Bruce Petty returns to The Corner Gallery for a brief exhibition of recent drawings.
From Thursday, 6th October to Sunday, 9th October only.
Open each day from noon to 6pm.
Opening event from 5 to 6.30pm on Thursday, 6th.
A small exhibition for friends, family and colleagues – and the occasional passer-by.
ABOUT BRUCE
Bruce was born in Melbourne in 1929 and distinguished himself as one of the great political satirists of any generation. You don’t have to agree with his political views all the time but his satirical ideas were all informed by a fierce desire to champion the underdog, the oppressed or the dispossessed.
Bruce has worked for The New Yorker, Esquire, Punch, The Bulletin, The Australian and The Age. He also won an Oscar for his animated film called Leisure in 1976. He has made many films since then including Global Haywire, which won AFI awards for Best Director, as well as for the sound work of his eldest son and film collaborator, Sam..
Bruce’s love of the “contraption” also drew him to make three dimensional sculptures, for example “Man Environment Machine,” exhibited at the World Expo in 1985 in the Australian Pavilion. He was commissioned to build working sculptures by the Law Society, Powerhouse Museum, Treasury, Film Australia, AMA- institutions whose own workings and industries were duly deconstructed and pilloried by the Petty machines, clunking satirically away in their grand foyers. Visiting CEO’s would guffaw uncomfortably as they pulled a lever saying “restructure”, only to see a sequence of cogs and pulleys cause a football boot to fall on the head of a miniature worker 10 feet away.
Petty’s early political cartoon book, Australia Fair was an inspiration for every Australian young cartoonist. His liberated freewheeling line work (inspired by Thurber and Topolski) influenced many young cartoonists who yearned for a style that did not depend on conventional draughtsmanship.