Sue Cramer

Thanks to Warren Taylor for designing this fabulous poster in the manner of The Donkey’s Tail graphics. 🧡🧡🥁🎺 Sunday’s concert for John commences at Heide at 11 am, and also features music by Domenico de Clario and David Chesworth. The concert takes place within the exhibition, so a gallery admission ticket is required. Closing weekend of the exhibition: John Nixon: Song of The Earth 1968-2020. (Final day Monday 9 March, 2026).

Please join us on Sunday March the 8th at Heide for a celebratory concert in honour of John, reflecting his long-term interest in experimental music from the days of Anti-Music (1979-1983) to the formation of The Donkey’s Tail (2007-2020). We are honoured to have presentations from artists Domenico de Clario and David Chesworth who have written pieces especially for John, followed by a performance by several members of The Donkey’s Tail. De Clario will present, in his words: ‘a small selection of songs, to honour both John’s lifelong engagement with meaning, intent, and destiny - and his consequent immense achievements - as well as the composers, who through their lyrics and melodies embodied the spirit inherent in the totality of John’s work, truly a song of the earth.’ As Chesworth says: “Fun Machine Dirges was written in response to the passing of two close friends. At the heart of the performance is the Baldwin Fun Machine—a 1970s domestic organ given to me by one of the departed. Its warm, nostalgic tones selected via organ-stop buttons combine and resonate poignantly in our current moment.” John described The Donkey’s Tail as ‘an experimental, abstract, free-noise, improv garage ensemble’. Named after a Moscow artists’ group from 1912 that fused Russian folk art with Cubo-Futurist painting, the band blended avant-garde, Dada, and free-improvisation genres. This concert reunites several former members of The Donkey’s Tail in tribute to John and the band’s wild, experimental spirit. 11:00 am Domenico de Clario: seven songs for john 11.45am David Chesworth: Fun Machine Dirges 12.30pm The Donkey’s Tail: Reassembled for John Led by David Palliser, with John Bartley, Isabella Darcy, Laura Delaney, Anna Ephraim, Maeve Ephraim-Taylor, Ljiljana Green, Jacqueline Stojanović and Warren Taylor. (Details in bio) View of The Donkey’s Tail homemade instruments, paintings and posters at Heide. ‘Portraits of The Donkey’s Tail Band Members’ together with ‘Black and White Guitar’ 2015, ‘The Donkey’s Tail’ 2017, and a painting for LO LO the donkey 2013. Detail of the above. The Donkey’s Tail (TDT) display boards showing a selection of CDs and other TDT works.

It has been both uplifting and heartrending to spend time with John’s work over the past few months at Heide. Thank you to all who have visited and shared such warm appreciation for John’s art, and the exhibition, which sadly soon comes to an end. The final day is Monday the 9th of March (Labour Day Weekend). A highlight has been the rare chance to present ‘Self-Portrait, Non-Objective Composition’ 1982, a striking ensemble of hand-typed text together with paintings on newspaper and red cloth. The work was first exhibited at ‘documenta 7’ in Kassel, Germany (and is now on loan from the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra). Invited by European curator Germano Celant (a defining voice of the Italian Arte Povera movement), John, together with Imants Tillers, were the first Australian artists to be included in this prestigious international survey. Though familiar with this work through images, I was moved to encounter it first-hand, and to experience its distinctive material and emblematic qualities. Curating ‘John Nixon: Song of the Earth 1968–2020’ has been momentous for me, both professionally and personally. I am deeply grateful to Heide for the opportunity, especially Artistic Director Lesley Harding and Senior Curator Melissa Keys. My sincere thanks as well to the wonderful Visitor Services team and dedicated Volunteer Guides. Their generous and heartfelt support has meant a great deal to both my daughter Emma and me. The final weekend features a concert for John on the 8th of March at 11am, all are welcome. (See link in bio). Be sure to visit the exhibition before the 9th March. 1. Me looking at ‘Self-Portrait, Non-Objective Composition’ 1982, at Heide. 2. Original presentation at documenta 7 in Kassel, Germany 1982. 3. Me with John in front of the Fridericianum building at documenta 8, 1987. 4. ‘Wielding the broom’ 1982, detail from John’s work in documenta 7, and the first of one hundred typed texts he produced during the 1980s. #johnnixon @heidemoma @emmnixon

Join us from 11am on Sunday 8 March to mark the closing of our current exhibition John Nixon: Song of the Earth 1968–2020. We will be celebrating the artistic life and experimental spirit of John Nixon with an afternoon of music. Admission included with museum entry. Tickets available via the link in our bio. Program: 11 am Domenico de Clario: seven songs for john 11.45 am David Chesworth: Fun Machine Dirges 12.30 pm The Donkey's Tail: Reassembled for John Led by David Palliser, with John Bartley, Isabella Darcy, Laura Delaney, Anna Ephraim, Maeve Ephraim-Taylor, Ljiljana Green, Jacqueline Stojanović and Warren Taylor. Song of the Earth closes on Monday 9 March 2026. Images: John Nixon, The Donkey’s Tail, Melbourne Art Theatre, 2019, photograph: Yanni Florence.

