Asher Bilu: Early Works 1957-79
At the ripe age of eighty-seven, Asher Bilu’s first ever survey exhibition Asher Bilu: Early Works 1957-79 at Bayside Gallery is nestled amongst old brick Council buildings in Brighton, Naarm (Melbourne). Much like walking into the building itself, entering the exhibition feels like the passing through of a threshold into an abstract expressionist time capsule.
Bayside Gallery is inherently disjointed, sliced in half by a corridor leading to other council run arts facilities. To the left, is the introductory gallery space. Here, there is minimal lighting, and the rooms are heavily punctuated by black floors, ceilings, and walls. Conversely, the gallery space to the right is airy and lifted by higher white ceilings, timber floors, and white walls. The exhibition is roughly grouped into time periods, following Bilu’s developing and experimental styles, however there is an absence of directional or thematic cues.
Bilu was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1936 and migrated to Australia in 1956 when he was twenty years old. Asher Bilu: Early Works is a celebration of the artist and his works from 1957 to 1979, a time he was “lauded by critics.” This sentiment permeates throughout the exhibition wall labels, detailing his several accolades and prolific influence on Australia’s abstract expressionist movement.
A fascination with science and the celestial holds a strong influence on Bilu’s practice, as well as interactions with his Australian peers. Some of the works depict other-worldly forms and act as containments of humming energy in their depiction of swirling moons and thick earthy and layered textures. Bilu is a self-taught artist and his early works on paper, as seen in a row in the dark gallery space, possessed inherent constraints and processes. The pigment could only be pushed so far until it tore and cracked.
Bilu’s seminal work The chariot, 1960, exemplifies a moment in his practice where he found his “own voice.” He freed himself from painterly constraints and turned his energies towards a heavily experimental practice in which he painted, burned, and carved ordinary materials from hardware stores. The chariot resembles a visual depiction of science fiction with a looming moon, wiring strokes, and strong contrasting hues. And although admitting that he had never been religious, religious iconography like the chariot of God in the work can be seen, creating a portal between two worlds in the presence of celestial powers.
The first gallery space is awash with darkness, and, at times, the works are very close together, leaning their reception towards a commercial viewing rather than the stringing together of a narrative. The softer light, however, enhances the kinetic quality of darker toned paintings including Graphite Plus, 1970. A smooth spherical form is carved at the centre of a pigment laden painting, allowing the light to catch and bounce off the silky surface. The periphery is porous like a sponge, soaking up the little light cast onto its surface. Most of the artworks in this space are heavily textural, showcasing layers of treatments, pigments, and materials. Some are geometric, black and white, while others are layered with vibrant complimentary colours, demonstrating his interest in light and perception as well as influence from European modernists.
Bilu’s later large-scale artworks from the 1970s can be found in the room opposite the hallway, and the brightness of the walls and floor gives the works much needed space. The lighting in this space is uneven, the artworks are trapped in a limbo between being spotlighted and fading into the background. This room marks another significant development in Bilu’s practice. Again, pushing the limits of pigment and materiality, but also now its supporting structure with the introduction of three-dimensional and sculptural elements, receding and protruding from the works.
This shift is exemplified by the work Spillout, 1979, which cascades downwards and spills across the gallery floor. It is comprised of individual wooden pieces linked together and layered to build into a large-scale flowing wall. The sea of polyvinyl butyral resin and painted plywood pieces is akin to an unsolved and piled puzzle, the pieces are interlaced, overlap, and are in battle with one another. Each piece is heavily painted with different coloured strokes and black accents, each unique in a wave of similarity.
Despite the inclusion of small dark room screening ABC footage of Bilu and his works, I left the exhibition without a strong sense of Asher Bilu. While his works are formally and technically impressive, there was a wanting lack of detail of where his artistic tendencies arose from and what happened in the decades following 1979. Like the architecture of the gallery space, the exhibition feels disjointed. The essence of the artist that usually permeates throughout a survey exhibition, instead here has a light touch.