Three Well Known Australians in Casterton

Three Well Known Australians comes to Portland and Casterton

Martin’s Shaw’s abstract painting, Three Well-known Australians, has been travelling Australia for so long that during that time Australians have witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall, the launch of Medicare, the first ever episode of The Simpsons, Michael Schumacher making his Formula One debut, the building of the Sydney Harbour Tunnel and the launch of Facebook and X (previously Twitter).

Shaw painted the piece, which depicts three abstract figures – a headless blue person, a seated red person and a green person holding an umbrella against a yellow background, over forty years ago in 1982 with three personalities in mind. He has never revealed who those personalities are.

Since 1983 the painting has toured Australia and invites people to guess who they think the Australians might be. The painting is displayed alongside letters and visitor books containing the guesses of thousands of visitors to the exhibition from classes of school groups right through to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who made several guesses one of which was that all three figures represent the introduction of colour to Australian television with the umbrella depicting the black and white world!

The painting will be exhibited in the Portland Arts Centre from Friday 8 August until Thursday 28 August when it will travel to Casterton. It will be displayed in Casterton from Monday 1 September through to Thursday 18 September. Following its time in the Glenelg Shire the exhibition will travel to Warrnambool.

 

When

Location

Casterton Town Hall, 71 Henty Street, Casterton, 3311, View Map