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!.ri lrrj PROPAGAN DA AN D OTHER DEVICES: THE COLON IAL YEARS
The artist's 'print' or multiple image of a of the most important printed images of the chosen single vision has always been a way to new land.s disseminate information. ln the early history of South Australia the information was neither The earliest were produced before European primarily personal nor aesthetic but literally settlement: the visual records of Matthew informative about what the place and its Flinders'voyage published in England and inhabitants looked like. lt was propaganda of N icholas Baudin's published in France, by, the most basic kind. respectively, the artists William Westall and C. A. Lesueur (cat. 1 -4). They show a dark, South Australia was founded as a commercial primeval land, only yust touched by the men in enterprise: the South Australian Company was ships. South Australian historian K. formed to populate and profit from T. Borrow the underlines the importance of the views made southern central part of the new conti nent, the on Flinders'voyage by quoting fhe land of promise indeed.r Within this however Westrninster Reylew of 1834, which warned its the tenor of the new colony was relatively readers against the proposed colony of South altruistic. The backers of the Company, their Australia: An Act of the Reformed Parliament is chosen men and the early leaders in the to sanction the new the evidences community were basically Protestant Utopia. . hard for the eligibility of the locality consist of three working products of Victorian Britain, bringing captains of the navy . . and an artist', Westall.6 a moral rectitude to South Australia seen to be lacking in the convict (and then gold rush) The fi rst Europeans settled in Adelaide in colon ies to the east. 1816 and il is in the spirit of lhe Founding The blend of the commercial and the Fathers thal lhe planner of the city was al-so a altruistic are continually evident in the early painter of a.bility: ColonelWilliam Lighr. Light history of printmaking ih the colony. already had had prints made after hiisketcles Th roughout the early years'pri nted' and coloured drawings, and his Sicitian Scenery information was a high priority. Words and of 1823 'drawn' by no less than Peter De Wint images were both inspiring and life-enhancing, would have led him to expect ready acceptance of his South and also good for the business of selling both a Australian work by publisheis in new land and its products.2 South Austialia's London and a reasonable standard of master printer, William Galbraith, told in his execution. lndeed he would not have been latter years how he had been moved to migrate disappointed. His sketches of the new province to Adelaide through reading were quickly published by Smith, Elder & Co. John Stephens' j. pamphlet The Land of Promise.r One imagines and C. Hailes in London and do retain the that the visual images of the new land hung in romantic vision of the original (see cdt. 5,6 and the off ices of the South Australian Company 7). (fhe originalwatercolours returned to Adelaide gift ad ded co m fo rting c o n f ir matio n of th e aJa from the Soulh Australian correctness of their decision to prospective Company in 1931.) immigrants. . The great propaganda cycle of printed images The images made of the colony in the early is the large hand-coloured lithographic seriei, years for wide distribution portrayed the vision Ceorge French Angas' South Auitralia of a new Utopia based on British standards, Illustrated (see cat. 1 1 ,12 and 13). Angas was and, by self-fulfilling prophecy, helped create the son of one of the fou nders of the 5outh the physically'English' environment of Australian Company, Ceorge Fife Angas, who, Adelaide and its surrounds.' while apparently not entirely happy with his son's way of life, must have been pleased by the A considerable industry of image-making views. George French Angas'work of sixty developed, divided into the printl made in images'illustraling the scenery and natives of Britain from drawings and watercolours, and South Australia'conveyed the wilds of the the prints themselves produced in the colony. coast, the wonders of the Mt. Cambier craters, While not strictly part of the history of the bush waterfalls and gullies of the Hills, the printmaking in South Australia the prints made peace of the River Murray, and the new pioneer in Britain are included here because they fi rst settlements. The weather is perennially good, set the standards of image and technique the land relatively tame and the settlem6nts followed by the colony. They also include some prosperous. Over fifty of the original
PROPAGANDA AND OTHER DEVICES: THE COLONIAL YEARS subscribers to the volume lived in South Creek must be one of the earliest images of the Au stralia. 'outbac k.' Angas was also interested in the Engraved views anthropology of the aborigines and in natural of South Australia were produced in phenomena, He stressed this in his Preface: Britain to illustrate texts untilthe end of the century. An important volume with 'With the hope of preierving true and life-like eight engravings oi South Australia was Edwin records of man and scenes, io quickly passing Carton Booth's Australia o[ 187 ]-26 published away, I have endeavoured, by pictorial by Virtue & Co. in London. There was much representation, to describe the most plagiarising in the volume but the names of interesting and peculrar features of South Prout, Willmore, Heawood, Brierly, Armytage, Brandard, Carr and Crew Australia and its Aboriginal inhabitants. I appear in the lower have devoted my time and powers entirely to marSrns. the accomplishment of this task- visiting all portions of the One other series of prints made outside Colony . my attempt is, to South Australia, reverse the usual method of description but including South Australian scenes. was not made in aided by meagre illustration, into that of vivid Britain but bv the important immigrant artist Eugen von'Cuerard i I lustrations, explained by brief descri pti on.' in Vicloria. He sketched view. of the River Angas made the original drawings in 1844-45 Murray for the lithograph Murray Ri ver- and returned to London to supervise the Moorundi, as well asTop of Mount Loftv near production of the volumes which were Adelaide, the Crater of Mount Cambier 5.A., published in ten parts at one guinea each in and the Fall of the Flrst Creek near Cien 1816-47. Angas had been taught as a youth by Osmond 5.A. of 1855. Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, a leading ln the midst of production lithographer in England, and would have been the of British- made prints of South Australia and their sale in aware of the process and qualities of the lithography. colony, arrived, in 1838, a most He went to South Australia, as he extraordinary says, with express purpose producing immigrant to Adelaide: Thomas the of the Wilson (1787-1861). work, and would have borne the final qualities ln England Wilson had been a ma;or of hand-coloured lithography in mind while collector of Old Master prints, and had written important workrng. He did his own lithographs later in catalogues of hls own collection, with his Sydney in Views of the Cold Field at and Cata/ogu-e Raisonnd Ophir, on Rembrandt being instructed his London agent on the technical considered the most outstanding reference in production of the views lithographed there. ln English at the time.B After financial disasters 1852, in a letter to his agent, Mr. W. Hogarth, he in th-e mid 1830s Wilson had had to sell most noted that he had made the views'for Colonial of his collection and works from it are now in the British Museum and the Sale, but we can only print 3 or 400 here from Bibliothdque one stone on account of the warm climate'.- Nationale in Paris. He did bring a few items with him to South Australia, but most Angas included images after importantly he brought his knowledge .1840s, his'rival'in of Adelaide in the mid S. f. Cill, in his Sourh prints. Wilson became Adelaide's second Australia lllustrated. Cill's scenes of city-life of mayor in 1842, and from th is loftv off icial Hindley Street (see cat. 14)and of fhe position in 1843 he gave the fi rst lecture on art Departure of Captain Sturt in'1 844 are most in South Australia: on 'Engraving.'While important images in the growing South regretting the lack of examples in South Australian visual spectrum. Australia, Wilson said he hoped he would be qble rectify this defect to provide Other individualartists !o a,source of had conveyed their delight and gratification to the eye impressions of natu ral of the Province before this major and acquired taste, and to minds of cycle, with varying degrees success oI and ref i nement'.') sophistication Sketches of Adelaide were lithographed in London by a woman Wilson discussed'The Print Room at the lithographer, Ann Cliddon (two of which are in British Museum' in the Adela ide Magazine .1 of the Callery's collection) in 1839. Hitchin's work February 846, and in 1857 when he"gave the aft er Opie (cat.8) must have helped address at the fi rst exhibition of the S"ocietv of immigration:as the South Australian News Arts, -l he again stressed prints: observes drily on 5 November 184'1 , the view to North Terrace'will surprise those who have 'l wish that I could prevail to impress on the been accustomed to think of the chief town of South Australian society the great and almost this province almost as a collection of necessary desideratum of a consecutive squatters'huts, half buried in sand.' ln a less series of prints, in a small collection, grand manner, but full of engaging enthusiasm, containing, nevertheless, the genuine works are six lithographs made by the Pococks of of the masters themselves, to illustrate the Bristol after Edward Castle, a magistrate of progress of the arts of painting and engraving, Hackham in Adelaide (see cat.9 and'10) Sait including the etchings of painters, and= the
