“Hard Edge”, 1974
Painting – Acrylic on canvas
Size(cm): 92.5×92.5x5cm
Artbank Collection
Sydney based Col Jordan (b.1935) was one of only a small group of artists to embrace optical painting to Australia in the 1960s, and his practice since that time has been primarily concerned with a continuing exploration of perception and hard-edge abstraction. This painting demonstrates many of the physical aspects of the genre, in the series of flat bright colours that transition abruptly across the canvas, as well as the geometric composition that prioritises mathematical planning over expression.