Artist Horace Brodzky
Accession number 2014-11
Brodzky was an Australian-born artist and writer most of whose work was created in London and New York. He was one of the first Australian artists to work in the modernist style of the 20th century and he was also the first Australian to be exhibited at the Venice Biennale (1912). His work included paintings, drawings and linocuts. He was a pioneer of linocut printmaking in Britain and his prints are a strong and important aspect of his oeuvre. His graphics were used to illustrated the literary works of Ezra Pound, Eugene O’Neill, Upton Sinclair and Theodore Dreisler.
He was an associate in his early career of many leading artists working in Britain of his period, including Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Mark Gertler, and members of the Vorticism movement. From 1914 he was involved with the New English Art Club and the London Group, gradually developing a loose amalgam of Fauve and Post-Impressionist techniques. He became a close friend of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and, following his untimely death in 1915, he published his biography. After World War I Brodzky returned to New York. There he worked as a painter, printmaker, theatre designer and journalist for eight years, exhibiting with the Temporary Group. In 1923 he returned to London, where he continued to paint until his death. Despite his many journeys and associations, he experienced financial challenges in later life as it proved hard to find a market for his work. He lived just long enough to see a revival of interest in his work.
The ‘Supper at Emmaus’ comes at the end of a journey and depicts the moment of realisation that the one who had been lost and mourned had in fact been with the travellers throughout their journey. As a result, the realisation comes that what we seek may be with us on the journey, rather than awaiting us at the end. This realisation results in a new journey for the travellers and a return to their people and purpose.
