Tram kaleidoscope

Frank Hinder's 'Tram kaleidoscope' captures the essence of Sydney modernism. It synthesises elements of Cubism, Futurism and Orphism to form an ambitious statement of the city as a dynamic, living organism. The painting is fragmented and presents simultaneous views of the tram and the outside street. Time and space are no longer linear and discreet, they have become intrinsically intertwined. The chaos, however, is ordered and unified by a repetition of forms. The cylindrical tram, distant buildings, a zooming car and crowd of anonymous commuters are integrated harmoniously into the composition.

The Gallery owns a number studies for this work from 1939, though the painting itself was not undertaken until after the Second World War. These works highlight Hinder's role, together with other Sydney contemporaries, in forming a distinct, innovative artistic vision: a modern art for a modern metropolis.