John Peart is one of Australia’s foremost abstract artists. Inspired by the landscape, his works are meditative, revered for their use of colour, richly textured surfaces and internal coherence. He spent his career questing for new ways of seeing, musing “The riddle is how to plan to surprise yourself”.

Benares is a striking work of art. With a name that references the city of Benares on the Ganges river, Peart underlies his abstraction with ideas of Indian spirituality. Using soft geometric shapes in pastel pink and blue tones, this artwork breathes with Pearts philosophical approach to landscape, an approach grounded in internal feelings over exact topographies.

His practice is a visual mantra, a resonance repeated until the viewer feels centred, engaged and at peace — as one critic reflected, “Peart’s life is a spiritual quest; painting is a process of ‘becoming’ through aesthetic perception”.

Peart’s importance in the evolution of Australian abstraction has been recognised by numerous awards and prizes, inclusion in important survey exhibitions, and acquisition by the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, as well as other notable public, corporate and private collections in Australia and abroad.

‘Benares’ will enliven collections of important works on paper, mid-century modernism and abstract art.

John PEART (1945 - 2013)
'Benares' 1979
screenprint on paper
Edition of 25
Image Size: 53 x 71 cm
Dimensions: 56 x 76 cm
Signed: Signed, titled and editioned below image.
Comes with Letter of Provenance

Condition: Very Good: Describes a work of art's image as Excellent, but may show some small signs of surrounding wear to paper or frame. There are no tears to paper margin or disruption to the paint surface. Minor fleck of foxing bottom margin; specks of pigment top margin, likely part of the printmaking process. 

(c) John Peart / Copyright Agency