A long forgotten 1934 exhibition by the Australian expatriate JW Power at the Abstraction-Creation gallery in Paris provides the key to understanding this most elusive artist.

Stephen and Donaldson argue that Power is Australia’s most important avant-gardist of the early twentieth century. In the interwar years, Power moved between cities, immersing himself in both contemporary and historical art, this restlessness leading to his own unique painting: part abstract surrealism, part-surreal abstraction. Virginia Spate examines Power’s creative process through the analysis of a single painting.

J.W. Power Abstraction-Creation reveals how Power’s work illuminates the relationships between Sydney and Paris, and between France and Australia, an exchange that goes to the heart of Australia’s modernism.