THE TELLER, 1956

Important Australian + International Fine Art
Sydney
17 November 2010
25

John Brack

(1920 - 1999)
THE TELLER, 1956

conté on paper

31.5 x 38.0 cm

signed and dated lower right: John Brack 56

Estimate: 
$40,000-50,000
Sold for $45,600 (inc. BP) in Auction 18 - 17 November 2010, Sydney
Provenance

Private collection, Melbourne

Exhibited

John Brack, Peter Bray Gallery, Melbourne, 19 - 29 March 1956
John Brack: The Sport of Kings and Other Paintings, Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane, 27 March - 8 April 1957
John Brack: A Retrospective Exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 10 December 1987 - 31 January 1988
John Brack Works On Paper: 1955 - 1981, Deutscher and Hackett, Sydney, 17 June - 2 July 2010

Literature

Lindsay, R., John Brack: A Retrospective Exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1987, cat. 135, pp. 98 and 142 (illus.)
Grishin, S., The Art of John Brack, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1990, vol. II, cat. p36, pp. 46, 199 (illus.)

Catalogue text

John Brack's conté drawing The Teller was one of a very select group of five included in his memorable Melbourne exhibition of paintings and drawings in March 1956. Brack was hailed by the art critic for The Age as 'one of the most original artists working in Melbourne today'.1 The highlight of the show was his masterpiece, Collins Street, 5pm., one of his most outstanding works in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. The other drawings with their similar bland titles were Study for' Collins Street', Clerks, The Lamp Post, and Freda's Hat, all from the period 1955-56. Satire gains power from such titular understatement, adding a particular bite to Brack's acute observations translated into sharp delineations. Reviewing the exhibition in The Herald, Alan McCulloch wrote, 'In [Brack's world] we become sharply aware of the prevalence in our midst of that deadly bureaucratic spirit which so stifles any kind of imaginative enterprise.'2 While he made this remark in relation to one work in particular, it can be applied to all. Bespectacled, short back and sides, suited, and earnest, The Teller is a cipher within the respected banking system, the caged image of uniformity and conformity. Curiously, the figure has the same frontal presentation as the barmaid in the conté Study for 'The Bar', 1954 in the collection of the Newcastle Region Art Gallery. In the more than fifty years since Brack executed The Teller, the work has assumed historical significance as a penetrating image of the past. Melbourne in the early fifties found safety in sameness, secure under the iron shield of conservatism. The cage is a metaphor of that safety.

1.'Art Notes: Painter Shows Originality', Age, Melbourne, 20 March 1956, quoted in Lindsay, R., John Brack: A Retrospective Exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1987, p. 118
2. McCulloch, A., 'Co-ordination and a Satirist', Herald, Melbourne, 21 March 1956, quoted in Lindsay, ibid.

DAVID THOMAS