PROPAGANDA AND OTHER DEVICES: THE COLONIAL YEAR more modern tranqcripts by the engraver of '1,839. \ome of the noblest Hamilton did draw caricatures, workr wnii'n . and he . d i d, a s might Wi I I ia m ca r b,ait rr be procured. and always bl tal;; ;; il. ;.i,'.i I'fio 1" rngrand)an dit"urr in lith,ographic equipmenf with available property, for about j50 'dabbted'bur which he hacj pounds. for which \u.m wht'ch h" *n, quiit. no on.piinring"ni'" rn j848, ,makingi,"ani"**iiii"g to seil, any,importance is to be obtained. in"ru as he could . might lhese lirhog,raphr be framed and hung in u i"ui"'nunf d" inJ**? nur'*'rFJh'ni.uf"iit, space \norlcoming\ and one can wrthout injury, and"would foim a " imagine a'corta,n perpetual rmpatience wirh rhe well_spring of ideas, ancla grand medium.li I'ASA)MurV n. studio of art for the riiing pJl1bu,rv in rhe_Adelaiau OOroru"", Sorin nustiaf ian \ovember. p. ,'iof ,l Seneration.'r1l S5yreferr to Hamillon,,a'rtutJnur, small collection of whose pen_and_int reproduced This talk did not, it seems, inspire the Society in litho. are still t" tr" ,uiiritn of Arts, here and there,. fcr prinrs were rarely,li;;; u',ittt tne Can we assume these are the turn same ones? of the century. However, at tne enO of tne century one other prominent figure, David n 1841 -42Henry Cooper Y,rlluv M. L.C , devetoped a fine"ioliectron printed.l lervis drew Old oi and oublisfi"a rinu ui"*_'n]',i*'n"* Va'rer prints which fu *1, buildinesof qdelaide(seecal oequeathed "u"nrruf rZ. iS'r'nO to the Callerv. perhap, there were f ol other individuals f g lolga in his advertir"rnlniiolii".l*'in who ietia, Witi[n ana Adetaide Examinercf j0 tn" V u rray. D";;r;.r'i,ii,, p.,, that they were on u ,n"ut oi pl;;.;;";Y,1" convenience Wilson's of parties *i.ning io ,in j notion of printmaking was of a very norno, different order ro the print, flrri fi"ci" i-r il Jervis described himself Province [hev as an.engraver,. One were image. maa;l;' " y^o!d:rr how many men who r.rll9graply as *nriO ,., earlv as l84 I , of loca I f isu oeqcntle themselves d( rons, re.. and came to,qdelaiJeIn these oTlered lor sale through a ner.ni.paper, years, and who went for local interest on to othei fori, of *orf. ano purchase (see cat. 15 and to earn an income as lervis pi".r..ririviiO t5) tn rhe best popul'ar rraJirit'n,, lndeed one earlv S *i'i.'n r"O to engravlnq leam werc T Citt's ror"'roirhiiti.at"j wa I c h ma r?opte, lera;";l;;" ket,, a I rnad'y pr;; j"d';ii;' these are the so-called.pen una tnt tootr, wiinwiighu Sketches' pubt .gngraving' or ished Oy N atnan ieiH;ii;. H ind.ley Slreet, who engraved ""i'do.t of Thomas a f ine'' leaf border 11ie1d Witson, anJ u r."fuiiu"'of " C to a dinner invitation oira+0. ; "'' Haites rhe London pubti.heii;r;;;;; I Hailes' sarirical u'Jur.r oi {nother paper fhe AJ"tr,.lu"'' who combi ned both art .engravtng, tndependent and Cabinet of Amusement and^related work wa,lorlru, puun" i.'-' rvhose creed, in the spirit j."v,'*"r'in"t who tn" " i?.',9-.' 980t arriveJ;;;;"1,i'i-'.,oou rve [3y* u n t-linch ingiu uauofriJir";"l rayne was an ensraver and dye_sinl"i institutions- mad,e *no free r;de, free ihLrgntr, fru* the.onu an"d f,ue qgund gold rvords and for the coin tokens free acts. . . Adetaide assay Qf{ice iii dsii ,'nrurr, rough etching bv him of ruarives'Jliou'ri' Hus:gy, an early colonist, Australia is in-rhe Callery.s ^ who wrore c'oli;.;i#""' an-!unry account of his vears in South,tustratia rh,an l,tZore One quite Hatf a Cenrury c"tl7il'ititl')'ia'" flamboy^ant individual who made "t etching' in the mid t8a0s perience, Ade I a ide. I 8e7 wa s by anJ if_.r"" *""i ," i.::iIrdcte :, a: :pnnter. "!: 1. other rhings was Fredericf, 'H" and he describes how in August nrn_ir i..ri-n "" t€4 I he made his mark in o.'.ty entered the service of Vi b;;;r; ;;i;;;; urt tlio]n' pur, ov Dehane. prinrer on rhe uno prrrtiin"r. o'i ,n"" Xa%juiau ll??yi9ilg virtues .i in* ,ii .r'i i cirr I,n d e pe n dgarnst thp'e\senl ia l,ly de n t an a CaE i i;; li m ited, work ot- ;;; ;;;;;;;;' French Angas (see L"rrg* (p be) some ,Cartoons a lerrer rrm n .f,::::I "r,:s of the that Sou.th i,li rXI ,vere rssued with the paper. which *"r" Ausiratian of tZ lune is+i, ."; lrticte de:ignared',pen and inI on Nixon by R c. Appi"yur"o "r'i St"t.f,J;j,';;;" the i"ii bril",i" and usually sarirical; frrl""uon Nartona I Cailerv 51s'irtn'nr'ri!ti^,''r'"t" "r ::u:,.?Crr)ese *itf, O^ctober,lq6fi) n, tne paDer was not a success,. He includes \ ixon r outspoken words a little sketch printing pLrdr\eo optnron and of Dehane.s Office in reflected towards his Vorphet Streer ' own arl work which had in his book f p ozj becom" u"riflt i.' Lrtrscnbes ,pise,or ;;;' il, t845: his .et lhe walls of mud,,the earth :iily or rwelJ;'i;*;;;i"'' ror its Aoetatcte and iB ftoor and a thatchua r.ooi;. ii")ij"" i"a Vicinity, South Austritia. lnk Sketches'were n ed,a n d pr.i o J.rOiiiini*A niei v'N'i rl n' r..r iri, r r'nl'iul (5eel,j:1,." car. z'tl: i ". and 22 ) N ixon, wrote fHe SouiH" Australian on Who drew these works and on what 2l Febru ary 1.g45,,wui,"lii""ght equipment? in his art, and had to manufacf " One supposition is thai ihe machine.ry ,r* uf f ni, !tnographer was for preparinS u;.1 pi"_rinn'hi. none less lhan the future eicnrng\., Lommtsstoner of police, Ceorge which indeed shows in thE limited Hamilton. s^tyle and unevenness who had come overland ro Soiih a"irr.ii. of pri;ii;; i;;;;J;; i" A u s tr a I i a n c o n t i n u ed r h, r, ; ii h 3 ri'," r-#i. ., " any of the disadvantages under which the printing S T Cill's first lithographs, the Heads of auth.or has laboured, the etchings are superior the Peop/e (see cat. 22) lhese were published works of art, and accurately as well as pleasingly in three series in May, luly and September of depict the scenes they represent'. However thie lhat year, for three shillings each Calbraith .l paper, in Ju ne, one day after N ixon's attack on wrote later, on 5 March 906, that ,They were ,Angas, wrote that it was Mr. N ixon who 'some sketched from nature and then drawn upon time ago practised a gross imposition on the stone by the late S. f Gill in the year 1849, and colonists by the publication of 12 views around immediately he had done his part theV were Adelaide at a guinea, which were not printed by your humble servant myseif and intrinsically worth three farthings. . Our then pu blished'.rr tblastard". opinion of Mr. Nixon as a mere has long been formed . . We have long wished to ^ f h.u press at the time was apprecrative. The have "our guinea's worth" out of hi-m, but are South Australian Registe r on26 May 1849, for sorry to say no opportunity has ever presented example. said the Heads of the people were thc 'best itself' N ixon also recorded written 'views' of things of the kind rhat the colbnists had the colony in his book Reco//ections ola yet produced on the spot, and wellworth the Resldence in South Australia 1B3B-1845. He money'. made one other etchin g, Ridley's Reaping ln 1851 Cillwent on to make a small series or Machine,1845, and left for Mauritius'in 1846.'1 V-iews of Adelaide published by penman & Calbraith (cat.23, After th is rather shaky start the arrival of two 24 and 25), and in the same professional printers year a commemorative piece of the O/d who were later called the (caf.26; fathers of pictorial printing in South Co/onists Dinner in which he carno: Australia,r5 keep brought new standards and new continuity to the humour out of his deprctions- hi. keen eye for the medium. They provided the basis for the human frailty no cloubt makrnq i^ . time in Adelaide Iess earliest Australian prints by S. f. Cill and were successfulthan it mreEt have been. influential in printing work by most other artists Merry Monarch (cat 27), a higElr competent jo- - in Adelaide, They were William Calbraith and lithograph in the English tradit : sporting prints, John Penman. Their business, established in was also made in 185l as ir e.: smaller, less personal views of individual 1 848, was South Austral ia's longest-ru n n i ng and most important art printing establishment, Adelaide buildings.rl variously known but usually by the name of the ln 184q. the same year as the publi:hine.. two proprietors. the Heads ol the People, J B. Austin Jun o- .. responsible Both men came from Clasgow and both had [or a hand coloured lithoeral- backgrounds in the'print' world. Penman's the Wesi End of Hindley Streer lcat 2dr father was 'proprietor of a large bookseller's comparable with Cill's in 5ourh Australia establishment and connected with several lllustrated. There was disappointment \\ i:^ people holding high positions in the literary however, because the major public builc ^ circles of Scotland' and had been himself were depicted in the distance, reducins:^= desired grand apprenticed to the'well-known fi rm of Allen & effect of the city. Fergusson, lithographers, of Clasgow'.16 He was An artist in Adelaide in these vears ir ::f. . rnvolved then with the printing demands of the personalstyle in printmaking war railways, Sam-: as was, it seems, William Calbraith. Calvert, who had grown up ln England,,,. .- Calbraith, who was born in 1822, and Penman family tradition oIthe medium. berng 't * - both read Stephens' pamphlet on South the noted wood eng,raver Australia'in Edward Cir.-. - which the writer showed the great arrived in Adelaidein lB48 and unriln:. advantages which that province offered to depa.rture{or Melbourne rn 1852 produc=: emigrants in its healthy climate, fertile soil and number of vigorous views of the citr H:. ^- cheap cost of living'tr serious work is the Clty of Adetaide. { cd- _ - however Tregenza (in'Some They arrived in South Australia without John Sout- Australian Paintings and Engraving. br :,^- working tools. Calbraith explained later how he Calvert' in the Bullerin of th"e Art bought Ceorge Hamilton's equipment and how Caller . -- Sourh Australia, vol. 37, 1979, pp.B-.1 - i -a, sorry he was he'did not preserve it as a pointed out Calvert's prankster nature curiosity to show the present generation how a-:: views of two hotels in particular exernD -. little we required in the old days to make a less than serious attitude: sa living'.r8 The two men worked together until his drunken outside the Brltish Hotelat _ 1B83.re Penman stayed in Adelaideforatime Port Adelaict 30) would not be likely and in the 1890s was, it seems, in Melbourne. to strengthen :h: reso.lve of potential emigrantr He died in 1900 and Calbraith in 1911. back h 'OId Spo( also has a ratFer rough color a . Their first task in 1B4B was printing'the first (see cat. 31 ). large lob in lithography in South Australia. . an A more salubrious lithograph oi the,Ra octavo circular for Mr. Platts, a well known Hotel, Port Adelaide was published br C. stationer of the day'.20 By-1 849 they were and his partner, Alfred Waddv Calie:. -._
