Comparison Of John Olsen And Woolloomooloo Landscape

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Artists use their own distinctive visual language to communicate ideas about the world around them. The use of media, techniques and perspective can influence an artwork and convey the meaning that the artist is endeavouring to explore. John Olsen’s “Entrance to Seaport of Desire”, 1964, and Robert Dickerson’s “Woolloomooloo Landscape”, 1973, both delve into the city of Sydney as their source of inspiration. Olsen and Dickerson both express themselves through painting representations of the landscape, however, Dickerson also includes figurative references as a key focal point for his ideas. Furthermore, both artists convey different emotional dispositions even though their artworks explore Sydney as their foundation.

John Olsen and Robert
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Olsen travelled a great deal in his lifetime and has witnessed amazing architecture and art in Europe which had influenced his perspective of the world, and his distinctive and energetic painting style. He became interested in Australia’s beautiful landscapes and dedicated a whole collection of his abstract artworks to Australia’s identity. Dickerson was a child of the Great Depression era. His past experiences during this devastating time influenced his perspective of the world around him and his art style of dark and melancholy portraits and streetscapes. He used the feelings and emotions from that dark period of time and communicated them through his artworks. Dickerson combined his incorporeal-like portraits with dark streetscapes to create a landscape that brings a menacing and unwelcoming presence.

Similarly, Olsen and Dickerson use colours from dark, contrasting, natural, primary and muted colour palettes that are appropriate to what they wanted to convey through their artworks. Vibrant, saturated, bold and vivid colours are heavily used in both artworks to break up different elements and to interest and appeal to the observer. The identity of Sydney and Australia has impacted Olsen’s and Dickerson’s perspective of the world around them and their personal visual language and painting

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