JOHN NIXON (Sydney, 1949-2020). "Block painting,... Lot 4

JOHN NIXON (Sydney, 1949-2020). "Block painting, 1998, 1999 and 2002. Set of four enamel paintings on cardboard, wood and hessian. Signed and dated on the back. One of them with label of the Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney. Provenance: Important Spanish Collection. Sizes: 15 x 15 cm; 15 x 15 cm; 13 x 9 cm and 15.5 x 15.5 cm. John Nixon trained at the Preston Institute of Technology and the Melbourne National Gallery Art School. He represented Australia at one of the most influential international exhibitions in the contemporary art world, Documenta 7, held in Kassel, Germany, in 1982. In Melbourne, a few years later, he founded the influential artist-run space Art Projects, where he was able to exhibit his own works as well as those of his contemporaries. As director of the Brisbane Institute of Modern Art in 1980-81, Nixon was a beacon of avant-garde sensibilities and practices. His curatorial work, small publications and experimental musical performances formed part of his wide-ranging practice, which included installation, collage, photography and video. His works are held in all major Australian state museum collections and in public collections in Denmark, France, Germany, Korea, New Zealand, Poland, Switzerland and the United States. The minimalist and abstract aesthetic of his work is influenced by Kazimir Malevich, the Russian avant-garde artist and art theorist. Thus, Nixon works a geometric abstraction planned on rational principles, aspiring to objectivity and universality.