Francis Roderick Kemp AO, OBE, ( Eaglehawk, 3 July 1908 - Melbourne 14 September 1987), known as Roger, was one of Australia's foremost practitioners of transcendental abstraction. Kemp developed a system of symbols and motifs which were deployed to develop a method of manifesting creativity at a fundamental level, striving in particular to explain humanities place in a universal order.

Youth

Francis Roderick Kemp was born on 3 July 1908, in California Gully, Eaglehawk. His father, Frank Kemp, worked at a gold mine, and his mother, Rebecca Kemp, raised the family. Both the Kemps and Harveys were devout Methodists and proud Cornish people. In 1913 the family moved to Melbourne after a mining accident. In late February 1920 Roger's father was struck by a tram and was pronounced dead on arrival when Roger was 12 years old.Christopher Heathcote, The Quest for Enlightenment: The Art of Roger Kemp, 2007

Work

At twenty-one Kemp took his first formal steps to becoming an artist by taking classes in drawing at the National Gallery Art School stationed next to the National Gallery of Victoria. In 1932 Kemp enrolled into the Working Men's College, briefly studying commercial art before returning to the National Gallery Art School for classes in painting from 1933 to 1935. Although he sold no works, Kemp's first solo exhibition at the

Velasquez Gallery Velasquez Gallery, also known as Velasquez Gallery at Tye's, and later Tye's Art Gallery, was a Melbourne art gallery that showed contemporary traditional, and later, modernist Australian art, including some sculpture and prints, as well as Austra ...

in Melbourne in June 1945 drew interest. He went on to win the

McCaughey Prize The John McCaughey Prize, also known as the John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize, McCaughey Prize, McCaughey Art Prize or McCaughey Art Award, is an Australian art prize awarded to an artist or artists, under which the National Gallery of Victoria ...

in 1961, the Georges Invitation art prize and the Transfield Art Prize in 1965 and the Blake Prize in 1968 and 1970. Kemp was at the forefront of abstract expressionism in Australia which saw resistance from the

Antipodean In geography, the antipode () of any spot on Earth is the point on Earth's surface diametrically opposite to it. A pair of points ''antipodal'' () to each other are situated such that a straight line connecting the two would pass through Ear ...

movement, an art collective who asserted the importance of Australian figurative art over abstraction expression.

Personal life

In 1943, he married Edna Merle McCrohan, an art teacher; the couple had four daughters, including Jenny, a playwright. He died in Sandringham in 1987.

Reception

Kemp's first solo show, held at

, received varying reviews, with J. S. MacDonald, a vocal opponent of Modernism, roundly condemning it in ''The Age,''

“Roger Kemp seems to hold that anything but representation is the role of representation. He tells one In depictive terms, or endeavours to, about things which another medium than paint could better describe. But, as one of the public, this writer would rather be told, in words, all about the ''Development of Rotundity In Orchestration'', or have it played to him (on a hurdy-gurdy exhumed for the occasion). Static motion is another condition not so good on canvas. Titles concocted so laboriously are hard to paint up to, and Mr. Kemp just cannot make it. The vogue he has elected to follow and conform to is fading; a very realistic world is weary of it.”

while Alan McCulloch, who was to become a significant supporter of Kemp, was more favourable in the Argus;

“A fantasia of flying forms and clamorous colour at the Velasquez Gallery introduces the work of Roger Kemp. Diagonal, rather well proportioned shapes in lively pinks, greens, indigo blues, iron greys, and ochre, give a feeling of violent movement to Mr Kemp's pictures. He has a strong emotional reaction to colour and to the general confusion of current affairs, but the titles to his paintings, viz, "Subjective Objectivity," "Development of Rotundity in Orchestration," &c, have no other meaning whatsoever.”

Legacy

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Dame Elisabeth Joy Murdoch, Lady Murdoch (née Greene; 8 February 1909 – 5 December 2012), also known as Elisabeth, Lady Murdoch, was an Australian philanthropist and matriarch of the Murdoch family. She was the widow of Australian news ...

commissioned several tapestries of some of Kemp's works. They are on permanent display at the great hall of the National Gallery of Victoria. They are exhibited alongside the stained-glass ceiling, which was created by his contemporary Leonard French, and are considered some of the most identifiable works at the NGV. A retrospective was held at the Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia, commemorating his life and career in 2019.

References

External links

Roger KempRoger Kemp auction recordRoger Kemp in National Gallery of AustraliaEntry in Australian Dictionary of Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kemp, Roger 1908 births 1987 deaths Australian people of Cornish descent 20th-century Australian painters 20th-century Australian male artists Blake Prize for Religious Art winners Australian male painters National Gallery of Victoria Art School alumni People from Bendigo Artists from Victoria (Australia)