Variations on a Theme

The principle of repetition was utilised by Gordon Walters (1919-1995) to refine a visual language that he articulated through geometric forms. Variations on a Theme brings together a focused group of works from the Gordon Walters Estate loan collection held at Dunedin Public Art Gallery to trace the development of aspects of Walters’ geometric language from preparatory collages and gouache studies to finished paintings.

In the later phase of his career, Walters was dedicated to a deeper inquiry into forms and ideas that were first established in his work decades earlier. Geometric constructions, overlapping transparencies, and ‘en abyme’ compositions, in which a work is reflected within itself, are investigated through repetition and rearrangement. Walters’ preparatory collages and gouache studies, which were not intended to be read as finished works, provided an approach by which he could revisit concepts and work through a range of slight variations. The group of works in Variations on a Theme highlights Gordon Walters’ commitment to the potential of form, his exacting methodology, and the refinement of his modernist vision.