Robert GRIEVE
Born Melbourne 1924-2006
“Robert Grieve is an artist who over the past four and a half decades has made a significant contribution to Australian painting…with the built-up ambiguous veils of colours and marks, the mysterious shapes have an omnipresent magic…” Art Critic, Sasha Grishin.
Grieve was one of the first exponents of abstract expressionism in Australia. His work, highly influenced by his close association with Japan, has a delicacy and elegance that is quite rare in the works of later proponents of this style. In his earlier years, Bob painted with Fred Williams, and the "Burnt Landscape" was, according to Bob, painted whilst he and Fred Williams were on a painting trip to the You Yangs just outside of Melbourne. His work is represented in most State collections in Australia.
“I am rather reluctant to write about my paintings as I feel that it really is a dialogue between the painting and the viewer- in other words the painting should speak for itself.
Here are some thoughts on my work. I endeavour to create paintings which combine elements of the visual world which excite and move me with a continuing fascination with the mediums I use. I hope that the results stimulate and sometimes disturb the viewers imagination and also achieve an ordered elegance. I would like to think that the viewer can return to the painting and find new things in the work.’
Robert Grieve, 2005
