The University of Queensland

James Gleeson

The Peregian Codex superbly features the drawings made by James Gleeson while on holiday with his life-long partner, Frank O'Keefe, at Peregian Beach, on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland from December 1982 to January 1983.

Having retired from a very public life in the art world from the late 1970s and early 1980s, Australian and international, Gleeson embarked on a very intense period of drawing, using the surrealist technique of decalcomania, collage, charcoal and pencil. These exquisite drawings became a prelude to his late paintings from 1983.

The relaxed lifestyle allowed Gleeson to pursue his art career without interruptions and these works formed the basis of The Peregian Codex.

Lou Klepac, art historian, publisher of The Beagle Press and Chairman of the Gleeson/O'Keefe Foundation, worked tirelessly to see the eventual publication of the drawings come to fruition.

He writes:
What is special about this suite of works is the youthful enthusiasm which they reflect. There is a sense of happy abandon, where the artist seems relaxed allowing the creative flow to take its course.^[1]

He adds:
The series appears to be effortless, but all have a thread running through them, a mood which is not dependent on the materials Gleeson has used to create them. There is a sense of fun, even humour, behind these original and unpredictable images, which are highly sophisticated and eye catching works.^[2]

1.   Klepac, Lou. James Gleeson: The Peregian Codex, Sydney: The Beagle Press, 2008, p.16

2.   Ibid

JAMES TIMOTHY GLEESON

James Timothy Gleeson, 1915-2008, was one of Australia’s most eminent and influential artists, an acclaimed art critic for The Sun, and author of works on Australian art and artists. Born in Hornsby, Sydney in 1915 to Isabella Catherine (neé Lightfoot) and James Gleeson, he was educated at East Sydney Technical College and Sydney Teacher’s College.

Gleeson had extensive solo and group exhibitions, embracing surrealism par excellence throughout his distinguished career, beginning with his debut exhibition at the Inaugural Contemporary Art Society in Melbourne in 1939. His work in that exhibition, The Attitude of Lightening towards a Lady-Mountain [1939, oil on canvas], clearly reflected the powerful influence of Salvador Dali on Gleeson.

..... but the evidence it gave of the authentic vision of James Gleeson was just as unmistakable. It was a work which demanded to be taken into account as a Surrealist proposition of a particularly poetic kind, executed by an artist who .... had internalised its precepts ardently. [1]

In Gleeson’s article, "What is Surrealism?" published in Art in Australia in 1940, he outlined the impact of the Surrealist Movement and the aims and methods of his fellow exhibitors of the Contemporary Art Society in Sydney and Melbourne. These included Max Ebert, Albert Tucker and Geoffrey Graham.

Surrealism is a word that is applied to those forms of creative art which are evolved, not from the conscious mind, but from the deeper recesses of the sub-conscious. The theory of surrealism is based upon a belief that the logical mind, with its prescribed formulas of thought, is incapable of expressing the entire range of human experience and aspiration. To express such a range, the complete mechanism of the human mind must be utilised. [2]

He concluded:

In surrealism the fire of the art and the ice of science have met, and from the synthesis, mankind has been endowed with a powerful new weapon for its combat against darkness and evil.[3]

Following a successful career as an art critic, curator and art historian, Gleeson from the 1980s devoted his time entirely to painting large works reflecting a superbly creative and imaginative mind. He died in 2008.

1.   James, Bruce, Australian Surrealism: The Agapitos/Wilson Collection, Roseville, NSW: The Beagle Press, 2003, p.65

2.   Gleeson, James, "What is Surrealism?", Art in Australia, November 25th, 1940, p.27

3.   Ibid, p. 30

  Image Gallery