Sydney 9
Australian group of artists active between 1960 and 1962. The principal members were John Olsen, Stanislaus Rapotec (b 1913), Leonard Hessing (b 1931), William Rose (b 1930), Clement Meadmore, Eric Smith (b 1919), Peter Upward (b 1932), Hector Gilliland (b 1911) and Carl Olaf Plate (1909–77). The group held two major exhibitions, in Sydney and Melbourne (1961). At the opening exhibition Olsen exhibited Journey into You Beaut Country (1961; Melbourne, N.G. Victoria). Rapotec had abandoned
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Sydney 9
Australian group of artists active between 1960 and 1962. The principal members were John Olsen, Stanislaus Rapotec (b 1913), Leonard Hessing (b 1931), William Rose (b 1930), Clement Meadmore, Eric Smith (b 1919), Peter Upward (b 1932), Hector Gilliland (b 1911) and Carl Olaf Plate (1909–77). The group held two major exhibitions, in Sydney and Melbourne (1961). At the opening exhibition Olsen exhibited Journey into You Beaut Country (1961; Melbourne, N.G. Victoria). Rapotec had abandoned figurative work in the 1950s and was by 1960 the leading abstract painter in Sydney. Smith, Meadmore and Rose also had a firm commitment to non-figurative art, although Rose gave priority to a compositional method linking structure and concept. Upward, following a visit to the USA, became an action painter but was also influenced by Asian calligraphy, producing very large black-and-white paintings (e.g. June Celebration, 1961). Gilliland, who was based in Tasmania, deployed large geometrical forms in an abstract mode. Plate was initially influenced by André Masson, but when exhibiting with the group appeared as a fully-fledged Abstract Expressionist. The Sydney 9, which included several Melbourne-based artists, represented a wider spectrum of Australian artists than the Antipodean group, but in some ways both groups were simply part of a larger international movement. Indeed the lack of a clear and distinct intellectual position led to the Sydney 9’s demise. Despite evident talent, not least that of Olsen, the group were chastened to learn that Clement Greenberg expressed a greater admiration for the work of the Antipodeans.
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