Tony Sowersby - The Political Landscape

Portraits of Australia’s Political, Business and Cultural Leaders, 1998 – 2013.

I have always been interested in making art about politics and society. A single image can convey criticism or sum up a political position in a way that can provide the viewer with a light bulb moment. It is also personally fulfilling. One of the first paintings featured in this book is one of John Howard and some of his ministers that I did for the Bald Archy Prize in 1998. It made me feel better and more optimistic. I had produced political art before but from that time on resolved to do it regularly. I’ve never liked going to meetings or been much of a joiner but creating these artworks and disseminating them is my form of activism.

The work I present to you in this book makes no attempt to be balanced. That is, not balanced in the way the ABC seems to be: forced to have on every environmental panel a climate change denier, at every discussion of the economy, a billionaire’s lickspittle and whenever politics is raised so is a representative of the right. These paintings and cartoons are unashamedly leftist, green and progressive in aspect.

In my opinion, satire and derision are weapons to be pointed only at the powerful. We are in an era of unrelenting spin and it is important to cut through. I believe the single visual image is the best way I can do that.

Tony Sowersby, 2013.