Courtesy: The artist
 

The following works were loaned to QAGOMA by the artist from his personal collection for display in ‘Joe Furlonger: Horizons’.

In addition to the works pictured below, ‘Palm Beach suite’ 1990 (20 etchings printed in black ink from one plate) and the ‘Gold Coast Indy’ series 1992 [Chicane, Driver, Gold Coast Indy, Leaving the pits, Mechanics, Pit crew, Pits, Racing cars, Refueling, Scotch/Target pits] (Hard-ground etching drypoint / 10 sheets) also featured in the exhibition courtesy of Furlonger.

Circus horse and rider 2005

In Australia, traditional circuses have become somewhat passé and even considered politically incorrect due to their association with the use of animals as entertainment. However, in France, with its own national school devoted to the subject, circus continues to be celebrated as an elemental form of theatre.

Encouraged by his gallerist, Ray Hughes, who had visited the Winter Circus in Paris in 2004, Furlonger again travelled with his family to France, where his wife had obtained a role as a violinist in the Winter Circus orchestra. Over many visits to the circus, Furlonger dashed off several preliminary drawings. For his paintings of the subject, he used the quick-drying acrylic pigments that enabled him to depict more freely the movement and pace of the performances. Circus horse and rider captures the challenge of drawing the circus’s colour, light, and theatrical figures in motion.

Driving against speeding cars 1992–93

Furlonger’s Gold Coast Indy works have a direct parallel to the Italian futurists of the early twentieth century, who celebrated speed, new technology and subjects such as the car, the aeroplane and the industrial city. The motor car and its glamourous associations with adventure and sport are associations perpetuated today through advertising and the motor-racing world circuit. Furlonger captures the energy, toil, movement and visual rhythms of the experience.

Study for Bribie Island Passage I 2010

That Furlonger travelled through South-East Asia and China provides insights into his landscape composition and allusion to detail with calligraphic, rhythmic and decisive brushstrokes. Intrigued by reclusive expatriate artist Ian Fairweather (who, in later life, lived and painted on Bribie Island) and the time he spent in China in the 1930s, Furlonger holds Fairweather’s art in high regard. Similarities exist in each artist’s approach: an interest in travel, particularly in Asia; a restlessness in exploring differing styles and motifs; and a light layering technique of muted pigments, used to build up an image.

Balonne in flood 2012

Furlonger’s greatest landscape breakthrough came with his change from oil paints – which were difficult to use en plein air and slow to dry – to acrylic ones. His solution was to use pigments and a binder (PVA glue) and to apply the mix on barely primed canvas. The more practical medium allowed him to use bigger canvases that could be rolled and unrolled, and to work on site, mixing as he painted, pouring water and glue to the desired consistency.

This new process freed him up; his paintings were less restrained, and he could apply precise colour selections in thin layers, accenting them with sensuous line work. This approach enabled him to capture, in this painting, a series of rapid impressions of the turbulent, flooded Balonne River in south-west Queensland.

Pecan plantings, East Moree 2021

Furlonger is often interested in the human presence on the landscape as much as any natural feature in it. He has spoken about ‘ploughing’ his canvases, where he scrapes the paint off or over his canvases, working their surfaces as a farmer works the soil:

I’m interested in the half and half thing, the change from virgin scrub to agriculture. I’m intrigued by that. The truth is that agriculture makes these really nice patterns.

Little splits 2006

Inspired by visits to European circuses, Furlonger produced a series of maquette-sized bronze works depicting circus animals and performers, such as Little splits 2006 (pictured here from two angles).

Joe Furlonger / Australia b.1952 / Little splits 2006 / Bronze / 24 x 31.5 x 21cm / Courtesy and © Joe Furlonger / Photograph: John Downs Photography

Further acknowledgments
 

QAGOMA gratefully acknowledges the lenders whose contributions enriched ‘Horizons’. A fully illustrated ‘Joe Furlonger: Horizons’ list of works can be viewed in the accompanying exhibition catalogue, available at the QAGOMA Store.

