Sam Byrne: modern painter

This article examines the work of the Australian painter Sam Byrne (1883–1978); it investigates how terms such as ‘unselfconscious’, ‘sincere’, and ‘uncomplicated’, which have been applied to his work as part of a broader framing under the category of ‘naïve’ art, generate significant misreadings of his practice. Byrne's art was complex and nuanced in a way that such descriptions fail to capture. The wry humour, the political radicality, and the sheer modernity of Byrne's pictures make it difficult to accept the repeated characterisation of ingenuousness which has dogged interpretations of his work. Byrne's awareness of his audience and his canny response to the art market demonstrate that his work cannot be understood as naïve except with significant qualification. Moreover, Byrne's practice, contrary to its general portrayal in the literature, was not cut off from the broader thrust of artistic development in the twentieth century. Comparisons with other modern and contemporary artists can be a productive way to highlight aspects of the artist's paintings that have been hitherto overlooked.