Sense of Place

Frank Hodgkinson (1919-2001) was one of Australia's most prolific abstract painters and illustrators. This exhibition explores the artist's affiliation to Arnhem Land, its Indigenous cultures and rock art. It draws on paintings and illustrations produced in the 1980s and 1990s when Hodgkinson repeatedly travelled to the Top End where he often spent many weeks in Kakadu and Arnhem Land.

Hodgkinson was instrumental in setting up the annual Artists Camps together with the then director of Museums and Galleries of the Northern Territory, Dr Colin Jack Hinton-Jack, in which Hodgkinson and many of contemporaries would participate annually for over then years. As a result of his interest in tribal culture in Australia and New Guinea and the origins of humanity Hodgkinson created an extensive series of abstract paintings he called the "Beginnings series".

The exhibition features a selection of these which are at the centre of this exhibition. Part of the display are also selected original illustrations of his famous published diaries 'Kakadu and the Arnhemlanders' and 'Sepik Diary'.