Art finds a way. I visited the NGVA yesterday, a rainy afternoon on the back of a week of little sleep, and found my way to this retrospective (1947-2014), and the first few minutes were a struggle - looking, but not really looking, at Hunter's early, very plainly geometric pieces.
But after a bit longer - and time so often is part of it - I felt something shift, as the traced curves and their intersections with the gridded straight lines began to make a kind of sense. And then, around the corner, this untitled - they're all untitled - wall painting from 1971 drew me in still further:
And by the time I came to the final rooms, with their many, only apparently nearly white - and actually layered with all kinds of shades of shapes and patterns, punctuated with little darts of clear, faint colour - large paintings, I was enveloped. I don't know that I'd say I 'liked' this art particularly - though nor did I dislike it - but the experience I had with it was unusual and, I think, maybe quite powerful.
But after a bit longer - and time so often is part of it - I felt something shift, as the traced curves and their intersections with the gridded straight lines began to make a kind of sense. And then, around the corner, this untitled - they're all untitled - wall painting from 1971 drew me in still further:
And by the time I came to the final rooms, with their many, only apparently nearly white - and actually layered with all kinds of shades of shapes and patterns, punctuated with little darts of clear, faint colour - large paintings, I was enveloped. I don't know that I'd say I 'liked' this art particularly - though nor did I dislike it - but the experience I had with it was unusual and, I think, maybe quite powerful.
