Celebrating and exploring fifty years of printmaking by acclaimed Australian artist Daniel Moynihan, whose work has been central to the renaissance of printmaking in this country, this retrospective exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ballarat will be on display from 9 April 2016.
The art of Daniel Moynihan: Printmaking 1966 – 2016 reveals the ongoing development of Moynihan’s intensely personal and powerful narrative imagery. It showcases Moynihan’s moving and engaging work in all its complexity and richness, providing a demonstration of the power of printmaking and a very timely celebration of fifty years of the work of a significant Australia printmaker.
Daniel Moynihan was born in Melbourne and after studying at Preston Technical College and RMIT, has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions since 1967. During the 1970s, Moynihan became Lecturer in Printmaking at Prahran College of Advanced Education and later at the Preston Institute of Technology. In 1983-84 he lived and worked in Paris returning there in 1988 and 1993.
He is best known for drawing, printmaking and painting and for his extensive studies of the Tasmanian Tiger, which is a recurring theme of his work. His interest in Tasmanian tigers started in the early 1970s, sparked by an interest in Australian flora and fauna, and also after he encountered colonial lithographs by Gould of Tasmanian subjects.
“I was captivated by the Tasmanian tiger, and have since studied the elusive beast at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, as well as learned more about the animals through discussions with experts in Australia as well as Germany,” said Moynihan.
Represented in the National Gallery of Australia, in all State print collections and major regional galleries, as well as most significant university collections and New Zealand galleries, Moynihan’s prints are also represented in international collections including the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
“This exhibition looks back at fifty years of printmaking by a well-established and respected artist,” says Gordon Morrison, Director of the Art Gallery of Ballarat. “It celebrates and explores in depth his deep engagement with the making of the printed image, and reveals the ongoing development of his intensely personal and powerful narrative imagery”.
“His work is distinctive; one could say, unparalleled by that of any other image-maker. It combines images that are very personal with recognizably Australian motifs.”
The art of Daniel Moynihan: Printmaking 1966 – 2016
Art Gallery of Ballarat, 40 Lydiard Street North, Ballarat
Exhibition: 9 April – 19 June 2016
Free admission
For more information, visit: www.artgalleryofballarat.com.au for details.
Image: Daniel Moynihan, Tasmanian Tiger Lost in Richmond 2014 etching, soft ground, drypoint, aquatint, spit bite on steel plate, Dutch Schut paper, final state, edition 3/35, 50 x 65cm. Courtesy of the artist. © Daniel Moynihan. Licensed by Viscopy, 2016