Born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1959, Roger Byrt has recently moved to Canada and is residing in Winnipeg.
Since 2001 he has been working full-time on his studio practice.
Roger Byrt paints large, colorful, highly finished oil paintings that celebrate contemporary life. His working process is analytical with its roots in Italian painting.
The artist regularly exhibits his work in galleries in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
There is something musical about his works. Within their open shapes the ideas of density and energy apply.
The curves derive from the famous moebius strip. They are carefully constructed shapes, which seem to obey some of the rules of nature.
The juxtaposition of curves and natural elements guide the eye from the surrounding visual source to the idea of nature’s grace and beauty in continuous flux. The physical and the metaphysical combine.
Academic Background
* Bachelor of Fine Art [Painting] at the Caulfield Institute of Technology
* MA Project at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).
* Lecturer at Monash University (1989 – 2001)
Roger Byrt has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout Australia and overseas. He has received several grants for his work including, an Ian Potter Foundation Grant for a Citibank Commission (Caravaggio in 3D); an Australia Council Grant for an exhibition at Australia Centre, Manila, Philippines, and a VCAB Grant to Verdaccio Studios, Italy. In 1992 he was the recipient of the Diamond Valley Acquisitive Art Award.
The artist`s work is represented in many high profile public, corporate and private collections nationally and internationally including, Artbank; Museum of Modern Art at Heide; Monash University; The Broken Hill Art Gallery, Grafton Regional Gallery, Riddoch Art Gallery, Dubbo Regional Gallery, Department of Agriculture, RMIT; Western Mining Corporation; Marsden State High School, Queensland; Banyule City Council Collection; Lasalle-Sia College of the Arts, Singapore; Adorna Institute of Technology, (RMIT, Penang); A.N.Z.; National Australia Bank; National Finance Management; Citibank; and The Art Trust.
Appointments:
1987-2001 P/T lecturer Fine Art Monash University
1997-1999 Joint Head of Painting Monash University
2000 Head of Painting Faculty of art and Design Monash University
Awards/Commissions:
2007 People's Choice Eutick Still Life Memorial Art Prize
Coffs Harbour Regional Art Gallery
2000 Commission Citibank George St Sydney
2000 Ian Potter Foundation Grant ( Caravaggio in 3d)
1996 Australia Council Grant exhibition/lecture tour
Manila, Philippines
1992 Diamond Valley Award
1992 Australia council Grant residency, Verdaccio Studios, Italy
1988 Monash University Outside Studies Program Verdaccio Studios, Italy
Solo Exhibitions:
2010 Kenthurst Galleries. Sydney, Australia
2008 Victor Mace Fine Art Gallery Brisbane
2007 Axia Modern Art Melbourne
2005 Axia Modern Art Melbourne
2003 Robin Gibson Gallery Sydney
2002 Axia Modern Art Melbourne
2000 Robin Gibson Gallery Sydney
1999 Victor Mace Fine Art Gallery Brisbane
1998 Robin Gibson Gallery Sydney
1997 Pinacotheca Melbourne
1996 Australia Centre Australian Embassy Manila Philippines
1995 Victor Mace Fine Art Gallery Brisbane
1994 Pinacotheca Melbourne
1994 Robin Gibson Gallery Sydney
1993 Victor Mace Fine Art Gallery Brisbane
1992 Pinacotheca Melbourne
1991 Victor Mace Fine Art Gallery
1990 Pinacotheca Melbourne
1988 Pinacotheca Melbourne
1995 Pinacotheca Melbourne
1994 Pinacotheca Melbourne
Caravaggio in 3D touring exhibition to regional art galleries
