John Perceval: All That We Are at Heide Museum of Modern Art

Opening this March, John Perceval: All That We Are marks the first major survey of the artist’s work in more than 30 years. Presented in Heide Main Galleries until July 12, the exhibition offers a rare chance to experience the full emotional and material range of an artist who helped shape Australian modernism.

Drawing on significant public and private collections, the exhibition traces Perceval’s practice from the late 1930s through to the early 1960s. A central figure in the Heide Circle – the creative community associated with patrons John and Sunday Reed – Perceval was already producing striking paintings by the age of 19. Later, his practice would expand to include drawing, ceramics and sculpture. From the experimental to the expressive, Perceval moved between unsettling childhood imagery, wartime night scenes, exuberant postwar compositions inspired by the European old masters and dynamic images of the natural environment.

The exhibition follows this evolution closely. Early carnivalesque figures and toys give way to darker visions of wartime Melbourne during the partial blackouts known as the ‘brownout’, before opening onto vibrant land- and seascapes – and the bustling docks of Williamstown. A dedicated gallery also brings together 28 of Perceval’s celebrated ceramic angels from the 1950s and early 1960s, highlighting a body of work that is as playful as it is profound.

Curated by Heide’s head curator Kendrah Morgan, John Perceval: All That We Are is both a comprehensive reappraisal and a timely reminder of Perceval’s enduring relevance as an artist forever grappling with what it means to be human.

The exhibition runs from March 21 to July 12.

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