Alexander Sádlo worked in several media, ranging from painting in oils and other media to enamels, jewellery and ceramics. Particular interests were translating into paint movement of the human figure and three-dimensional illusions in abstract forms.
In much of the latter style of work he operated close to the Optical Art produced by luminaries such as Briget Riley, Victor Vasarely and Yaacov Agam. He had a preference for using carefully articulated and graded coloured stripes in many of these paintings, a device he also employed in many of his realistic and semi-abstract compositions.
In terms of Australian art, he was a pioneer of Op Art, and his presence in Adelaide and at the Contemporary Art Society had an osmotic effect on a later generation of painters who emerged from the South Australian School of Art and are now credited with bringing Hard-edge, Colour Field and Op Art to the fore in Australia.
In the 1960s he was also one of the first artists in Australia to produce collages that commented on and documented the period. This work coincided with a heightening of the palette in his paintings, which absorbed some of the stylistic inclinations of contemporary fashions, design and Pop Art.
From 1972, Alex lived in England with his wife, Gaynor. He represented Britain in International competitions in Limoges, France; Tokyo, Japan (where he was a prize winner); and Austria. In 2006 he held a survey in Západočeská Gallery, the state gallery in Plzen, in the western part of the Czech Republic. He died after a brief illness at home in Eastbourne in December 2021, and a posthumous survey was held at Devonshire Collective’s gallery VOLT, in early 2022.
This is a revised, updated, and expanded edition in hardback, produced through blurb.com in 2023. It has 152 pages, 194 illustrations (100 full-page colour), and dust-jacket. It is also available as an economical PDF.
The Dutkiewicz Archive 