John Olsen The lake recedes

The lake recedes is the last major work John Olsen made before his death on 11 April 2023. The painting marks a final return to a subject that never stopped enchanting him.

Olsen first visited Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, located on Arabana Country in South Australia, in 1974. That year he encountered the desert basin in full flood, ‘boiling with animal, bird and fish life’ and shimmering in a ‘light beyond our grasping’. In this painting, Olsen’s spidery linework and fluid brushstrokes release their energy into a yawning pink firmament, capturing the lake’s inevitable process of depletion.

The artist’s son Tim Olsen says, ‘The work was inspired by photographs and memories of the pervading pink salt which appears in Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre as the water dissipates. It was always a mystery to John how the centre of Australia becomes a living sea – suddenly, a desert becomes a place full of fish and birdlife. Then, as the lake evaporates, the abundance turns into desolation. Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre is a freak of nature, a metaphor for life and death. In all of Australia, it was his spiritual place.’

This is John Olsen’s 11th work in the Wynne Prize, which he won in 1969 and 1985. He also won the Sulman Prize in 1989, and the Archibald Prize in 2005 – the oldest artist to do so, at age 77.