Vale Sydney Ball

Written by: Article courtesy of ArtsHub

Adelaide-born painter Sydney Ball has died aged 83.

Ball was born in 1933, and moved to New York in 1962 where he enrolled at the Art Students League and studied under Theodoros Stamos. It was a time when he was exposed to the rise of the Abstract Expressionist movement and rubbed shoulders with Mark Rothko, Lee Krasner, Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell and Willem de Kooning.

Returning to Australia in 1965, he helped bring hard-edge abstraction to the attention of Australian artists. In 1968 his work was key to the influential exhibition ‘The Field’ at the National Gallery of Victoria. A 50th anniversary celebration of the exhibition is planned for next year.

Ball has been the subject of over 70 solo exhibitions and his work is represented in collections nationally and internationally. A survey exhibition of his work, Sydney Ball: The Colour Paintings 1963- 2007 toured in 2008 to Penrith Regional Gallery, the Lewers Bequest and other galleries.

His last major solo exhibition was Infinex IV: Chromix Lumina and Modular at Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney (2016) and currently three major works are included in Superposition of three types, Artspace, Sydney.

A great legacy.