Herbert MCCLINTOCK
Australia 1906 – Australia 1985

Strange oversight 1940
oil on canvas on composition board
signed lower right: ' EBERT. 40 '
61.0 (h) x 45.0 (w) cm
Purchased with the assistance of James Agapitos OAM and Ray Wilson OAM, 2007
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
NGA 2007.1087
© Marie McClintock

Herbert McClintock’s surrealist works of the late 1930s and early 1940s were greatly influenced by European sources. McClintock viewed reproductions of Surrealist works and drew ideas from texts, as well as exhibitions. In Strange oversight McClintock used crisp bright colours, bold forms, and distorted perspective in a deserted landscape to create a distinctly eerie dream-like scene. After leaving Perth for Melbourne in 1940, McClintock developed a more Social Realist approach to painting and he never returned to Surrealism.