SANTRY, Terence (John)
Grey Day 1963

Oil on board
signed and dated lr Santry 1963
80 x 105.5  cm

Exhibited Dominion Galleries, Sydney, 1965 ref 791 (label attached verso). Libby Edwards Galleries, Melbourne (label attached verso). Private collection, Melbourne Verso; signed and inscribed verso: Grey Day/ John Santry, 80 x 105.5 cm

Comments: The painting depicts Campbell’s Cove (off Sydney Cove) looking north east towards Kirribilli. Interestingly the view excludes the Harbour Bridge which is immediately to the left of the view. Hickson Road has single and double decker buses queued awaiting the peak hour. Campbell’s Cove is shown with the old Water Police morgue nearest the road and to the right the jetties, slipways and workshops of the Water Police and Customs Patrol. The long building in the foreground appears to be a public toilet.

These features seem to be most appropriate for inclusion by Santry who was a Realist artist. Above the cutting and along the foreshore is Dawes Point Reserve, split by Hickson Road. Admiralty House is in the middle distance. Pinchgut is to the right. At the extreme right the artist has included the half-built Sydney Opera House on Bennnelong Point.

Santry was teaching drawing in the Architecture Department at Sydney University at the time of painting Grey Day. Many of the architecture students actively supported the architect of the Opera House’s, Joern Utzon. They took part in protests during Utzon’s dispute with the NSW State Government.

$ 9500 including GST

Enquire about this work >

< Back