LYNN, ELWYN (1945-2003)

"15 April 1949" (c.1980)
mixed media
29.5 x 23cm
signed lower left
*private collection, Sydney
 
Lynn was an influential, award-winning Australian Mid Century artist, author, art critic & curator. A self taught abstract artist, his career as a painter started in the mid-1940s. His success begun becoming a finalist in the Wynne Prize in 1949, followed by numerous other appearances until he finally won the top award in 1988. In 1957 he won the Blake Prize, Mosman Art Prize & Bathurst Prize, an incredible feat for a young artist. Elwyn Lynn's work was striking, with the use of unconventional painting media and expressive surfaces to construct metaphors for human suffering and endurance. Following an overseas trip to Europe and America in 1958, his outlook as an artist completely shifted inspired by influential Mid Century Abstract Expressionists, Antoni Tapies, Adolph Gottlieb, Robert Motherwell & Willem De Kooning. Lynn was also an outspoken commentator on the visual arts. In the 1950s and 1960s he edited the Broadsheets of the Contemporary Art Society. He worked as a critic for a number of newspapers, including the Sunday Mirror (1963), The Bulletin (1966-1973), Nation(1969), The Australian (1964-1965) and The Weekend Australian. In 1971 he became Advisory Editor of Art International. Lynn participated in over 150 group exhibitions in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Brazil, Indonesia, Poland and Germany, and 50 solo exhibitions in Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Cologne.His works are in all Major National Galleries in Australia.