TRUE CRIME and misdemeanour in

Albert Tucker Charles Blackman Thomas Gleghorn Brett Whiteley Garry Shead Steve Cox Adam Cullen Nick Devlin Freddie Timms Timmy Timms Paddy Bedford Catherine Bell Damiano Bertoli Mark Hilton Richard Lewer

Page 1 FOREWORD

While visual artists have never been as 15 April, 1834 (1834) or Walter Sickert’s In particular we express our appreciation obsessed as writers and filmmakers with The Camden Town murder (1908), both to Philip Dunn QC, List Chairman, and the subject of crime as a focus for their of which exemplify artistic interpretations to Suzie Cameron of Foley’s List, who art, it is possible nonetheless to identify, of the more familiar type of brutal assault have been most accommodating of our virtually from the Romantic period that is grist to the mill for screenwriters requests for support and advice. While onwards, a stream of practice that engaged with the task of supplying copy acknowledging this extremely kind and concerns artists who find inspiration for the multitude of police dramas that timely assistance we also record our not merely in villainy per se, but more enjoy a stranglehold, if one may so speak, ongoing thanks to each of the Gallery’s specifically in the circumstances of actual, on television screens everywhere. Annual Program Sponsors whose names documented, and frequently notorious The first of its kind in an Australian or logos are published elsewhere in incidents of crime or, at the very least, public gallery, this exhibition, True crime – this catalogue. of serious mischief. murder and misdemeanour in Australian Likewise, the Gallery acknowledges In literature, a notable instance of art, examines Australian artists’ with appreciation that Indemnification great art arising from creative reflection interpretations of criminality and it does for this exhibition is provided by the on the perpetration of actual crime is so on the basis of a selection of paintings, Victorian Government. Robert Browning’s colossal poem of drawings, prints and screen-based As on other occasions, I gladly some 21,000 lines, The Ring and the Book images from mid-20th century date to pay tribute to Kate Rogers at Design (1868 – 69). This complex narrative was the present, including a DVD component By Pidgeon whose unerring eye and inspired by the poet’s discovery in a of supporting imagery of colonial and keen imagination are key to the design Florentine street market of a 17th century other historical subjects. of this catalogue, just as the expert legal record (the ‘Book’ of the poem’s We are profoundly grateful to a printing and generous partnership of title) of an actual murder trial conducted number of institutional and private lenders Adams Print is reflected in the production in Rome in 1698 following the death whose generous co-operation with quality of this catalogue. of Pompilia Comparini and her parents, information, images for reproduction Finally, all members of the Gallery’s allegedly victims of Pompilia’s jealous and highly significant loans has been staff have been involved, in one way husband, an impoverished Roman indispensable in preparing this exhibition or another, with the True crime initiative, nobleman who suspected his young and catalogue. Thus, I record thanks and my appreciation of this sterling team wife of adultery. to our colleagues at the Art Gallery of effort is placed on record here, while Arguably, the most famous example , Benalla Art Gallery, special recognition — reserved for this of the ‘genre’ in the visual arts is Jacques- Heide Museum of Modern Art, National concluding statement in the interests Louis David’s justly celebrated if starkly Gallery of , National Gallery of well-deserved emphasis — is due forensic portrait of that ‘martyr of the of and the TarraWarra Museum to my colleague, Lisa Sullivan, originator Revolution’, Jean-Paul Marat, dying in his of Art. In terms of contemporary loans, and curator of the exhibition, author bath, victim of Charlotte Corday’s knife we are similarly grateful to a number of the catalogue and indefatigable attack. To be sure, Goya’s prints that of distinguished private collectors, mastermind of the project overall. graphically depict disasters of war are and to the participating artists and their profoundly harrowing, as are paintings dealers or representative galleries. Geoffrey Edwards of murderers by Géricault and Cézanne, True crime – murder and Director but these works are not as pertinent to misdemeanour in Australian art is the focus of the present exhibition as are, generously sponsored by Foley’s List, say, Honoré Daumier’s Rue Transnonain an eminent barristers’ group.

Page 2 Page 3 TRUE CRIME murder and misdemeanour in Australian art

‘All art is a memory of age-old things, dark things, whose fragments live on in the artist.’ Paul Klee1

Graphic accounts of actual or true crimes particularly those associated with and descriptions of their perpetrators the New South Wales and Victorian gold have, for centuries, inspired great works rushes, provided a wealth of subject of literature and performance, and more matter. ST Gill’s Attacking the mail recently film and television. While much (Bushranging NSW) [PLATE II p. 4] is one is written in relation to crime ­— from of a number of lithographs completed police notes, to court transcripts for The Australian Sketchbook, and, most conspicuously of all, media published in 18 64, chronicling aspects reports — it is also appropriate that a of colonial life. range of visual images should interpret In the journal written during his time these same events. True crime – murder in Australia (from 1850 – 62), William Strutt and misdemeanour in Australian art transcribed newspaper accounts explores the abiding interest of Australian of ‘daring depredations’ on the St Kilda artists in responding to criminal activity and Brighton Roads: a hold-up by four and includes a number of extraordinary mounted and armed on works — from the early-1940s to Saturday 16 October 1852.2 Thirty-five contemporary times — whose intrinsic years later, in 1887, Strutt painted visual appeal often belies the tragic, even Bushrangers, Victoria, Australia 1852 sordid events that have inspired them. [PLATE III p. 6]: one of several historical works Images depicting true crimes based on his colonial experiences, appeared in the earliest illustrated colonial completed after his return to England. newspapers (including The Illustrated While Strutt went to extraordinary Australian Mail, The Illustrated Melbourne lengths to achieve historical accuracy Post and The Illustrated Australian News) in his 1887 painting, the approach as a complement to written accounts adopted by only a few 3 of criminal activity [PLATE I p. 4]. Bushrangers, years later was more broadly based.

Below PLATE II Above PLATE I ST Gill (1818 –1880) Frederick Grosse (1838 –1894) Attacking the mail (Bushranging NSW) 1864 1 Cited in James Mollison & Nicholas Bonham, Albert Tucker, of the gold escort from the Lachlan, chromolithograph, printed in colour The Macmillan Company of Australia, Melbourne & , 3 In a letter to prospective buyer, CB Crawshaw (dated 6 July New South Wales 25 June 1862 19.8 x 25.0 cm (image and text) 1887), Strutt wrote: ‘I brought the costumes over from Australia 1982, p. 37. wood engraving from The Australian Sketchbook, and they are the very ones worn by the Colonists at that time …’ published in The Illustrated Australian Mail printed by Hamel & Ferguson, Melbourne 2 George Mackaness (ed.), The Australian Journal of William Copy in the archive of the Ian Potter Museum of Art, Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne National Library of Australia, Strutt, ARA, 1850 –1862, Halstead Press, Sydney, 1958, p. 34. the University of Melbourne.

