Robert Rooney, Melbourne artist photographer writer reviewer and musician, died last Tuesday,
21 March 2017.
Robert Rooney was born on 24 September 1937.
Every artist born in 1937 so far located
1970-2009 Robert Rooney
Medium ballpoint pen on 204 cardboard index cards,
cardboard box
Measurements (1-230) 9.8 × 15.0 × 13.7 cm (overall)
Accession Number 2009.501.1-230
Department Australian Prints & Drawings
Credit Line National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Robert Rooney through the Australian
Gift of Robert Rooney through the Australian
Government's Cultural Gifts Program, 2009
Gallery location Not on display
During the last decade, Robert made colourful paintings from black and white line illustrations derived from a 1937 edition of the weekly French magazine Le Rire (The Laugh/Laughter).
During the last decade, Robert made colourful paintings from black and white line illustrations derived from a 1937 edition of the weekly French magazine Le Rire (The Laugh/Laughter).
Robert Rooney, Le Rire: Beard and Baby (PIcq), 2008
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Our first encounter with Robert was in the early 1970s at The Source in central Melbourne.
Others also associated him with that excellent bookshop.
Sol LeWitt, 1967 :
clearly remember buying poetry books from him in Sweeney Reed’s bookshop in Exhibition Street in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s
… I think it was called East End
we always had cryptic conversations and he perpetually wore a small and somehow quite private smile, something was quietly amusing him
in ’89-90 I visited his house with Philip Brophy when putting together an issue of Stuff on Graphics, to which Robert contributed a compendium of quotes from Ed Ruscha
the house was like a 3D spotless scaled up image from a late 1950/early 1960s Australian Home Beautiful pictorial, perfectly maintained…
the pantry was memorable, with rows and rows of tinned foods and packaged goods as though in preparation for a Nuclear bomb
a glimpse into his room has left an image of packed bookshelves on four walls
From Robert's more recent bookshop associations, pinned to our office wall here, is this Black Square edition of his design for the Sainsbury's Books tote bag.
Several years ago, on Robert's birthday, we were able to send him the edition of Le Rire published on his actual birth day, 21 Sept 1937. Such fun.
Our first encounter with Robert was in the early 1970s at The Source in central Melbourne.
Others also associated him with that excellent bookshop.
Sol LeWitt, 1967 :
Ian Robertson, today :
clearly remember buying poetry books from him in Sweeney Reed’s bookshop in Exhibition Street in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s
… I think it was called East End
we always had cryptic conversations and he perpetually wore a small and somehow quite private smile, something was quietly amusing him
in ’89-90 I visited his house with Philip Brophy when putting together an issue of Stuff on Graphics, to which Robert contributed a compendium of quotes from Ed Ruscha
the house was like a 3D spotless scaled up image from a late 1950/early 1960s Australian Home Beautiful pictorial, perfectly maintained…
the pantry was memorable, with rows and rows of tinned foods and packaged goods as though in preparation for a Nuclear bomb
a glimpse into his room has left an image of packed bookshelves on four walls
AAA_Art Archive Australia
____________________________________________Robert Rooney was the only artist to be included in these two generations of breakthrough exhibitions at the NGV :
The Field in 1968 with Kind-hearted kitchen-garden IV (ref.)
Robert Rooney, Kind-hearted kitchen-garden 11, 1967
...and POPISM in 1984, curated by Paul Taylor.
(Philip Brophy essay : Re-Generation: Robert Rooney as Pop)
Robert Rooney, Portrait of Paul Taylor, 1984
Robert was also a key inclusion in Melbourne Cool, curated by Daniel Thomas and Mary Eagle at the NGA in 1983.
...and POPISM in 1984, curated by Paul Taylor.
(Philip Brophy essay : Re-Generation: Robert Rooney as Pop)
Robert Rooney, Portrait of Paul Taylor, 1984
Robert was also a key inclusion in Melbourne Cool, curated by Daniel Thomas and Mary Eagle at the NGA in 1983.
