Certificate of authenticity from the Gallery A Exhibition verso
Provenance: Balson Family

This painting was held in Gallery A until the final distribution to the family. Untitled (Construction Painting) pictured above, was given to the artist’s daughter who in turn gave it to her daughter in the 1980s (The artists granddaughter).

Ralph Balson is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, all state galleries, many regional galleries as well as many other important public collections both in Australia and overseas. A retrospective of Balson’s work was held at Heide Museum of Modern Art in 1989.

Ralph Balson's Untitled (Construction Painting) circa c.1945 is a symphony of colour and geometric form. His energetic yet subtle colour sense was influenced by his close relationship with Grace Crowley (with whom the artist painted for many years), Rah Fizelle, Frank Hinder as well as the European masters including Piet Mondrian. Balson’s early painting formed part of the historically important, Exhibition 1, held at David Jones Gallery in August 1939. In July 1941 Balson held the first one-man exhibition of non-objective paintings ever shown in Australia. As Bruce Adams writes in his catalogue essay for the 1989 Balson Retrospective, Balson had a “sophisticated command of colour relationships, using luxuriant combinations of warm and cool hues with remarkable luminosity and transparency.”

Reference: B. Adams, Ralph Balson – A Retrospective, Melbourne, 1989.