PROPACANDA AND OTHER DEVICES: THE COLONIAL YEARS advert ised,every.description pictoria of I Art, in *|9rg father a new shop, h i r,A,rti st:, and brother were n*po" iory:, in' r< i ng both associated w i th, t h e. p ri r i William Srreet in n n g a n d ; ;gr"" i rhe luly la;O,rir,*'oi'tf," io n, I n Scotla nd. ";;;oi"1, Y,:::ltyNT:!j, He u,ou[nr \t;;;; inro rhe irl tB?i and, tong a"frer The decades from the oeparrure?:':rn9ss Calve,rr,s 1g60s to the lg90s rn Ifl52, Waddy remained in Adelaide were lean ones for printn,.ulinj as a printer t" sirir.r and publishel. Aust,ralia. as photographv u"A "on,riJ_"' mecnanrcal Alexander Schramm, who arrived in.lg49, means of 'reproducins, thc was a member of the considerabf giorp lal9t.|.pf^gained in populariry unt ,r* tndeed Cerman immiprants of rn the t8B0s one imporfant rrin* " n, n niJt"ricatcvcte of C .Appleyard Has demon5traled""*"prJ"i"ni". (in.Alexander !l!9s-rann1 ov Louii uen;;;;"jb;t_'8!, *"'" painrer,i" drawn on the stones from phoiogrupn", Xhramm- rn" arf[]'i', o]'ih",q,r scenes nf rf," C a I I e r y o f s o u t in.tead oI from skeichei h,a u, t, u i i I t','t' g1 g',' p (ieJ cat a r r 26-4.1.1 r, One orher imoorranr his arl is a curious ",7.2i.'ntenA of tne " o.i."l..r J_rti,J Sifi's,hrv sophisticated t ec hn ica I ty accom and the ec.;;i;;. p I i s h"J rh S;i-rr'amm had The Forest ;;;;, ;i od is made lithographs in C".rnuny Flora of'So-uth;;;;;;i;. q' ""pe,i uni'ouriof f,i, drawings :I-'r urru' ;l;ltcl work in Sourh Aust,ralia was i; ih"il*A',rrn, by Rosa Flvelln. again a mixture " of the verya..uoiunli yitl",rhe raking over of rhe ropographical commercialwork such rote" ol as rhe C6ij1lnr,, orintmaking by phorogra'ph"v ilc,m rhe rh" R;": t860s. as wellas th"e ?l,,og:J : :d t;f,"iui i tr 6ur founding"rfTh; s#i*ry or o19 :llrne srrange",jI personal views ", Arts in 1856, and ,"m"-b",iiiin" jj[r, aDongtnesli, (cat. of , rry l4 and 35). One"tnulr'Juruur wonders who is srrange th"at con.'Iiou,ry bo ughuhese Iatrer *"rr.,j *iit llliT::,yl'.)?1,rildue arttSl s Drints li, drawing .were not produced in not denigraring rhe .n"ii*i'"il'r, Soul h Ausr ra tia untit h"l u s sqd;:pliirjlv u a l, b u r re I a x e dl u. n i u"d e m e ni con'idering that rhe plprlj*nioi S r' fu'ni"h'urn u n. first ii" The Comp,any,s Bridgi i;; >ocrety of Arts and presumably ;;;;;; i;5; an important ,rn in'1f," the abon-ginut srnyl.i, *!i" aon" A^detaide art circte, cn"r.f 5iri,ri,'*ul later nsravqr fv,r.uinin, ]f f raught in the grand rraJirl6n or was 1_rrcruremakrne. Hill. who '1850s_ ^Schramm the main lithographer of the iame lo nOetaiOe in and was pai n ri n"s. the last imporrafit ilrJivijuat ,l9,to :iqato ld:h5se ; ;; *;ti'[;;1 prinlmaker unril wds, a report in lhe South ", the lB90s {u,tralianr who:e;;;kj; Regisier '!u '('urru exta.nt. Other artists did, howevei, ,;; of t2'October tglj: medium,of prinrmaking. i;. 'at.an b;i ;;i;,."n,i]",f early age apprenticed to a v in line engraver ,?,'*..y:i1,9:" yu:, ir s."eem., l-H"ialm,',n, \ewcasrle_on_tvne H" ;"1"r;iih" :-'_lrrn Lad,y Augusta & Eureka (cat. 16)was Academy of Fine Rits in t e+i,'.-"d""ii",wards presumablv studied not only.drawn,by him b'ut also under W. B. Scott, A-\4 ;';h;;", d.rawn on rhe stone'1".,.ri"-u'ro greal authoritv on art ii 'i. at that f ime an"cl" " 1,i9w1 of Adetaide by anorher "liiil"il arrerwards became editor of lhe Art Minchin, ;ri;;;r. '' ' Mr. Journal. conrinuing rn" rruJiiil'n'i;r. Hill assisted Scott some time afterwards notattonal views of various part. to prepare ihe po*thumous cat.37 of ihe city (see *"*, oi'OuuiO and 38). 5coru, R A S White wirh Scorr, engraved ,,The vi"fif i' ,f morg mysterious artist Choristers,,;aiter a pa'inting by presumably- is H. Berger who B.arraud, and other *"'.k;'.ig;;.i was of Ce.rman stock anJ muO" ,i"/i, [or hi, He went to London as a young man 119,gqt a specifically Cerman ;;;;";;; to work ooth rn South under Reynold,, the royil *ng-ruu*r. {ustralia and ar h;;;:. O;; he per[eced u"nd ,horu rio1 \orrh 'roI himself ar'a iii nasXi1y:Iil:,e,Iv no-jIii" rJui in.Reynolds office he assisted"'_"g)j"lrl"wr.,il" j,,.. In\cnplton\ in Cerman lithograpl-rs in""l. (ono of .Other w h at was, .:i;b;:i"lj Jiji,iyi"lf 9I_1i' rhe wrec i,t tii iii"7l3'3r the day " ",iin" t85e) do have inscripri;;. i" i;si;'il''"" ' lt represenied rhe openinin-fif.," ", Crear Exhibiiion of t85 t. it *Iu.'""?"r'rurv One peculiar for. group of lithographc was made Mr Hillto make many visits t" tf"'r"trurt"f trme: patace park ,u.t,].lit rhe iaive works arjritrutoJ ar H yde * t, it" William i.,' li *"i t" i Jr ir" or Wyatt Junior of His collection has been documented bv S C. Wilson and K. T. Borrow in fhe Bridge over the Ocean, Thomas Wilson (1787-1863) Art Collector and Mayor'V of Adelaide, {delaide, lq7 }, chaple 9. lbid p 155 10 lbid. p.219 11 Exam ples of later satirical prints f rom various journals are held in the South Australian Archives, and include work bv Syde_nham and Pyn f or The Figaro of 1B7i , Pyn for the Peepshow of the same year. Clrinner (or Quiz and the Lantern of tASl and Alfred Clint for The Mirror of 1873-5 and Cerberus for fhe Portonian of 1872. PROPAGANDA AND OTHER DEVICES: THE COLONIAL YEARS 12 See Calbraith op.cit. 13 ln the possession of Mrs. P. H. Andrews of Adelaide; see also Wilson and Borrow 9p cit p.l 18. lam grateful to Miss Shirley Cameron Wilson for her helo in locatins this work and to the daughter of the o*"n"r, Mrs. Barbara Rennie, for pointing out Wainwright and Bock's inclusion, as watchmakers, in the 1B4O Almanac p.149. 14. See R. C. Appleyard 'Frederick Robert N ixon ' Bulletin ol the Natlo nal Callerv ol 5ou th Australia, vol. 28, no. 2, October 1966. 15 Calbraith op.cit. 16 John Penman Obituary The Adelaide Observer,20 October, 1900, p. 28. 17 Calbraith op.cit. 18. rbid. 19 Together they produced numerous other named and anonymous artists' prints, mostly of views of Adelaide but also portraits (like lohn McKinlay, the South Australian explorer, and.l ohn McDouall Stuart), song covers and other miscellaneous items. 20 Calbraith ibid. 21 See lohn Tregenza'S. T. Cill's "Heads of the People" ' Bulletin of the Art Callery of South Australia, vol. 35, 1977, p. 30. 22 fhe New Wesleyan Chapel, Plrle Street, Adelaide, is one; similar views include the Congregational Church and School, Kensington, near Adelaide. Later decades continually plagiarised Cill's original work in prints, from his Hindley Street view in South Australia lllustrated to these small lithographs of buildings. t) L ). These were printed by E. Spiller in B volumes 1879-90. They continue the tradition of the botanical sketches made bv Fanny de Mole otWild Flowers of South Australia, qenl to England to be printed in 1861. 'Engravings'had 24 been included in lhe fi rst exhibition of the Societv in l857 bur presumably they were all reproductive works after European painters, such as are enumerated in the fourth exhibition:after Raphael, Turner, Constable, Van Dyke and others. ln this vein, a sale of 'framed Engravings'occurred at lhe Exchange Hotel in Adelaide in the tB60s of the mosi 'Pop.ular Pictures of the Present Age, by Landseer, Darby, Tu rner, etc.' THE ACE OF ETCHINC The institutionalisation of the 'art' of Heysen, Henri van Raalte and f ohn Coodchild, printmaking was a major reason for its rise in included importance and acceptance as a valid medium Localgalleries for creative expression in South Australia, as held exhrbitions of work bv elsewhere. Almost all the early South Australian the.E ngl ish Pai nter-Etchers, notably Du nster Calleries artist-printmakers were related to art teaching in 1925 where prints by Seymour institutions or the newly founded (from Haden, Mortimer Menpes, C.R.W N'evinson, 1BB1) William Walcot National Callery They were men of infl uence and Whistler, among others, both in the community and to the new younger qould be purchased ln the same yeir Dunster aspiring artists. Galleries included work by English Honorary members of the Australian paiiter-Etchers, Their medium was etching. The great age of Society i n their N lithography was overand ovember-Decerrber not untiJ the i950s exhibition, among was it really revived in South Australia. them Martin Hardie. Stanlev Anderson, W P. Robins, Malcolm Osborne, The rise and acceptance of prints as part of Walcot and W. Lee Hankey. Martin Hardre kept artistic aclivity was gradual but sure. They his association with South Australia beins, wi'th became shown regularly at the Society of Arts, Harold Wright. an early advi.or on the pu"rchase atter a slow starl in lhe late lB90s. gaining ol prints for the Callery. strength until the Federal Exhibrtion of tStB, then with numbers The ideal of both the original Enelish parnter_ of works in the 1921 ,1922 Etchter'' and 1923 exhibitions. The