John Nixon Test­ed the Vital­i­ty of Geo­met­ric Abstraction

Sophie Knezic
Frieze

… Nixon was not only an artist but a cura­tor, musi­cian, gal­lerist, small-press pub­lish­er and edu­ca­tor, who cut a promi­nent fig­ure in con­tem­po­rary art in Aus­tralia over the last four decades. He co-found­ed the artist-run space Art Projects in 1979, with Jen­ny Wat­son, and was part of an influ­en­tial coterie of Mel­bourne artists dur­ing the 1980s, includ­ing Tony Clark, Mike Parr and Peter Tyn­dall. In 1978, he coined the phrase Exper­i­men­tal Paint­ing Work­shop to refer to his ongo­ing artis­tic project of crit­i­cal inves­ti­ga­tion into paint­ing prac­tice, piv­ot­ing on the open-end­ed explo­ration of abstrac­tion, the mono­chrome and non-objec­tiv­i­ty as fer­tile ground for hon­ing his min­i­mal­ist aes­thet­ic. Nixon’s DIY ethos of stag­ing exhi­bi­tions, his col­lab­o­ra­tive approach to mak­ing art, attrac­tion to every­day mate­ri­als gleaned from hard­ware stores and char­i­ty shops, and an over­all reduc­tivism emerged out of his stint at Art Projects.”

JOHN NIXON
Untitled (pair)
, 2019
enamel on wood on MDF
2 parts, each 90 x 60 cm

… It’s been said that there is noth­ing exper­i­men­tal about Nixon’s Exper­i­men­tal Paint­ing Work­shop, that the artist fix­at­ed on mod­ernist par­a­digms as a kind of per­for­ma­tive griev­ing, or that his employ­ment of a con­struc­tivist ver­nac­u­lar was mere­ly rhetor­i­cal. This view accords with post­mod­ern asser­tions that late-20th-cen­tu­ry resus­ci­ta­tions of mod­ernist paint­ing con­sti­tut­ed an evis­cer­at­ed, melan­cholic return.”

JOHN NIXON
Untitled, 2018
wool and MDF on linen; foam and plywood on enamel on canvas
46 x 42 cm; 55 x 40 cm

… But Nixon’s works do not resem­ble the pos­tures of post­mod­ern mor­bid­i­ty. Rather, they pulse with life and buoy­an­cy, delight­ing in inver­sions, dou­blings and brac­ing jux­ta­po­si­tions of mate­ri­als, tex­tures and colour. As a men­tor to gen­er­a­tions of artists and an enthu­si­as­tic advo­cate for artist-led ini­tia­tives and col­lab­o­ra­tive prac­tices, Nixon embod­ied a lat­ter-day utopi­an dri­ve. If the artist immersed him­self in the lan­guages of ear­ly-20th-cen­tu­ry geo­met­ric abstrac­tion, it was to test their vital­i­ty. He swished the syl­la­bles around in his mouth to feel their shapes and speak them anew.”

JOHN NIXON
Untitled (alpine landscape)
, 2018
enamel on canvas
2 parts, each 30 x 12.5 cm

Excerpt­ed from frieze​.com. Pub­lished in frieze, Reviews, 16 Octo­ber 2020.

Filter

LAU­REN BRIN­CAT | BENEATH THE SUR­FACE, BEHIND THE SCENE

Beneath the Sur­face, Behind the Scene­Un­til 22 Octo­ber 2023 Hei­de Muse­um of Mod­ern Art, Melbourne […]

Read More

MUT­LUERKEZ | AUDI­TIONS FOR AN UNWRIT­TEN OPERA

Audi­tions for an Unwrit­ten Oper­aUn­til 8 Octo­ber 2023 Staatliche Kun­sthalle Baden-Baden The exper­i­men­tal exhi­bi­tion format […]

Read More

ANGEL­I­CA MESI­TI | TREMBLEMENT

While explor­ing the cor­ri­dors of the Coupole at Galeries Lafayette, I was cap­ti­vat­ed by three […]

Read More

AMRI­TA HEPI | BANKSIARRR

Amri­ta Hepi with Vanes­sa Mor­ris Dis­cussing Straight torque, twin series on Banksia, RRR Amri­ta Hepi joins […]

Read More

The vast and uncom­pro­mis­ing prac­tice of Mike Parr assumes mul­ti­ple forms through a con­fla­tion of draw­ing, print­mak­ing, sculp­ture and performance.

