There was a TV show broadcast in 1980 called ‘The Shock of the New’ which was a personal survey of 20th century art by Australian Robert Hughes. It came with a tremendous catalogue which I (and probably everyone else) still have. There was a scene in it which I have not been able to find online which went something like this…
English/Australian artist John Wolseley sitting on a folding chair in the outback painting the landscape in watercolour. Wolseley tears the painting in half and buries it in the dry soil beside his chair. Puts other half in his portfolio. Camera follows him over the next hill. Sets up his chair and brings out of his folio half of another painting done the year before. He digs around the earth at his feet and finds its neighbour. Brings them together in an unexpected and astonishing collision of time and colour and weather. As I say I have not seen it since. I hope I have not imagined it.
I have torn one of mine in half and stuck it in the garden. We’ll see what it’s like in 2023. East Lothian v Woolloomooloo. Ha!
John Wolseley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcFx5TX49e8
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