A poet of the brush – Eulogy for John Olsen
I begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land on which we met. I pay my respect to their Elders past, present, and emerging.
I note from Louise’s comments that great art makes you feel full of possibilities. We’re going to give Australians a possibility to change the country for the better in the last quarter by voting Yes in the referendum that will be coming up.
Of all the gifts John Olsen gave us, the greatest was persuading us to see Australia with fresh eyes. To behold this landscape – in all its familiarity and extraordinary antiquity – and see it in a new light.
John summed it up himself in 2016 at the opening of a retrospective on a career that, for most of us, was already in its maturity by the time we were born. And I quote:
“We’ve got the richness of emptiness which for some reason was known as the dead heart. That’s a lie. That’s not true. It’s teeming with life. And this kind of thing is an exciting thing. To be an Australian artist is to be an explorer.”
Carrying within him the echoes of this continent’s millennia of art, John and his mind’s eye explored from the air, but even from the greatest altitudes he could still peer below the surface and find the truth that lay beneath the literal.
He lifted himself even higher and delved ever deeper, an explorer whose maps were traced with music and philosophy and poetry. And what a wonderful send off today this is.
And this – all of this – just kept feeding John’s inner richness to the point where it overflowed, pouring through his fingertips and the brush that was, in itself, such a perfect, intimate extension of the man.
By the time he was done, that once blank stretch of canvas burst with life and emotion, the familiar exploded and reassembled into something remarkable in its newness.
He created art during the highs; if someone knew how to ride the crests of life’s happiness, it was John Olsen. And then, during those periods when the light grew dimmer, he still went in search of his spark.
What also shone brightly with him was his mentorship of young artists.
With a generosity that was every bit as bountiful as his charisma, John set about building a future that would extend far beyond even his long and remarkable life – a future for Australian art through the young artists striving to find their way.
The education John gave went far beyond the intricacies of technique, helping them build a cultural hinterland for themselves. John understood that art is never just the picture, and that it needs rich soil to feed its roots.
And how he kept replenishing it, like a grand old tree rising above the forest canopy, bestowing its leaves on the earth below in a never ending cascade of colour.
Now the tree has fallen.
John Olsen leaves a space but, true to form, he saw to it that it would be filled with colour and a light as bright as that twinkle in his eye.
We mourn an extraordinary Australian, an Australian who has lifted up this nation. This poet of the brush. But more than anything, we celebrate him, and we hold on to the gift he gave us.
May John Olsen rest in peace.