Sue Cramer and Emma Nixon are a mother and daughter duo both sharing in the responsibility of managing the estate of their late husband and father John Nixon (1949–2020). Active as curators in their own right, the two have been navigating the breadth of Nixon’s body of work since his passing in 2020—a task forever beholden to Nixon’s unshakable work ethic and daily practice over five decades, principally focused on painting, but also spanning a wide range of mediums. Driven by experimentation and engagement with radical modernism—‘Minimalism, the Monochrome, Non-Objectivity and Konstruction’—Nixon was and remains an influential and collaborative figure, whose legacy can be easily witnessed in younger generations of Australian artists today. Often making artworks in-situ whilst travelling for exhibitions, Nixon treated each city he visited as a kind of ‘ad-hoc studio’, sourcing his materials locally and inexpensively, including carefully chosen found objects and standard hardware store supplies. In doing so, and perhaps done in an attempt to navigate the geographical isolation that often faces artists in Australia, Nixon established a series of informal ‘Nixon Depots’ throughout the later decades of his practice. Sounding more official than how they might appear in reality, the ‘depots’ were born from a network of fellow artists with whom Nixon was in avid contact with. One such painter, Jan van der Ploeg, residing in Amsterdam, has stored one of Nixon’s depots over a number of years. Evidence of the ways in which Nixon’s familial and social biography informed his work, he began almost exclusively using the colour orange in the lead up to Emma’s birth, in part to simplify his practice in preparation for the new baby (as he said, ‘one colour, one daughter’). Presented at A Tale of A Tub, this collection of around twenty paintings, featuring orange paintings and other examples of Nixon’s Experimental Painting Workshop, tends to Sue and Emma’s desire for John’s work to have more exposure outside of Australia—essentially, to make use of the depots John fortuitously set up in anticipation of a future invitation, such as this one. 📷: Image captions in comments.

It has been a great honour and profound experience to curate ‘John Nixon: Song of the Earth 1968-2020’ for Heide. The exhibition is an ode to John and to his life and achievement as an artist. My sincere gratitude to Heide for this tremendous opportunity, especially to Artistic Director Lesley Harding and Senior Curator Melissa Keys. A highlight of the exhibition has been the joy of realising a long-held wish to re-stage the type of room-scale installations by John, that I encountered as a young curator in the early 1980s—informal studio-style displays with works arrayed across the floor and walls, or propped against furniture. Song of the Earth has also been an intellectual endeavour, an attempt to take account of the meaning, breadth, and scope of John’s practice. A catalogue with contributions from several writers is forthcoming, with the archival images here offering a preliminary glimpse. Heartfelt thanks to the exceptional John Nixon Studio team Jacqui Stojanović, Isabella Darcy, Amalia Lindo and Justin Andrews who have worked alongside me in their various capacities throughout this process. 🧡 Image captions: John at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1984, in front of painting by Malevich 2. Installation view Heide 2025 3. EPW 1987-89 City Gallery Melbourne 1990 4. Installation view AGNSW 1983 5. View of V space, Melbourne 1984

JOSEPH BEUYS + JOHN NIXON Braunkreuz Opening event: Thursday 17 April, 6-8pm Joseph Beuys Cafe, level 3 Nicholas Building, Melbourne CBD   I am pleased to announce that the Joseph Beuys Cafe has invited John to present a group of works within their exhibition Joseph Beuys Braunkreuz.   John admired Joseph Beuys as an artist who fundamentally shifted the nature of art, its forms and aspirations. The word Braunkreuz translates as brown cross. As in Beuys’ work, the cross is a signature element in John’s art; however, each artist used this motif differently. Similarly, the colour brown held emblematic significance for both.   In their respective ways, each artist used materials in an elemental fashion, unconcerned with issues of technique, as a way of fusing art with life, a process enlivened through the spirit of making. John also acknowledged the vital role that Beuys played as a mentor and teacher to generations of artists.   The exhibition Braunkreuz offers a moment to acknowledge connections between these two artists of different generations and countries. John would certainly feel elated to know his work is showing alongside Beuys.   Thanks to Ian George of the Joseph Beuys Cafe. All works are courtesy the Estate of John Nixon, who is represented by Anna Schwartz Gallery.   The exhibition opening event takes place at the Joseph Beuys Cafe next Thursday 17 April, from 6-8pm, all are welcome! ~ All images are of works from the 1980s @josephbeuyscafe @emmnixon @annaschwartzgallery #johnnixon

Final weeks to see our exhibition ‘A Fictional Retrospective: Gertrude’s First Decade 1985–1995’, at Gertrude Contemporary 💛 We are very proud to have brought together all of these historical gems and to cast them in the new light of today. Exhibition runs until 23 March, please don’t miss it! Full documentation and our catalogue essay is available on Gertrude’s website ⭐️ Installation views courtesy and © the artists and Gertrude. Photographs: Christian Capurro.

