Tony Clark

In 1824, an English artist named John Clark published a game - a gentle conceit on the theme of landscape. Sixteen small panels depicted fragments of an idealised landscape, the sort taught since the seventeenth century in the painting academies of Europe. Pieces of a rustic arcadia with its various trappings (flocks, hamlets, anglers etc.) could be assembled in any number of ways to form a panoramic scene. Due to the common horizon line bridging each panel, any panel could be placed adjacent to any other piece. Millions of configurations of Clark's landscape scene were possible.

Source: Rolsyn Oxley9 Gallery, Tony Clark, Sections from Clark's Myriorama, March 2006

Sections from Clark's Myriorama 1985-1995 is is part of an ongoing painting project for Tony Clark which takes the form of many hundreds of images, of which these panels comprise a small group.

The project can be thought of as a continually evolving commentary on the act of landscape painting. Traditionally, Australian landscape painting was a statement about land ownership and possession and was often used to prove the success of the Colony. Clark's work is a contemporary landscape "game", like the myriorama's of John Clark in the nineteenth century: each panel interlinks and can be displayed in any order.

© Tony Clark