Page 4 Page 5 CAT. NO. 23 Above PLATE III Below PLATE IV Sidney Nolan William Strutt (1825 –1915) Tom Roberts (1856 –1931) Kelly at the mine 1946 – 47 Bushrangers, Victoria, Australia 1852 1887 Bailed up 1895 /1927 enamel on composition board oil on canvas oil on canvas Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne 75.7 x 156.6 cm 134.5 x 182.8 cm Purchased from John and Sunday Reed 1980 The University of Melbourne Art Collection Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney © Sidney Nolan Trust / Gift of the Russell and Mab Grimwade Bequest 1973 Purchased 1933 The Bridgeman Art Library

Page 6 Page 7 Having determined the subject of his and their Pursuers (published in 1929) work, Roberts sought information about and the 1881 Royal Commission report the early bushranging history of New into the Victorian police force detailing South Wales to construct the narrative of the pursuit of the Kelly gang; as well the 1895/1927 painting Bailed up [PLATE IV p. 6]. as a trip to ‘Kelly country’ with author He was provided with an account of Max Harris in late-1945. hold-ups of the Inverell/Armidale mail coach Nolan’s iconic series of Kelly paintings by the infamous ‘Captain Thunderbolt’ of 1946 – 47 was completed at the home (Frederick Ward) in 1867 and 1870, of patrons John and Sunday Reed: and staged the scene in the landscape the twenty-seven works exhibited at of the ’s earlier crimes.4 Melbourne’s in 1948 — Of the artists represented in regarded as the core of the series — the current exhibition, Sidney Nolan were accompanied by quotations from also looked to an historical figure for the 1881 report, Keneally’s book and inspiration — , the legendary late-19th century newspaper coverage.5 The various aspects of the Kelly story that these ‘Nolan was fascinated by the history works interpret (too numerous to detail here) of the Kellys in all its true-crime details.’ presented with the supporting texts suggests that ‘Nolan was fascinated horse thief and murderer who was hung by the history of the Kellys in all its at Melbourne Gaol in November 1880, true-crime details.’6 with whose helmeted visage the artist’s An additional work to the twenty-seven name is now synonymous. core paintings, Nolan’s Kelly at the mine, The impetus for Nolan’s earliest Kelly 1946 – 47 [CAT. NO. 23 p. 7], depicts the hideout works — which date to 1945 — has been of the Kelly gang in the Wombat Ranges attributed to a number of factors: the near the town of Mansfield (a former accounts of his grandfather, one of the base for the outlaw Harry Power, police officers who pursued Kelly after who Ned Kelly was said to admire).7 the infamous murder of three policemen Kelly is depicted in the iconic form of at Stringybark Creek in 1878; the violence the black helmeted figure, eyes peering of the Second World War and Nolan’s directly from a narrow slit, standing status in 1944 as an ‘Absent without leave’ beside the openings to a number of mine soldier evading authority as Kelly also shafts. The arrow-like form over the had; the artist’s reading of JJ Kenneally’s central shaft represents a canopy that The Inner History of the Kelly Gang was used to catch air to ventilate the

CAT. NO. 28 Albert Tucker Memory of Leonski 1943 4 Mary Eagle, The Oil Paintings of Tom Roberts in the National 6 Warwick Reeder (ed.), The Ned Kelly Paintings. Nolan at Heide oil on composition board Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1946 – 47, ex. cat., Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 1997, p. 72. 1997, p. 18. Purchased through The Art Foundation of Victoria with the assistance of The Shell Company 5 These twenty-seven core works are now housed in the 7 Kendrah Morgan & Damian Smith, Unmasked: Sidney Nolan of Australia Limited, Founder Benefactor 1995 collections of the National Gallery of Australia and the National and Ned Kelly 1950 –1990, ex. cat., Heide Museum of Modern © Barbara Tucker Gallery of Victoria. Art, Melbourne, 2006, p. 22.

Page 8 Page 9 shafts. Nolan’s portrait of the bushranger representing the rivets joining the suit’s from the same period, Ned Kelly, 1946 panels. Ned Kelly, 2000 [CAT. NO. 26], ‘reflects [CAT. NO. 22 p. 11], is thought to be based on both [Timms’] own family history and a photograph that accompanied an early the incorporation of Ned Kelly into gaol record of June 1873 (at Aboriginal Dreaming in north-western of eighteen). Although an authentic Australia’, with accounts of Ned Kelly photograph of Kelly in a shirt, tie and thought to have ‘reached the Kimberley jacket is not known to exist, composite soon after the arrival of the first white (or forged) photographs were created settlers in the 1880s’. 11 And in a cultural and it is likely that one of these provided reversal to that of Timms’ work, the source for this painting — the image non-Indigenous artist Thomas Gleghorn of Kelly’s head being collaged onto a depicts part-Aboriginal bushranger portrait of another individual.8 in his 1960 linocut The landscape and ‘the stories [CAT. NO. 15], one of a number of aspects that take place within the landscape’ of Indigenous history and culture that were intrinsic to Nolan’s Kelly works, filtered into Gleghorn’s work.12 particularly those of the 1964 – 65 series.9 Nolan’s contemporary, Albert Tucker, In works of this period — most notably focused on events of more recent and the two nine-panelled polyptychs immediate experience. Tucker’s 1943 Riverbend I and Riverbend II — Nolan gave painting Memory of Leonski [CAT. NO. 28 p. 8], greater prominence to the environment was a response to the murder of three in which the Kelly events unfolded, with Melbourne women in 1942 by American the central characters diminishing in scale. soldier Edward Joseph Leonski, also Riverbend, 1964 [CAT. NO. 24], depicts Kelly, known as the ‘Brownout strangler’. rifle in hand by the banks of a river, while Each of the deaths received extensive the body of a police officer and his horse coverage in The Argus: on 4 May, the are nearby. first victim, Mrs Ivy McLeod, whose body While the image of Kelly reappeared was found in a recess leading to a in Nolan’s oeuvre until the year of his doorway of two small shops in Victoria death (and was described variously Street, Albert Park; the 11 May edition by the artist as ‘the touchstone of my reported the death of Mrs Pauline progression as a painter’ and ‘the Thompson, her body left on the steps millstone round my neck’), a number of Morningside House in Spring Street; of other artists have also depicted the and on 20 May, a front-page headline outlaw.10 In a direct reference to the announced ‘Third murder in sixteen days. imagery of Nolan, Gija artist Freddie Woman victim at Royal Park’, followed Above Timms depicts Kelly with square helmet by details of Mrs Gladys Hosking’s death. CAT. NO. 29 Albert Tucker and body armour, a series of dots Each of the women had been strangled Man’s head 1946 oil on cotton gauze on cardboard National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1981 © Barbara Tucker

11 Beth Dolan (ed.) (with Allison Holland and Clare Williamson), Below CAT. NO. 22 Kelly Culture, ex. cat., State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, 8 Reproduced in Keith McMenomy, Ned Kelly: the Sidney Nolan 2003, pp. 27– 8. Authentic Illustrated History, Hardie Grant Publishing, Ned Kelly 1946 Victoria, 2001, p. 48. 12 Coincidentally, Gleghorn’s print was completed the year after enamel and oil on paper adhered the publication of Frank Clune’s Jimmy Governor which told to card on board 9 Jane Clark, Sidney Nolan: Landscapes and Legends, the story of the late-19th century outlaw. Governor was also National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Cambridge University Press, 1987, p. 71. the subject of ’s 1972 novel The Chant Purchased 1970 10 Morgan & Smith, p. 2, and TG Rosenthal, of Jimmy Blacksmith, and a film released in 1978 (directed © Sidney Nolan Trust / Sidney Nolan, Thames & Hudson, London, 2002, p. 97. by Fred Schepisi). The Bridgeman Art Library

