Two artists who created remarkably similar works 50 years apart celebrated at National Portrait Gallery

Australian artist Noel McKenna draws a lot of inspiration from dogs.

Now, some of those “dogs he has known” are in the National Portrait Gallery’s latest exhibition, John Brack x Noel McKenna: A face in the mirror.

The exhibition brings together works of two artists who, despite practising almost 50 years apart, have striking similarities.

John Brack, who died in 1999, first emerged in the 1950s as a painter of the people and life of Melbourne.

His examinations of urban and suburban life are comparable with McKenna, an artist practising today whose works include dogs, cats, horses, bookshelves, birds, big things, and small details.

Cat in mirror, 2015, by Noel McKenna. (Supplied: National Portrait Gallery)

Masters of observation

Exhibition co-curator Isobel Parker Philip said what was remarkable about each artist’s work was that they asked viewers to pay attention to quiet details that might otherwise go unnoticed.

“One thing McKenna said about his work, which really encapsulates the spirit of this exhibition, is that ‘it is ordinary to love the sublime, but sublime to love the ordinary’,” she said.

“John Brack is one of the most revered and important artists of the 20th century, whose iconic social realism has transformed how we think about our history. 

“Noel McKenna is a unique voice within contemporary Australian artistic practice.”

Latin American Grand Final, 1969, by John Brack. (Supplied: National Portrait Gallery)

Ms Parker Philip described both as masters of observation, cataloguing their own experience in the world and depicting themselves as onlookers.

“In a lot of works, we find them in cameos, caught in reflections in shop windows or in mirrors,” she said.

“But what’s remarkable about their work is that they ask us to pay attention to quiet details that might pass us by.”

Isobel Parker Philip says both John Brack and Noel McKenna’s works invite viewers to pay attention to the small details of a piece. (ABC News: Adam Kennedy)

Losing our powers of observation

Noel McKenna said he had observed that people don’t “observe the world as much as they used to”.

“When you look at it through a screen, the screen sort of isolates certain things. It almost is a lie sometimes,” he said.

“If you look at the real world, you get a better view of it.”

Noel McKenna says he likes to present the subjects of his art “a little bit out of kilter”. (ABC News: Adam Kennedy)

McKenna describes himself as an introvert, and said he suspected Brack was too.

“Introverts, I think, are able to go about our observing quite silently, which is good,” he said.

McKenna walks cities with a camera, photographing animals, buildings, doors, bottles, the things people step over.

When he needs a reference for a painting, he finds the photograph that feels right and works from there.

“I like things to be a little bit out of kilter, not exactly as they are,” McKenna said.

“You like to sort of present a world that’s within its own canvas.”

Dr Joseph Brown with Two Typists, 1996, by Noel McKenna. (Supplied: National Portrait Gallery)

A happiness index, charted in dogs

McKenna’s work, titled SELF, is a quietly contemplative piece.

It’s a chronological graph of his own emotional life, charted largely by the arrival and departure of dogs, loved ones, and life turning points.

It’s a true representation of the emotional roller-coaster. The peaks and troughs of love and loss, in deadpan and data.

It’s surprisingly emotional. McKenna created it at 55 years old. 

Noel McKenna’s SELF is a chronological graph of his emotional life. (ABC News: Lish Fejer)

Now 69, he’s thinking of extending it.

“There’s been highs and lows in between then and now,” McKenna said.

Among the works is one of Stumpy, a cross corgi-terrier from McKenna’s West End childhood who liked to go for a walk by himself every afternoon at 4pm, returning a couple of hours later with a bark at the gate.

Animals I Have Known by Noel McKenna, 2015-16, on display at the National Portrait Gallery. (ABC News: Lish Fejer)

Stumpy’s arrival is charted in the piece by a stratospheric rise in happiness.

He was much loved and known around the whole neighbourhood, but one night Stumpy didn’t come back.

“The house is very quiet without a dog,” McKenna said.

William Nuttall with horses in field, 2023, by Noel McKenna.  (Supplied: National Portrait Gallery)

McKenna came to art sideways. He was studying architecture when he was “sort of told to drop out by one of the lecturers”.

“He took me into his office and said, ‘Noel, we find that your drawings are so bad that we don’t think you’ll ever make it as an architect, so we suggest you go to art school’,” he said.

He took the advice without much argument, applied to art school two years later, and never looked back.

Drawing a line between artists

Self-portrait, 1955, by John Brack. (Supplied: National Portrait Gallery)

Ms Parker Philip said the exhibition was not a didactic exercise in art history, instead taking on a more playful approach.

“What we hope visitors take away from this show is that they’re encouraged to find these unexpected moments of affinity, these echoes that reverberate across time, where we find these little sparks of connection between Brack and McKenna,” she said.

McKenna said he recognised that for people who know a bit about art and art history, they may see the connection in how the two artists observe the world.

The new house, 1953, by John Brack. (Supplied: National Portrait Gallery)

But the artist said he would like people to start hoarding images from their own observations.

“You can see joy in your own everyday world,” McKenna said.

The John Brack x Noel McKenna: A Face in the Mirror exhibition is showing at the National Portrait Gallery until July 19.