NationalGallerv's Society and then the Rusiralian Sociely was collection of prints began with gifts Iike South oI heroised representational scenes, done with great Australian-born Mortimer Menpes' selection of -domestrcatiention to technique and effect. lt was a twelve of his own etchings in 1899. A version of Joshua Reynolds' tenets prominent South Australian businessman and of a Royal Academv: with art as the uplifter of hearts politician, David Murray, wa\ acquiring a major and minds, but available ' in the home. collection of Old Master prints at the trjrn of the century most of which (some two thousand The lead in the interest in etching came from works) were bequeathed to the Callery in j 908, the eastern States with John MatheT, together with a legacy of 3,000 pou nds for the Livingslone Hopkins. Tom Roberts, lulian establishment of a print room. This sum was Ashton. A. HenrV Fullwood, Alfred Coffey, John invested and the income used in the further Shirlow, Victor Cobb and Lionel Lindsay all development of the collection. The original practilioners and important in the Vurray collection is stilla most importJnt development of the process. These men and holding, and as two leadrng South Australian the eastern States'happenings are mentioned printmakers, Custave Barnes and Henri van here as, for the first time, theie was a feeling of Raalte, spent some time cataloguing it, nationhood, of a federation of artist undoubtedly it was of influence on the artistic printmakers across the borders. South public. There were also in Adelaide at this time Australian artists were included in the national collectors like Sir SamuelWay, who group and in turn would have been well aware bequeathed his collection, which included of information from, and activities in, the East. Whistlers and Corots, to the Callery in 19.16. N evertheless the centre of activitv or The two art schools in Adelaide, the School of activity as it was seen by the chief piotaeonists- Art(s and Crafts) on North Terrace and the Lionel Lind'ay and Sydney Ure Smith in School of Fine Arts in North Adelaide, both Melbourne and Sydney ,South Australia-"was of taught etching from the 1920s, the former course published its own material and held a having etcher Fred Britton on the staff from number of important exhibitions, particuarly 19.11, and John Goodchild from 1922, and the Federal Exhibitions at the Sociirty of Arts acquiring a large etching press in 1925, and the from 1898 on, and Artists'Week in 1924, but the latter, with Britton as Director teaching etching central promotion was elsewhere, and the lack f rom the early years of the decader. The of knowledge of South Australian activitv in Adelaide printmakers were involved in the prinlmaking (and the other arrs) is still felr successful nattonal'Painter-Etcher' boom of On two levels South Australia was important. jor the early 1920s, with a ma exhibition of the Firstly, in the chronology of the emergence of national Society held in Adelaide in 1922 with etching as a worthy activity, South Au"stralian the three major South Australian etchers, Hans artists worked with the etching process THE AGE OF ETCI.IING 24 consistently from the last years of the started making chalk plates for fhe Advertiser nineteenth century, arrd, secondly, in the early and later establirhed the Excelsior engraving years of the twentieth centu ry the State firm of Mather and Hanka which made the happened to have a number of important f irst half-torre blocks for fhe Advertiser.' artists, of whorn as tl-re Victorian two etcher The confusion lies with William Moore's Victor Cobb said (in fhe Year Book of Victorian account of Mather's printmaking activity rn his Art no less, of 1922-23) were part of the 'Big Story of Australian Art of 1934. The references Four of Etching'in this country: Sid Long, Lionel to Mather in vol. I p. I 10, alltally with the Lindsay and Heysen and van Raalte, of South obituary and most references in vol. 1.1 see p. Australia. Heysen and van Raalte of course , 1 23 (even'engraving' twenty-one portraits in made the gum tree a great visual symbol of fourteen hours), are compatible with his Australia, the latter especially through his commercial not artistic interests. However in print making. vol, 11, p 130, Moore says'the f irst etcher in The most prolific early artist-etcher in South South Australia was John Baxter Mather. . . who Australia was Ceorge Reynolds. English born produced fifty plates, the first being dated 1883. and educated at Birmingham School of Art, he His press now belongs to Heysen.' He adds came to Australia in 1886, aged thirty two, and Mather did'several monotypes and llthographs' 'the held the position of Art Master at the N orwood and was indeed (p. 20a) frrst to produce .l -l coloured monotypes' in South School f rom 888 until 899, when he went to Australia. Victoria. He later returned to South Australia Besides the fact that Mather did not come to Souih Australia is and lived from 1 907 Io his death in 1 939 at Mt. untilthe 1890s there rro other Cambier, The Callery has a number of etchings evidence for Moore's ascription of this exalted of the South Australian city and countryside, place for him. Fifty plates is a large number and .l920s given his connection with is dated f rom 1 890 to the (see cat. 45 and the Callery it 46) Ihough mostly crudely executed they do strange none were collected there or have aspire to the picturesque, romantic effects of since appeared. Mather and N4oore were the master painter-etchers Reynolds would friends but lived a long way from each other. Perhaps this information was have known in E ngland. f h ree etch ings by confused in its Reynolds, A Lovely Srnoke, Bridge near the passage. Crange and English Street, Hahndorf , are the One less mysterious figure in South fi rst'copper-plate etchings'to be noted in a Australia's early print history is Custave A. Society of Arts exhibition in the 1890s- for sale Barnes, who died aged forty th ree in 1921 . Ten for one guinea each, quite a considerable sum etchings by him were inclucJed in an exhibition in 1897 . held in Adelaide in April'1921, soon after his One of Reynolds' prints of a Memorial death. The subject of most of the prints is the Service at St. Peter's Cathedral is dated on the British countryside (see cat.48 and 49)and, in verso, presumably by Reynolds' daughter, 1887, this, is very different from the Australian nature which, if this refers also to the etching's of most of his paintings. Barnes was born in execution date, precedes an etchingof An Old London, came to Adelaide as a child and then Man by Harry Pelling Cill, dated 1BB9 (cat.47). returned to study at the Royal College of Art. He H. P. a most irnportant man in South was away nearly ten years, returning finally w,ith Cill, 'l Australian art circles, both as a teacher and in a Scottish wife from Fifeshire in the early 900s. his role of Honorary Curator at the Art Callery, He did his series of etchings o{ Fifeshire around obviously was a competent etcher but does not 19091 seem to have had the continuous output of Barnes shared a studro in London with Hans Reynolds. That the two knew each other and no Heysen who said, on his death, that they doubt discussed the process of etching is borne 'had two summers working together in out by the O/d Man work coming to the Callery Fifeshire, sitting side by side. . , Cus was from the collection of Miss Beryl Reynolds, always an enthusiast. He was out with the presumably given to her father by the artist. sunrise,.and you could not get him in until . painted A strange shadow lies here: lohn Baxter dark. . He nature for the love of it Mather who was born in Edinburgh in 1853, and that love of nature is the basis of his arrived in Australia in 1860 and died in -1940. work. . . Among his etchings I like best one of Fifeshrre Mather worked as a journalist in Western the coast. . .'(from The Sydney Victoria and Mt. Cambier before join ing the Mor n i ng Her ald, 3 Septembe r 1921). staff of The Advertiser in Adelaide in the early Barnes worked with 'l years. lithography, made B90s where he was art critic for fifteen monotypes and prepared'graphics' for He rewrote H. P. Cill's catalogue of the Art publication, such as designs for covers of the Callery in 191 His obituary in fhe Advertiser 3 Sociely of Arls catalog,ues. H is infl uence, N 940 says on B ovember-1 however, was not marked. As Heysen sard, 'he took up artistic work, wrote verse, and Barnes did not produce'superficial decorative painted pictures with excellent appreciation effects, and so did not, perhaps, catch the of tones and good draughtsmanship. He public eye as sorne others do'(ibid.) Besides 2\ his quite small output of prints Barnes has a wherever one looks one fi nds a new interest. further part in the history of the craft in South His etchings are too few and the opportunities Australia, being the fi rst curator of the print of seeing them too rare.' collection at the Art Callery, appointed as artist Another aspect of Heysen's art with regard to and art supervisor at the Public Library, printmaking is his own collection of Old Master Museum and Art Callery in 191 5;among his prints, of which his David Lucas mezzotints duties he was required to classify and catalogue after John Constable immediatelv seem the David Murray print collection and arrange compatible with his own visron and methods, for its display. Heysen's debt to Lionel Lindsay in his own Hans Heysen's contribution to printmaking printmaking is well annotated. lt comes almost in his State should be seen under the maxim as. a surprise that in Lindsay's own huge that nothing succeeds like success. His early output of work there are more etchings of South dominance of the artistic imagination of the Australian subjects (see cat.53)than in State, and, through his friend Lionel Lindsay, Heysen's. Lindsay