Roger Kemp

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Roger Kemp (Eaglehawk, 3 July 1908 - Melbourne 14 Sept. 1987) was one of Australia's foremost practitioners of transcendental abstraction. Working in the tradition of Wassily Kandinsky, Kasimir Malevich, Piet Mondrian and Frantisek Kupka, he developed a system of symbols and motifs which were deployed in his non-figurative paintings so as to reveal cosmic mysteries, striving in particular to explain man's place in a universal order.

After 20 years of isolated development and unrecognised innovation, Kemp came to prominence in the 1950s as the leader of a small Melbourne-based avant-garde of Geometric Abstractionists, including Leonard French, George Johnson, Inge King and Leonard Crawford. Increasing attention and critical acclaim saw them vilified by a rival circle of figurative artists associated with the Contemporary Art Society, who formed a controversial exhibiting group, called the Antipodeans, in order to check the spread of abstract art in Australia.