26 July - 14 August 2012

about the exhibition

Sadly, Jörg Schmeisser died recently in his seventy-first year. With a long established international reputation as a master of his medium, Jörg’s range of markmaking imbued his diverse subject matter with a poignant, expressive power. His keen observation of his surroundings is revealed in the extraordinary rendering of detail, often overlaid by gestural lines and script. His works also feature abstracted motifs that symbolically evoke the place of their origin. Jörg was a voracious traveller who has spent time in the Middle East, Europe, South East Asia, the USA, Antarctica, Japan and Australia. Many of his works have the feel of a visual diary, recording these foreign places, cultures and traditions that he experienced. Grand landscape narratives are often interposed with keenly studied images of flora and fauna as Jörg synthesises and contextualises the elements of his visual experience. Through studying an object or landscape in depth and reading its contextual detail, Jörg presented a rich impression of different cultures and places that captivate the imagination.

Jörg Schmeisser was Head of Printmaking at the Canberra School of Art from 1978 – 1997. He held over 200 solo exhibitions, both in Australia and overseas. Jörg’s work is represented in many of the world’s most notable collections including the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Museum of Modern Art in New York, Staatliche Sammlungen Dresden, Germany, Museum fur Ostasiatische Kunst in Cologne, Germany and the National Gallery of America. In Australia, his work is held in all of the major state galleries as well as the National Gallery of Australia. This exhibition is a tribute to Jörg who will be so very much missed by his many friends and colleagues in Canberra and throughout the world.