John Joseph Wardell Power
Dr John Joseph Wardell Power (1881–1943) was an Australian Modernist artist. He studied medicine at the University of Sydney and served as a doctor in the First World War. After the war he left medicine and studied at the Atelier Araújo in Paris and became interested in Cubism and abstract art. He was a member of the London Group and the Comite Abstraction-Creation, Paris. JW Power died in Jersey, Channel Islands in 1943. He left his estate (worth £A2 million[1]) to the University of Sydney where the Power Institute of Fine Arts now bears his name.[2] The Power bequest was the core funding to set up Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art.[3]
Works
Power authored the book Eléments de la Construction Picturale (Paris, 1932). In his treatise, he acknowledges a Brazilian painter, Pedro Correia de Araújo (who he calls Senhor Pedro Araujo) as the one who introduced him to the subject.[4] The University of Sydney has over 1000 of his works, including 150 canvases. The National Library of Australia also holds a collection of artworks from his collection, personal papers and printed material.[5]
References
- http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/power-john-joseph-wardell-8090
- "Power Institute Foundation". University of Sydney. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
- "MCA History". MCA. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
- Power, J.W., Elements de la construction picturale : apercu des methodes des maitres anciens et des maitres modernes, 1933, pg. 5
- "NLA Power Collection". NLA. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
External links
- JW Power, Australian Dictionary of Biography
- JW Power exhibition at NLA: Modernist rescued from obscurity, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 July 2014