November 14, 2023 - December 4, 2023

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Jeremy Hill will give a Floor Talk on Max Martin in the gallery on Tuesday 21st November at 5 pm

"Enjoying the warmth of the early English summer of 1922 was a little-known Australian artist whose painting was hanging on the line at the Royal Academy Exhibition. Deemed by the art critics to be the picture of the year, Portrait Group (now in the NGV collection), was seen to be 'the most astonishing thing in the Academy'. Frank Rutter, Sunday Times 1922. Lavish again in their praise in 1924, the critics proclaimed Melbourne-born Max Martin’s latest painting ‘that strangely mysterious and remarkably painted work Witchcraft which stood out as a fine contribution to contemporary art’. A young man from the working-class suburb of Fitzroy was on the cusp of a brilliant career and was the talk of the Academy’s salons." Jeremy Hill, No Singing in Gum Trees: The honest life of Max Martin, with essays by Ronald Miller, Wakefield Press, 2023, p6

Jeremy Hill, an Irish collector and dealer, has single-handedly raised the profile of this little known Australian artist. For over 20 years he has researched Martin and is responsible for the State Library of Victoria acquiring three major paintings, one of which is Self Portrait 1963, the acclaimed Archibald Prize entry and cover of his recently published biography which will be launched towards the end of the exhibition.