Tributes for John Olsen, the artist who upended a staid tradition

John Olsen has been remembered as the artist who, in the 1960s, upended Australia’s staid tradition of representational painting.

Olsen, who passed away peacefully on Tuesday night aged 95 at his home-cum-studio in the NSW Southern Highlands, produced over 5000 works spanning paintings, drawings, tapestries and ceramics across eight decades, but none scandalised the Sydney arts establishment quite like his 1960 masterpiece Spanish Encounter.