Roger Kemp: Cycles and Directions 1935–1975

About the exhibition
Curated by Patrick McCaughey, this ambitious 1978 retrospective of Roger Kemp’s practice took place in four parts at five venues across Melbourne and was timed to acknowledge the artist’s seventieth birthday. Despite its concurrent staging across several galleries, Roger Kemp—Cycles and Directions 1935–1975 omitted drawings and prints to focus on Kemp’s major interests explored in painting over forty years. The Exhibition Gallery at Monash University presented the opening chapter of this multi-part survey with ‘Early Work: c.1935–1945’. The artist’s earliest oil on cardboard paintings from this period showed Cezanne’s influence in highly animated figures, landscapes and flower compositions. In comparison, Kemp’s palette has darkened during the following war years, as seen in the heavier enamels such as Figures and Bridge, c.1940–45, and Exploding Forms, c.1940–45, included in the exhibition.

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