Clifton Pugh is an iconic Australian artist and environmentalist. In 1954, he travelled across the Nullarbor with his friend Noel Macainsh, realising;

“the boundless extent of a land, paradoxically both harsh and delicate, together with the illimitable space above it.”

This perception of the land as a vessel for time, humanity and spirituality underlies both his art and environmentalism. Three years before visiting the Nullarbor, Pugh purchased land at Cottles Bridge: the eventual site of the artist’s community ‘Dunmoochin’. Instrumental in Australia’s conservation movement, the Dunmoochins worked to regenerate the land, witnessing first hand the degradation caused by feral animals. 

In ‘Presence of a Dingo’ Pugh’s adoration for the land is clear. Textual, expressionistic and vividly colour, this work celebrates Australia’s scrub. Fellow artist James Gleeson once described Pugh’s bushland as a battlefield between native and introduced species. While tranquility reigns here, the work’s title warns of a dingo. It is as though Pugh is cautioning us that the environment’s undoing will not always be visible. 

Across his career, Pugh won the Archibald Prize twice, was made an Officer of Order of Australia in 1985 and in 1990 was appointed Australia’s War Memorial’s official artist at the 75th anniversary memorial of the Gallipoli landing. His contributions to art were uncompromising, unique and bracing.

For the framed variant, please allow up to fourteen days before collection. It is available for click and collection from Fitzroy or Hawthorn, or can be delivered via fine art courier. 

 

Clifton PUGH (1924 - 1990)
'Presence of a Dingo'
Screenprint
edition of 75
Signed and editioned in margin
Image Size: 56 x 83 cm
Paper Dimensions: 64 x 90 cm
Signed: Signed, and edition in lower margin
Comes with Letter of Provenance
 
Condition: Very good

© The Artist or Assignee