The Yellow House at 57-59 Macleay Street, Potts Point, is a well–known heritage item.

Its significance lies in the fact it was once an artists’ colony for such artists as Brett Whitely and Martin Sharp, among many others.

Today, it’s an art gallery and restaurant with stylish apartments incorporated its 2001 redevelopment.

As part of that redesign the developer commissioned a large bespoke art work by Matthew Johnson.
Matthew Johnson was originally born in London in the swinging 60s and is now based in Melbourne. He is a highly distinguished artist with a prize-winning reputation both here and overseas. He has contributed to over 30 exhibitions in France, Canada, Sydney, Melbourne and Berlin with 20 major individual commissions, having won over a dozen awards and residency grants in Australia and France

At 64 square metres his brightly-coloured, beguiling semi-permeable screens cover three storeys of the western façade of the building. They trick the eye as they move across the balconies of each apartment, acting as a brise soleil and providing shade from hot afternoon sun and filter light in winter. They are inspired by French pick-up sticks, a childhood game played by Mr Johnson when he lived in the building.

They are listed by the artist as “Yellow House Screens”.

Such public art on a private building is rare in an urban context.

They are viewed from a view in-the-round from McDonald Street and McDonald Lane and admired daily by visitors and locals passing by.

By Andrew Woodhouse, Director, Heritage Solutions

Image: Yellow House Screens by Matthew Johnson: rare large-scale public art on private property