This week at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, an exhibition of the work of Australian artist Robert Jacks was unveiled. What makes Robert Jacks: Order & Variation particularly poignant is the artist’s passing in August, having worked with the gallery’s curatorial team on all aspects of the exhibition to ensure that its presentation mirrored his own attitudes towards artistic practice. “Robert Jacks was a pioneering figure of Australian abstractionism whose example has offered an alternative path to subsequent generations of Australian artists,” says Tony Ellwood, the director of the NGV. “We are honoured to present the first retrospective of Jacks’ work while recognising the deep and lasting influence he has had upon the field of Australian art.

The free exhibition is the first large-scale retrospective of Mr Jacks, who is perhaps Australia’s most significant abstract artists, drawing on his expansive archive of paintings, sculpture, drawing and printmaking, with more than 200 pieces on display, including those produced during his time spent living in the United States. Here, he become part of New York City’s vibrant contemporary art scene of the late 1960s and early 1970s alongside Donald Judd and Sol LeWitt. As the exhibition’s title suggests, Mr Jacks’ work regularly explored degrees of order and variation, a notion explored by the curator’s in the way the works are presented.

Robert Jacks: Order & Variation is on display at the NGV Australia until 15 February 2014.