Larter’s multi-paneled Big Bang, 1992, is a no-holds-barred, crowd-pulling, roof-raising, Olympic-scaled showstopper. I would also argue that it is also a… Destination Masterpiece, of the kind that the National Gallery of Australia yearned to secure when it bought David Hockney’s A Bigger Grand Canyon, 1998, and Lucia Giordiano’s The Rape of the Sabines, 1672-74…

Bruce James, ‘Out of this World’, The Sydney Morning Herald, September 23, 2000.

At 21 metres long, Big Bang is one of the largest paintings ever made by the artist. The subject matter – the Big Bang theory of an ever-expanding universe – is writ large across the 10 panels and was painted following the artist’s readings of geometric or Ptolemaic astronomy. Big Bang was influenced by developments in mathematics and physics, by the landscape near Larter’s home in Yass, New South Wales, and by artists such as Henri Matisse, Georges Seurat and Robert and Sonia Delaunay, whose work he encountered during his formative years in London.

Larter took an experimental approach to painting, using rollers to create energetic lines of colour across the canvas. He often listened to music while he painted, which is reflected in the dynamic works he produced. This monumental painting was on loan to UTS from 2000 until 2008 when it was donated to the UTS Art Collection by Sydney gallerist Frank Watters, a close friend of the artist, to whom the painting is dedicated. Over his distinguished career, Larter was represented by the Watters Gallery and held over 50 solo exhibitions. His work is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and National Portrait Gallery, Canberra.