Stan De Teliga, Kydra River
STANLEY DE TELIGA (Australian, 1924- 1998)
Dusk Kyrdra 1980 Mixed Media 54cm x 36cm Acquired 1980 109325 |  |
STANLEY DE TELIGA (Australian, 1924- 1998)
Kyrdra River Landscape 1974 gouache and ink 37cm x 27cm Acquired 1980 109249. |  |
STANLEY DE TELIGA (Australian, 1924- 1998)
Stan-Henge Dam 1992 Oil on Canvas 92.3cm x 132cm Acquired 109478 |  |
Biography
Stanley de Teliga is an Australian painter best known for his bright abstracted landscapes. His quasi-cubist non-objective landscapes viewed his surroundings as multiple patches of colour where colour created the form.
De Teliga immigrated from Poland in 1926 with his parents. In 1951, after completing war service he studied at Sydney’s National Art School and tutored in art at the University of Sydney from 1954- 1961, before moving to Hobart to become the keeper of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. From 1960 to 1966 he was director of the Blaxland Gallery in Pitt Street, Sydney; he taught and was briefly head of the National Art School from 1966 to 1974 and was a senior lecturer at Alexander Mackie College and the City Art Institute.
His work is featured in collections such as the National Gallery of Australia, Parliament House, Art Galleries of New South Wales, Tasmania and Queensland.
The Artworks
One of de Teliga’s later paintings, Stanhenge Dam depicts a small dam enclosed by trees and wild-flowers. De Teliga favoured experimentation and non-figurative art and here he overlaps colourful, lozenge shaped brush strokes and plays with stippling to give the piece a distinct post-impressionistic style evocative of Van Gogh and Seurat.
De Teliga was heavily influenced by his environment and often painted the Kydra River, a tributary in the Snowy Mountains, New South Wales, which he most likely visited to fish. Kydra River at Dusk uses precise brush strokes and palette to create a more realistic, darker painting, while Kydra River Landscape has an abstract feel.
Bibliography
Heathcote, C., A Quest for Enlightenment, Macmillan, Sydney, 2007
National Portrait Gallery, 2015, “Stan de Teliga”, accessed 15 February 2023, https://www.portrait.gov.au/portraits/2015.95/stan-de-teliga