Art Guide

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Sept/Oct 2010

Bringing the outside in > NSW
May Lane is a very short street in Sydney’s inner west Read More

Cream of the crop > NSW
The Museum of Contemporary Art becomes a hive of activity in preparation for Primavera, Read More

Drawing NOW > VIC
A single black bullet is drawn starkly upon a plain white ground. Read More

Melbourne Art Fair 2010 > VIC
No one could accuse Melbourne Art Fair organisers of treading too lightly. Read More

Social capital
Craig Walsh’s Digital Odyssey is epic Read More

To fair, or not too fair > VIC
Never before has alternative culture been so mainstream. Read More

Weird scenes inside the Art Museum
There’s a scene in the brilliant recent Australian film Animal Kingdom Read More

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Talking Art with PJ Hickman

By Heidi Maier

This issue Heidi Maier speaks to Brisbane-based artist PJ Hickman.
Heidi Maier: Tell me a little about the experiences of becoming an artist, of creating your own works and what inspired and encouraged your decisions.
PJ Hickman: I didn't do any formal study/art school. However I've spent years 'studying' art. I look at a lot of art. I've been a member of the Queensland Artworkers since the late 1980s and involved in the art 'system'. This involvement in the art world through knowing other artists, writers, curators and so on has got my foot in the door and opened a number of opportunities in Brisbane. I was 51 when I had my first show at Metro Arts (Brisbane). Prior to that for years I'd been working away constantly refining what I was doing to arrive at a mature body of work. Amongst others Simon Wright (Dell Gallery) and Josh Milani (Bellas Milani) encouraged me to exhibit.
HM: Which artists have had the greatest influence on you?
PJ: I've always liked art - making, looking and reading. Early on I had already started collecting books about art and visiting art galleries: old Masters (Canaletto, Goya); Impressionists (Van Gogh) Moderns (Matisse, Picasso), British artists (Ben Nicholson, Paul Nash).

Later on, I discovered the 60s and 70s which have remained my most influential periods and artists. Following this I moved away from making a representational image so most of my influences are now primarily non-objective artists.

Numerous artists influence my approach, so it's hard to be selective.

However I can cite my greatest influence as Ad Reinhardt, both his artwork and his writing. I really admire his uncompromisingly vigorous and reductive approach, limited use of colour, and desire for neutrality.

Another major influence is Robert Ryman - again for his approach and the way he uses paint (generally limited to white) as the medium; and his interest in all aspects of the artwork, including the support and the way the artwork is hung or displayed.
HM: Do you think that your heroes were primarily Minimalists?
PJ: Reinhardt wasn't a Minimalist …. There are the Minimalists like Donald Judd, for whom I have just been all the way to Marfa, Texas (pop 2000) in the middle of nowhere to see his work. I really like Sol LeWitt's pared down structures of simple forms. Some of my earlier work resembles his cubes and squares. Both use seriality as a mode of composition, and eliminate the arbitrary, expressive and subjective. These are all strategies I use in my artwork.

I also like Agnes Martin's classical perfection through her sparse repetitive lines in an all over grid, the limited palette and use of graphite.

I am influenced by Australian artists John Nixon, Robert Hunter, Eugene Carchesio – all who have maintained a consistent practice (incorporating some of the attributes above) over an extended period of time.

PJ Hickman, White Box: A DANIEL VON STURMER,
(from the series Venice Biennale 2007), 2007,
acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of the artist,
30.5 x 40.6 x 3.8. Photo: John Downs.

HM: Do you consider yourself a Minimalist?
PJ: Most of the so called Minimalists all denied being Minimalists, so am I going to deny it too. Sometimes people refer to Post Minimalist or Neo Minimalist, but I'm not sure whether the label means much really. Sure I have adopted some of the approaches characteristic with that movement. However it's 40 years later now. So I can see Minimalism through the prism of what's happened in the meantime. Pop, Conceptual, etc the exponential proliferation of art, art galleries and the art industry.
HM: You spend your days working as a town planner. Does that profession influence either the art you create or your personal artistic practice?
PJ: Town planning hasn't had a direct impact on my approach. The grids and maps did provide early inspiration for some artworks. However as a subject it is often allied with architecture and design and at times closely associated with art movements of the time (for example the Bauhaus 20's & 30's, Le Corbusier). Even someone like Howard Arkley... suburbia ... planning.

It's more the case of being a qualified town planner has given me a regular job for many years providing independence and the ability to absorb the considerable costs of making art and regularly exhibiting interstate.

This independence allows me to develop my practice in an environment free from the pressure and arduous task of having to apply for funding. Consequently I haven't had to compromise the work to meet certain expectations.

HM: Can you tell me a little about your plans for the future?
PJ: I recently had works in the 2007 ARC Biennale at QUT Art Museum (Brisbane) and then will be having an exhibition in June at Sophie Gannon Gallery, (Melbourne).

The concept for the show is similar to the ARC show, except instead of using the names of the Australian representatives at the Venice Biennale, I shall be using the names of the artists from the Sophie Gannon 'stable'. Currently the gallery represents 7 artists, so this means I will be painting 2 identical sets of the 7 artists, and then again creating boxes for each painting.
I actually did another series of similar paintings (2 sets of 8 artists) for an exhibition that was supposed to happen at another gallery but did not eventuate. These are the precursors to the ARC paintings. They have the same basic format as the ARC paintings but I had a limited intervention with the names. The names were all prominent 20th Century non- objective artists. So for example AN ON KAWARA became AN ON.

PJ Hickman, Intentionally left blank Ryan, Renshaw Gallery, 2006, Installation view. Courtesy of the artist and Ryan Renshaw Gallery. Photo: The artist.

Heidi Maier is a Brisbane-based freelance writer and reviewer.