2005 Grafton Regional Gallery
2004 Dubbo Regional Gallery
2003 Riddoch Gallery Mount Gambier
2003 Wollongong City Gallery
2002 Old Milparinka Courthouse
2002 Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery
2001 Monash University Faculty Gallery
Group Exhibitions:1988-2009 numerous including
Gippsland Art Gallery Sale
Geelong Art Gallery
Museum of Modern Art Heide Park and Art Gallery
S.H.Ervin Gallery Sydney
Caulfield Arts Complex
Publications:
2007 "A bit of Country in the City" The Age 16 May
2005 "Caravaggio Examined" The Daily Examiner Grafton Feb 12
2004 "Work Reveals Genius of a Bad Boy" Weekend Liberal Dubbo
April 17
2004 "Technology Takes on Art" Daily Liberal Dubbo April 21
2004 "Caravaggio's Missing Leg" Dubbo City News April 29
2003 "Caravaggio in 3D" Sunday Afternoon Arts ABC TV Nov.2
2003 "Master Artist to be Explored" The Border Mail Mount Gambier Oct 31
2003 "Distortion of StPaul" Illawarra Mercury Aug
2001 "Artist's Secrets Finally Revealed" The Age Melbourne
May 22 J Sinclair
2001 " Master Stroke" Herald Sun Melbourne May 26 P Gray
2001 Interview with Bruce James ABC Radio National May 10
2000 "Australian Painting Now" Craftsmans House
1999 "Flights of Fancy For Some" The Age Melbourne Oct 1
1999 "The Metaphysical Interiors of Roger Byrt" Art and Australia
March Edition N Drury
1998 "Images 3 Contemporary Australian Art" craftsmans House
1997 "The Good (and bad) in Art in 1996 the Manila Times Jan 5
1996 "Meeting The Other, Byrt's Juxtapositions" The Evening Paper
Manila Dec 17
1996 " Juxtapositions- Artistic comparisons of Varied Cultures"
Manila Bulletin Dec 11
1994 "Baillieu Myer Collection of the 80's" catalogue
1994 " Images 2 Contemporary Australian Painting" Craftsmans
House N Drury
1994 "Resistance Fighters of the Avant Garde" The Australian
Sep 24 E Lynn
1994 "Save us From Perfection" Sydney Morning Herald
Sep 24 J McDonald
1992 " New Art 7" Craftsmans House
1992 "New Art 7 Calendar" Bantam Press
1991 Courier Mail review Jun 18 M Richards
1990 The Advocate review Mar 26 B Hoffert
1990 The Australian review Jun 9 R Rooney
Collections:
Broken Hill Regional Gallery
Riddoch Gallery Mount Gambier SA
Dubbo Regional Gallery
Grafton Regional Gallery
Artbank
Museum of Modern Art at Heide
Monash University
RMIT University
Department of Agriculture
Western Mining Corporation
Marsden State High School Collection Brisbane
Banyule City Council Art Collection
Lasalle-sia College of the Arts Singapore
Adorna Institute of Art Penang
ANZ
NAB
National Financial Management
Citibank
The Art Trust
THE WORK OF ROGER BYRT
AUSTRALIAN DRAWING by Janet McKenzie
ROGER BYRT
The project CARAVAGGIO IN 3D (2003) indicates Roger Byrt's interest in the mechanics of composition and the importance of mathematical precision. Using 21st century technology to explore the working methods of the 16th century artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, and with the assistance of architect Robert McGauran, Byrt set about to analyse the use of space and symmetry in Caravaggio's painting. THE CONVERSIONOF ST PAUL (1600) Caravaggio is attributed to having achieved a heightened naturalism and while Byrt finds the romance and drama of caravaggio's infamous life alluring it is the composition of the works that he is particularly drawn to. He dissects the work to indicate that the figures were in fact heavily manipulated. "Everyone loves the theatre and myths surrounding Caravaggio but for me it is composition that I really get excited about- the way that my eye is led in and out and throughout like a great adventure.
