Lot 3

Private collection, Melbourne

James Gleeson occupies a singular place in Australian art history. While his achievements as a painter are widely celebrated, his influence extends well beyond the studio through his work as a writer, critic, cultural advocate and advisor, shaping public understanding of art across much of the twentieth century.

Across a career spanning nearly seven decades, Gleeson pursued Surrealism with rare conviction, using its language to probe states of mind that sit outside ordinary perception. His work draws on dreams, altered consciousness and psychological tension, yet it resists retreat into the purely personal. Instead, his paintings offer expansive, often unsettling reflections on human experience, positioning him among the movement's most searching and intellectually ambitious voices.