John Brack The Built World

In this unit, ‘The Built World’ focuses around the man-made structures that appear in our daily lives. It showcase how these environments represent the importance of our culture. The purpose is to remind oneself to acknowledge the structures and symbols that we are surrounded by. Artist uses different techniques to create their own representation of ‘The built world’. As a result, it helps to construct a connection between the viewer and the artwork. An Australian urban life painter, John Brack, uses the people and life of Melbourne as his subjects in his paintings. “John Brack emerged during the 1950s in Melbourne as an artist of singular originality and independence.” (Brack, 2018) Collin St, 5pm was one of Brack’s many creations. It is

The illustration of the crowd represents the busyness of Melbourne Australia after a typical day of work. This 114.8 x 162.8 painting features a plain, boring, and almost dead like landscape along with emotionless office workers, uniformly heading towards home. Referred to the NGVs, “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…” (Brack, NGV, 2018) This painting is divided into 3 sections, they are, foreground midground and background. The isolated tree along with the street lamp can be depicted on each side of the painting, locating at midground. Dull colours are used, which helps to enhance the sense of drudgery of nine to five office life. There are details of patchy gradients, but the overall artwork looks smooth, precise and

To artists ‘The Built World’ is about creating a connection from where you live with the audience. Stated in The Art Gallery Of NSW: “The painting illustrates the artist’s strategy of drawing viewers into his work by positioning them as direct and close observers of his subjects rendered in acid sharp colour.” (Brack, 2018) Brack had communicated with the viewers by integrating the repetition of workers, and also painting the windows dark to portray the unenergized urban life. Brack deliberately illustrated the isolated tree and the antisocial like workers to symbolise the loneliness of the city. Moreover, the use of repetition have assisted Brack to communicate with the audience that Collin St is one of the busiest St of