Australian Contemporary Sculpture

Overview

A sculpture is a three-dimensional work of art, created by carving, modelling, casting, weaving or constructing natural or manmade materials such as metal, glass, wood, clay or grass.

Small-scale artworks by four eminent Australian sculptors of the last 60 years are featured in this stamp issue. Inge King AM (1915–2016) and Lenton Parr AM (1924–2003) were active in Melbourne after World War II; Yvonne Koolmatrie (b. 1944) is a celebrated practitioner of traditional coil bundle weaving techniques; and Lex Namponan (b. 1971) has recently gained national attention for his witty wooden sculptures of camp dogs.

Technical specifications

Issue date: 6 July 2021
Issue withdrawal date: 31 January 2022
Denomination: $1.10 x 4
Stamp design: Sonia Young, Australia Post Design Studio
Product design: Sonia Young, Australia Post Design Studio
Paper: gummed: Tullis Russell
Paper: self-adhesive: Securpost C Print 100
Printer: EGO
Printing process: Offset lithography
Stamp size (mm): 37.5 x 26
Minisheet size (mm): 170 x 80
Perforations: 13.86 x 14.6
Sheet layout: Module of 50
FDI Postmark: Canberra ACT 2601
FDI withdrawal date: 4 August 2021

Stamps in this issue

$1.10 Lex Namponan, Smiley Blue Eye 2016

Lex Namponan (b. 1971) is from an Aurukun, Queensland family of noted wood carvers. He and others from the Apalech clan have become famous for their idiosyncratic milkwood sculptures of camp dogs. The dog, or Ku, is a sacred totem for the clan, and these compelling works, such as the laughing Smiley Blue Eye combine cultural significance with popular market appeal. The 51 x 27.2 x 70.3-centimetre sculpture is synthetic polymer paint on milkwood. It is housed in the National Gallery of Victoria and was purchased through the Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists.

$1.10 Inge King, Planet 1976–77

One of our most celebrated sculptors, German-born Inge King AM (1915–2016) worked in wood and stone before moving to steel and aluminum in 1959. Known for her monumental, abstract public sculptures, she also exhibited smaller works such as Planet, composed of shimmering stainless steel and one of three sculptures she made in the 1970s based on the celestial disc. The artwork is 53.5 x 55.1 x 18 centimetres and was purchased by the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1982.

$1.10 Lenton Parr, Rigel 1968

Like Inge King, Lenton Parr AM (1924–2003) was a member of the Melbourne-based Centre Five group, formed in 1961 to promote contemporary sculpture. In the 1950s Parr worked as assistant to renowned English sculptor Henry Moore. On his return to Australia in 1957, he began to specialise in enamelled steel sculptures representing abstracted or biomorphic presences. The uncompromising Rigel is characteristic of Parr’s small-scale “geometry of fear” work of the 1960s. It was purchased by the Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art in 1976.

$1.10 Yvonne Koolmatrie, Eel trap 2007

Yvonne Koolmatrie (b. 1944) is from Ngarrindjeri country of the lower Murray River and the Coorong of South Australia. She was first instructed in traditional coiled bundle weaving techniques using riverland sedge rushes by elder Dorothy Kartinyeri in the early 1980s. Her consummate skill in reviving this traditional artform has been recognised with a Centenary Medal (2001) and a Red Ochre Award (2016). Koolmatrie’s wide-ranging subjects include animals, the human figure, planes and hot-air balloons, as well as traditional objects such as Eel trap, which was purchased in 2008 by the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, through the Queensland Government’s Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund.