Alun Leach-Jones (1937-2017)
Crossing to Capricorn 1979.
Griffith University Art Collection. Purchased 1979.
Remade by QCAD LiveArt Students 2024
In 1978, Griffith University commissioned Sydney-based artist Alun Leach-Jones (1937-2017) to create a mural for the then-new Nathan campus. The second public artwork acquired by the Griffith University Art Collection, it was designed in consultation with Griffith University students and staff, with the final design chosen from three collaged maquettes displayed on Nathan campus to gauge reactions. The resulting artwork Crossing to Capricorn (1979) was painted onsite in the original Sciences undercroft, with particular attention paid to reproducing every element of the maquette, such as the irregular white lines where the paper was torn in the making of the collage. Both the mural and the maquette were acquired by the Art Collection at the completion of the project.
Crossing to Capricorn was originally painted directly onto the concrete wall, then repainted on timber panels to allow for it to be reinstalled in various locations across Nathan campus as the University expanded. In 2024, Griffith University Art Museum worked closely with QCAD LiveArt students and the artist’s estate to recreate the mural in long-lasting all-weather materials to enhance its adaptability and better preserve it into the future. Now a significant artwork in the University Art Collection, Crossing to Capricorn is currently installed on the western façade of N06, the Patience Thoms building, at Nathan.
Alun Leach-Jones was born in Lancashire, UK in 1937, and grew up in Wales. Emigrating to Australia in 1960, he arrived during the period when Hard-Edge Abstraction was becoming popular. Describing his artwork as part logical and part intuitive, Leach-Jones’s work often represents specific moments in his life; thus it may be seen as a kind of abstract self-portraiture. He dismissed figurative painting as inadequate to express what he was trying to express, preferring to deal directly with feeling and experience through abstract shapes and vivid colour. His images are about states of mind, modes of behaviour and ways of thinking.
“A painting should make its impact without its meaning being immediately apparent or understood. The language of paint is at its most persuasive when it does not depict or describe. To define and name a thing is to substitute the definition for felling itself”
Alun Leach-Jones (Sketchbook Vol. V, 1982)