Yarra 1996

Summary

This richly textured painting depicts the Yarra River and the city around the Arts Centre from an aerial perspective. The gestural painting technique not only represents the frenetic flow of the river but also indicates the significance of the Yarra to the city’s identity and history. However, as with all of Senbergs’ work, the painting also provides a deeper level of thought and intent. It attempts to reflect the artist’s broader concerns related to the encroachment of industrialisation at the expense of the landscape and to people’s relationship with the environment. Jan Senbergs (b.1939) was born in Latvia and arrived in Australia in 1950. He is a self-taught painter and printmaker based in Melbourne. He held his first exhibition in Melbourne in 1960 and four years later his painting, A Detached Figure, was bought from Georges Invitation Art Prize exhibition for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas. He has exhibited in several international shows and is represented in national gallery collections including the Australian National Gallery and Museum of Modern Art in New York.