Artist talk and publication launch with Elizabeth Cross

Please join us as we launch the superb catalogue publication Arborescent: Elizabeth Cross. Elizabeth will give a talk on her work in her first major solo exhibition in Canberra, Arborescent.

"Her gaze is selective, accurate and enquiring, and her markings are unhesitating, capturing the particularities of this tree with a kind of joy and wonder, even of playfulness. A densely worked shadow emphasises the weight of a branch, and the sharpest point of the pencil traces a springing twig. There is a sense of pleasure in the challenge presented by the tree, of both the demands and rewards of exploration."
--Hugh Colman, excerpt from the Arborescent Catalogue.

Elizabeth Cross is better known as an art historian and curator, but she has nurtured her remarkable talent for drawing out of the public eye. This exhibition consists of twenty drawings of trees – they are for the most part denuded of foliage and it is their nervy, sinuous, gesticulating grace that translates so well into the language of drawing.

Western art history is full of great artists who have been fascinated by trees and have been inspired to make works which have an analogy with the light-loving, profusely spreading, graceful unities that trees epitomise. There is a tradition stretching from Albrecht Dürer and Claude Lorrain to Cézanne, Van Gogh, Matisse and Mondrian which establishes the most exacting criteria in the field of drawing. That these drawings by Elizabeth Cross can withstand any such comparison is surely the measure of her formidable achievement.

Arborescent has sparked a renewed interest in the local community on traditional drawing techniques using graphite and paper. This artist talk will also be an opportunity for attendees to discuss technical queries with Elizabeth and find out more about her process of drawing highly rendered works en plein air.

Celebratory refreshments and catalogue signing will follow the discussion.

This show coincides with the travelling show 'I hope you get this: Raquel Ormella'

The Drill Hall Gallery 2019 program of exhibitions has been generously supported by the ANU Visual Arts Foundation.