Peter Corlett - The connoisseur II

Peter Corlett

Australia born 1944

The connoisseur II

1984 Melbourne

fiberglass, reinforced polyester resin

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Gift of Emmanuel and Etta Hirsh 1984

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Peter Corlett studied at RMIT in the early 1960s before embarking on an independent practice as a sculptor. Since securing his first major commission in 1970, he has created works for clients including the Australian War Memorial, the University of Melbourne, artsACT and the Victorian Racing Club (for whom he sculpted Phar Lap). He is primarily known now for life-sized, full-length figures cast in bronze, but Corlett's early 'supra realist' sculptures - among them The connoisseur II - employed simpler materials such as concrete and fiberglass. 'My work is about being alive,' Corlett says, 'about what makes me me and you you... I attempt to make probing, perceptive, yet ennobling expressions, representations of people - works of dignity that speak to others with, and of, compassion, strength and generosity'

Done