Court of the Violin is an early work created around the time Jacks enrolled to study sculpture at the Prahran Technical College, aged fifteen, where he was exposed to the work of Henry Moore,  Picasso and Miro and influenced by visual popular culture such as records, advertising and movies.  This work is an early exploration of abstraction which became the defining element of his career. The subject is a favoured motif of cubism (violin/guitar) and there is perhaps a sculptural simplicity to the arrangement of shapes revealing the young artist’s skill as a draughtsman.  There is also a strong use of colour and beyond the geometric, a tension is set up between pure abstraction and the obviousness of the plywood board visible through the paint layer, as well as the play between a flat perspective and sense of space. This use of contrast becomes an important aspect of Jacks’ work throughout his career with the conflict between abstraction/figuration and the tension between gravity and humour and emotion and intellect.