Gareth Sansom: Transformer
National Gallery of Victoria
Each of Gareth Sansom’s watercolours, collages and paintings are based on a personal iconography that includes imagery of a sexual, satirical and philosophical nature. Over 130 of these artworks, spanning the course of Sansom’s 60-year career, illustrate the pages of this catalogue; suites of works on paper and photography complement more than 50 paintings, many from the past 15 years, recently exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria. Essays by Ashley Crawford, Sebastian Smee and Pip Wallis discuss the artist’s practice and individual works, as well as influences ranging from Picasso and Jean Dubuffet to Francis Bacon and British pop
art. In a candid interview with curator Simon Maidment, Sansom traces his own path to becoming one of Australia’s most provocative artists.
