Brought to Light Australian Art 1850-1965

methodically searches for harmony within the natural world. Northern Queensland held compelling interest for him and for many years he sited his life and travels above the Tropic of Capricorn. During the 1960s, while living at Yorkeys Knob near Cairns, he produced a body of work that became the catalyst for decades of painting to follow. A contemporary writer described his paintings as: phrased with calculated repetition, a pictorial litany which reveals the pulse of life in the tropics. Crooke paints measured essays in light, harmony and duration, always seeking to tap into moments of compelling inertia.1 Crookes obsession with controlled composition contributed to the sense of hand of the panning camera. It announces that, despite the boredom and isolation of the many days that have gone before, nature will burst forth with new-found enthusiasm to announce another day. Crooke was attracted to the simplicity of life in remote settlements like Normanton with its accompanying unrelenting heat. He was mesmerised by the silence of isolation and the individuals who chose to endure such extremes.12 At the heart of this painting is a small, neatly framed and brightly lit landscape. It does not have the mystery of Crookes brooding interiors (such as Girl embroidering 1962-3, QAG) but is unequivocally open and uncluttered. lethargy or 'wind-down' so evident in the human characters that inhabit his paintings. His figures are not the gently modelled forms of the early Renaissance artists he admired, but rather show a tendency towards Pre-Renaissance stylisation. In Sunrise, Albion Hotel, Normanton, the figures inhabit an architectonic environment that has also entrapped the viewer, caught somewhere in the depths of interior darkness. Despite this calculated construction, Crookes figures are not self- conscious about their entrenchment in everyday activity; they are, in fact, the bit players in a narrative of greater impact. Sunrise, Albion Hotel, Normanton captures a moment in time caught by the gentle In Sunrise, Albion Hotel, Normanton, the artist uses his most important ingredient — light. Crooke believed that through the sensation of light the painter could imbue a subject with emotional inspiration capable of transcending the commonplace. Conceptually, this may be reminiscent of the seventeenth-century Dutch painter Jan Vermeers interiors where focused light subverts the mundane aspects of domesticity. However, Crooke preferred to acknowledge and emphasise the seductive role of his illuminant: The device of looking out from darkness into light is not new— it is the natural desire of the observer... In painting this way I am really expressing my simple philosophy of the observer — a sort of humble wonder at the Left Ray Crooke Girl embroidering 1962-63 Oil over tempera on composition board 76.2 X 106.8cm Purchased 1963 Queensland Art Gallery Facing page Ray Crooke Australia b.1922 Sunrise, Albion Hotel, Normanton 1962 Oil over tempera on composition board 76.5 X121.7cm Purchased 1962 Queensland Art Gallery excitement of natural phenomena, seeing all life from a panoramic landscape to a blade of grass.13 Repetition was crucial to Crooke in his resolution of visual conundrums and it is not uncharacteristic that he chose to use a severely restricted palette in Sunrise, Albion Hotel, Normanton. In this way he was able not only to maintain a sense of ordered disassociation from his much loved environment, but also gain a fuller understanding of a carefully selected group of pigments. The physical intimacy with colour that resulted from this understanding was perceived by Crooke as a crucial element in his search for visual and emotional harmony in his painting. During his time at Yorkeys Knob Crooke wrote: There seems to have been a period of activity in the north some seventy years ago when man did find order; perhaps he was not so dependent upon the city as today and, driven by the search for gold and other minerals, was more adventurous, more of a pioneer. Whatever it was, what remains of it fascinates me.14 Despite the apparent disparity in their approaches, Arthur Evan Read and Ray Crooke shared that fascination. Although Crooke may generally 'be associated with the environment of tropical Australia', his paintings, like those of Russell Drysdale and Sidney Nolan, also encompassed the desolation of the northern interior.15 Read fitted the 'tropical' tag more closely but retained a strong interest in the human culture that helped shape the character of his landscapes. Unlike many contemporary artists from the tropics, who argue in their work that the concept of place is now detached from geography, Read and Crooke consciously selected their working environments and chose to position themselves north of Capricorn.16 Elizabeth Bates Is an education officer at the Queensland Art Gallery. 256 BROUGHT TO LIG HT: Australian Art 1850-1965