The exhibition featured a 3D reconstruction of CONVERSION OF ST PAUL and the construction of a hypothetical interpretation - a naturalistic version of the work. The fact that caravaggio is known for his innovative use of light, and his breaking from convention of the time with the use of real models, makes the investigation into his actual distortion of the facts before him, in perceptual observation all the more interesting. Byrt found Caravaggio to have distorted the anatomy of the figures and the horse for aesthetic ends. The distortions enabled Caravaggio to activate the composition by a strong circular movement and emphasise the interplay between different parts of the painting. CARAVAGGIO IN 3D also includes models, line drawings and silhouettes of Caravaggio's work and the naturalistic reconstruction, each side by side. The deconstruction of the work revealed a catalogue of distortions in terms of naturalistic truth: a leg is missing from the knee down, the horse is far too tall and one of its legs is proportionally too short; there us an unnatural bend in the horses hock. The second figure's torso is too short for its height and the arms are abnormally long. Byrt's naturalistic version was constructed firstly as a linear drawing which could be viewed alongside a linear version of the original. Byrt imposes arrows to indicate the energy and direction created by Caravaggio's distorted positioning of the figures in relation to the horse. The figures in the hypothetical version are anatomically plausible but an aesthetic disappointment in terms of the overall composition. The arrows take the eye into an inert void in the centre of the composition. Further digital imaging by Byrt reveals the full extent of Caravaggio's distortions. The naturalistic version is less beautiful and very much less evocative. Byrt reveals the extent of Caravaggio's sacrifice of the physical truth for emotional intensity and drama, in fact how "the distortions effectively function as compositional devices to activate the theatre of the painting. For example, the short foreleg acts as the hub of a big circular sweep of a wheel described by the horse and St Paul's arms"2
Describing his family background as mathimatical, Byrt's studio practice has always been analytical. during his early years as a painter Roger Byrt was inspired by the compositional aspects of Seurat, Piero della, Francesca, Tieplolo and to a lesser extent Giorgio De Chirico. "In my early drawings I began the prosses by drawing distorted perspectival grids then attaching aerial views of city buildings to the grids. The finished drawings distorted wildly but the grids held them together.Incrementaly, I became more interested in the grid structures and other processes of picture making. I used drawings to prepare for painting - to sort out spacial problems like rubrics cubes; when at the point where nearly everything locks together I begin to paint. My drawings are my visual thinking. I keep nearly all of them." 3 The drawing MOEBIUS STRIP (2006) employs the grid to create a surface of intense energy and movement. The moebius stripis a surface with only one side and only one boundary component and has the mathematical property of being non-orientable. It is a ruled surface and was discovered independantly by the German mathematicians August Ferdinand Moebius and Johann Benedict Listing in 1888. As an artist with a mathematical bent, Roger Byrt finds the properties of the moebius strip intriguing. It has provided inspiration for artists such as M.C. Escher who based several lithographs on it. A famous Escher work MOBIUS STRIP 2 (1963) features ant, crawling on the surface of the mobius strip. In science fiction it lends itself to bizarre developments, such as Arthur C. Clarke's, The Wall of Darkness (1949). Their endless linear character enables Byrt to play with the forms in two-dimensions, emphasing density and creating and intense mood from a satisfying linear pattern. A model of Mobius strip can be created by joining the ends of a strip of paper with a single half twist. In this the Mobius strip can be seen to create a form of spatial drawing. A line drawn starting from the seam down the middle will meet back at the seam but it will be on the other side. The transfernce of the mathematical patterning results in works that are both elegant and enigmatic.
Nevill Drury obseves taht in Byrt's art works, "what one sees may not be the whole picture", that in his interiors and still life works, "artifacts and objects are palced in strange juxtaposition, evoking a distinct sense of visual irony and ambiguity -while the creator - the weaver of these fantasies - remains unacknowledged and very much behind the scenes".4 Byrt's precise analytical approach underpins his stated aim, "to evoke a sense of another time, another palce - a real sense of 'the other'. The absence of the figures in his works does not denote a disinterest in human impact - indeed he is atttracted to the places that resonate with drama and historical significance. His interest in Carravagio's working methods and to Renaissance painting and the Italian Scuola de Metafisica reveals a curious enthusiasm for timeless human issues. His work based in drawing seeks to analyse and "to depict eternal things such as light, space and form" 5
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1. Roger Byrt, email to Janet McKenzie, 13 July 2009.
2. Ibid
3. Ibid
4. Nevill Drury, "Roger Byrt" , in Australian Painting Now, edited by Laura Murray Cree and Nevill Drury, Thames and Hudson, London, 2000, p.80
5. Byrt quoted ibid, p.80
