Lot 21

The Artist
The Estate of Lily and Louis Kahan, Melbourne
Thence by descent

Robert Juniper was born in Merredin, Western Australia, in 1929, where he spent much of his childhood immersed in the open expanses of the Wheatbelt. Once a diverse ecosystem, the Wheatbelt was reduced when clearing began in the 1890s, with the removal of native plant species to make way for commercial agriculture. The formative years spent here, would resurface throughout his career in recurring motifs of vast skies, sparse vegetation, and a sense of natural beauty.

In 1936 his family moved to England, where Juniper attended Beckenham School of Art in the late 1940s. There he absorbed lessons from European modernism, particularly artists like Graham Sutherland, Paul Nash, and John Piper before returning to Australia in 1949. Juniper initially worked as a commercial artist, stage designer, and teacher but when he retired entirely dedicated himself to painting. His early training gave him a grounding in design and composition, and his exposure to British modernist painting encouraged him to develop a unique visual language.

While rooted in landscape painting, his work combines lyrical abstraction with figurative references to plants, buildings, animals and people. His surfaces often feature richly textured paint, scraped and layered to create depth, and his compositions switch between figuration and abstraction.

As art critic Nancy Parker observed in her 1987 review of Elwyn Lynn's book, The Art of Robert Juniper, "Juniper's…decorativeness is no slick, surface treatment of lines, colours or textures. Rather it is part of the very fabric of his ideas and therefore of his expression of them." (1) Parker emphasised that Juniper was "primarily a Western Australian who has increasingly directed his attention to evocative, and sensitive depictions of the Western Australian landscape, and in particular, the desert." (2)

A later critic, Sasha Grishin, reviewing Robert Juniper: Recent Work at Solander Gallery in 1992, similarly acknowledged the breadth of Juniper's influences. Juniper was influenced by artists representing a wide range of work, Grishin mentions Sam Fullbrook along with Miró, Calder, Fred Williams, and an admiration for Indigenous art. Grishin says about Juniper "he has the rare ability to absorb another painter's marks into his own artistic vision without appearing to be eclectic and derivative." (3)

Juniper's central theme was always the Western Australian landscape. He depicted dry riverbeds, solitary trees, red earth, and wide skies, yet his treatment went beyond naturalism. For him, landscape was both subject and metaphor, a vehicle for expressing human emotion, history, and myth.

'(Landscape with Figures)' 1973 from the Estate of Lily and Louis Kahan and included in this sale, is a remarkable example of the artist's work. This painting carries the key elements for which he is best known for. A metaphorical landscape is represented in richly worked textures. The horizon dissolves into layers of ochre and umber, which evoke the sun-baked soils of Western Australia's Wheatbelt and desert regions.

Within this landscape, semi-transparent figures emerge from washes of blue. Their presence recalls Juniper's frequent interest in myth and memory. They do not dominate the composition but instead are part of the environment. The work conveys a sense of peace, the humans are not dominating the landscape, they coexist in harmony.

Juniper's work gained national recognition from the 1960s onwards. He exhibited widely, with solo shows across Australia, and his paintings were acquired by major collections, including the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the National Gallery of Australia, and numerous regional institutions. He was awarded the Order of Australia in 1998 for his service to the arts.

Robert Juniper remains one of Australia's most unique interpreters of landscape. The artist contributed immensely to the cultural life of Western Australia and to the broader narrative of Australian art.

Wiebke Brix
Head of Art

(1) Parker, N., "Juniper's Desert Metaphors", The Canberra Times (ACT), 25 January 1987, p. 8.
(2) Ibid.
(3) Grishin, Sasha. "A Splendid Reaffirmation", The Canberra Times (ACT), 7 October 1992, p. 22. Review of Robert Juniper: Recent Work, Solander Gallery.
(4) Parker, N., "Juniper's Desert Metaphors", The Canberra Times (ACT), 25 January 1987, p. 8.

© Robert Juniper/Copyright Agency, 2025