Lecture 5: Neil Roberts’ 2000 Bounces for David Watt 6.5.99

If you missed Lecture 5: Neil Roberts’ 2000 Bounces for David Watt 6.5.99 by Gordon Bull, in the Drill Hall Gallery’s 2026/27 Lecture Series: Artworks of significance: ideas, history, aesthetics, and cultural context, you can watch the recorded version below or on our Youtube channel. 

Lecture 5: Neil Roberts’ 2000 Bounces for David Watt 6.5.99
Gordon Bull

This lecture will be part art-history, part social history, and part memoir where I’d like to speak about my own relationship with these two friends, Neil Roberts and David Watt. It will offer a short introduction to their work for those who are unfamiliar with it, and a reminder of the wonderful contributions that they made to those who already know them.

This lecture will begin by looking at Neil Roberts’ 2000 Bounces for David Watt 6.5.99 (1999), a work that I saw most recently in the exhibition ANU Art Collection: Conjunction, 24 October – 21 December, 2025, curated by Tony Oates and Oscar Capezio. This work is a tribute from Neil Roberts to his friend and fellow artist David Watt.

Both men were established and important mid-career artists who died young, suddenly and unexpectedly, David in 1999 at 46, and Neil in 2002 at 48. Their loss was felt across the Australia art world, and especially in the Canberra region. Their work is still influential.

Gordon Bull is an art historian and retired academic. He has a Master of Arts and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney, both with First Class Honours. He taught art history and theory in Australian universities for over thirty years, principally at the School of Art at Australian National University (ANU) where for ten years he was Head of the Art Theory Workshop, and for seven years the Head of School. He is now a Member of the Emeritus Faculty of the ANU.

Gordon has been a member of the executive and treasurer and membership secretary of the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ), and a member of the executive, secretary and chair of the Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools (ACUADS).

Find out more about our 2026/27 Lecture Series: Artworks of significance: ideas, history, aesthetics, and cultural context here.

Image: Neil Roberts, 2000 bounces for David Watt 6.5.99 1999, boot polish on Stonehenge paper, 57.5 x 75 x 3.5 mm. School of Art and Design Collection. Acquired 2003