Annandale Imitation Realists

The Annandale Imitation Realists were a short-lived collaborative group of Australian mixed-media avant-garde artists, formed in Sydney in 1961 by Mike Brown, Ross Crothall, and Colin Lanceley, who had met at East Sydney Technical College. Working from a shared house in Annandale, they built chaotic, exuberant assemblages from street junk and plastic debris - 'collaborative collages consisting of junk and plastic objects, doodle-like drawings, and paintings celebrating a bizarre cast of characters', in Andrew Sayers's words - driven by urban larrikinism and a reaction against the conservatism of the Sydney art world. They showed twice in 1962, at John Reed's Museum of Modern Art and Design in Melbourne and the Rudy Komon Gallery in Sydney; critics compared them to pop, Dada, and folk art without settling on any. The group ended in 1964 when Lanceley left for Europe.

Defining characteristics

• Assemblage built from street junk, plastic toys, bottle caps, and debris
• Dense, encrusted surfaces - 'folk art incrustation' in Robert Hughes's phrase
• Doodle-like drawing and grotesque, cartoonish characters
• Loud, clashing color and deliberate anti-craft roughness
• Collaborative, satirical spirit aimed at art-world conservatism

Key figures

• Colin Lanceley (1934-2015) — The group's most exhibited figure; his Glad Family Picnic is its masterpiece
• Mike Brown (1938-1997) — Painter and writer of the trio's irreverent statements
• Ross Crothall (b. 1934) — Assemblagist who shared the Annandale house where the group formed

Example works

• Glad Family Picnic — Colin Lanceley (1961)
• Byzantium — Ross Crothall, Colin Lanceley and Mike Brown (1961)

Sources

• Annandale Imitation Realists - Wikipedia encyclopedia

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