank, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 15 October – 28 November 1982
The Seventies Exhibition: Selected Paintings from the National Australia Bank Collection, MacLaurin Hall, The University of Sydney, Sydney, 6 September - 1 October 1989, cat. 30
Lindsay, R., The Seventies: Australian Paintings and Tapestries from the Collection of National Australia Bank, The National Bank of Australasia, Melbourne, 1982, pl. 81, p. 94 (illus.)
‘I have been interested in architecture always, but especially as a symbol for so many human aspirations. Also I have enjoyed other painters’ urban (and suburban) landscapes as extensions of that view. The idea in this painting was to present some aspects of the distant office-blocks and towers of Melbourne against the clear, cold breezy air of a winter morning. The city is separated by parks and trees from the personal, informal and unpretentious houses and apartments of the inner suburbs. It is peaceful and placid as Sunday morning.
Although the painting is vertical, it was intended to contain aspects of the strong pervasive horizontals which are so much part of the sprawling cities of today. This is the only world which exists for many of us.’1
1. Michael Shannon, cited in Lindsay, R., The Seventies: Australian paintings and tapestries from the collection of National Australia Bank, National Bank of Australasia, Melbourne, 1982, p. 81