Painter and Woodcraftsman.
Born Melbourne 1945.
Diploma of Painting – RMIT 1964-65.
Travelled extensively overseas in 1966. UK, Europe, Middle East, Afghanistan to India and through to Singapore.
In 1967 as a 21 year old Art Teacher at Sale Technical School, he produced his first exhibition of Hard Edge Paintings shown at the Sale Gallery.
Completed teacher training in 1968 and taught at Wodonga Technical School until 1975, producing Hard Edge between 1969-1975.
From 1976-2004 worked as a wood craftsman.
From 2004-2008. painted mainly landscapes.
In 2008 he built a studio at Swifts Creek and returned to Geometric Abstract work based on the 1967 paintings.
In 2017 Gippsland Gallery Sale acquired one of the original 1967 paintings and four of his new works.
An exhibition of the work produced between 2009-2018 was held at the Gippsland Gallery Sale in 2019.
The following is an abridged version of the words which appeared in Simon Gregg’s book The Spirits of the Bush – The art of Gippsland.
A brilliant colourist, Fox employed colour and form to electrify his canvases with a dynamic quality that put him in good stead with the vanguard of Australian art; indeed, Fox’s 1967 exhibition in Sale pre-dated “The Field” at the National Gallery of Victoria by almost a year. This landmark exhibition presented Hard Edge American inspired abstraction by Australian artists and proved that Sale’s Allan Fox was bang on the trend. His work, for its part was the equal of any of the works in “The Field” in scope and accomplishment. Archive images of Fox’s 1967 exhibition show each work to be alive with colour and energy, harnessed within a carefully executed framework. After moving to Swifts Creek and building a studio in 2009 he resumed his Hard Edge abstraction. His recent work reveal an original complexity in understanding of geometric form that few in the 60’s fully grasped and represent a maturity of vision that perhaps only the seclusion of Swifts Creek has been able to provide.
Simon Gregg. Director. Gippsland Art Gallery, Port of Sale Victoria.
Allan’s current work strives for the depiction of energy fields by the use of meaningful design, colour and a dynamic forceful geometry. When describing his paintings he says each work should have an original identity and presence of its own. Positive affirmation of an original image, striving for undeniable authority.
Further appreciation of Hard Edge paintings can be found in reading excerpts from an essay on the work of Col. Jordon (a leading Australian Hard Edge painter over the last 50 years) by Professor Peter Prinsen in 2007.
- a lean ensemble where the palette of contrasting, saturated colours cause edges to shift and surfaces to pulsate.
- a formal, thoughtful rigour. A highly individual use of geometry, avoiding a derivative take on the work of others.
- calculation, clarity and geometry drawing on its capacity for impact and splendour.
- spatial and pictorial impact of colour, fully fleshing out the possibilities of hue and tone.
- key ingredients of flat and often strident colour in an intelligent and rich variety of pictorial formats.
NOTHING CAN PERMANENTLY PLEASE WHICH DOES NOT CONTAIN IN ITSELF THE REASON WHY IT IS SO AND NOT OTHERWISE. (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
ALLAN FOX 