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Lot Essay
Ralph Balson's Constructive Painting (circa 1945) is an abstract painting at its most pure. The painting's focus is on colour and geometric form and its title also leaves no room for misinterpretation . What the viewer sees is a precise construction of abstract parts.
Balson was drawn to abstract painting by a belief in its ability to express subconscious thought and relate modern scientific theory through art, particularly physics. 'I believe that painting should penetrate deeper and deeper into the spectrum, which means digging into existence itself. (L. Thomas, 200 Years of Australian Painting, Sydney, 1971).
Constructive Painting is a bold and confident work with its 'literal layering of transparent and opaque planes of colour over and beside one another' (M. Eagle & J. Jones, A Story of Australian Painting, 1996, p.236), and its ability to pull the viewer into its space by making one examine each form independently.
Above all Balson's art comes from an idea that an abstract art 'work should be treated by the beholder as a totality, the colour image flowing out, as it were from the support and enfolding him with its colourful presence.' (B & T. Smith, Australian Painting, Melbourne, 1995, p. 419).
Balson was drawn to abstract painting by a belief in its ability to express subconscious thought and relate modern scientific theory through art, particularly physics. 'I believe that painting should penetrate deeper and deeper into the spectrum, which means digging into existence itself. (L. Thomas, 200 Years of Australian Painting, Sydney, 1971).
Constructive Painting is a bold and confident work with its 'literal layering of transparent and opaque planes of colour over and beside one another' (M. Eagle & J. Jones, A Story of Australian Painting, 1996, p.236), and its ability to pull the viewer into its space by making one examine each form independently.
Above all Balson's art comes from an idea that an abstract art 'work should be treated by the beholder as a totality, the colour image flowing out, as it were from the support and enfolding him with its colourful presence.' (B & T. Smith, Australian Painting, Melbourne, 1995, p. 419).