Publisher: Negative Press, Texts: Sue Cramer, Lizzie Boon, Trent Walter, ISBN: 9780645050790, Format: Paperback 24 x 17cm, 84pp
Known predominantly as a painter, John Nixon was also an inventive and prolific printmaker. From 1982–2020, Nixon produced over 500 printed images in relief, intaglio, stencil and planographic processes. From 2015 till his passing in 2020, Nixon worked with printer/publisher Negative Press. This publication documents two exhibitions, featuring works made from across the artists career, alongside personal responses to the prints by Sue Cramer, Elizabeth Boon and Trent Walter.
John Nixon was a seminal figure in contemporary Australian abstraction. From 1968, his work was dedicated to the on-going experimentation, analysis and development of radical modernism, minimalism, the monochrome, constructivism, non-objective art and the ready-made; which were key reference points in his work. Experimental Painting Workshop (EPW), which the artist named in 1990, but which covers works dating back to 1968, formed the basis of Nixon’s rigorous and long-standing intellectual investigation into the making of art, which over time expanded to encompass not only painting, but collage, photography, video, dance and experimental music performance.