Five Decades: Studies in Realism

Bathurst Regional Art Gallery is excited to exhibit Five Decades: Studies in Realism by Graham Lupp OAM in our Foyer Gallery.

Five decades presents a small survey of personal work and invites us into the private collection of local artist Graham Lupp, providing a unique glimpse of studies made during formative moments and experiences of the artist’s life. The exhibition offers a beautiful journey of reflection, retrospection and poignant perspectives, celebrating vulnerability and wisdom across five decades of practice.

Realism has always been central to Lupp’s work, starting in the 70s as an art student in London and has evolved through the years as playful encounters. Extensive travel in the 90s inspired a new aesthetic — blending images of new experiences overseas with more familiar subjects, mostly landscapes, derived from the Bathurst region. Apart from years of studying architecture in Sydney and fine art in London, Lupp has lived continuously in his hometown of Bathurst and developed a lifelong passion for the landscape of the district and has dedicated himself to its meticulous study. In later years this aesthetic has slowly given way to a more expressive approach, in an endeavour to understand the sublime through a deep-seated emotional connection to a childhood spent in the Australian bush.

Five decades is a journey through practice, viewed from a vantage point of five decades. Many of these studies have led to larger paintings now held in major public and private collections, but for Lupp these studies are of the greatest value.

Image: Graham Lupp, Self-Portrait Study, 1976, 27 x 22 cm. Courtesy the artist.