was a true prrntmaker, around Australia, led his relatively small output devoted and happy in the medium and its of prints to be quite broadly discussed and promotion. acknowledged. He worked with monotypes from 1905 (see cat. 50) and a few years later ln South Australia in the age of etching with etchings (see cat.51 and 52). lt seems his Lindsay's only peer in quality of work an-d monotypes with therr painterly flows were dedication to the medium was Henri van more his natural metier. The Art in Australia Raalte, an Englishman who before coming to Special Number on Heysen ot1920, p. 18, refers South Australia had spent a number of years in to his monotypes as'about the best. . . seen in Perth. He came to Adelaide in 1922, to be that generally disappointing method'. Heysen curator at the Art Gallery. His qualities as a 6xhibited his monotypes quite frequently in the printmaker had already been recognised during early years of the century, with, in 1905, his his time in Perth, with work mentioned in Art ln Pi nes in the Federal Exhibition (priced for the Australia in the Fifth Number of 19-18 and in large amou nt of f ive gu ineas), Corner of Rouen Bertram Stevens'Etching in Australia'in the in the 1906 show and After the Storm in the Ninth Number of1921. He had sent prints to the Federal Exhibition in Society of Arts exhibition of 19O7 . Adelaide, for example, in 1919, one, fhe Swamp, priced at seven It was however Heysen's etchings which guineas and fhe Road through Karri for the print reputation, as Cobb said, earned him his amazing price of 31 pounds,10 shillings. as one of the'big four'. His interest started relatively early in his career in 191 1, was Lionel Lindsay was, as with Heysen, a great rejuvenated in 1918 and then stopped. Colin promoter of van Raalte's work. He wrote for an Thiele, in his book Heysen of Hahndorf (1968, international audience, as in his article in the Print p. 1 3a) quotes Heysen's expense sheets of 1911 Collector's Quarterly of 1924, saying: 'The which start: 'February 5, timber for etching twist and complicated rhythm of the gum tree, tabie 5/-; February 24, marble for etching table its fantastic quality, he has made his own, and 7l-;March 6. . . etching tools'and so on. A by the skilful use of chiaroscuro has given to number of etchings in the Callery's collection such plates as fhe Monarch, by the movement like Cums and Sheep, The Two frees and A of the lights, a dramatic effect such as we see in Hahndorf Road are dated in pencil to 1911. He times of tempest. His two latest works: low sketched directly on the plate and usually used Light- a group of gum trunks truly modelled zinc, not copper. The PIough of 1918 is the by the early sun and fhe Cusr (see cat. 54), exception to both these practices, being are perhaps the two- f inest plates he has made in worked on copper. Australia. The sense of movement in this last is admirable. He has conveygfl the resistance dozen works under Lionel of Heysen made his the trees to the force of the wind and their Lindsay's infl uence and eye, Lindsay on with foliage tossed and overborne by its power, printing from Heysen's plates. His occasion without violating by overstress the right and - works are mostly small, but competent movement of boughs and foliage."' quite sensitive to both the medium and the desired effect. He wrote of his own work: He also wrote on the completely local front, 'Personally for an etching give me a clear, as in his introduction to van Raalte's show at concise line- the expression should be got by Preece's Callery in Adelaide in the same year, the line and not tone'.5 Ronald Finlayson gaying, in part, that he'adds a poetic quality to reviewed the Adelaide exhibition of the his drawing, which is native to the man, and is Pai nter- Etchers' Society at Preece's Cal lery i n yet part of the great tradition which threads the 1922tor Artin Australla (Vol.1, No.2 (new history of Dutch art from Rembrandt to the series)), writing that Heysen exhibited etchings, brothers Maris. . . '7Van Raalte stands out not two made a number of years previously, which only in South Australia but in Australia for the showed a'sobriety and a reserve of strength. . . romantic quality and technical skill of his work. H is work is work to be lived with, it possesses a He had a very different background to vitality and, as it were, a growth, so that Reynolds, Cill, Barnes or indeed Heysen, being THE AGT OF ETCHING 26 1 -- _ -^ - e'HeY'en \\ eo \\ r:.;il:^ jf and van Raalte, hishrv Australia was the - : .--. Jroiii.tl^o,ulo'nd -f idl..-r a-:.r: - . l^^, ',' ,,: sp..ili (;;t":;, ;fi ; .. ,. naqalrne. i;i"i,i]Ho"o :r *:[t ff*..df"!?:itj i?i ; ; :'- : {; C,1 .1.136"f n,,t,uiijn ' SproiiruUr, in Fii; ;bTffj;:,..#i:i -;-- on \ an Raalre was ?,l|ro :.' ,:1" in ,n" A;/)"i;r'ri,n_ included i1i11d;aV,s p n" - "- a t I.e r r i n Co,l \ o f S o u t h t l,ec tor,s A u s trt a t i ) l,7,it";;,,(vol_ 38, il9g0), X:l,f euarrcrly articl i::- a changech.rnep indeed,"in,.!^^s,J^stralia .or!'rt"in" ;",#;jlrt s,.itith-M'rro;'#' l'9 work chosen for the ' :' j d r^o r i n L n' n i! "' r o,iu'ii,.?! ^^.,n8 I i' in | i,r,i 1*,,u ? i Jv', ""t,."," " / ilii: i?T,J,l ' "o rhe.tiil orrierer s".r"1,v.ixi,ri"nr" *",., o ". -n,leq south^.-d rrJ;or, Goodchild fir "i?i of the c_iry,Van nr.lt":i the school ltYd,ied,u,nder Fred B rir ton at -]:.,'\,"-lf : are hi' "" o 6 o "lt, Adelaide. but . large drypoi;;.';i, ro London ,o in lqzz *u.,1' -,,r'u vdIpv works are r,l,1l rubrte smal.ler, quieier. often _ I ).fu iight effecrs. und Ji*"n.in " ,,#;J,:x,1+1 g, i,1i"i:,".,?5 !. ;" tlarlnt (see car. tlq:liil? : iit. H",*url"irpiri#"",.r H ui,"o i " ,r\"..ucing v ti ri : ; d;;'ff jLM, L; # .. photography. rnO tollow). f"1:[: lT:,.3,, ""j'.;;]b"[o'rinn, lnspirec qu the activitv ' 0 6'' Jr n 4"' ancJ 3 l'",iy;f li #g P'orurJionuf'J# is school [:,:' " returned,o 5orrlt^'l coodchiid Van Raaite,s background, unde.rake"al;;;ll"t'alia l.o raise funds lo his position at -:: Callery and his tErp"r'rn*"ii*a'n,rn the :..,hlic figure in ro be a 1t I u,'l ; I Adelaicie. Fll;;;it;.";:_ [ih'r'?:i(see' ;.. ^ o\vever ,""r"9-r]iglt, 5et, wl-'l.h-ho for example, ;"j:-", ' - prrtry buia-u'i of 1",0,'1" a r Lr re o f h i the '?l:1fu*slfu':*j s, re r rear' fro m- iio,r6j* tu gh ;iii., ;',:; j . ailev and iJ d*.o n O f; : no doubt parl ly because ho {:J,iliiJ,-i?S ?:,ti i: . reacher o i o n b u tL-. as such I l{:l f*ilir-i'',? ? i v u'r' r, i u i --udents, u"iii dJ"_.r"J#,0-r,Vj,t""r, i: " "'t. like Ken and Dora Whitiord, r,",,Jtli" at ji ii:f, li J 5.;ond Valey. bul rhere;;. ;; w[? tn : ii ;, lIuence. perhar ;;;;;_, unitJj;;;t:;;,r.retyri:lt*li of Arts, and with tib , o o," ;lji in'a, ::li,i,i:l,J.iT Ji;;lj?ir^ energy and the_ -Coodchild,s and ail itude ._aje ]92,0s growrh ;r , pr^ n r to :,rrn[. also ,iji"r"ri\ !J, ii,,, retief " maki ns i, oro,*"rr*J contributed to thil nrs technique: ;";,i; :ll.;prion of Fred C. Britton is best 'Do I do all mv r -eacher remembered as a P.ri n t i ng-a n d first at o r'tr. r. I the rl i" ; i'#Y The o rr h- qi- r,ij" s. n *ni.r'r iil;i'r,l,l'^1!1i,t*lv onlv thins -\ il:rui F, #llo Jl;,?,X,, " torn, he had p r a te trained at the " s r";;, i ; ;ii,:;,'Jl: rrought with Slade Schoo.l and f l.?B:',l:'J T;" him r de.siSn, and th e, tech n ica .91n on one occasion, competence rl-roflo, 9?Ybt I was waiting when I tn hts small' often clelicate, for a-fre,sh ."";€;;;;i"or lut unexcitin* u,.,1 rrom Engtano. , int I aoeraiie'li?"'.1't'n8t and drvpointt scenes ow?-.' ni.l.Jii"g "f vrne roots. r am T*,:1vfirmry jruo in c r co,nuincei * r.,' r, u d ei should iha"t'an artist ;i ;, p ;,, i,i,; ?; it_oi"?_ know how lo tackle t^\nlbttton,",. with lle apperrainins every siJe.line 'el a li (no- l28), and ro his work. fheie"lin,Jl",u,f,,i-.ri,i.u I exhibir*a rir.llltSape in too small foi him jl rortrart including a to,tu.r,iu un of caston n'l:l:',1't' trnd ir all of rhe , ana souih werr as European most intense inie;;:i.,,, Xrii,"ii,Jilli;l;r' *-" ; i ; ;: k', o''ri o e"'il,'"'"'f f ," ; I ; lJ 9 o n, o was a mcmber st udies at th rarnter_Elchers,.-Britton of the Auslralian cent ral dc h';5i,'; Jl':L':g e Londo n Socrety, had participated trttst5'Week in 192 in , n s tI #g:'A e s riti s h',ul ;- *$Tili i.. fl,fi pnnrs. ;#;11: i fli t;J:,,Tj:fl:fl j 1H,:xiil; l;., " and iilusrrated in I jir i #til,, exampte Arr ir,qiitirtiii*o, for. r f:,4,"'i "; n,, Third Series..,x ,' rrtnography,fi ; i!"d::l !,,#ifl 3 :i, >ePtember r.n-Uo.,. iti;i;",; led him: 1q25, pl.o r and 62). Blamire youns,s.l t'on out by nrr *"ir.lqr'."."ltjf ol him i' borne f****+#gtn+",Ui;'ffi" u nemotionat, .-,]-T3etent draughtsman, clean, ".r r'rrrrL a Oelrever in firm tin" i[u,,') - lhe !:t i? i,z ana *r.nins; ;,; His drawinss same!: i;* ttme{ F Coodchiirtr?;r lji;ii i: n x ;i',i;iill.t:l:"', Lr rdrd( ter- 5eL/6cl "", clean f hit aim.-tit' 3nd to - drawings of set down .;;;;';;i'iie Mervon' $," J*,r q:l:#;* s I 1n i o ri g i n ru c t u re a n ,n:-*r,{r#i the presidency iif Ji: :; Li ; i-''; ;; j : :i';lv-l I 9 "S it d or rrank J overstates He neither Brangwvn.,, ;tales. makrng some comment.,,i"";;;;;;.