Junior's brush with Vorticism

Like all of Sansom’s paintings, this work explores the intentionally unresolved nature of his practice whereby the painting seems to have become unhinged. Viewers are confronted and confounded by the struggle between parts and wholes, the language of abstraction and Sansom’s own highly personalized language of communication. This vorticist explosion emanates from a dream-like scene featuring a gnarled tree, a skeleton figure and presumably Junior, connected to this scene by an umbilicus. Junior, who we can presume is a boy, seems to wear a tutu-like ballet costume.

Text © National Gallery of Victoria, Australia