Page 10 Page 11 and their bodies found partially clothed. reference to the bird-like voice of one After a five-day trial, Leonski was found of Leonski’s victims who he confessed guilty of the three and sang to him before her death: ‘she had sentenced to death. He was executed a nice voice … I wanted her to keep at Melbourne’s Pentridge Prison on singing and I choked her. How could 9 November 1942. she keep singing when I choked her?’).14 Soon after the soldier’s death, The crescent mouth of this painting was Tucker completed Memory of Leonski — an iconic form in many of Tucker’s works a work that includes a number of of this period. references to the war-time murders. The artist also collected newspaper The central female form explicitly photographs that provided source recalls newspaper descriptions of the material for psychological portraits dishevelled state in which the three such as Man’s head, 1946 [CAT. NO. 29 p. 11], victims were found: their clothes ‘torn’ and John Donald Merrett, 1954 [CAT. NO. 30]. In an interview in the early-1980s, Tucker ‘… I was fascinated with the utterly recalled that Man’s head: was painted from dissolute face of this man … he had that a newspaper photograph look about him, a collapsed kind of face, of a man who had been charged in court with a kind of moral disintegration.’ kicking a small dog to death. And I remember I was fascinated with the or ‘ripped’ from their bodies (in two cases, utterly dissolute face of this man … he had the clothes were pulled down from their that look about him, a collapsed kind of shoulders and up from their legs ‘to form face, a kind of moral disintegration. And a heap around [their] waist’); one victim I realized it wasn’t so much the person ‘was lying on her back, with her legs that was fascinating me — rather, he stood folded back under her body’ and another as a symbol for all sorts of things that ‘was lying on her back … with her arms work in the human condition. I remember and legs outstretched.’13 once I located the photograph again and Additional references within the it’s really nothing like it … I found that painting include a ‘flag-like’ panel I’d extracted the corrupt disintegrating of red and white stripes and an aircraft element in it. The face fascinated (referring to Leonski’s status as an me because it was a key into a social- American serviceman) as well as a dove psychological landscape. A kind of (a symbol of peace, and possibly a refracting prism for the human condition.15

Above CAT. NO. 7 Below CAT. NO. 8 Charles Blackman Charles Blackman The shadow 1953 Prone schoolgirl c. 1953 tempera on cardboard enamel on cardboard Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne Purchased from John and Sunday Reed 1980 Purchased from John and Sunday Reed 1980 14 The Argus, Melbourne, 17 July 1942, p. 3. © Charles Blackman © Charles Blackman Licensed by VISCOPY, Australia, 2008 Licensed by VISCOPY, Australia, 2008 13 The Argus, Melbourne, 4, 11 & 20 May 1942, pp. 1 & 3. 15 Mollison & Bonham, p. 42.

Page 12 Page 13 Similarly, the portrait John Donald a posthumous pardon by the Victorian Merrett is derived from a newspaper Government after forensic analysis of photograph of a British killer. Merrett’s hair samples, used by the prosecution early crimes included the murder of his to link him to the girl’s death, proved mother for which he was tried in 1927 that he was not guilty.18 and acquitted due to forensic errors, Blackman’s Schoolgirl series — which and charges of forgery for which he was he commenced soon after his arrival imprisoned. On 11 February 1954 he killed in Melbourne in the early-1950s — was his wife (by drowning) and mother-in-law largely inspired by the Gun Alley murder.19 (by strangulation), and five days later, The charcoal drawing Schoolgirl and man, with police in pursuit, committed suicide. 1952 [CAT. NO. 6], and paintings The shadow, Tucker completed the chilling portrait 1953 [CAT. NO. 7 p. 12] and Prone schoolgirl, 16 in March 1954. c. 1953 [CAT. NO. 8 p. 12], combine the Newspaper reports in the early-1950s characteristic elements of this iconic of plans for the redevelopment of series: a schoolgirl wearing a mushroom- Melbourne’s Eastern Market — on the shaped hat and pleated tunic, mostly corner of Bourke and Exhibition Streets — alone in a deserted cityscape of saw-tooth were the likely means by which Charles buildings, clock-towers, chimneys and Blackman learnt of a tragic murder that long shadows. occurred within close proximity of the ‘The schoolgirl pictures had a lot to do site, some three decades earlier.17 with fear, I think’, said Blackman. ‘A lot to On the morning of New Year’s Eve 1921, do with my isolation as a person and my the body of 12-year-old schoolgirl, Alma quite paranoid fears of loneliness and stuff Tirtschke, was found in Gun Alley off like that ...’20 In one of the more menacing Little Collins Street, near the southern exit works of the series, Schoolgirl and man, of the Market’s arcade. The previous day, the sense of fear is heightened by the dressed in her school uniform, she ran presence of a dark male figure shadowing an errand for her aunt to a butcher’s shop the innocent schoolgirl — witness reports in Swanston Street — her return journey in the Gun Alley murder case identified took her through the Eastern Market an agitated and distressed Alma being area. Within months of the discovery followed by a man before she disappeared of her body in the city laneway, Colin from view. Campbell Ross, who ran a wine saloon Like Blackman, Brett Whiteley relocated in the arcade, was convicted of her rape to a new city and found inspiration in its and murder. He was hanged for the infamous history. In 1960 Whiteley moved crime in April 1922, still protesting his to London where he lived in an apartment innocence in a final letter to his family. in Ladbroke Grove near the Elgin Hotel Earlier this year, Ross was granted and within blocks of 10 Rillington Place,

CAT. NO. 31 19 It has also been suggested that an additional trigger for the 16 Lesley Harding, A Link and a Trust: Albert Tucker and Sidney works was the unsolved death of Betty Shanks — a university Brett Whiteley Nolan’s Rome Exhibition, ex. cat., Heide Museum of Modern 10 Rillington Place, WII 1964 friend of the artist’s wife — in Brisbane, September 1952, Art, Melbourne, 2006, p. 34. however the artist has since refuted this assertion. See Kelly oil and graphite on canvas on plywood, charcoal on paper, gelatin silver photographs, 17 Conversation with Kevin Morgan, author of Gun Alley: Burke, ‘The girl in Gun Alley’, The Sydney Morning Herald, cord, cup, object, wood and glass Murder, Lies and Failure of Justice, Simon & Schuster, 5 April 2000, p. 13. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne New South Wales, 2005, 29 September 2008. 20 Thomas Shapcott, The Art of Charles Blackman, Samuel E Wills Bequest 1986 18 John Silvester, ‘Pardoned’, The Age, 27 May 2008, pp. 1 & 4. André Deutsch Limited, London, 1989, p. 11. © Courtesy Wendy Whiteley

Page 14 Page 15 where, seven years earlier, the bodies of Beryl and her one-year-old daughter of a number of women were found. were found in the washhouse in the rear Between 1943 and 1953, John Reginald garden. Her husband was convicted Halliday Christie murdered up to seven of their deaths and hanged in 1950.21 women and buried their bodies in In late-1952 Christie strangled his wife the communal garden, washhouse in bed with one of her stockings, thereby and internal cavities of his ground floor freeing him to commit additional murders. apartment. Whiteley completed his Between mid-January and early-March now famous series based on the Christie of the following year, he killed three murders: the works emphasising women who had accepted invitations the sexual nature of the crimes and back to 10 Rillington Place — Kathleen the means by which Christie’s victims Maloney, Rita Nelson and Hectorina were killed. McLennan (whose names feature in the Christie’s first known murder victim, titles of Whiteley’s works). On March 20 of the same year, Christie moved out of the address and a few days later the Whiteley completed his now famous series new tenant discovered based on the Christie murders: the works the three bodies in a cupboard that had been emphasising the sexual nature of the wallpapered over. crimes and the means by which Christie’s Mrs Christie’s remains were located under the victims were killed. floorboards of a front room, and those of the first two victims in the rear Ruth Fuerst, was impulsively strangled garden. Christie was arrested later that with a rope during sexual intercourse. month and hanged on 15 July 1953. Fourteen months later, under the guise Whiteley’s painting 10 Rillington Place, of curing the bronchial condition of WII, 1964 [CAT. NO. 31 p. 15], is dominated by co-worker Muriel Amelia Eady with the fleshy form of a prone female victim. his ‘special mixture’, Christie rendered The splayed legs and swollen belly is, her unconscious with domestic gas perhaps, a reference to the illegal abortion containing carbon monoxide, choked Christie offered to perform on Beryl Evans. her to death and raped her post-mortem. Rubber tubing through which Christie A similar fate befell neighbour Beryl Evans, administered the gas, and the bulldog clip on whom Christie offered to perform an that controlled its release, are depicted abortion in November 1949. The bodies in the upper right-hand corner of the work,

CAT. NO. 32 Brett Whiteley 10 Rillington Place, WII, (still from a proposed 16 mm film) 1965 photo-screenprint, printed in colour from four stencils National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1976 © Courtesy Wendy Whiteley 21 Ludovic Kennedy, 10 Rillington Place, Grafton, London, 1971.

