Robert Grieve
Memory of Tempe Downs, c. 1992
Oil on board, 34cm x 28cm
Provenance: Eastgate & Holst, Melbourne.
Composition in Yellow, Black & White, c. 1995
Oil on board, 79cm x 123cm
Provenance: Eastgate & Holst, Melbourne.
“(Grieve) has developed a personal, even idiosyncratic, artistic vision which owes as much to late European modernism as it does to traditional and contemporary Japanese art. (He) has also been an artist who has adopted a strong ethical stance in his work, which nevertheless he had consciously avoided illustrating. His art is devoid of that which is explicitly didactic and successfully seeks to communicate on a spiritual level. Conscious of its beautiful surfaces, with the built up ambiguous veils of colours and marks, the created mysterious shapes have an omnipresent magic which makes them appear as if emerging instinctively and freely, but commanding an enormous sense of presence. At their best the works of Grieve have a quality of authority and inevitability”. Sasha Grishin (1)
Artist Statement
“I am rather reluctant to write about my paintings as I feel that it really is a dialogue between the painting and the viewer – in other words the painting should speak for itself. Here are some thoughts on my work. I endeavour to create paintings which combine elements of the visual world which excite and move me with a continuing fascination with the mediums I use. I hope that the results stimulate and sometimes disturb the viewers imagination and also achieve an ordered elegance. I would like to think that the viewer can return to the painting and find new things in the work.” (2)