Sun Torso 99
1973
Enamel on hardboard, 137 x 91cm (Detail)
Exhibited in the inaugural Biennale of Sydney, 1973
Peter Powditch was born in 1942 in Sydney and studied at the National Art School and privately with John Olsen.
He began exhibiting in 1966 and achieved recognition in the early 1970s with his series of Sun Torso paintings. These works, painted with sprayed enamel have been described by Geoffrey de Groen as representing ‘an idealised, anonymous image of the Australian woman – rendered alike by the common indifference of the burning hot beach.’
In 1973 Powditch won the Sulman Prize with one of his torso pictures and this work is now in the Newcastle Region Art Gallery collection. In addition to his exploration of the nude, Powditch has produced abstracted paintings of the landscape.