Interesting to discover in the Gertrude St archives that this portrait wasn’t part of the series I exhibited in Resemblance II. I think I was too self-conscious at the time. How times have changed me, but I can’t change time! It was such a significant place to exhibit and important time in our early careers!

Join us 6-8pm, TOMORROW Friday 7 February for the Opening Celebration of A Fictional Retrospective: Gertrude’s First Decade 1985 – 1995, curated by Sue Cramer & Emma Nixon @susecramer @emmnixon This exhibition is the first exhibition in our Past is Prologue series, celebrating 40 years of Gertrude. Exhibition Dates: 8 February – 23 March 2025 Gertrude Contemporary 21–31 High St, Preston South Wurundjeri Country Borrowing from a title coined by artist Sandra Bridie in 1991, A Fictional Retrospective takes a speculative look at the span of works shown during Gertrude’s formative years to shape a fresh and vital interpretation of this era. Artworks rarely seen in almost 40 years retain contemporary relevance through diverse explorations of cultural and artistic identities; painting both figurative & abstract; staged & cinematic. Not claiming to be definitive of the period, the exhibition evokes the liveliness of the Gertrude community during these foundational years & provides an opportunity to reflect on the nature of the gallery’s contribution. The approach taken acknowledges that there is no universal truth to the telling of history & that subjectivity & chance inevitably play a role in the curatorial process. Artists: #HowardArkley #HanyArmanious @stephenbramstudio @angebre1 @bridiesandra @janetburchill @joncampbellart #TonyClark @brett_colquhoun #DestinyDeacon @mikaladwyer @carolyneskdale @dienageorgetti @matthysgerber #MichaelGraf @melindaharper45 @gailhastingsvisualartist @ishak_raafat @davidsjolly @mathewjones.art #RosemaryLaing @annemariemay.studio #ElizabethNewman #RoseNolan @d.j.noonan @louise_paramor @rosslyndpiggott #VivienneSharkLeWitt #NikeSavvas #RobynStacey @kathytemin @annezac @constanzezikos Artwork: Robyn Stacey, Ice, 1989. Courtesy the artist & Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney.

You’re all warmly invited to view this special group of 1980s works of John’s, opening this weekend at SydneySydney gallery in Potts Point, and continuing until February 15 next year. The gallery address can be provided upon request to gallerist Conor Stein O’Shea [email protected] Repost from @s_y_d_n_e_y_s_y_d_n_e_y_ • Forthcoming: John Nixon Eggshell paintings Non-Objective Compositions (Starry Night) 1986 - 1988 30 November 2024 - 15 February 2025 Opening Reception: 30 November 4 - 7pm With the simplest of means, John Nixon conjures the mystery and magnitude of the night sky in these paintings. Scattered across an expanse of black paint, tiny flecks of white eggshell subtly evoke distant stars suspended in infinite space. The spare physical facts of the paintings — gloss enamel on hardwood, eggshell adhered to the surface while the paint was still wet — remain undisguised yet are lyrically transformed. The boundless realm of non-objective abstraction is imbued with cosmic inference. These paintings proceed from modernism’s ‘ground zero’ — the black monochrome — with echoes of Malevich’s utopian visions. Nixon’s poetic use of humble and natural materials also aligns these ‘starry night’ works—and other paintings incorporating seeds, rice or wheat— with the ethos of Arte Povera. (The Constructivists and Suprematists were the first Arte Povera artists, he used to say.) The shell of an egg carefully cracked and eaten at breakfast would be set aside for the purpose of making these works. Nothing goes to waste. Who would have thought that broken eggshell and black paint could evoke such a universe? Sue Cramer Image credit: John Nixon, 1987, enamel and eggshell on Masonite, 1800 x 1200 mm, Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of the artist, 2014. John Nixon appears courtesy of The Estate of John Nixon, and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne #johnnixon #sydney

Happy 28th Birthday beautiful Emma! My daughter, friend and ally through the joys and challenges of life. So special to be in Auckland together at this time, having so much fun together. I couldn’t be more happy and proud, as your Dad would be too. 🌸🌷♥️