John Matthews reviews Justin O'Brien: The sacred music of colour on view at the Art Gallery of New South Wales through February 27, 2011. O'Brien (1917-1996), an Australian artist, is best known for painting religious themed paintings with a saturated palette. Matthews writes "One thinks of modern artists appropriating the formal traits of the Renaissance and one expects a subversion or perhaps at least a constructive tension between that historically specific style and its codified subject matter… That doesn't happen with O'Brien in fact the opposite is true, the paintings seem to breath in and hold themselves tight in the hope of a graceful reception. It's almost the reverse of tension"