89 142308 - Carol Rudyard 'Northern theme' 1973

Carol Rudyard
'Northern theme' 1973
Purchased 2005
Carol Rudyard came to art late in life, completing formal studies when she was aged in her late forties.She is now regarded as one of Western Australia's most important new-media artists. Born in England, she settled in Western Australia in 1950. Her paintings of the 1970s were influenced by her interest in music and contemporary trends in American Abstract painting.
Northern theme is one of Rudyard's Kimberley paintings from the early 1970s that were inspired by the extravagant colours and sparse forms of the remote Western Australian landscape.
Northern theme is one of her most lyrical paintings, with acidic green paint allowed to soak into an intense pink background. The result is visually dazzling, the edges of the forms shimmering and blurring into one another in a complex interaction between foreground and background. In the 1980s Rudyard abandoned painting, turning instead to the exploration of new technologies, including video and audio installations.
Text © National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 2010
From: Ron Radford (ed), Collection highlights: National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2008