Page 16 Page 17 while the menacing arms of an otherwise of Dr Gilbert Bogle and Mrs Margaret unseen perpetrator emerge from the Chandler in a series of works exhibited right. Whiteley includes further references in Sydney in November 1967. to the crimes in the nine recesses The bodies of Dr Bogle, a physicist across the upper edge which house with the Commonwealth Scientific and photographic and drawn portraits of Industrial Research Organisation, and Christie, drawings of a penis and a female Mrs Chandler, the wife of one of Bogle’s figure, a photograph of the rear of 10 colleagues, were found early on New Rillington Place showing police digging Year’s Day 19 63 on the banks of the Lane in the garden (and on which the Cove River, New South Wales, a known washhouse, alcove and lavatory are lovers’ lane area. Their partially clothed identified), as well as three-dimensional bodies had been covered — Chandler objects including a teacup and cord. with cardboard boxes and Bogle with In the similarly titled photo-screenprint, his suit and a piece of carpet from 10 Rillington Place, WII, (still from a the boot of his car — suggesting the proposed 16 mm film), 1965 [CAT. NO. 32 p. 16], involvement of a third party and foul the figure of Christie, with illustrated play. While an inquest was unable head, stands within a confined room to determine a specific cause of death, behind the deck chair in which his there was speculation of accidental victims were seated. Drawn over the film poisoning (via a sexual stimulant), murder still, Christie’s device for ‘curing’ their by a jealous husband or a previous lover, ailments — a jar containing an inhalant, and espionage (in relation to Bogle’s rubber tubing with bulldog clip attached scientific research). and a gas jet — floats threateningly In contrast to Whiteley’s approach — in the foreground. The sprocket holes which was to focus on specific aspects of the film roll highlight the origins of of Christie’s crimes and the personality the manipulated image — the registration of the perpetrator — Shead’s obsession, system on the left-hand side recording according to author Sasha Grishin, an arrow to the number 8 and beyond, ‘was with morbid eroticism, and he took a possible reference to the number of as its point of departure the sense of Christie’s victims. Commenting on the the unsolved mystery …’23 In Lane Cove process of printmaking in 1982, Whiteley riddle, 1967 [CAT. NO. 25 p. 19], Shead depicts stated: ‘Drawing is candid — like watching a poetic landscape in which the Lane the news on TV at night, printmaking is Cove River winds its way through more like movie-making, so many takes the composition, while an ethereal and retakes, clapper boards all the time.’22 representation of Chandler floats Locally, Garry Shead responded to the in the foreground with the head mysterious and widely publicised deaths of Bogle hovering closely beside her.

CAT. NO. 25 Garry Shead Lane Cove riddle 1967 oil on canvas 22 Art Gallery of Western Australia, Brett Whiteley: 23 Sasha Grishin, Garry Shead and the Erotic Muse, Collection of the artist Graphics, ex. cat., Perth, 1986, pp. 6 –7. Craftsman House, Sydney, 2001, p. 31. © the artist

Page 18 Page 19 Left, above CAT. NO. 21 Above CAT. NO. 21 Richard Lewer Richard Lewer True stories – Australian crime: True stories – Australian crime John Wayne Glover the granny killer 2008 (installation view, Block Projects, Melbourne) 2008 enamel on acoustic board Left, below CAT. NO. 21 Ken & Lisa Fehily Collection, Melbourne Richard Lewer Courtesy of the artist True stories – Australian crime: Martin Bryant and Block Projects, Melbourne days before the Port Arthur massacre 2008 © the artist

Page 20 Page 21 Thirty years after completing illustrate the crude and violent language the Lane Cove series, Shead remarked: of the criminal world. Consisting of ‘I was using these dramatic events forty-four panels in total, the twelve and putting them into a context or image-based works depict well-known scenery that I knew. The Lane Cove events such as the disappearance River was a landmark that I grew up of British tourist Peter Falconio in with; it had a bizarre aura about it.’24 the Australian outback, the 1988 Walsh The mystery of this ‘crime’ continues Street shootings of police officers with a recent investigation into the Constable Steven Tynan and Probationary circumstances of the deaths of Bogle Constable Damian Eyre, the 1987 and Chandler proposing that they were, Queen Street massacre at the Australia in fact, overcome by hydrogen sulphide Post offices in central Melbourne, fumes: a concentration of naturally as well as notorious criminals including occurring fumes combined with those Russell ‘Mad Dog’ Cox, ‘Mr Baldy’, ‘Lennie Lawson’ and Peter Dupas. Lewer’s working ‘I was using these dramatic events and process is detective-like: putting them into a context or scenery he researches the crimes extensively and pieces that I knew. The Lane Cove River was together elements to a landmark that I grew up with; it had present a narrative within select works. In the panel a bizarre aura about it.’ John Wayne Glover the granny killer [p. 20], Lewer combines aspects of created by the pooling of dumped Glover’s criminal acts which included industrial waste near the site where the bashing and strangulation (with their the bodies were found. pantyhose) of six elderly women in The multiple panels that comprise Sydney’s North Shore from 1989 – 91. Richard Lewer’s installation True stories – Lewer depicts the perpetrator (an Australian crime, 2008 [CAT. NO. 21 pp. 20 – 1], everyday sales representative for a pie are infused with the voices and narratives company whose gambling addiction of apprehended suspects. Painted on drove him to murder), an elderly woman acoustic tiles that once lined the walls walking the suburban streets of Mosman, and ceilings of police interrogation rooms, a victim with walking cane and purse Lewer depicts a number of high-profile beside her lifeless form, another over crimes while accompanying text panels which an ambiguous pink form stands,

CAT. NO. 14 Nick Devlin The brighter the light the darker the shadow #1– 27 (detail) 1999 –2001 charcoal pencil on paper Collection of the artist 24 Garry Catalano, Building a Picture: Interviews with Australian © the artist Artists, McGraw-Hill, Sydney, 1997, p. 44. Cited in Grishin, p. 31.

Page 22 Page 23 and a rug linked to Glover’s final victim — and mental ability. In 1872, the French a female friend in whose house he police department adopted a recording was arrested. system devised by Alphonse Bertillon: In addition to this narrative approach a series of measurements … in which multiple ‘storylines’ constitute considered specific to each body and a panel, a number of crimes are descriptions of characteristic markings, represented by single images: Martin coupled with two photographs. Bryant days before the Port Arthur These pictures became what we now massacre [p. 20] is based on the know as standard mugshots: two photograph of the mass murderer used neutral, standardized views of the face widely by the press in the aftermath of the accused — one taken frontally of the 1996 massacre. The image took and one in profile.26 on great significance as investigators The science of phrenology and the and the general public sought insights role of photography in the documentation into the character of Bryant, and of crime, and the apprehension of most importantly, a point of differentiation criminals, inform the charcoal portraits between the appearance of a mass of perpetrators and victims that are murderer and a law-abiding citizen. the subjects of Nick Devlin’s The brighter In Essays on Physiognomy, published the light the darker the shadow #1 – 27, in 178 9, Johann Kaspar Lavater claimed: 1999 – 2001 [CAT. NO. 14 pp. 22 & 25]. Derived … to be able to judge a person from police mugshots and general by ‘reading’ his or her features photographs, the multiple drawings that and facial expressions. He describe[d] comprise the work are presented within physiognomy as ‘the Science of the exhibition in a random arrangement ­— discovering the relationship between alluding to the often unpredictable nature the exterior and the interior — between of crime — and the identities of the the visible surface and the invisible subjects are not disclosed to the viewer. spirit which it covers’ … [and] … proposed While it is clear on which side of the that his science would not only be law a small number of subjects are beneficial to artists, to better express positioned, the majority are ambiguous the varieties of human experience, inviting the application of the (long since but it could have practical application debunked) principles of phrenology. as well, including that of exposing ‘I have often been impressed in criminals’, vicious or criminal persons.25 wrote a 19th century practitioner, An extension of this concept was ‘by the prominent ears, the shape of phrenology — the study of the shape the cranium, the projecting cheek-bones, and size of the skull as a means the large lower jaws, the deeply-placed of determining a person’s character eyes, the shifty, animal-like gaze.’27

