Tom Gleghorn - painterThis painting was acquired at the auction of the estate of Manoly Lascaris, partner of writer Patrick White. They were acquiring art by Gleghorn in the late 1950's and early 1960's and admired his art very much. Gleghorn was an emerging artist and this work is from 1959, the year he had his first solo exhibition. However Robert Hughes, art critic and artist, was in two minds about the quality of Gleghorn's art in a 1959 article and later in 1962 article attacked the work as "...the painting of an illiterate with good handwriting...". White retaliated described Hughes as "... not a painter at all. He is an intellectual who would like to to be one, whereas Tom is 100% artist." Patrick White changed his mind about Gleghorn but not about Robert Hughes*. Over time and in his will Patrick had donated a lot of the art they had collected to institutions such as the Art Gallery of NSW. What I find interesting about this painting is that Manoly kept it, along with other art works, to the end.
* Patrick White Letters ed. David Marr 1994 Random House |
“Untitled” 1959 oil on canvas 50x60cm
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