By Nick Earls
Queensland University of Technology, William Robinson Gallery, 2019, HB, 87pp
ISBN 9780858560062

Whilst the medium of the short tract on artists and their work is not new, the approach taken in Nick Earls’ William Robinson: A New Perspective, is. Earls has published a dozen fictional works. Here is something new and refreshing. Part philosophical tract and artistic raison d’etre, this novella-length work follows Robinson from the frustration at his early output, his escape from suburbia to raise goats in the pristine and lush Queensland rain forest, while concentrating on the artist’s working method and subject matter.

The subtitle A New Perspective applies as much to Robinson’s discovery and adoption of using up to four dimensions to his now famous landscapes which give the viewer the sense of being able to walk though his terrain. All of this is gained whilst he continues to commute to the city to teach a much more conservative perspective involving T-square and two dimensions of space.

Earls also jumps into unknown territory. In this, his first non-fiction work, he has achieved a unique way of presenting a life which focuses primarily on art with...