Friend and mentor, artist John Howley.

David Bradtke
Artist and Educator in Art and Design.
I met John Howley in 1971 as an Art student at Prahran College of
Advanced Education where he lectured in Painting. He stood out
from the mainstream as an artist with a unique talent and an
imaginative vision.
John took a less intellectual approach than those around him who
drew upon abstract art itself as subject matter under the strong
influence of the American Critic, Clement Greenberg.
John had a unique cognizance of the world around him in all its
facets. His inner sensibilities and vast imagination can be one of
great drama and at other times, of subtle and transient fragility. A
primary coloured, robotic storm trooper can quickly fade as, like a
magician, John delivers a flourish with a few gestural brush strokes
and gives form to a bird in flight above a vase of flowers.

John had a strong background in painting under the tutelage of

Murray Griffin, having attended The National Gallery Art School in
Melbourne between 1949 and 1954. Those years laid a foundation
upon which he investigated the natural and constructed
environment. His studies of the works of the great European
masters from the Renaissance, Baroque and German Expressionism
had a profound influence on his work.
The speeches of artist Ian Sime were a catalyst for the young John
Howley to explore and investigate new ways of viewing the world
through his painting.

Sime was an outspoken character who delivered impassioned

speeches about Modern Art, the New York School of Abstract
Expressionism and the Surrealist works of Max Ernst and Roberto
Matta at The Mirka Caf.
In 1954, John had his first show as part of the Group Four artists at
The Victorian Artists Society with fellow painters Lawrence Daws,
Donald Laycock and Clifton Pugh.
During the 1960s John travelled extensively through Europe for
three years followed by two in Israel.
In Jerusalem and Tel Aviv he staged several exhibitions. Rachel
Schwarz who was to later become his wife curated his shows at The
Ben Yehuda Gallery in Tel Aviv. His paintings of planet like spheres
galvanized a new and dynamic direction in his work. He drew on the
cultural struggles and political turmoil in the Middle East together
with the vibrant colour and rhythms of the city below his roof top
studio. The spheres were to develop into figurative images in
Australia and evolved by applying multi coloured patches of paint
during the early stages of the painting process.
On his return from Israel, Combat Parade was painted in 1970 in his
Wellington St studio in St Kilda.

This painting was created directly onto ply panels in two days.
There was no underpainting, no mixing of colours or tones. Paint
was used directly from the cans. Spoked wheels appeared as
symbols that were to recur in future works. I liked the sense of
movement they created across the picture.
As a student residing in his house, I was enthralled watching John at
work in his studio as paintings were produced for several exhibitions
around the country.

On a freshly prepared canvas he would rapidly build and overlay

areas of strong and contrasting colour. Dynamic gestural lines were
often added which radiated great energy. From time to time he
would sit back to contemplate what had just occurred. From a
maelstrom of apparent chaos, figures and otherworldly forms
evolved. In his work there is always a balance between intuitive
gesture and a considered definition, which results in a wellstructured and lively composition.
My time living with Johns family was a colourful and enriching
experience and shaped who I am today. I met many significant
artists from Australia and abroad and was fortunate to be present
when large groups of visiting Israeli musicians took out their guitars,
played folk music, sang and danced.

Wondrous artworks result from what he refers to as his psychic

furnace. They express his vision of our primal beginnings when
humans first lifted their gaze to contemplate the stars and question
the nature of existence. A recurring motif in his work is concerned
with tribal mythologies and structured meaning through ritual. The
creation of effigies, symbols and totems follow suggesting a
communication with ancestors and gods.
Howley combines new technologies with his innate sense of the
theatrical. Through his own visual language he creates a hybrid
world from invented artifacts and mythological heroes and clothes
them in humorous guises.
Frequently within the drama a joker lurks ready to spring into action
and shatter the illusion.

Algebra Tompkin and the Eternity Box 1982

I was commissioned to paint a picture on the topic of Man and

Technology. I wished to set up a possible scene representing a
dialogue between a schoolboy and an android. My concern about
where technology might lead us made me paint an encounter with
hints of uncertainties and possible dangers but also expressing a
certain benevolence. I chose classical realism to make the scene
more solemn and timeless.
I dont have an overall theme in my painting. Each work generates
its own theme or story through the movement of the paint. To
improvise freely with an event or style is for me important and
necessary. In the process I attach my vulnerability at the point of a
brush always in the hope of renewing my vision.
My work is figurative, however I transform and reshape the visual
environment into an alternative and dramatized world with a highly
individualized poetic freedom.
I find nature to be a great source of inspiration but I like to
reconfigure the elements of nature on my own terms.
Just as in music where there are improvisational musicians - I
hasten to add, I am one of them - so it is also in art there is a special
gift or a need to put shape into instant impulses. Again the parallel
to music: I have friends who can play music only with the help of a
notation. I never learned to read the notes - to the great
disappointment of my cellist father and mother. So with friends we
come together and I admire their skill of 'reading' and they admire
my ability to make up music instantly whilst playing. In my case it is
the same with painting. I am always curious about new forms,
compositions, and topics. Very often I abandon a half-finished
painting because one part of the canvas leads me to a totally new
picture. However, for me the most important and absolutely
necessary thing for an artist is their original inner vision.
In his large Williamstown studio John painted The Mask as a Self
Portrait in 1997.

A large electrified sphere emerges from a geometric environment

that can be read as an industrial complex. A smoking dart like head
is poised to shoot towards the masked figure to the right.
There are many intersecting diagonals in this painting, which give a
feel of anxiety and tension. The masked figure is a self-portrait. It
shows the evolution of identity with a mask being a symbol of ones
individuality when younger. This mask is perhaps a facade that
shields the real John Howley. The mask can be viewed as a chrysalis
which contains a being undergoing transformation.
The portrait contains a screen with a warship, which during the
painting process, grew out of his intuitive improvisation. The screen
is a recurring image in many of Johns paintings. We all view a
perceived reality through a screen everyday. For example, computer
and television screens.
Screens extend upon the images of the quasi-human robotic figures
that can be seen throughout Johns career and show other
simultaneous realities.

Occasionally Howley shifts his gaze to the world of natural form and
produces naturalistic works based on the more traditional areas of
portraiture, landscape and still life. These investigations become a
springboard for his imagination to take flight once again and
alternative realities are created with fresh energy and vision.

Links.
John Howleys work can be seen in many major Australian
galleries and Institutions.
Website http://johnhowley.com/
A short documentary video. Vimeo
John Howley : Art and Life written by Gavin Fry published by
Edmund & Alexander 2013.
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