-prcted He records without ^rrer dozen prints ii the [iB,Hf,,?,{.lH; j: **'ji:il: H Tl i : 27 early 1 930s are his extraord inarily competent provided a sum sufficient to form an annual aquatints of sea and sky, of whichYarramouth, prize and scholarship in the etching class at the of 1936 (cat.6.1), is really his last important print School of Arts and Crafts, called The Ethel work. Barringer ?rize'.12 Coodchild did however continue to Barringer herself had studied first in Adelaide infl uence students and others in Adelaide both with H. P. Cill and then at the St. John's Wood through his role as a teacher, at the School of School in London, learning the art of etching Art from 1935, and as its Principal from 1941 to under Lee Hankey. On her return to Adelaide 1945, and also in his role as a member of the and especially after her appointment in 1921 to Board of the Art Callery, f rom 1938 to 1 953 an d the School of Art she did numbers of etchings again from 19601o 1969. (see cat,62)which were exhibited in Adelaide The sublect of presses and the availability of and interstate. equipment is a continual matter of concern to The remainder of the 1920s saw a competent printmakers in Australia, even today. An artist group of printmakers emerge, all with technical always needs access to presses and the quality expertise and allwithin the traditional, and scope of the print oeuvre is often representational limits espoused so strongly in completely related to this. Coodchild, an Adelaide by lohn Goodchild in the early years enthusiast indeed, had his own equipment of the decade. They worked in intaglio, mostly made in 1921. Heysen, it seems, got his press with etching, mostly small scale, an-d most of from John Mather; van Raalte is photographed their su b jects were scenes of Adelaide and the using his press which must have been large to surrounding countryside. ln one way, in their cope with the size of his plates. Recently a large representational but romanticised views of fi ne press belonging to Cerrard Cayfield Shaw South Australia, they followed the tenet of the (who was born in Adelaide in 1BB5 and went to propaganda prints of the colonists. Sydney in 1909)was sold in Sydney. One This group of printmakers was also mostly speculates on w'here this came from- brought born in South Australia. lt included Arlhur out by his grandfather Iames, who came to d'Auvergne Boxall, C T.M. Roach, Allan C. Adelaide in 1850, as suggested in the catalogue Glover, Dora Whitford and Ken Whitford (born of the sale (by Susanna Evans, R. Lawson, lames just over the border in Broken Hill), f . C. Sydney,l -2 March, 1981 , p.29), or by James' Coodhart, Ceorge Whinnen and others. Their brother Ceorge Baird Shaw who, as Evans says, work could be seen as the result of the teaching was an engraver who in Scotland had made the of the overseas trained immigrants finally illustrations for Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter showing in the locally-born.- Scott? Ceorge Baird Shaw had emigrated .l Some were more interesting himself to Sydney in 856. It seems strange if than others. D'Auvergne Boxall was Shaw had brought th is large press to outstanding for his lames draughtsmanship, no part-irained Adelaide that there is no evidence of him using doubt in by his background as an it himself here. At some time the press was in architect. Born in 1895 he attended the School of Fine Arts Adelaide however, as Cayfield Shaw took it under Britton and Fred Millward back to Sydney to continue his own printing Grey. Like Britton, Boxall took up etching there. and held two successfulshows in Adelaide in 1925 and 1920 in which he A major development in technical exhibited all his etchings. The Callery has six accessibility of printmaking to others outside finished etchings (see cat.63), one unfinished this select band was the purchase, in 1925, of a image and two small woodcuts by him, all large etching press for the Art School by one of made in lhe1923-26 period. lt seems Boxall the teachers, Ethel Barringer. ln an article discontinued printmaking on his departure entitled'New Etching press, School of Arts from Australia in 1926, except for one Enterprise', fhe News, on 11 Febru ary 1925, lithograph of an English subject which was reported that'what is probably the largest perhaps made under the influence of Millward etching press in any art school in the Crey.r.rBoxall's etchings are polished and light Commonwealth has been recently installed'. with the only loosening in his graphic work The press cou ld take plates to the size of 28 x 40 seen in his charcoal studies of trees, inches. (Barringer only had use of this special reminiscent of the work of his friend Horace press from February, when it was bought, to Trenerry. Like his South Australian forbears May of 1925 when she suddenly died.) The Heysen, van Raalte and Trenerry, Boxall article added that Miss Barringer was in charge continued the obsession with the great trunks of this particular section of study.rr Mary P. and qualities of the local gum tree. Boxall fi nally Harris in her autobiography, ln One Splendour returned to Australia to live in Sydney where he Spun, Autobiography of a Quaker,1971 , p.21 , took over from his old teacher Fred Britton at says it was Barringer who'introduced the craft the East Sydney Technical School. of etching into the curriculum' of the School. A lesser figure was Montague W. White, an For Barringer's efforts two of the beneficiaries of Englishman encouraged by Britton and her estate formed a'coliection of her work for a Millward Crey, who worked with fine, feathery Memorial Exhibition, the sale from which strokes. Another minor figure was G. T. M. THE AGE OF ETCHING 2B _. - : - - --- ' .: . -.: - -_- --_, ttr -n c : - - ' . I ;- :. _: r:.. :, ; -. l j. -" a a.'an.,,l* ,'=:t-::,: --'ti:-:-ul..l : _r:r t-': -' 9t ano it thrt age o ," \,*- ' --: ':---- = Parnier_Etcher). ,ar"aiii; , j _ :: t=--.-- i)?l joctet\ 9r t as f a:^:_ - -=- ^r.,,.ui,u,n t Ceorge *n,n1:.1^1nj .,,ieeling:"Rou.'^ ::,1-,;_;;.:;;,f,j;,1;.. yu* Ragtess are the last \delarde Ivr o important figures ,n in t9l. etching Sou'tn Xr"rrf i" a rc,c ailhis tiri,e, a ra r os u _.-1 ;;; nuji'niil.,,,,1 ;,ll ? : I I [';,.I":l?* ; l,.l llS; pre ssg5r', and worked!orh ;^,-_,lII o*n views s6 6e11, s";;iii;;i;Jtiun.",,'., t,oib, ^^ ,,lffL;il?ts inio ine \ -ncrudingrctorjan scenes (see und wni"l:';#;,11; f cat.6;j.' developing the a Allan C. p Cloveralso studied at u i t i%;; \rt in the School of "r i; ii,il. #F l; ilt?fl,li.,J rhe eartv t_q:os a,ng;;.v;ti;;;J. with impressionistic",ri i I E n, his print rende.rings of local ro lohn A u s t ra I i a South !e.a-ghing cooo.r,iii. n c o u n r ry: i rJarrrnger prize ijol,iJn ,r,o r,n*r d e u n a o ! r."e..,.1r, f gum ii Jrvu, t tr e b i g or printmaking unJb*.urn" (see cat 70 and 7 member of the painter. u I ). ttcr,eii iiJr[o*"0 Max Ragless.large trrchings and aouarints aquaf ints are out\tanding (see cat f iririi" rhe lor, indeed. rheir lcl20s and te j0; in Adei"ij_,.ririnuiing rare size u'na rn*iri*.Xiior" group in, used rhe medirrm_ro exploit t-r" exhibirion.wlth vax nagieri.'i"orgu and his'i;;";"r.1, in lighr \Vhinnen tone as in Grrms on the and Matcotm uersbiaiif,J!o.iutys'i ,,,1J (cat. 72),and WillochraCreek {rts in December -/ of his H,arvest nia,'ui.-iiil),*"trt" 1916. (car. 73) is almosr Maicolm Helsby,is,the nanar,ng group exception to this an; ;;;i#:?,;I i; ji::l,#J beins Enetish_born unaiiiiuin"e showed lhese ;"- {ustralia in*le in Sourh works in rhe miJ"t,g;b;'," l6 2gsa r*"niv *; ,jE returned A number to England in I q2l of otl come io .onrin,-i".rr JOy'i.ng Orr of his erchings rnuao T i,,;q;i i"q,,,i,l?i,,, in ,qjljJilo',b"for* ;: : i ii: ;tiiil u he left were exhibiled - lte o itr iac'k at the boJi"'tylinrt. I P o r' i X r o,.", i December in ;'-' ;:::-uail'i't',;; il.;'f,;'. or,talenlll " t n of thar year_tn e ngianb,[Jriroi*o Ihese inctuded wirh W p. raa o ::i charles Robins Emanuer showed A Russell who R"bi;; M;;;J ;; i,?1,'::lf "f ut th" s.,.]^d, y,o *, h r; n' (Tu:;eil;;;;ffi;;y*.f | ;,.. ;; ;;; ?l :F, fl : li I l;, Li?fl i,,",j " socieryor,qrti ;li ["-l'Jl]i"' "' Marhwin who ra,shr"iin_ il f s;i";ioj lln" n,.r, saytng:?,:y_1!rhe the youne o;;;# ,o)u, rom lq25 (see ,^i ,4y and n had applied who exhibited a himself 'very number of etched , * t'otEnoi,.i;ji;i;"-11 at f lre und r Sociery in teJ2; t" u riii i;I; ; d*lij ei;;;."_,"ry. *on the " ;".;t I I?.";;,;,: :;; ;J,.1 "i F'.;;- Barrinser coquetle"! of the Arrs' On ;'i;ilil:'J:i,}!i Hetsby hi.leiuinio'',q=a"luido One took over r he_reach other artist wh,o i ng-rT .,, paintings was best known ior his hogt,q{ A rr to ilowins "i.X,lg n" but who did ). th e OFp;'ri ;;_ ;f aquarints make a small number oi Loodchild and Boxail"A rn"rnE"r,riin? (see car. 76.),wascti"; Pa i;;;;lj o,nn'. i nter- Etchers, Socrety, arttsts mentioned in the most of h is r,r7o catalogues include remained views of r;. Lordon Brown and C mrd !.1Stuna and Europe in rhe r cou".liv ,{;;;*:,,.", f o lare lq20s *,!h.r9Ti Sobiohns has a 5l1n;..,, *ork of lhe Adelaide-'v! viewsv ,\ in 5rurr's .. i6 to'oi"irpruin early l9 JOs (see cat. 66.). House in rh"e Catieivi.rir_liii".. Two of Helsbv,s q .lhe fi.nal member of this ausust ',i;;W; Arr e sta D'; ;;i ;l;,i:U::: b I i s h m e n t oe ri., J is' i rlrij'C, ll,"i,.,[??loi vf i e I d S h aw, exponents of the etr 5outh Australijn hv btrth. " practice. a Sydneysider in 1,*" ."r,: ;; :;T 1ft3 who, however, kept faith ,r,o)0,vvhltford ?:ii'; ii;: i: nalive land with his has recent H making a nr_rmber of elchines r ot o h n c oo Jl n ii jil"Y#[,'J,l?;l t_ocat edifices (see?at lew !1: ililH,,i3t zzl, in.iuj,,;;,i;?:1"r, artisrs ro have' Cathedral in memorr their work r he visir oi s o m e e n t i [rOi"n_ji"" r rizanei[,r eueen rety w i t h t h e i r,q i,, {0", i r o iirl' i"i,i5-i,r, ) or. f hough erchers,",,ii,i_ like Cayfield Shaw. t i fl T;5: wo rk i n g i n to t j j,l,,,r-r :dt Yi".Y# J,:{ ln;y,:t I I " !9 T ?f_ud n'e o!tjr, _ ggr 6e), was toseph l,; 1920s new viiions lug Cn"iilji c""iiill-, prrntmaking:llty anO rnorgni;,;b;;, uoodhart attracted a were be i n,q o,', art, i n rhe u s t r a i i i'r; ; i,'r, L i,l I ci rcies o? ;j;i,ij":5..::-;fi orscussed ;'; ?J i,-h-,'.n#: lt adherents ;ij led in Decembe" r and eatherrng force. LJecember l"szo;;J;*r;i;, chaprer, This is a-new 1 928. Willram.Moore in,l926noted the ch"aprer nrine reiie'r'p"", rhe'novelty as regard advent of modernism ."jIr,r" d q r o h ; i, r yT;U | ?, I ;; : il,n' ; l# I d I b_e i ;l.,ji,? f,t r ro m a n t i c, h o i i I rog ra p h s o f t_i uio't j "', *;' ;il,gnr ,p ['il;i#lill]:i !