Peter Tyndall announced

The University of Melbourne today announced a retrospective solo exhibition spanning 50 years of Victorian-based artist Peter Tyndall’s work, representing the artist’s most comprehensive exhibition to date. The exhibition will run from 2 December 2022 to 16 April 2023 and feature over 200 works, drawing from the University’s significant collection alongside pieces on loan from national institutions and private collections, including a number of unseen works. The exhibition will encompass the entire museum and be accompanied by an engaging series of public and educational programs on the artist’s work.

The exhibition will be presented at Buxton Contemporary, the University of Melbourne’s contemporary art museum.

Over the past 50 years, Peter Tyndall has been preoccupied with the fundamental question of the construction of meaning, and how art, language, presence and absence operate in relation to one another in comprehending the world. Married with a philosophical insight into these relationships is a playful sense of humour and curiosity, contrasted with his virtuosic and exacting painting technique.

Works from the 1970s to the present day will be shown alongside a selection of previously unseen pieces that underpin his practice. These include major bodies of work such as 130 unstretched canvas paintings from 2018, and works on paper from the 1970s, alongside milestone works such as The Right Angle Giver, his installation in the Arsenale for the 1988 Venice Biennale (one of a handful of Australian artists ever to be included in the Venice Biennale curated exhibition).

The exhibition, designed by Melbourne designer Ela Egidy has been inspired by Tyndall’s foregrounding of the frame and apparatuses of display, will be accompanied by the most comprehensive publication to date and include essays from the exhibition curators, Doug Hall AM, and Dr Claire Roberts.

Samantha Comte, Senior Curator Art Museums said “We are delighted to be sharing the expansive work of Peter Tyndall, in his most significant solo exhibition in Melbourne for the past 15 years. Attracting a cult following since his stellar rise in the 1970s, Tyndall is known by many in the Art world as unique in his vision. This exhibition celebrates half a century of his constant, inventive permutations, looking at art, ourselves and the world, which we are eager to introduce to a new generation.”

This in-depth exhibition, comprising over 200 paintings by the Peter Tyndall, continues the focus Buxton Contemporary places on the practices of artists, and tendencies within contemporary art through its programming. It is committed to showcasing the work of living Australian artists, and using exhibitions, publications and public programs of their work to provide audiences greater insight into their achievements, working methods and artistic sensibilities.

Rose Hiscock, Director Museums and Collections, University of Melbourne said “The Buxton Contemporary art gallery plays an important role for audiences interested in contemporary art practice; in the sector for living artists, as a site for ambitious and in-depth presentation of their work; and within the Southbank precinct, with its artist-focussed program and its proximity to the Victorian College of the Arts and our next generation of Australian artists.”