Imants Tillers: A Life of Blank

About the exhibition
This exhibition of works by Imants Tillers explored the affinities between the working practices and ideas of the contemporary Australian artist and the Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico (1888–1978).

Well-versed in postmodern discourse, Tillers is known for his use of appropriation, intuitively combining existing artworks, literary references, philosophical ideas and ready-made poetry in his imagery. Writing in the exhibition catalogue, Jennifer Slatyer recounts that Tillers was introduced to de Chirico’s ‘unwieldy oeuvre’ in 1979 by his friend, the novelist Murray Bail; quickly becoming fascinated by the Italian artist’s enigmatic paintings featuring Roman arcades, long shadows, mannequins and illogical perspective. This preoccupation led Tillers to produce nearly sixty paintings that reference de Chirico, with twenty-three included in the exhibition.

The exhibition also reflected on how Tillers, being one of the first non-Indigenous artists to engage with Australian Aboriginal art as a contemporary genre (not without controversies), draws unexpected resonances between Aboriginal art and European metaphysical painters like de Chirico.

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^{Image: Imants Tillers, A Life of Blank VI 1984, charcoal on canvas boards (6 boards, each 25.4 x 38.1 cm; overall 76.2 x 76.2 cm). Private collection. Photo: Fenn Hinchcliffe}