Hinterland: The Rainforest Works of William Robinson: 5 September 2010 to 3 April 2011

Foreword

Housed in the graceful setting of Old Government House on QUT’s Gardens Point city campus, the William Robinson Gallery opened to the public on 27 August 2009. During its first twelve months of operation, the Gallery has attracted almost 75,000 visitors. Audiences have included local, national and international visitors including many QUT students, secondary school groups —one of the Gallery’s target audiences—and various special interest groups. The Gallery’s inaugural exhibition Realms of Vision: The Art of William Robinson provided a fascinating overview of the artist’s work through the genres that have dominated his mature output: the interior, farmyard, landscape, seascape and portraiture. Comprising work primarily from the QUT Art Collection as well as from William Robinson’s personal collection, the exhibition spanned the period from the early 1970s to 2008 and was enthusiastically received by visitors. The second exhibition Hinterland: The Rainforest Works of William Robinson focuses on work produced by the artist between 1984 and 2005 whilst living at Beechmont and, subsequently, whilst maintaining a studio at Springbrook in Queensland’s Gold Coast hinterland. During this twenty-one year period Robinson painted some of his most original and compelling compositions, including the celebrated Creation and Mountain series. For Robinson, the verdant rainforest afforded a unique opportunity to explore a subject that had been previously overlooked by Australian artists. Amid the lush, precipitous terrain and fertile valleys of the Beechmont landscape, he found a metaphoric Garden of Eden that captured his imagination and became the inspirational focus for his art. The ensuing work is a powerful celebration of Robinson’s awe-inspiring response to the rainforest, which increasingly assumed spiritual and divine significance for him. Many of the forty-one works comprising Hinterland have seldom before been shown publicly. Visitors to the Gallery will be delighted with the selection, which includes paintings, drawings, lithographs and ceramics. Works range in scope from the early puddle pictures, to images of William and Shirley Robinson cavorting in the rainforest, to the sublime landscape devoid of figures. The latter group contains several works that helped secure for Robinson a unique place within Australia’s distinguished landscape painting tradition. In April next year William Robinson will celebrate his 75th birthday. To mark this significant event, the University will curate a major exhibition of his work, to be shown jointly in the QUT Art Museum and the William Robinson Gallery. A monograph on the artist will also be published. Hinterland is an important precursor to these celebratory events.

Stephen Rainbird Director, William Robinson Gallery, QUT