Above and below CAT. NO. 14 Nick Devlin The brighter the light the darker the shadow #1–27 (details) 1999 –2001 25 Sandra Phillips, Mark Haworth-Booth & Carol Squiers, charcoal pencil on paper 26 Phillips, Haworth-Booth & Squiers, p. 20. Police Pictures: the Photograph as Evidence, ex. cat., Collection of the artist San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1997, pp. 14 –15. 27 Phillips, Haworth-Booth & Squiers, p. 15. © the artist

Page 24 Page 25 Devlin’s largely historical subjects three of whom were found buried on include Colin Campbell Ross, Jean Lee the Saddleworth Moors — were aged (the last woman hanged in Australia in between 10 and 17. 1951 after her conviction for the murder Taken at the time of their arrest of Carlton bookmaker Pop Kent), in October 1965, the mugshots of Brady Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen (convicted and Hindley have become sinister and and hanged in 1910 for the murder of his iconic images, and particularly in the case wife), Leon Trotsky (Russian revolutionary of Hindley, have come to represent the and Marxist theorist, the victim of a embodiment of pure evil. political assassination), George Cornell Cox’s rendering of the original (killed by British gangster Ronnie Kray) black & white photographs in colour and Steven Parent (a victim of the is informed largely by newspaper Manson Family). descriptions of their appearances in court The widely reproduced mugshot and a degree of artistic interpretation (made possible by the artist’s extensive … the mugshots of Brady and Hindley have knowledge of the couple who have featured in his become sinister and iconic images, and work since the late -1970s). particularly in the case of Hindley, have come In these most recent depictions, Cox focuses to represent the embodiment of pure evil. not on the specific crimes themselves but on the appearance and photographs of notorious British Moors psychology of the perpetrators. murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley Ronnie Kray in Broadmoor, 1991 [CAT. NO. 9 are the basis for recent watercolour p. 26], presents a psychological profile of drawings by Steve Cox [CAT. NOS 10 & 11 p. 26]. a different nature to that of the mugshot The delicacy of the medium is in stark format of Brady and Hindley. The Kray contrast to our knowledge of the cruelty twins — Reginald ‘Reggie’ and Ronald inflicted by the pair, sentenced to life ‘Ronnie’ — were organised criminals imprisonment in 1966 for the sexual who controlled London’s East End during assault and murder of three victims the late-1950s and 1960s. With a between 1963 and 1965. Twenty years reputation for violence, they ran protection after their conviction, Brady and Hindley rackets and committed armed robbery, confessed to two additional murders arson and violent assaults. In 1968 they and their prison sentences were were both sentenced to thirty years Above CAT. NO. 10 extended accordingly. Their five victims — imprisonment for murder. Steve Cox Ian Brady 2008 watercolour on paper Courtesy of the artist © the artist

Below CAT. NO. 9 Steve Cox Ronnie Kray in Broadmoor 1991 Above CAT. NO. 11 oil, enamel and charcoal on canvas Steve Cox Benalla Art Gallery, Victoria Myra Hindley 2008 Purchased with assistance from Friends watercolour on paper of the Arts’ Advisory Council Funds 1991 Courtesy of the artist © the artist © the artist

Page 26 Page 27 Cox’s portrait of Ronnie — whose reviled, due largely to society’s difficulty eyes are rendered equally as menacingly in reconciling the criminal acts of a as those of the Moors murderers — female perpetrator and further is based on a photograph of the Kray exacerbated, in this case, by the fact twins in a domestic setting, with that Hindley’s crimes were committed Ronnie standing with teacup and against children and teenagers. saucer in hand.28 In the 1991 painting, Catherine Bell explores the subject Cox locates his subject in his cell of the female perpetrator in Soap, Slip, at Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital, Slash, 2006 [CAT. NO. 2 p. 29], a documented and presents a number of references performance in which she acts out or ‘clues’ to Ronnie’s criminal activities a violent crime against another woman. and personality. The blackboard lists Bell’s performance is inspired by the the Krays’ associates, rivals and victims: murder of 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett, ‘Babs Windsor’ (actress Barbara Windsor who, eight months into her pregnancy, who frequented the twins’ West End was strangled to death by Kansas nightclub along with celebrities including mother-of-two Lisa Montgomery. The Frank Sinatra, Diana Dors and Judy baby was removed from Stinnett’s womb Garland), the ‘richardsons’ (the Krays’ with Montgomery passing the child off chief rivals — Charlie and Eddie as her own hours before her arrest in Richardson — based in South London), December 2004. and ‘Jack the Hat’ McVitie (a minor In Soap, Slip, Slash — one of several member of the Kray gang who was killed of the artist’s works inspired by this by Reggie for failing to carry out a crime — Bell takes on the role of contract killing). A list of fictional first perpetrator. Dressed in chain mail names — ‘Stevie’, ‘Donny’, ‘Mikey’, ‘Billy’ (symbolising detachment from the crime), etc — refer to Ronnie’s homosexuality the seated Bell lathers the stomach of and the street boys he associated with, a pregnant woman who lies limply on while the drug ‘largactil’ and the ornate the floor between her legs. In a quiet, ‘ R’ refer to his schizophrenic condition. considered manner — devoid of the Sections of the painting — chiefly frenzy and passion that might ordinarily Ronnie’s hands and face — are executed be associated with a crime of this in a style reminiscent of the visceral nature — Bell shaves her pregnant paintings of British artist Francis Bacon, victim with a sling-back razor, slowly an acknowledgment by Cox of the and methodically removing the lather friendship between Bacon and Kray. and wiping the razor clean on a towel While the crimes of the Kray twins after each stroke. The actions are were undeniably brutal, it is the image calm, almost maternal, yet a sense of Myra Hindley that is one of the most of menace pervades.

Above and below CAT. NO. 2 Catherine Bell Soap, Slip, Slash 2006 performance stills 28 Steve Cox, ‘Murder and art: the causal links’, Master Courtesy of the artist and of Fine Arts thesis, Deakin University, Melbourne, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne October 1996, fig.8 . © the artist