*;n9;:"jh;;; o t B r i r i s h M, R oea,it o r h e * r,-n * r,.', i'ri rtFE ll loot 29 N OTES 1. lnterstate printmakers like Dora Wilson and I See 'Adelaide Artist Work of l. C. Jessie Traill had exhibited prints at the C.oodchild, Beauty Spots- of the Metropolis' Federal Exh ibition in Adelaide f rom 1905; The Mail, l4 lune 1924, and John C. Jaynie W. Whyte and Victor Cobb exhibited Coodchild 1898-7980, Art Callery of South in 1913, Fred A. Campbell had six etchings Australra,-l 981 . and aquatints in'1916 and by19-lB Norman 10 Doreen Coodchild,lohn's wife, made one Lindsay's Apotheosis of Villon, as well as lithograph, The Hoers, which work by Lionel Lindsay and van Raalte were was exhibited in Adelaide in1929 and noted as having a i ncl uded. 'most artistic air'by Cossip (7 August lSZ01; See Christine C. Miller'Etching in South the Register says how its'unusuai-lighting Australia' Australian Women's Dlgest vol. 3, effect' attracted attenti o n. no. 4, May, 1947 p.1B: 'The School of Fine , 11 I am indebted to Neville Weston for Arts, in North Adelaide, under Mr. Fred drawing my attention to this article. Britton, was one of the fi rst schools in Australia to start an etching class.' 12 Rachel Biven Women Artists of South Australia,some Forgotten ... Some 3. One typical example is the earliest Remembered, Adelaide, 1 97 6,' Ethel illustrated article on etching in Australia, Barringer'. published in vol. 1 of fhe Lone Hand in Melbourne in19O7 (lune, pp.156-61) by t't This lithograph came to the Art Gallery of Victor Cobb under his pseudonym of South Australia in a collection of work by Aquafortis, in which no South Australian Boxall's teacher Millward Crey, who was a activity is mentioned. Art in Australia is lithographer. lt is inscribed'silver Street, most interesting: all summaries of print London by d'A. Boxall'. events leave out South Australia in the early 14 Biographical statement for Art Callery of years. ln Berlram Stevens major article on South Australia, March 1981. 'Etching in Australia' (Ninth Number) only t5. Listed in William Moore Story of Australian one work from South Australia, Heysen's Art 1934,Vo1. 1 1, p. 146. The Plough, is illustrated. ln the early 16. reviews on Adelaide generally there is no Ragless made his own press. print news. Only in 1922 are 'imported' exhibitions at Preece's Callery of John Shirlow's etchings and the Australian Etching exhibition mentioned in the journal. Only when the etching age was on the wane in the mid 1920s do Adelaide artists, John C. Coodchild, J. C. Goodhart, Fred C. Britton, as well as Hans Heysen and Henri van Raalte, seem to get some coverage in the journal's pages. A n u m ber are dated 1 909 by th e a rtist; another, Surrey E/ms, was included in the Federal Exhibition of 1909. Letter to Lional Lindsay,22 March 1922,in La Trobe Collection, see Heysen Centenary Retrospectlve catalogue, Adelaide, 1977 , p. 74. Lionel Lindsay'Etching in Australia' Prlnt Collector's Quarterly, xi, 3, October 1924, p. 302. 7. See catalogue to exhibition at Preece's Callery, Adelaide, with Sydney Ure Smith, and Christabel Sprott'Henri van Raalte's Art and Life, Pride and Prejudice in 1920s Adelaide' Bulletin of the Art Callery of Sou th Au strali a, v ol. 38, 1980, p. 24. Foreword by Blamire Young lo Exhibition of the Work of Fred C. Britton & F. Millward Crey, at the Society of Arts Callery, n.d , pp 2-3. t0 THE RELIEF PRINT, AN D TH E ADVENT OF MODERN ISM As elsewhere in Australia the revolution in printmaking like numerous contemporaries, had travelled in Adelaide wai led bt r,r om"n lndeed {delaide's overseas and then returned to South Australia mort famou, printmaker, to live out her life. Margaret Preston, led the country, thoueh" -o f rom her transplanted home in Sydney' On her return from England with her c.ompanion Preston Cladys Reynell in j919 preston had been a strong force in Adelaide showed prinls since the turn as wellas other works, wilh of the centuri le_arning, teaching, Reynell, at preece's and making her own work. bifferingTiom Callery in ,qdelaiie. After her removal to Svdnev in 1920 Heysen and the painter-Etchers in tipe unJlf," and oevetopmenl of verve.and drama in her prinls, later in artistic sympalhies she did ar iiisr do some Preslon conlinued lo be rnvolvecl in ' etching (see fhe Art of Margaret preston exhibitions ed. lan North, in her native town. She included Adelaide, lqBO. catl p.lr prrnts in Artists'Week However her contribution in'1924 (nos. l3j-and in printmaIing was 138), in November l92S at Dunster with woodcuts. She said ' ' Calleries (nos. 94-.100), at the Society of Arts,and her first 'My subject as sub;ect I ignore. My fondness one-person exhibition al Dunster galleries in [or painting banksias is d"ue 1926was a onlv to rho show of woodcuts in w"hich u- tuigu simplicity of their form and colour They n u mber of her strongest early *ork wls allow the other material in the.ornrroiiiion included (see cat 79"and B0; lt was u turn" to,have an equally dominant position in rhe s,how ol qeventy five prinls The preface " scneme wrthout appearing to do so. I want describes her thus: stark realism without imag"ery; the elements of 'Margaret Preston needs no introduction" to my compositions are not Iiterary symbols. ln South Australians,ince, my search for forms which a\ Marparet will suspest MacPherson, Adelaide was heriome A I i for u stra a I p refe r w ood - I i b oc k n g t"o"pa i n t i n g, several years. She is now. resident lor the wood hinders facility in Sydney, and coinpels tHe and has done very valuable servrce worker to keep forms in his'compositi'ons lo ' ,Some'Recent Australian Art by her concentration on the :eyere (f rom Cavin Long pre"ston'Art woodblock a: a medium of individual Paintings by Margaret in expression. At fi rst her blocks were coloured.- Australia, Third Series, Number 59,1935, p. by hand as were some of those of th;- 18 ) f apanese masters of the seventeenth Her earliest woodcuts date century, from her overseas but yust as in the latter case the works were sojourn 19121o 191 9. Howevershewould have later printed f rom several coloureJ blocks so been aware of woodcuts made in , nusirilL are those of Margaret preston today. . . before this. The Federal Exhibition in AJelaide The'friendly little craft'of as early as 1905 included woodcuts printed in . woodcuttinp. a: colours to illustrate Nigh.tfail she called it. developed into a passion ariJ borh in the ii-free ny ner own pnnts Violet Teague and Cerildine Rede oiVicioria as wellas her writinq on the (no.52). medium would have been widely,E"n und read in Adelaide art circles throu!h extensive Preston's Still Life with Tea Set of 1 916_lg coverage (cat. in Art in Australia from its earliest 78) shows already a number oI the years (see particularly drstlnc.tive qualities lq1 Z and 1g)7\ However she was to pioneer in sure of her or Australia and espoure !eygr.qyilq her art (for example so stronqlv laler: the Leslie Wilkie in fhe News, f ,qnitt clarity of de:ign and form, f rS t i the r'eductions. the describing her as'a fi ne painrelwho srmplicity of colour and hm non* shape, and the choice modern'l). she was noted, by of subject so unheroic the crilic ofihe in co'ntiast to the etched Reglster, o,f 26 April,l930, as'one who,lived, romance around her. lt, too, is a hand coloured taught and painted relief among us,and who has .print, a'technique'used by her followers gone far. The State Callery"acquired prints tnto the 1950s. Her vig,orou,, from oflen roueh the 1930s and adventurously icquiruO f"ur" approach was a majoi deparlure from t"he monotypes from the artist in 194b. careful relief prints of the other maior artist in that Reynells' print medium, Lionel Lindsay ,- work was secondary to her^Chd.yt poileryand no doubt \prung When Preston made this from her work she was still conlacl with Preston. However very much an Adelaide artist and it would her clesipn be skills. her curring of the block and rhe,c?te interesting to speculate on her fortune if il-re, of her work closqly relate to her poilery and THE RELIEF PRINT, AND THT ADVTNT OF MODERNISM resulted in a number of small, domestic scenes 1927-29 in U K. and Europe, with ten works; of flowers, or birds or animals (see cat. 81 and 1930_-35 in Sydney with nineteen works (see 82). They were mostly used as personal greeting cat. 83), and 1936-51 in Adelaide with twenty cards. One aspect in which her art echoed one works (see cat. 84, B5 and 86). Preston's was her depiction of aboriginal and ln Adelaide she largely 'national'themes, such as her works using emus remained outside the official teaching system but worked on her as the subject. Reynell made some of these in .l prints ( in 936-38 Victoria, where she lived after her marriage in exh ibiti ng on ly li nocuts) and infl uenced others 1922. Reynell, who later used her married name through her contacts with the Society of Arts. She was in 1942 the fi rst of Osborne, still did however relate to her Vice-President Adelaide home, having one work, for example, of the newlv formed Contemporary Art Society illustrated in the South Australian School of Art in South Australia, and a founder of magazine The Forerunner in1937. the Croup 9 which exhibited from 1944-51, both groups in the forefront of A much more important printmaker in the modern ideas about art in the state history of the relief print in Adelaide and both Another woman in Australia was Dorrit Black. Sixteen years within the official teaching situation who also espoused younger than Preston she similarly went to art modernist ideali and worked with prints p. school in Adelaide and interstate relief was Mary and then Harris. A strong-minded travelled, Preston, Scotswoman she had and, like found on her travels studied and germs taught art there (at Ayr Academy) the of a style to develop back in betore emigrating .j92'1. Australia. with her family in She