Sydney Summer
1969
Acrylic on canvas, 192 x 179cm (Detail)
Awarded the Transfield Art Prize, 1969
Ron Robertson-Swann was born in Sydney in 1941. He studied at the National Art School under Lyndon Dadswell between 1957 and 1959. He went to London in 1960 where he studied at St.
Martins School of Art under Anthony Caro and Philip King. After he returned to Australia in 1968 Robertson-Swann worked in a style influenced by these formalist sculptors.
He has received numerous important sculptural commissions, one of the most recent of which was the controversial Vault for a site in Melbourne. In addition to his work in sculpture, Robertson-Swann has produced paintings.
His most well known works in this area are the series of large, abstract paintings from the period 1965 to 1970.
Sydney Summer is typical of these works in form and colour – a brilliant red core is surrounded by bands of contrasting yellow and green, and the whole composition comes to rest on a spreading triangular base.
