John Nixon, the late Australian avant-garde artist, would sometimes save the shells from his boiled eggs and sprinkle them across blank paint, creating his own starry night. Other times he\u2019d set himself rules, such as painting only in orange for five years. It was 1996 and he was becoming a father, so he wanted a streamlined practice \u2013 plus, what other artist was associated with orange?<\/p>\n
These anecdotes \u2013 just two among many \u2013 reflect not only Nixon\u2019s lifelong frugality, idiosyncrasies and strategies, but his steadfast blending of art into everyday life for more than 50 years. His hardline minimalism never feels stifling or overwrought, but rigorous and playful, critical yet fortuitous.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough his life and work he wanted to challenge orthodoxy in everything he did,\u201d says Sue Cramer, Nixon\u2019s wife and the co-curator of his first major exhibition since his death in 2020 at the age of 70<\/a>.<\/p>\n Song of the Earth at Heide Museum of Modern Art opens with a room dedicated to Nixon\u2019s experimental painting workshop. Photograph: Eugene Hyland\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Cramer has undertaken the \u201cprofessional and personal\u201d endeavour of sifting through Nixon\u2019s thousands (possibly tens of thousands) of art works, encompassing painting, prints, text, music, film, performance, photography and more. As Nixon once joked to an artist friend Marco Fusinato: \u201cI made too much.\u201d<\/p>\n For a staunch minimalist known for his paintings of imposing crosses and forthright monochromes \u2013 and who courted a rather serious reputation in his youth in the 1970s \u2013 the exhibition title, Song of the Earth 1968-2020, privileges Nixon\u2019s gentleness as much as his rigour. His love of both nature and music, Cramer says, \u201cruns throughout his work as a joyous celebration of art and living as an artist\u201d.<\/p>\n Nixon \u2018found a precedent for the reinvention of what art could be\u2019, Cramer says. Photograph: Eugene Hyland\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Song of the Earth at Heide Museum of Modern Art<\/a> opens with a kaleidoscopic, yet orderly room dedicated to Nixon\u2019s experimental painting workshop (EPW). Started in the 1970s, EPW became an enduring banner for his abstract paintings, born from conceptualism, minimalism and Russian constructivism \u2013 all methods of questioning art itself.<\/p>\n Across playful lines of colour and form, there\u2019s the aforementioned orange paintings from the 1990s, starring materials such as sawdust and onion bags (the strict colour rule didn\u2019t last); his shimmering silver series; his rare curvy paintings with an organic, planetary edge; and his iconic crosses and monochromes from various decades, with some having objects such as dinner plates or a violin stuck to their surface.<\/p>\n Nixon kept his practice frugal \u2013 focused on \u2018making something out of nothing\u2019. Photograph: Eugene Hyland\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Painting on everything from cardboard to masonite, Nixon\u2019s use of found objects and cheap materials started out of financial necessity \u2013 but he always kept his practice frugal. \u201cIt was his sense of making something out of nothing,\u201d Cramer says. \u201cYou don\u2019t go to the art store, you find something in the leftovers.\u201d<\/p>\n Did Nixon know, when he began creating in the 1960s, that he was starting a lifelong project of variations in colour and form, and that the sheer volume of his work would become its own statement?\u201d Cramer doesn\u2019t miss a beat: \u201cYes, I think he did.\u201d<\/p>\n Sue Cramer: \u2018He was interested in the idea of construction, the worker and building. He saw what he did as an artist as work.\u2019 Photograph: Eugene Hyland\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Also in the show is Nixon\u2019s 1982 installation at the influential international exhibition Documenta 7: a multipart work with cloth banners, type-written texts and paintings on newspaper that could be all packed neatly into a suitcase, avoiding freight fees.<\/p>\n Poignantly, Nixon\u2019s first and last works are placed about 40 metres apart, facing one another.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Saved for Later<\/p>\n Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia’s culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n His final work, made in 2020 when he knew he was dying, are two pieces featuring squares within squares; they\u2019re almost a metaphor for eyes.<\/p>\n Nixon\u2019s first and last works are both on display at Heide.<\/p>\n The first is a 1968 small black monochrome, painted when he was 19 years old and studying at Preston Institute of Technology. He had been influenced by a recent display of Ad Reinhardt\u2019s black monochromes at the National Gallery of Victoria and a Marcel Duchamp exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was sensing there was a different art you could make that wasn\u2019t hand-to-eye technique,\u201d Cramer says. In the 1960s and 70s Australian conceptual artists were interrogating ideals of realism and expressionism, with Nixon forming independent art spaces and an enviable community of like-minded artists including Jenny Watson, Peter Tyndall, Tony Clarke and Imants Tillers. Nixon engaged sincerely (never ironically) with modernist art histories, writing manifestos for his vision of experimental art in Australia.<\/p>\n Across the exhibition there\u2019s a persistent theme of labour and making: hessian potato bags and pumpkin seeds cover canvases; art works hang off an old agricultural wheelbarrow; paintings hold tools like hammers and saws. \u201cHe was interested in the idea of construction, the worker and building,\u201d Cramer says. \u201cHe saw what he did as an artist as work.\u201d<\/p>\n Nixon was influenced by Russian Constructivism and preoccupied the idea that with art should integrate with life. Photograph: Eugene Hyland\/The Guardian<\/p>\n