Heide Museum of Modern Art to Present Major Survey of John Nixon’s Work

Heide Museum of Modern Art will present Song of the Earth, a major retrospective of John Nixon (1949–2020), one of Australia’s most influential abstract artists. On view from 26 November 2025 to 9 March 2026, the exhibition is the first to span Nixon’s fifty-year career and marks five years since the artist’s passing.

Curated by Sue Cramer, Nixon’s wife and a leading curator and writer, with Heide Senior Curator Melissa Keys, Song of the Earth brings together works from the artist’s estate, private collections, and major institutions including the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of South Australia, Monash University Museum of Art, and the Chau Chak Wing Museum.

Nixon’s approach to abstraction was both aesthetic and philosophical. He viewed it as an ethical mode of practice — a means of engaging with the world through simplicity, structure, and experimentation. His works incorporate repurposed materials such as wood, cardboard, metal and hessian, transformed into compositions that balance rigour with vitality.

Influenced by early twentieth-century avant-garde movements including Dada, Futurism, and Russian Constructivism, Nixon also drew from the reductive clarity of Minimalism and the conceptual inquiry of Conceptual Art. His practice continually questioned what art could be, extending abstraction into a broader conversation about creativity and life.

Curator Sue Cramer said the exhibition explores Nixon’s deep connection to music and nature.
“The leitmotifs of ‘the Song’ and ‘the Earth’ have inspired this exhibition of John Nixon’s abstract artworks, drawing attention to the lyricism that unfolds in his work alongside its formal and analytical concerns,” Cramer said. “Nixon envisioned art and life as inseparable, affirming abstraction as an epic and far-reaching endeavour.”

Song of the Earth features rarely seen minimal and conceptual works from the late 1960s and 1970s, alongside his 1980s tableaux that combine painting with readymade objects such as a grand piano and a bicycle. It also examines Nixon’s long-running Experimental Painting Workshop (EPW), which served as a conceptual framework for his entire career, and his parallel explorations in music, photography, and theatre.

Senior Curator Melissa Keys said Nixon’s influence extended well beyond his own art. “A much-loved educator and mentor, Nixon was a central figure in Melbourne’s creative community,” Keys said. “Through his Art Projects gallery (1979–1984) and collaborative ventures in publishing, music and performance, he shaped a model for artist-led practice that continues to inform Australia’s contemporary art scene.”