Page 28 Page 29 According to Bell, female perpetrators, The disturbing conjunction of female particularly those who commit crimes perpetrators and a pregnant victim against children, also features in crimes committed … tend to evoke fear in public by members of the ‘Manson Family’ — consciousness because these women devotees of the charismatic leader cross the boundaries of normalised and Charles Manson — in Los Angeles. normalising rules and roles when they kill. In August 1969, under Manson’s When women commit an offence they instruction, members of the Family not only contravene the female stereotype violently murdered seven victims but they challenge the capabilities (including pregnant actress Sharon Tate) associated with being female.29 over two consecutive evenings. The expectation of women to be The Manson Family is one of the ‘good mothers’ surrounded the mysterious subjects of Damiano Bertoli’s ongoing disappearance, and subsequent death, exploration of events occurring in the late-1960s. Created under the collective title ‘When women commit an offence they ‘Continuous Moment’, Bertoli’s practice not only contravene the female stereotype investigates notions but they challenge the capabilities of cultural time travel as he revisits periods associated with being female.’ in art history and popular culture reworking them, largely through collage, of Moe toddler Jaidyn Leskie in 1997. a process that enables ‘moments [to] Although innocent of the crime, the child’s either co-exist or merge, to form mother Bilynda was harshly criticised a new situation.’30 for leaving the infant in the care of In Continuous Moment: whiteys her then boyfriend Greg Domaszewicz. on the moon (Sadie and Caballero), Leaving the 14-month-old child at home 2006 – 08 [CAT. NO. 3 p. 30], an image of alone to collect Bilynda from a nearby Manson Family member Susan Atkins hotel, Domaszewicz returned to find and her lawyer is collaged onto a NASA a pig’s head on the front lawn and the composite photograph of the moon child missing. Adam Cullen’s portraits, (the first lunar landing occurred two Bilynda [CAT. NO. 12] and Greg [CAT. NO. 13] were weeks before the murders). The work’s completed in the late-1990s, at the subtitle ‘whiteys on the moon’ is derived

Above CAT. NO. 3 height of media and community interest from a track on Gil Scot Heron’s 1970 Damiano Bertoli in the case. debut album — A New Black Poet: Continuous Moment: whiteys on the moon (Sadie and Caballero) 2006 – 08 Pegasus print Courtesy of the artist and Neon Parc, Melbourne © the artist 30 ‘New 07 interviewed’, Broadsheet, vol. 36, no. 1, 2007, p. 15. Below CAT. NO. 5 ‘Continuous Moment’ refers to the radical Italian architecture Damiano Bertoli 29 Catherine Bell, ‘Purging the criminal compulsion: a ritualisation and design collective ‘Superstudio’ who in 1969, launched Continuous Moment: Sadie & Pattie 2008 of deviant female acts’, paper presented at the College Art the ‘Continuous Monument’ project ‘in which the apparently ink and collage on record cover Association Conference, New York, 14 –17 February 2007. endless framework of a black-on-white grid … extends across Courtesy of the artist Cited in Melissa Miles, ‘Catherine Bell: cooking up crimes the earth’s surface in a critique of … the absurdities of and Neon Parc, Melbourne and maternal misdemeanours’, Eyeline, no. 65, Summer contemporary urban planning.’ http://www.designmuseum.org/ © the artist 2007– 08, pp. 46 – 8. design/superstudio, October 2008.

Page 30 Page 31 Small Talk at 125th and Lenox — the Hilton aims to explore ‘the racial and lyrics of which criticised the American cultural struggles within contemporary Government’s funding of the space Australian society’.31 program at the expense of social issues Persian painting of the 16th and (particularly civil rights). 17th centuries is characterised by the Manson’s own theories on race ‘accumulation of picturesque details’ relations extended to the belief that and a rich palette of jewel-like colours. an apocalyptic race war was imminent The visually complex works can be read and that songs on the Beatles’ White as a whole or viewed in part: with each Album (released in late -1968), such section illustrating an aspect of a as ‘Helter Skelter’, contained coded storyline. Like a stage setting, the action messages to that effect. At the scene is often ‘arranged on various levels and of the gruesome murders, Family composed around an architectural scene member Patricia Krenwinkel wrote lyrics or mountainous landscape’.32 from Beatles’ songs in the blood of Informed by Hilton’s study of the victims. Continuous Moment: Sadie extensive court transcripts, multiple & Pattie, 2008 [CAT. NO. 5 p. 30], is a collage aspects of the co-ordinated attacks are that combines a photograph of the depicted in Champion returns: from crime apprehended Atkins and Krenwinkel scenes including a toilet block (here on their way to court, the record cover adorned with a decorated cupola) and for the White Album (originally designed the Trotting Club (represented by artist Richard Hamilton) and a by a horse and cart) to actual events sequence of lines forming a grid that including a victim being hosed down after reference the utopian vision of the Italian her six-hour ordeal. In its entirety, the architectural collective ‘Superstudio’. illuminated work is exquisitely beautiful: Gang crimes, popular culture and when viewed in parts, the brutality of artistic references also coalesce in Mark the crimes it depicts is clearly apparent. Hilton’s lightbox Champion returns, 2006 Additional references, such as the Sydney [CAT. NO. 18 p.33]. Rendered in the style Harbour Bridge, the McDonald’s golden of Persian miniature court paintings, arches, clothing brands ‘Nike’, ‘Adidas’ the work is inspired by sexual crimes and ‘Champion’ (illustrated in the series perpetrated by Lebanese gangs in Sydney of preparatory drawings of the perpetrators in 2000. The racially motivated attacks [CAT. NOS 16, 17, 19 & 20 p. 33]) and a woman dressed were carried out by a group of up to in a burqa locate the events fourteen men against several women geographically, socially and culturally. of non-Lebanese descent. In linking these Works by Gija artists from the East shocking events with the highly refined Kimberley region of Western Australia, aesthetic of traditional Persian painting, Timmy Timms and Paddy Bedford, Above CAT. NO. 18 Mark Hilton Champion returns (1 of 2 panels, installation view, Bus Gallery, Melbourne) 2006 lambda duratran on lightbox Private collection, Melbourne © the artist

Below CAT. NO. 20 32 Louvre Museum, ‘In-depth studies: the picturesque in Persian Mark Hilton painting of the 16th – 17th centuries’, http://www.louvre.fr/llv/ Tayyab Sheikh & Nike Sam 2006 dossiers/page_theme.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_ graphite on paper id=10134198673669338&CURRENT_LLV_THEME%3C%3Ecnt_ Joyce Nissan Collection, Melbourne 31 Mark Hilton, ‘Folio’, 2007, n.p. id=10134198673669338&bmLocale=en, September 2008. © the artist

Page 32 Page 33 tell the story of the Bedford Downs from the experiences themselves … massacre and the emu dreaming Reality is always lost in the acts associated with the region. The massacre, of picturing and describing …’36 which is said to have occurred in the ‘Murder exerts an unholy fascination’, 1920s as retribution for the theft and writes Paul Mullen, Professor of Forensic killing of a bullock, involved the poisoning Psychiatry at Monash University.37 ‘We and burning of a number of Indigenous are drawn to the media’s representations men.33 In his account of the events of murder with a mixture of curiosity depicted in the painting Bedford Downs and aversion … The curiosity for some massacre, 2000 [CAT. NO. 27 p. 34], Timmy Timms is about the violence itself … [b]ut for tells of the men being sent to cut and most of us the fascination of murder stack wood for a fire, their final meal lies less in corpses or how the person of jam, tinned meat and bread poisoned was killed and more in the motivations with strychnine, the dying men being hit of the killer.’ with sticks ‘until they were finished’ and Artists, as with other members of the bodies being thrown on a wood heap the community, are not immune from this where kerosene was poured ‘onto them ‘curiosity’ and ‘fascination’. As the works to burn them’. The small circle in the in True crime – murder and misdemeanour lower right-hand side of the work in Australian art illustrate, Australian artists represents the place where the men have adopted a variety of approaches in were poisoned and burned.34 their depictions of this complex subject. As a senior traditional owner of While for some the specifics of the crime Bedford Downs, Paddy Bedford painted are the focus of their work, for others, numerous versions of the emu dreaming, their interest lies in the psychology of many incorporating representations of the the criminal. For the majority, the visual massacre site. The painting Mount King – medium provides a means by which emu dreaming, 2004 [CAT. NO. 1], depicts how to attempt to make sense of the heinous the land to the west of Bedford Downs acts of others. was created with the black circle showing ‘the blood stains left after human death.’35 Lisa Sullivan Images of murder and misdemeanour — Curator ‘age-old things, dark things’ — can never adequately convey the brutal reality of the crimes they depict and the impact on those associated. ‘Accounts of death and catastrophe differ quite obviously

