Philip Wolfhagen: PREMONITIONS

Words are a very important part of the creative process for me. The image always comes first but immediately it comes into existence there is a need for a name. A title is an important ‘frame’ for the image, providing clues to my intentions but without proscribing its interpretation.

There are so many good words that hint at what I feel about my paintings. Premonition is an appropriate word to start with in that it can mean ‘anticipation of an event without conscious reason’. This is at the heart of my motivations with these new paintings. I don’t know why certain images are meaningful to me, why I feel compelled to paint the same motif again and again, obsessively, until I exhaust its possibilities. All I know is that I must do it.  

We are attuned to reading signs in the natural world, particularly the sky, for clues about coming events. This can be as simple as avoiding getting wet in a thunderstorm or seeing a much greater threat in predictions of our future climate. Observation of natural phenomena and searching for patterns and potential meaning is a deeply human trait.

 Auspice is another word that interests me, as it literally translates as ‘the observation of the flight and feeding of birds intending to discover a sign of the future”. Whist I have not looked to the birds for answers, I do find it interesting that this was once practiced. Importantly in this context, the word auspicious usually signifies a favourable outcome.

My ‘Premonitions’ are intended as personal contemplations of the uncertainties that lie ahead, but I hope these clouds are auspicious, and that all will be well in the end.      

Philip Wolfhagen, May 2024

Philip Wolfhagen studied at the Tasmanian School of Art, Hobart from 1983 to 1984 and from 1986 to 1987 before moving to Sydney, where he studied at the Sydney College of the Arts, the University of Sydney in 1990. He returned to live and work in Tasmania in 1996. Since then he has held over 45 solo exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmania, Canberra, Brisbane, Perth WA and Washington DC. In 2003 he exhibited archipelago, a large 6 panel work at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery as part of the 10 Days on the Island festival.

In 2013 a survey exhibition covering 25 years of Wolfhagen’s work, Illumination: The art of Philip Wolfhagen was staged by Newcastle Art Gallery and Tasmanian Museum Art Gallery, which then went on to tour nationally. A major publication accompanied the exhibition with essays by writers Tim Winton, Jane Clark, Craig Judd and William Wright. In 2013 Philip Wolfhagen was included in the major survey exhibition Australia held at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, the first exhibition of Australian art to be staged at the RA since 1963. Selected group exhibitions include Australian Perspecta, at the S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney (1997); Uncommon World: Aspects of Contemporary Australian Art, National Gallery of Australia, (2000); Depth of Field, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne (2003); Constable and Australia, National Gallery of Australia (2006); Wonderful World, The Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide (2007); Time and Place, TarraWarra Museum of Art Victoria (2008); Curious Colony, Newcastle Art Gallery (2010) and New Romantics, Gippsland Art Gallery (2011). He was awarded the winner of the Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of NSW in 2007. His work is held in several public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of South Australia, Newcastle Art Gallery, New England Regional Art Museum, Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery, TarraWarra Museum of Art and Artbank.

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