RON MCBURNIE

Townsville printmaker Ron McBurnie was “born a baby boomer, a little too late to be a hippy but early enough to have observed and appreciated the music and visual art produced during that period.”1 His own artwork has since been displayed in galleries around Australia and internationally, notably in the major touring survey exhibition Metal As Anything, first shown at Perc Tucker Regional Gallery in 2009.

McBurnie entered the Queensland College of Art in 1975, and is now a Senior Lecturer at James Cook University and founding Director of Monsoon Publishing. Best known for his etchings, McBurnie’s works are punctuated by his frequent referencing of art history, keen observations of the world around him, and a sharp sense of humour.

Indeed, in his Metal As Anything catalogue essay entitled Ron McBurnie and the Humanist Tradition of Art, Professor Sasha Grishin AM, FAHA described McBurnie as, “a great observer of life and of the inequities and comic oddities which are encountered, these he presents graphically and sometimes humorously for our contemplation, but without a heavy dose of subjective moralising.”2

Given the artist’s penchant for light hearted observations of popular culture, it’s no surprise that - while not a particular focus - tattoos have featured in several of his works. The small 15 x 15cm work He tattooed the names of each of

The lines are drawn [detail] 2006

Etching

78.5 x 87 cm

Acc.2007.35

Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by the Artist 2007 City of Townsville Art Collection

Photograph: Michael Marzik his ten wives onto his right arm, which formed a part of the A to Z from my toes to my head collaborative folio McBurnie produced with the late Melbourne artist Juli Haas, is one such work.

McBurnie highlights the permanence of tattoos by humorously pointing out that the central figure’s tattoos have outlasted each of his previous 9 marriages.

Another intimate and amusing etching, entitled All his worries he etched onto his skin so that he was free to cultivate the roses in Newfarm Park gardens, speaks to the at times hard exterior of tattoo culture, and also its cathartic nature. Perhaps more importantly for McBurnie, it was in this work that he was most deliberately exploring the, “direct relationship between the plate etching process with the inscribing of the body through the tattoo.”3

McBurnie’s works are generally created in distinct series, with Grishin also commenting that McBurnie, “likes to compartmentalise his works.”4

One such series is McBurnie’s Romantic Etchings, in which he departs from his witty observations of modern life to explore his “growing interest in the work produced by a small group of British artists known as ‘The Ancients.’ I had just purchased an etching titled The Herdsman’s Cottage by Samuel Palmer, the leader of the group.”

He tattooed the names of each of his ten wives onto his right arm 1999 Etching. From the artist book A to Z from my toes to my head by Ron McBurnie and Juli Haas, a folio of 27 etchings Edition of 20 15 x 15 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Ron McBurnie

“In it I saw possibilities for bringing a sense of wonder and mystery back into the landscape where I lived.”5

From this series, the work The lines are drawn features a central male figure walking through an assembly of old mango trees along the banks of Townsville’s Ross River.

McBurnie explains that, “as I worked on the copper plate the idea of the walking path along the river changed into a directional device leading the viewer into the image. The male figure seen walking from this world into another has a large figure from William Blake’s watercolour, The Red Dragon, tattooed on his back.”6

Notes

1 <http://www.ronmcburnie.com/html/about-me.html>

Accessed 13 October 2014

2 Butler, R, Grishin, S, Thomson, F, & Wallace-Crabbe, R 2009, Metal As Anything: Ron McBurnie, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville

3 Email from the artist, 15 October 2014

4 Butler, R, Grishin, S, Thomson, F, & Wallace-Crabbe, R 2009, Metal As Anything: Ron McBurnie, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville

5 Butler, R, Grishin, S, Thomson, F, & Wallace-Crabbe, R 2009, Metal As Anything: Ron McBurnie, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville

6 Butler, R, Grishin, S, Thomson, F, & Wallace-Crabbe, R 2009, Metal As Anything: Ron McBurnie, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville

Image: Ron McBurnie

All his worries he etched onto his skin so that he was free to cultivate the roses in Newfarm Park gardens 1994 Etching. From Small Miracles, box set of 15 prints. 27 x 17.5 cm

Acc.2006.49 a-p

Gift of the Artist, 2006 City of Townsville Art Collection

Photograph: Michael Marzik

A Permanent Mark the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art

Image: The RUN Collective Collective Consciousness

[detail] 2015

Mixed media installation

239.5 x 180 x 130 cm

Courtesy of the Artists, The RUN Collective

Photograph: Shane Fitzgerald