34 Tony Oliver, Blood on the Spinifex, ex. cat., Ian Potter Museum 33 In spite of there being some dispute as to whether the of Art, the University of Melbourne, 2002, pp. 18 – 21. massacre actually occurred, and a lack of documentation CAT. NO. 27 to this effect, these works are important records of oral 35 Judith Ryan (with Stephen Gilchrist, Julie Gough & Paul Taçon), Timmy Timms histories that highlight the cultural variations in Indigenous Land Marks, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2006, p. 22. Bedford Downs massacre 2000 and non-Indigenous approaches to law and the recording 36 John Taylor, Body Horror: Photojournalism, Catastrophe natural pigments on linen of crime. See Rod Moran, ‘Was there a massacre at and War, Manchester University Press, 1998, p. 4. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Bedford Downs?’, Quadrant, November 2002, vol. xlvi, DG Wilson Bequest Fund 2000 no. 11, http://quadrant.org.au/php/article_view.php?article_ 37 Paul Mullen, ‘Indulging our morbid obsessions’, © Estate of Timmy Timms. Jirrawun Arts id=320, June 2008. The Sunday Age, 24 February 2008, p. 17.

Page 34 Page 35 LIST OF WORKS all works height x width Damiano Bertoli CAT. NO. 7 CAT. NO. 10 Thomas Gleghorn CAT. NO. 18 Sidney Nolan Garry Shead x depth in cm Australia b. 1969 The shadow 1953 Ian Brady 2008 Great Britain b. 1925, Champion returns Australia 1917–1992 Australia b. 1942 lives and works tempera on cardboard watercolour on paper arrived Australia 1927 (1 of 2 panels) 2006 lived in Great Britain lives and works Paddy Bedford in Melbourne 59.0 x 75.0 76.0 x 56.0 (sheet) lives and works lambda duratran from 1955 in Bundeena, Gija (c. 1922) – 2007 Heide Museum of Courtesy of the artist in Adelaide on lightbox New South Wales CAT. NO. 3 Modern Art, Melbourne 93.0 x 240.0 x 5.0 CAT. NO. 22 CAT. NO. 1 Continuous Moment: CAT. NO. 11 CAT. NO. 15 Ned Kelly 1946 CAT. NO. 25 Mount King – emu Purchased from John Private collection, whiteys on the and Sunday Reed 1980 Myra Hindley 2008 Jimmy Governor 1960 Melbourne enamel and oil on paper Lane Cove riddle 1967 dreaming 2004 moon (Sadie and watercolour on paper linocut, printed in black adhered to card on board oil on canvas earth pigments on Caballero) 2006 – 08 CAT. NO. 8 76.0 x 56.0 (sheet) ink from one block CAT. NO. 19 74.5 x 61.5 120.0 x 92.0 composition board Pegasus print Prone schoolgirl c. 1953 Courtesy of the artist impression: 3/6 Mohammed Skaf & National Gallery of Collection of the artist 80.0 x 100.0 51.0 x 51.0 (sheet) enamel on cardboard 60.6 x 44.4 (image) Mohamed Ghanem 2006 Australia, Canberra Adam Cullen National Gallery of Courtesy of the artist 79.0 x 93.5 66.4 x 50.7 (sheet) graphite on paper Purchased 1970 Freddie Timms Australia b. 1965 Victoria, Melbourne and Neon Parc, Heide Museum of National Gallery 38.0 x 30.5 (sheet) Gija b. (c. 1946) lives and works in Purchased with funds Melbourne Modern Art, Melbourne of Australia, Canberra Joyce Nissan Collection, CAT. NO. 23 lives in Kununurra the Blue Mountains, from the Victorian Purchased from John Purchased 1984 Melbourne Kelly at the works in Wyndham, Foundation for Living CAT. NO. 4 and Sunday Reed 1980 New South Wales mine 1946 – 47 Western Australia Australian Artists 2004 Continuous Moment: Mark Hilton CAT. NO. 20 enamel on CAT. NO. 12 whiteys on the Steve Cox Australia b. 1976 Tayyab Sheikh composition board CAT. NO. 26 Bilynda 1997 Catherine Bell moon (George Great Britain b. 1958, lives and works & Nike Sam 2006 90.0 x 121. 3 Ned Kelly 2000 ink on cardboard Australia b. 1969 and Cathy) 2006 – 08 arrived Australia 1967 in Melbourne graphite on paper Heide Museum of natural ochres on linen 51.0 x 61.0 (sheet) lives and works Pegasus print lives and works 38.0 x 30.5 (sheet) Modern Art, Melbourne 122.0 x 135.0 Joyce Nissan Collection, in Melbourne 51.0 x 51.0 (sheet) in Melbourne CAT. NO. 16 Joyce Nissan Collection, Purchased from John Private collection, Melbourne Courtesy of the artist Bilal Skaf & Mohammed Melbourne and Sunday Reed 1980 Melbourne CAT. NO. 2 CAT. NO. 9 Sanoussi 2006 Soap, Slip, Slash 2006 and Neon Parc, CAT. NO. 13 Timmy Timms Ronnie Kray in graphite on paper Richard Lewer CAT. NO. 24 Melbourne Greg 1997 performance Broadmoor 1991 38.0 x 30.5 (sheet) New Zealand b. 1970, Riverbend 1964 Gija (c. 1916) – 2000 documented on video ink on cardboard CAT. NO. 5 oil, enamel and Joyce Nissan Collection, arrived Australia 1997 oil on composition board 5 1. 0 x 61.0 (sheet) CAT. NO. 27 DVD, duration Continuous Moment: charcoal on canvas Melbourne lives and works 120.5 x 125.7 Joyce Nissan Collection, Bedford Downs 6 minutes 21 seconds Sadie & Pattie 2008 175.0 x 145.0 in Melbourne Gift of Eva and Melbourne massacre 2000 Courtesy of the artist ink and collage Benalla Art CAT. NO. 17 Marc Besen 2001 CAT. NO. 21 natural pigments on linen and Sutton Gallery, on record cover Gallery, Victoria Chami & H 2006 TarraWarra Museum Nick Devlin True stories – 150.0 x 180.0 Melbourne 31.0 x 62.0 Purchased with graphite on paper of Art collection, Victoria Great Britain b. 1966, Australian crime 2008 Art Gallery of New Courtesy of the artist assistance from Friends 38.0 x 30.5 (sheet) arrived Australia 1974 enamel on acoustic board South Wales, Sydney and Neon Parc, of the Arts’ Advisory Joyce Nissan Collection, lives and works 44 panels: large 60.0 x DG Wilson Bequest Melbourne Council Funds 1991 Melbourne in Melbourne 60.0 (x15); small 30.0 x Fund 2000 Charles Blackman CAT. NO. 14 30.0 (x29) Australia b. 1928 The brighter the light Ken & Lisa Fehily lives and works in Sydney the darker the shadow Collection, Melbourne #1 – 27 1999 –2001 Courtesy of the artist CAT. NO. 6 charcoal pencil on paper and Block Projects, Schoolgirl and man 1952 27 works: 19.0 x 14.0 Melbourne charcoal on paper (sheet), each 64.0 x 75.6 (sight) Collection of the artist 68.4 x 86.0 (sheet) National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1977

