Richard Larter, painting, Offices, contemporary Australian art, 2001
Summary
English-born Richard Larter immigrated to Australia in 1962 andover many decades has built an impressive body of work and a reputation as a distinguished painter. Perhaps best known are his pop-art-inspired figurative paintings, especially his candid and erotically charged female nudes painted in the earlier years of his career. The strong iconography, vibrant colour and rich texture of Larter’s paintings explode in urgent conversations across his canvas. While his paintings have always demonstrated his engagement with contemporary culture and politics, his focus has, over time, expanded to include abstract landscapes.
This city scene is a relatively sedate work from Larter that expresses his well-honed skills as a draughtsman as well as his off-beat take on his subject. The grey band of office building indicates what could be seen as an isolating reality of office life – workers toiling out of sight and out of mind – yet his electric sky and bright coloured cars and trees also flag the vibrant and reverberating world in which we live much of our compartmentalised lives.
