Hugh Sawrey (1919-1999) was an Australian artist best known for his prolific output of paintings of the Australian landscape, outback life and its people. This new book celebrate’s Sawrey’s equine paintings, presenting his work in the context of modern art, rather than (as previously) in the context of the ‘rustic’.
Hugh Sawrey became one of the best known painters of the Australian outback. Inspired by bush poets and his own outback experiences, his first major works were murals in Queensland pubs. He went on to paint cattle musters, pack horses, Indigenous stockmen, and outlying stations – almost always in harsh outback settings, depicted in strong, uncompromising colour. He celebrated the independence and hardiness of outback workers and the centrality of the horse in outback life.
– GLEN COOKE, “MAPPING THE MYTHIC: HUGH SAWREY’S ‘OUTBACK’”
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