Page 36 Page 37 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Albert Tucker Brett Whiteley Artist representation It is a pleasure to acknowledge the assisted with image requests (additional Australia 1914 –1999 Australia 1939 –1992 co-operation and support of a number to loaned works): Ian Potter Museum lived throughout Europe lived in Great Britain Catherine Bell is and United States 1960 – 67 represented by Sutton of individuals and organisations that of Art, the University of Melbourne, Gallery, Melbourne 1947– 60 have contributed to the preparation National Library of Australia and State CAT. NO. 31 Damiano Bertoli is CAT. NO. 28 10 Rillington Place, and presentation of the exhibition Library of Victoria. Memory of Leonski 1943 WII 1964 represented by Neon and the publication of this catalogue. My thanks also to Glenn Barkley, Chris oil on composition board oil and graphite on canvas Parc, Melbourne, and Milani Gallery, Brisbane I would like to thank each of Cuneen, Caroline Fry, Melissa Keys, Kevin 61.0 x 78.6 on plywood, charcoal the artists and their representatives, Morgan, Sarah Robins and Alex Taylor. National Gallery of on paper, gelatin silver Charles Blackman particularly those who I have worked It has been a pleasure to work Victoria, Melbourne photographs, cord, cup, is represented by Purchased through The object, wood and glass Mossgreen Gallery, with directly and who have made works with Kate Rogers at Design By Pidgeon Art Foundation of Victoria 150.0 x 13 7. 2 Melbourne available for exhibition — Catherine Bell, who has devised a fitting concept for with the assistance National Gallery of Damiano Bertoli, Steve Cox, Nick the exhibition catalogue, for which I am of The Shell Company Victoria, Melbourne Steve Cox is represented of Australia Limited, Samuel E Wills by Jenny Port Gallery, Devlin, Mark Hilton, Richard Lewer, extremely grateful. I would also re-iterate Founder Benefactor 1995 Bequest 1986 Melbourne Garry Shead and Stephen Asquith the appreciation expressed in the

CAT. NO. 29 Chris Prater (printer) Adam Cullen is of Block Projects. Foreword in thanking the Exhibition Man’s head 1946 Kelpra Studio Limited represented by Tolarno Each of the works on display has Sponsors and the Gallery’s Annual oil on cotton gauze (print workshop) Galleries, Melbourne, and been loaned to Geelong Gallery and Program Sponsors. Kaliman Gallery, Sydney on cardboard Marlborough I am indebted to the generous lenders — And I warmly thank each of my 63.4 x 76.0 Fine Art (publisher) Nick Devlin is represented National Gallery of CAT. NO. 32 private and institutional — and thank Ken colleagues at Geelong Gallery for their by Sullivan+Strumpf Australia, Canberra 10 Rillington Place, WII, & Lisa Fehily, the Joyce Nissan Collection, support of this project, particularly those Fine Art, Sydney Purchased 1981 (still from a proposed and those collectors who wish to remain who have been directly involved with 16 mm film) 1965 Thomas Gleghorn CAT. NO. 30 anonymous. My thanks also to colleagues aspects of its realisation: Geoffrey photo-screenprint, is represented by John Donald printed in colour from Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, at each of the lending institutions who Edwards (Director), Sue Ernst (Marketing Merrett 1954 four stencils Melbourne have assisted with different aspects Development), Veronica Filmer (Registrar) oil on plywood impression: 39/70 of loan arrangements and image requests and Paul Garry (Technician). 69.8 x 55.2 59.4 x 55.8 (image) Richard Lewer is Private collection, 97.8 x 68.3 (sheet) represented by Block including those at the Art Gallery Despite the complex nature of Melbourne National Gallery Projects, Melbourne, of New South Wales (Amanda Green its theme, True crime – murder and of Australia, Canberra and Oedipus Rex Gallery, & Tracey Keogh), Benalla Art Gallery misdemeanour in Australian art has been Auckland Purchased 1976 (Cedric Boudjema & Simon Klose), an extremely rewarding, if somewhat CAT. NO. 33 Garry Shead is Heide Museum of Modern Art (Lesley provocative, project to complete. That Small Christie represented by Australian Harding, Kendrah Morgan & Katarina being said, I wish to acknowledge with painting no. 1 1965 Galleries, Melbourne oil, encaustic and & Sydney, Philip Bacon Paseta), National Gallery of Australia great respect the numerous victims collage of cotton fabric Galleries, Brisbane, (Kate Buckingham, Nick Nicholson & of crime, particularly those affected — on plywood and Greenaway Galleries, Elena Taylor), National Gallery of Victoria tragically in almost every case — by Adelaide 86.2 x 86.2 (Stephen Gilchrist, Kirsty Grant, Paula the events that have inspired the works National Gallery of Freddie Timms is Australia, Canberra Nason, Megan Patty & Sheryn Smith) in this exhibition. represented by Jirrawun Purchased 1966 and TarraWarra Museum of Art Arts, Wyndham (Mim Armour & Jenna Blyth). Lisa Sullivan I would also like to thank the copyright Curator holders of reproduced works and staff at the following institutions who have

Page 38 Page 39 True crime Publisher murder and Geelong Gallery, 2008 misdemeanour in Australian art Catalogue Design: Design By Pidgeon Albert Tucker Typeset in: Sidney Nolan Champion & Univers Indemnification for this exhibition is for this Indemnification Government Victorian the by provided Charles Blackman Printing: Adams Print Thomas Gleghorn Stock: Tablex & Parilux Gloss Brett Whiteley ISBN: 978 – 0 –9757990 – 8 – 6 Garry Shead Edition: 750 Sponsors Exhibition

Steve Cox Adam Cullen Geelong Gallery Nick Devlin Little Malop Street Freddie Timms Geelong, Victoria, 3220 Timmy Timms Telephone 03 5229 3645 Paddy Bedford Facsimile 03 5221 6441 Catherine Bell www.geelonggallery.org.au Damiano Bertoli Image permissions the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of an initiative Strategy, Arts and Craft Visual the Governments. Territory State and Australian, the and the Community Support Fund, and through and the Community Support Fund, Victorian Government through Arts Victoria Victoria Arts through Government Victorian Mark Hilton Art Gallery of New South Geelong GalleryThe the is supported by Richard Lewer Wales, Sydney (plate IV, Curator cat. no. 27); Artists and their

representatives (cat. nos 2, Lisa Sullivan 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 18, 20, Geelong Gallery 21 & 25); Benalla Art Gallery,

1 November 2008 Victoria (cat. no. 9); Nagle & Co Chartered Accountants to 1 February 2009 Block Projects, Melbourne (cat. no. 21, installation view); © Geelong Gallery, Courtesy Barbara Tucker authors, artists, (cat. nos 28 & 29); Courtesy Barbara Tucker, Wendy Whiteley (cat. nos 31 Wendy Whiteley, & 32); Estate of Timmy Estate of Timmy Timms. Timms. Jirrawun Arts (cat. Jirrawun Arts, Sidney no. 27); Heide Museum Nolan Trust /The of Modern Art, Melbourne Bridgeman Art Library (cat. nos 7, 8 & 23); Ian Potter This publication is Museum of Art, the University copyright. Apart from of Melbourne (plate III); any fair dealing for the National Gallery of Australia, purposes of private study, Canberra (cat. nos 22, 29 research, criticism & 32); National Gallery of or review as permitted Victoria, Melbourne (cat. nos under the Copyright Act, 28 & 31); National Library of no part may be Australia, Canberra (plate II); reproduced by any Sidney Nolan Trust / The process without written Bridgeman Art Library (cat. permission. Inquiries nos 22 & 23); State Library of should be directed Victoria, Melbourne (plate I) to the publisher. Photography Damiano Bertoli (cat. nos 3 & 5); Jenni Carter (cat. no. 27); Robert Colvin (cat. no. 14); Andrew Curtis (cat. no. 21); Daniel Dorall (cat. nos 10 & 11); Paul Garry (cat. no. 9); Mark Hilton (cat. nos 18 & 20); The Photography Department (cat. no. 2);

Ray Woodbury (plate IV) Sponsors Program Annual

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