DICK WATKINS

WOMAN

24 April - 17 May

DICK WATKINS, WOMAN, 2025

Dick Watkins was born in 1937 in Sydney, Australia. Over the last half century, he has cemented himself as a major figure in Australian art. He is unrestricted by ‘personal’ style, unafraid to reference and is driven by instinct. In Woman, Dick Watkins returns to the figure—specifically, the female form—with a raw and restless energy that reaffirms his place as one of Australia’s most daring and intuitive painters. These nine new works, all completed in 2024, mark a shift in focus while continuing Watkins’ lifelong relationship with form, gesture, and the act of painting itself.

Far from classical portraiture, Woman resists definition. Figures emerge and dissolve in a push-pull of abstraction and embodiment. Limbs become lines; curves collapse into fields of colour. The female form has long been a character in the story of art, here she is recognised as a site of tension, reverence and ambiguity. Echoes of de Kooning, Picasso and Matisse resonate, though Watkins’ voice is unmistakably his own—gritty, physical and unflinching. Paint is laid down with the same muscular rhythm that has always defined his work. As in jazz—the soundtrack of his studio—the improvisation is key. In Woman, Watkins doesn’t just illustrate, he evokes. What appears is not a singular idea of Woman, but a spectrum: fierce, tender, fractured, whole.

This is Watkins painting not just form, but presence. He asks us to feel, not just see.

Words by Astrid Bell