Stop and Look: Man Reading a Newspaper by Russell Drysdale

Nearly all naturalistic features are replaced by lifeless, industrialised forms, which seem to belong in this emptiness and give it a kind of purpose.

Man Reading a Newspaper (1941) by Russell Drysdale (1912-1981), oil on canvas, University of Sydney Art Collection

Drysdale’s view of Australia is bleak: his streets are empty, his people glum. His scenes are often without charm, but his view of the place here is of course not a literal transcription.

It's a fantasy of the modern world, in which life is almost lost in meaningless devastation; the single figure incongruously pursuing a commonplace activity in a landscape from which all signs of normality have been expunged.

Nearly all naturalistic features are replaced by lifeless, industrialised forms, which seem to belong in this emptiness and give it a kind of purpose. 

But that purpose has already been rendered meaningless, the pile of metal objects a mere heap of junk. The stone column is incapable of either supporting or conducting anything, but lies abandoned, useless. It is not even capable of decoration. The overall composition is that of a traditionally laid-out landscape painting, so that we think we can find our way through it, but it defies our attempts to make sense of it.

We give up, baffled, and resign ourselves to sitting inert, perhaps reading a newspaper, a cup of coffee abandoned at our feet.