Mike Parr Half Way House, 2021 dual-chan­nel video, 16:9, 4K, colour, sound 3 hours 18 min­utes Per­former: Mike […]

Read More

DAVID NOO­NAN | VIVI­ENNE SHARK LEWITT | JEN­NY WAT­SON | Thin Skin

Jen­ny Wat­son White Horse with Tele­scope, 2012 syn­thet­ic poly­mer paint on rab­bit skin glue primed cot­ton 20 […]

Read More

DAVID NOO­NAN | VIVI­ENNE SHARK LeWITT | JEN­NY WATSON

Thin Skin,Monash Uni­ver­si­ty Muse­um of Art (MUMA) 20 July – 23 Sep­tem­ber, 2023 Thin Skin […]

Read More

ROSE NOLAN | CEN­TRAL STATION

All along­side of each oth­er, 2023 Cen­tral Sta­tion, Syd­ney, Aus­tralia. The pub­lic art­work All alongside […]

Read More

Night­shifts at Bux­ton Contemporary

night­shifts 26 May – 29 Octo­ber 2023 Bux­ton Con­tem­po­rary night­shifts con­sid­ers the impor­tance of […]

Read More

Su san Cohn | Pieces of Peace | Per­for­mances | NGV Mel­bourne Design Week

Su san Cohn​’s exhi­bi­tion Pieces of Peace at Anna Schwartz Gallery from 20 May […]

Read More

Re-Invent­ing Piet. Mon­dri­an and the Con­se­quences | Joseph Kosuth

On view at Kun­st­mu­se­um Wolfs­burg, Ger­many until 16th July 2023, Re-Inven­t­ing Piet. Mon­dri­an and […]

Read More

The Inti­mate Resis­tance: Mike Par­r’s Per­for­mance Work 1971 — 2023 | Museo de Arte Mod­er­no de Bogotá & Fon­dazione Morra

The Inti­mate Resis­tance: Mike Parr’s Per­for­mance Work 19712023 opens on 29 June […]

Read More

Chi­haru Shio­ta | Ham­mer Museum

Chi­haru Shio­ta (b. 1972, Osa­ka) is a Berlin-based artist whose instal­la­tions, sculp­ture, and per­for­mance art […]

Read More

Portrait23 | Nation­al Por­trait Gallery

Portrait23: Iden­ti­ty is a major exhi­bi­tion at the Nation­al Por­trait Gallery of Aus­tralia, pre­sent­ing of […]

Read More

STIEG PERS­SON, EMI­LY FLOYD: LIV­ING TOGETHER

Bendi­go Art Gallery presents an instal­la­tion of select­ed con­tem­po­rary works from the col­lec­tion will […]

Read More

JAN NEL­SON, JOHN NIXON & VIVI­ENNE SHARK LEWITT: MEL­BOURNE NOW

The sec­ond edi­tion of Mel­bourne Now will be pre­sent­ed at The Ian Pot­ter Centre […]

Read More

EMI­LY FLOYD: KNOWL­EDGE POWER

Shang­hai Library East by Schmidt Ham­mer Lassen Archi­tects has opened, one of the largest […]

Read More

EMI­LY FLOYD: BUT­TER­FLY KITES

Shang­hai Library East by Schmidt Ham­mer Lassen Archi­tects has opened, one of the largest […]

Read More

JOHN NIXON: MONOCHROME/PIANO 1992

Pre­sent­ed in the Fitzroy Town Hall by Con­nors Con­nors, John Nixon’s Monochrome/​Piano 1992 is […]

Read More

DANIEL CROOKS: BOUND­ARY CONDITIONS

Bound­ary Con­di­tions is an ambi­tious video work that seam­less­ly weaves togeth­er an alter­nate world […]

Read More

ROSE NOLAN: HAL­LAM STATION

YOU/ME/US/HERE/NOW is an open, pos­i­tive and bold text-based propo­si­tion for peo­ple to con­sid­er as […]

Read More

ANGEL­I­CA MESI­TI: STILL LIFE

In Still Life, imag­i­na­tion and empir­i­cal obser­va­tion unite in con­tem­pla­tion of life’s inter­con­nect­ed­ness. Exquisite […]

Read More

AMRI­TA HEPI: THE ANGUIL­LA PURSUIT

Agency Projects and Com­pos­ite: Mov­ing Image Agency & Media Bank have part­nered to present an […]

Read More

CAL­LUM MOR­TON: CITY LIGHTS

Cal­lum Mor­ton’s newest pub­lic art­work,​‘City Lights’, launch­es on the back façade of the […]

Read More