Mother and child (after Bellini) 1989
Oil on canvas
91.4 x 60.8cm
Private collection, Brisbane

‘Palm Beach suite’ 1990
20 etchings printed in black ink from one plate
28 x 38cm (each, sheet)
Courtesy: The artist

Driver, Pennzoil 1992
Oil on canvas
91.5 x 101.5cm
Gift of Joe Furlonger and Ray Hughes Gallery 1993
Collection: HOTA Gallery, Gold Coast

‘Gold Coast Indy’ series 1992
[Chicane, Driver, Gold Coast Indy, Leaving the pits, Mechanics, Pit crew, Pits, Racing cars, Refueling, Scotch/Target pits]
Hard-ground etching drypoint
Ten sheets: 38.5 x 46.5cm (each, sheet)
Courtesy: The artist

Driver & highrise 1993
Oil on canvas
9 x 28.5cm
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program by Win Schubert 2005
Collection: HOTA Gallery, Gold Coast

Orange team 1993
Oil on canvas
58 x 83cm
Collection: HOTA Gallery, Gold Coast

Artist in Residence 1996
Acrylic-bound pigment on linen
Diptych: 181 x 245cm (overall)
Purchased 1996
Collection: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Moreton Bay mud flats 2000
Pigment and synthetic polymer bond on linen
198 x 133cm
Purchased 2013
Collection: The University of Queensland, Brisbane

Anzac Bridge 2001
Synthetic polymer paint on canvas
121.5 x 91.2 cm
Gift of Timothy North and Denise Cuthbert through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2012
Collection: The University of Queensland, Brisbane

with Errol Barnes (potter)
Australia b.1941
Arcadian Valley landscape 2003
Earthenware pot, wheelthrown
with underglazes
56.5 x 23cm
Purchased 2003
QUT Art Collection, Brisbane

with Errol Barnes (potter)
Australia b.1941
Jar (Central Queensland landscape) 2003
Ceramic
17 x 27cm
Collection: Don O’Rorke

with Errol Barnes (potter)
Australia b.1941
Jar (Central Queensland landscape) 2003
Ceramic
23 x 27cm
Collection: Don O’Rorke

Harlequin juggling 2005
Acrylic-bound pigment on canvas
94 x 87cm
Private collection, Brisbane

Lion II 2006
Bronze
28.5 x 15.5 x 50.8cm
Private collection, Brisbane

Spiky man 2006
Bronze
168 x 180cm
Collection: James Baker

Bridge to Bribie Island 2010
Acrylic-bound pigment on canvas
Triptych: 123 x 609cm (overall)
Collection: James and Jacqui Erskine

Study for Bribie Island Passage II 2010
Acrylic-bound pigment on linen
60 x 76.2cm
Collection: Drs David and Christine Campbell

Western Queensland 2010
Acrylic-bound pigment on linen
83.4 x 101.3cm
Private collection, Brisbane

The Coral Sea 2016
Acrylic-bound pigment on linen
83.2 x 91cm
Private collection, Brisbane

2 fishers at anchor 2017
Acrylic-bound pigment on linen
81.7 x 90.8cm
Private collection, Brisbane

Brolga 2017
Acrylic-bound pigment on linen
80.5 x 120.4cm
Collection: Christine and Robert Dagworthy AM

Samford Valley landscape 2018
Acrylic-bound pigment on linen
61 x 76.2cm
Private collection, Brisbane

Self portrait at 66 2019
Acrylic-bound pigment on linen
49.3 x 49.3cm
Private collection, Brisbane

View towards Mt. Barney 2019
Acrylic-bound pigment on linen
84 x 137.3cm
Purchased 2019
QUT Art Collection, Brisbane

Cecil Plains 2021
Acrylic-bound pigment on linen
84 x 84cm
Private collection, Brisbane

Chinchilla 2021
Acrylic-bound pigment on linen
51 x 107cm
ACU Art Collection

Scenic Rim view 2021
Acrylic-bound pigment on linen
66 x 152.5cm
Private collection, Brisbane