Colin Jordan, Intruder

COLIN JORDAN (Australian, 1935-) The Intruder, 1974 Synthetic polymer paint on canvas 51cm x 50.7 cm Acquired September 1974 #Inventory/Catalogue No.109212

Biography:

An artist and teacher, Colin Jordan is best known for his colour field painting, geometric abstraction, and abstract sculptures.

With no formal training in art, Jordan initially worked as a clerk in a bank before completing teacher training at Balmain Teachers College in 1954- 1955. He graduated from Sydney University with a Bachelor of Arts in English and History in 1963 and moved to Wollongong as a teacher the same year. In 1965 he was sent an exhibition catalogue from the Museum of Modern Art, New York, for ‘The Responsive Eye’. An exhibition of perceptual and optical art, the catalogue inspired Jordan to work in the style of op art and geometric abstraction.^[1] He used newly available acrylic paint to create shaped canvases and sculptures in intense colours and simplified forms.

An educator throughout, Jordan lectured at the Wollongong Institute of Education from 1970- 1974 and moved back to Sydney to take up the assistant director position at the City Art Institute from 1982-1987 and as Professor and Associate Dean at the College of Fine Arts, New South Wales from 1991- 1994. He has exhibited widely nationally and internationally and his works are held in multiple collections across Australia and overseas. He lives and works in Sydney.

The artwork:

Jordan’s work explores the partnership between colour and geometry, and he seeks to explore the visual ambiguities created by the interaction of geometric forms: the “constant enticement to try and solve the unsolvable”.^[2] Despite being an early work, “The Intruder” is a fine example of Jordan’s use of bright colour and pattern, and he artfully uses text to imply the presence of an unwanted ‘intruder’.

Bibliography

Karabenick, J., Geoform: Col Jordan, accessed 15th February 2023, https://geoform.net/artists/col-jordan/