____________________________________________
ROBERT ROONEY
I have always preferred to work from secondary sources, particularly mass-media ones, rather than paint or draw from the actual subject. Robert Rooney 1986
The sources for Rooney’s highly regarded 1960s abstract paintings were breakfast cereal cut-outs and other found material such as knitting patterns. His work has changed considerably over the years but the one constant, as Charles Green pointed out in 2000, is a ‘love affair with the legible signs of nomadic suburbia (logos, trademarks, street signs).’
From the 1990s Rooney’s hand-painted acrylic pictures have been based on illustrations in esoteric children’s books. More recently he has been concerned with artworks made by children themselves, though it is not his aim to draw or paint like a child. Rooney’s interest is more in ‘modern Art (or Modernism) and childhood, or, if you like, the early childhood of Modernism.’
Acknowledged as one of the most important abstract painters in the landmark 1968 exhibition The Field at the National Gallery of Victoria, Robert Rooney has exhibited widely during his long career. A major retrospective - From the Home Front - was held at Monash University Gallery in 1990.
His work has always had the freshness of youth but also the elegance and intelligence of maturity. It wears wonderfully well, and therefore must be as good as any works of art can be.
- Daniel Thomas 1997
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In the 1980s we were able to acquire one of the edition of two Corners, Robert Rooney's photo series of Bruce Pollard's Pinacotheca Gallery, Richmond. Such a treasure. Corners 1/2 is in the collection of the NGV; Corners 2/2 now at AGNSW.
ROBERT ROONEY
I have always preferred to work from secondary sources, particularly mass-media ones, rather than paint or draw from the actual subject. Robert Rooney 1986
The sources for Rooney’s highly regarded 1960s abstract paintings were breakfast cereal cut-outs and other found material such as knitting patterns. His work has changed considerably over the years but the one constant, as Charles Green pointed out in 2000, is a ‘love affair with the legible signs of nomadic suburbia (logos, trademarks, street signs).’
From the 1990s Rooney’s hand-painted acrylic pictures have been based on illustrations in esoteric children’s books. More recently he has been concerned with artworks made by children themselves, though it is not his aim to draw or paint like a child. Rooney’s interest is more in ‘modern Art (or Modernism) and childhood, or, if you like, the early childhood of Modernism.’
Acknowledged as one of the most important abstract painters in the landmark 1968 exhibition The Field at the National Gallery of Victoria, Robert Rooney has exhibited widely during his long career. A major retrospective - From the Home Front - was held at Monash University Gallery in 1990.
His work has always had the freshness of youth but also the elegance and intelligence of maturity. It wears wonderfully well, and therefore must be as good as any works of art can be.
- Daniel Thomas 1997
____________________________________________
In the 1980s we were able to acquire one of the edition of two Corners, Robert Rooney's photo series of Bruce Pollard's Pinacotheca Gallery, Richmond. Such a treasure. Corners 1/2 is in the collection of the NGV; Corners 2/2 now at AGNSW.
Robert Rooney, Corners, 1972 (click to enlarge)
Two other Robert Rooney photo series are now on show at
Spare Room 33 in Canberra.
Two other Robert Rooney photo series are now on show at
Spare Room 33 in Canberra.
Robert Rooney, Luna Park: St Kilda, January 1975, 1975
Robert Rooney, Scorched Almonds, 1970
This exhibition, Serial and Conceptual Photography, opened on Tuesday last, the day of Robert's death. That sad news has reached us only today. Vale Robert.
____________________________________________
Robert Rooney, Portrait photographs 1978–1987, Tolarno Galleries, 11 September–11 October 2014
Robert Rooney, Scorched Almonds, 1970
This exhibition, Serial and Conceptual Photography, opened on Tuesday last, the day of Robert's death. That sad news has reached us only today. Vale Robert.
____________________________________________
Robert Rooney, Portrait photographs 1978–1987, Tolarno Galleries, 11 September–11 October 2014
At the 2014 opening of 'Portrait photographs 1978-1987' :
Jon Campbell, Robert Rooney, Doug Hall and a photographer
all photographed, and here regarded
Jon Campbell, Robert Rooney, Doug Hall and a photographer
all photographed, and here regarded
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
LOGOS/HA HA
