Jenny Watson (artist)

Jennifer Watson (born 1951) is an Australian artist known for her paintings that combine text and images.

Biography

Jenny Watson was born in Melbourne in 1951 and she lives and works in Sanford, Queensland. Her formative years as an artist were in the 1970s in Melbourne and London. In 1972, she completed a Diploma of Painting at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne. In 1973, she completed a Diploma of Education at the State College of Victoria. She had her first solo show in 1973.

Early influences on her practice include conceptual art, feminism and the punk scene in London and Melbourne. Uniquely, her work takes these influences into the domain of figurative painting. She has developed her own visual language that frequently combines text with images. She currently mentors at Queensland College of Art, Griffith University.

Career

Watson came to prominence in Australia during the 1980s, a period in Australian art history when the relationship between word and image, painting and photography, and art and popular culture were important themes. Her work is part of this investigation of ideas about visual representation that characterised conceptualism and critical postmodernism. Both conceptualism and critical postmodernism stress distancing from the subject matter they represent, whether through deadpan presentation of material or an ironic tone, in contrast Watson's practice frequently suggests an intimate or personal approach to her material.

Watson said of her approach: “I quickly realised that being a serious woman artist was not unusual, and with that possibility established, it allowed me to develop the work more radically, away from figuration towards philosophical, conceptual practice, and ultimately towards my own autobiographical take.”[1]

Watson's work has been described as confessional by art historian Benedikt Stegmayer thereby positioning her work alongside the work of younger artists such as Tracey Emin.[2] In Watson's work it is unclear whether the paintings are autobiographical or not.

In 1993, she represented Australia at the 45th Venice Biennale. She is represented by Roslyn Oxley Gallery in Sydney. In 2017 a major survey of her work was shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney and Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne.[3]

Works
  • Selected Solo Exhibitions
  • 2017: Jenny Watson, The Fabric of Fantasy, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia[4]
  • 2016: Jenny Watson, Chronicles, Griffith University Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia[5]
  • 2016: Just a Girl, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, Australia
  • 2015: Fabrications, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
  • 2014 Garden of Eden and Child's Play, Galerie Transit, Belgium
  • Selected Group Exhibitions
  • 2016: Painting, More Painting-Chapter 2, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia[6]
  • 2015: Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize, National Art School, Sydney, Australia
  • 2014: Solitaire, Tarrawarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Victoria, Australia
  • 2013: Mix Tape 1980s: Appropriation, Subculture, Critical Style, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
  • 2012: Contemporary Australia: Women, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia.[7]
  • 2002: Fieldwork: Australian Art 1968 - 2002, National Gallery of Victoria, Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia[8]
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References
  1. "Wes Hill, "Reflections in a Muddy Puddle: Jenny Watson in Conversation," Art Monthly 289 (May 2016): p. 25". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. Benedikt Stegmayer, "Jenny Watson" Autobiography as Fictive Construct: Confession, Jenny Holzer, Jenny Watson, Tracey Emin (Berlin: Verlag fur zeitgenossische Kunst and Theorie, 2015)
  3. 1974-, Davis, Anna. Jenny Watson : the fabric of fantasy. Wall, Michael,, Hawker, Rosemary., Neri, Louise., Pestorius, David., Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (Sydney, N.S.W.). The Rocks, N.S.W. ISBN 9781921034916. OCLC 973221943.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. 1974-, Davis, Anna. Jenny Watson : the fabric of fantasy. Wall, Michael,, Hawker, Rosemary., Neri, Louise., Pestorius, David., Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (Sydney, N.S.W.). The Rocks, N.S.W. ISBN 9781921034916. OCLC 973221943.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. 1951-, Watson, Jenny (2016). Jenny Watson : chronicles. Goddard, Angela,, Stegmayer, Benedikt. Nathan, Qld. ISBN 9781925455113. OCLC 956766557.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. Painting. More painting. Bosse, Joanna,, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Southbank, Vic. ISBN 9780994347237. OCLC 960039713.CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. Contemporary Australia : women. Ewington, Julie., Queensland Art Gallery., Gallery of Modern Art (Brisbane, Qld.). Brisbane, Queensland: Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art. 2012. ISBN 9781921503382. OCLC 765766026.CS1 maint: others (link)
  8. Fieldwork : Australian art 1968-2002. Smith, Jason, 1966-, Green, Charles, 1953-, National Gallery of Victoria. Melbourne, Vic.: National Gallery of Victoria. 2002. ISBN 9780724102136. OCLC 54350257.CS1 maint: others (link)

Further reading
  • Judy Annear, ‘Jenny Watson; painter of the mirror,’ MCA Collection Volume One, (Sydney: MCA, 2012) pp. 432–440.
  • Julie Ewington, ‘Think big, and be loud - Three Generations of Australian Female Artists,’ Art & Australia, 49, No.3, 2012, pp. 448-455
  • Paul Taylor, ‘Jenny Watson’s Modernism,’ Art International, January/February, 1981.
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