Collins St., 5 pm explained

Backcolor:	FBF5DF
Collins St., 5 pm
Artist:	John Brack
Year:	1955
Medium:	oil on canvas
Height Metric:	114.6
Width Metric:	162.9
Metric Unit:	cm
Imperial Unit:	in
City:	Melbourne
Museum:	National Gallery of Victoria

Collins St., 5 pm is a 1955 painting by Australian artist John Brack. The painting depicts office workers walking along busy Collins Street in Melbourne after finishing work for the day"Blank-faced office workers hurry by like sleep-walkers, thinking only of the pubs or their homes in the suburbs".^[1] Brack conceived the work after reading T. S. Eliot's 1922 poem The Waste Land.^[2] It is considered a companion piece to Brack's earlier work The Bar.^[3]

The painting was purchased from Peter Bray Gallery^[4] for the National Gallery of Victoria's permanent Australian art collection and is exhibited in the Ian Potter Centre in Federation Square in Melbourne.^[5]

In 2011, Collins St., 5 pm was voted the most popular work in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria.^[6]

External links

• Collins St., 5pm - National Gallery of Victoria collection.

Notes and References

1. Web site: McDonald. John. John Brack. John McDonald. 21 July 2015. 6 June 2009.
2. Engberg, Juliana, "Collins Street, 5pm: John Brack's Enduring Cultural Icon', Art and Australia, vol. 34, no. 4, 1997, pp. 513-17.
3. News: Gallery buys The Bar. 19 March 2009. ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 27 November 2009.
4. "In 1953, he had his first solo exhibition at Peter Bray's Gallery in Melbourne. Collins Street was exhibited at the same gallery in March 1956 and was immediately purchased by the NGV." McKiernan, M. (2010). 'John Brack Collins Street 5 pm, 1955'. Occupational Medicine, 60(2), 88-89.
5. http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/col/work/3161 National Gallery of Victoria Acquisition 1956
6. News: John Brack's Collins St, 5pm, the Most Popular Painting at NGV . Bennett. Sally. 19 April 2011. The Australian. News Limited. 22 June 2013.