May Day March by John Young, 1974

Transcript

May Day March by John Young, 1974, is made with oil on canvas stretched over a wooden structure measuring 1.04 metres high by 1.25 metres wide and is unframed. This artwork is positioned on Wall 1: Student Activism. This wall has been painted a bright red.

The work depicts a street full of people in protest. The people are positioned in the middle of the street with buildings on either side, and a grey sky filling the middle of the work. The view is of the backs of people as they walk in the same direction down this narrow street. A sea of heads are visible as people march further into the distance.

The protestors are painted in a cartoon-like manner. They are mostly wearing  bright colours, red, blue and yellow, as well as green and purple. Some of the protestors have their fists raised above their head in protest while others wave flags.

From the perspective of the back of the crowd, the protesters are walking through an intersection. On the left-hand side is a traffic light showing a red circular light. To the right is the profile of the other traffic light facing to the left.

The first buildings on either side of the road are about three-story in height and are realistically rendered. On the left-hand side of the street in which the protesters are walking is a building made of brown brick with rows of vertical windows which have panes through them. Next to this building, further down the road, are a number of nondescript, grey buildings, each with its distinct square–like architecture. Further along and still on the left-hand side of the road, in the distance, is a large dark grey skyscraper.

On the right side of the road, there is a building made of reddish-brown brick with a white trim along the top and middle of the building, running horizontally. Arched windows are positioned along the top and middle floor. Continuing further down the right hand side of the road are buildings which look like sandstone. In the distance, a green dome is visible on top of the next building.

Contributing to the chaos of the moment, amongst the crowd are blocks of red colour with curved edges, which abstractly take on the shape of flowing pieces of material, above the heads and outstretched arms of the protestors. These red shapes are reminiscent of flags waving in the wind. 

About his work, John Young says: "I made this painting when I was 19, and perhaps the first time in utilising (‘appropriating’ in today’s parlance) different styles to make a point, rather than to imitate or learn from. If memory serves me, it was done almost immediately after the Whitlam Dismissal in 11th Nov 1975, we were all out on the streets demonstrating - the streetscape is recognisably George Street, flanked with high rises and colonial architecture which I rendered in a photo-realist  style that I felt was politically conservative, whilst the demonstrators were rendered with a flatness reminiscent of silkscreen works by the Earthworks Poster Collective from the Tin Sheds. It was a simple binary, but it sort of encapsulated the political disposition of the time, with General Philosophy splitting with Traditional and Modern Philosophy, Political Economy splitting with Economics Departments at the University.”

This artwork was acquired by the USU in 1974.