Co-curators Isobel Parker Philip and Dr Emma Kindred in John Brack x Noel McKenna: A face in the mirror exhibition. Photos: NPG.
A subconscious kinship between two Australian artists practising 50 years apart is explored in the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) exhibition John Brack x Noel McKenna: A face in the mirror.
The exhibition sets aside the traditional, chronological model for a dialogue across time between two singular artists who, half a century apart, appear to share a connection.
While there was a very brief overlap in their practice, Brack and McKenna were shaped by very different cultural and social contexts, and forged distinct pathways.
Producing most of his work in post-war Melbourne, Brack was a revered painter whose iconic social realism transformed how we think about 20th-century Australian art. His crisp, realistic style often explored themes of suburban ennui, conformity and social observation.
McKenna grew up in the 1960s and 1970s Brisbane — the Joh Bjelke-Petersen years — and became a unique voice within contemporary Australian art. He is best known for his spare linear style and paintings of everyday scenarios, often featuring animals and interiors.
Despite the chasm between the two artists, exhibition co-curator and NPG Director, Curatorial and Collection, Isobel Parker Philip says they both possessed a fiercely independent streak.
“Neither of them ever kind of pandered to the trends of the art market or particular artistic movements,” she said.
“But what’s interesting when you look at these two very singular artists is when you put them together, there is a remarkable affinity, almost a kind of kinship.
“This exhibition steps outside of our understanding that art history moves in straight lines, and teases out the moments of connection between these two artists — and there’s a remarkable abundance of them.”
Some parallels are more obvious than others.
Noel McKenna, Dr Joseph Brown with Two Typists, 1996. Gift of the artist, 2021. John Brack’s ‘Two Typists’ 1955 is kindly reproduced with permission from Helen Brack and John Brack. Two typists, 1955, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
In one striking visual coincidence, McKenna’s portrait of philanthropist Joseph Brown depicts the collector standing with a stiff, upright posture. Hanging nearby is Brack’s 1953 masterpiece, The New House, depicting a husband in the same rigid pose — an echo of post-war formality that McKenna didn’t even realise he was mimicking.
“McKenna told us he hadn’t been referencing The New House when he was painting Joseph Brown, but the relationship is so present,” Isobel says.
“He said to us, ‘That painting’s in my subconscious. I’d seen it before, but I wasn’t intentionally quoting it in that moment’. So there are moments that were even surprising to McKenna, of the connection between his work and an artist that he has certainly long admired.”
Both artists are drawn to depicting sparse interiors, childhood scenes, self-portraits, the personalities of the racetrack, and even postcards.
There’s also a shared stylistic sensibility — a tendency towards composition and flatness, austere line work and “a very dry and deadpan sense of humour”, Isobel says.
The exhibition is structured thematically to spotlight these pockets of affinity and the unique ways each artist has tackled the same subjects.
But plenty of less obvious observations and interpretations will fall to the viewer.
“It’s not a didactic art history lesson for the viewer, but empowers them to find these playful connections themselves,” Isobel says.
“It puts these works together, including some incredibly important and iconic works by Brack, next to works by McKenna that carry the same sentiment or invert it.”
She cites one pairing in particular – a self-portrait by Brack looking into the mirror while shaving, paired with McKenna’s Cat at Mirror, showing a cat perched on the sink and looking at its own reflection in the mirror.
“There are these unexpected moments, and we hope visitors have fun discovering them for themselves,” Isobel says.
The works are on loan from major institutions across Australia, including the NGV, the NGA and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, as well as private collections.
Many are very much beloved and known by people, but as Isobel points out, they are rarely seen in person.
“It’s a real treat to have on display some truly iconic works that are normally parts of a treasured personal collection in someone’s home,” she says.
“We have them for a while, and the exhibition is free, so there are plenty of reasons to visit more than once and see what new parallels you might see.”
John Brack x Noel McKenna: A face in the mirror runs at the NPG until Sunday, 19 July.
Original Article published by Dione David on Region Canberra.
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