Daily Artwork — “Collins St., 5 P.M., John Brack, 1955”

Use the images posted in this feature for writing prompts, warm-up activities, drawing templates or as part of an artwork critique.

In the early 1950s, John Brack adopted the urban Melbourne environment as his subject, recording the shops, bars and workplaces of the city with an ironic edge. This painting is among the most iconic of this period. Here, Brack depicts Melbourne’s financial centre hub at the end of the working day, uniformly dressed office-workers stream homeward. Inspired by his own experience employed by a city-based insurance company, Brack points to the enduring presence of the individual by personalising each figure, despite the formal repetition and universally muted palette enchancing the over-arching sense of drudgery of nine-to-five office life. (Museum Card)

1955 — Collins St., 5 P.M.  Oil paint on canvas. Expressionism style. John Brack (1920-1999).  National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.

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