Painting 1982

Born in Sheffield in England in 1940, Peter Booth and his family endured the bombing of that city during the Second World War, with the devastation having a lasting impression upon the artist. Before his family migrated to Melbourne in 1958, the teenaged Booth attended drawing classes at Sheffield College. He studied painting at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School between 1962 and 1965.

The work of Peter Booth has occupied an important position in Australian painting since 1968, when he was included in the landmark exhibition The Field, at the National Gallery of Victoria. In 1977 his practice dramatically shifted from abstraction to his distinctive form of expressive figuration and an enduring exploration of the human condition.

Painting 1982 is an infernal, crowded scene of chaos and cannibalism. Humans, birds and snakes devour each other, overseen by a looming multi-limbed creature, blazing in red, while winged, insect-like figures hover above the disturbing nocturnal landscape. Booth used the canvas to channel and record the visions encountered in his nightmares. The fear of the Cold War and the threat of nuclear obliteration are ominously present in this apocalyptic scene of self-destruction.

Leigh Robb, Curator of Contemporary Art