joined the staff of the South Australian School Black however started working in relief prints of Art in 1922 where she taught for over thirty a decade after Preston, studying with the great years. She also showed from-the fi rst'colour propagandist of the linocut in England, Claude print woodblocks' at the Society of Arts. The FIight. Her work was included in Flight's first Federal Exhibition of 1922 for example had two show of British Linocuts in 1927. Like Preston of her woodcuts, the Annual exhibition of 192i she found the demands of the simple yet strong three, 1925 another two and two more in 1926. medium of relief printmaking forced her to Her show of 1927 at the Societv included simpli{y forms, and to reach a formal rigour eighteen wood block prints. paradoxically easier in the restricted relief print Harris perfected a method of printing than with the free flowing paint brush. She said: woodblocks using Japanese inks and pipers 'The student begins by copying, but as he (see cat. 87 and BB). Christine Alder (n6e Miller, goes on he seeks rather to give the impression see cat. 104), one of her students, recalled'this made on his mind by the thing he has seen, interest in technique overwhelms any other than to exact'ly copy that th ing. And th is is impact the print might make'.i She added usually done by se/ectlon and emphasls: that however that Harris'was talking of modern Art is by cutting out all unimportant details and at the School of Arts immediately upon her handling those that seem to be important in arrival. Her students therefore had a freer such a way as to make them strike the approach because of these teachings.' lt was spectator as strongly as they did himself." indeed in her role of educator to'mbdern art' that Mary Packer Harris had her great infl uence. Her linocuts in E ngland, says lan N orth in h is monograph on the artist, were her most - One of her important tasks was editing the, advanced work in any media at this time. School of Art journal The Forerunner wliich ran from 1930 to 1938 and which included Black's return to Australia was to Sydney reproductions where she further developed her printmaking, of many relief prints by her students, like Rex and NoelWood, Violet including ten linocuts in her fi rst one-person Buttrose, Marjorie show in 1930. She was a leading promoter of Cwynne and Lorna Lee, as well as by Helsby, Clover and Reynell. One relief printing in Sydney, and her work was also indication shown in Melbourne,runtill935 when she of the direction of fhe Forerunner is lvor Francis'commercially returned to Adelaide. North writes: printed blocks fhe Tornado and Speed/ in vol. ll, October 19.11. 'Black's linocuts, with those of (in particular) Mary P. Harris wrote on the spirit behind fhe Ethel Spowers, were among the most Tornado almost as a latter-day Marinetti on the advanced and accomplished prints executed Italian Futurists. Most prints published were in Australia at this time. . . The most obvious relief prints by locals; however some etchings and challenging comparison is with the were included, as wellas information on woodcuts of Margaret Preston. Black's work overseas printmaking, like the Austrian prints in was more explicitly modernist, and although vol. Vlll, of June 1938. fhe Forerunner also her design and colour sense did not match published the name of the winner of the Ethel Preston's, some of Black's prints. . . rival Barringer Prize for printmaking" Preston's in authority and surpass them in the Mary P. Harris was not of the same use of a printmaking medium to make more temperament as Black or Preston and seemed than a merely decorative statement.'1 content to remain in Adelaide. Her work is little North divides her prints within three periods: known and little published. THE RETIEF PRINT, AND THE ADVENT OF MODTRNISM 42 Her influence appears directly in artists like the work of four vear, Charl after rhe founding of the School. oi,l l.ii?llagi ; large number of A r\lf:.;::i:,".,, :.;; il;S n orron (\ee cat a ,tudeni "" ; ;;;!!l;,i,; ,90), at the nrt 5chool. Bell."' '"u!u)in peler lilJ;'b I ituill u exnirrii"a ,,i,.i.i,',l,.l fho Cox tnez Hurrir, NJrl,ftlulnn, [:X ';lillv ro.,*,, Kathleen Hil. Karnteen sauer;;;r", ir.l;. Srewarr, ioy Stoke<, R. Srokes, The maior a\\ociate of l_larri, N.; V";"';. i'r.iult"r. un,t Rex Wood 'rt,,ii'was however orh,ers An outsranding exhib"rrlrlwlrn whose decorarirz'e "' technicat n"r. unaggressive stvle precision, *ir,nauv v"oti;"i;;" fgrn{ a naiuL-iouttet in cat. 95). retief printmakiirg The C.li"rv Others who worked with nr.b*, stage relief prln,, ,, ,or" of these works: some small black"*,i,"j in Adetaide wer" Muv crigg notations, and white etchings), Cwen i#hi atso did others of .onr.ior;ly'"b;;r;., Barringer unO B?liii.u cerry. and orh:,, exoric. midst f:ll:r-".,uesrgns (5eecat ql, Tgr.o iiunrrroyunt ^-ll,,hu of this adherence to the relief 92 and?;f U""r[idi]uj prnt wa5 one artist wnovergeJ prints ofren f,i, ir"rn it_ as at th1-Soc jety,oii,rt, tnil'ughout hrs calorr*6 woodcut of ,l,r?i,i"Orilu.,"i the l9lOs and even extended The paint por (fronlispiece, for. ftuid his interest in Zlno. i parrern\ ro iabric prinii;;;;;:'ili. artesrs _ and on "of , t 43 Black, and as strong, or at least as dramatic, a 'At the beginning of the war, the etching class personal ity: Lisette Ko h I hagen. She, however, was one of the f irst to feel the shortage df never left the State for long periods (except for materials, and some of the students f"ound it studies in Sydney and Melbourne in-1936-38) difficult to carry on. and her prints were neither as original nor as However, Mr. Coodchild, principal wellmade. then of the School. inspired us to treat our troubles Kohlhagen who had studied at the South as blessings. Copper Wds fre2p1-1, 5e *" Australian School of Art in the late 1920s started learned the rich beauty ol zinc; wax ground making relief prints under Adelaide Perry in no longer came from England, so we"had a Sydney (see cat. 100). She too looked for the lovely time cooking up wax and asphaltum qualities of 'flat shapes and decorative and resin tillwe had our own balls of it. We patterns', with the subyect matter being burnt our own linseed oil, much to the 'incidental'as lan Maidment has written (in wonderment of our neighbours' noses. We 'Lisette Kohlhagen Artist' Bulletin of the Art tried all sorts of lampblacks and charcoals to Callery of South Australia,- vol. 38,1980, p. 38), find a substitute for the precious Frankfurt inherent in the medium and coming from the black ink. Paper supply was short and to tradition of the smooth pattern making of Eric produce that lovely mellow golden tone Cill. Her style gradually broadened and grew to which glows through the ink-in the print of the large scale works of lhe late I 9l0s an-d the masters. we soaked our papers in 1940s, with increased experimentation with the concoctions of tea and coffee and iron salts. medium, colouring both blocks and individual (Some were dyed by soaking them in ale, but prints, just cutting the'line'to print white, and the beer shortage cut that outl; the result of so on (see cat.101 and 102) all these labouri was that we learned our craft She was, with Dorrit Black, the dominating from the beginning. We learned to try out all linocut printmaker of the 1940s and her work sorts of ways and means that we would never was often shown, with varying degrees of have dreamed of using had we been able to critical appraisal, in Adelaide at the Society of buy the ready-made aiticle at the shop.'e Arts in whose activities she was deeply The three exhibited respectively at lohn invo lved. Martins Callery in 1944 with seventeen, sixteen Relief printing was however also done and twelve prints each. They had a second spasmodically by others during the period, exhibition in 1945 with nineteen, twenty five including Victor Adolfsson, w6ose work was and fourteen works- quite a substantiil published in Phoenix (1939, p. 38), and in fhe prod u ction. Torch, the journal of the Adelaide Teachers' Miller, College, in 1939 (see cat.103). fhe forch who at first studied under Miiiward (1921-70) Grey, won the Ethel Barringer prize in 1942. She was another magazine which wrote included relief prints in pages, that she did etchingifor both the its including a convenience strongly abstract linocut jeffrey (.194t, of being able to work on them at by Smart night, p. l9). lts publishing inlo lq40s,like aft er her 1ob. and the cheapnerr of their the result for Ph.oenix, demonstrites the loosening the'man in the street'. iney obviously of style of also suited relief prints, with more aggressive, her art. Her Flinders Ranges work is' dynamic especially successful, cutting and more emotive subjects. David freeing the me"dium [rom Dallwitz, while the strictu res of Coodch ild'i vision: expressi ng making sensitive etchings and the'vast drypoints, and experimenting with spaces of the north, with its ancient varidus mountains and intaglio methods, also worke-d the tangle of our spiky bush that in the medium, lends itself as his self-consciously cubist to the etcher/s craft/r0 (see cat. 105). Figure Study (cat. Miller went to Melbourne 104) of 1 949 shows. in-l 947 and contin ued her work there. Printmaking in South Australia, except for Thelma Black and Kohlhagen, had no strong di'rection Fisher, as Miller wrote, was 'orthodox' in her methods, she or impact f rom the mid 1930s to the mid 1950s. but also loosened the There were however th ree women traditional etching technique with vigorous, even experimenting with intaglio prints in the mid crude lineiand blocked-in tones (see cat.'1 06). 1940s who should be included here. One of them, f acqueline Hick, is remembered for her Jaqueline Hick was one of Adelaide,s enthusiastic experimentation with the print outstanding experi mental pri ntmakers. Mi I ler media and can be seen as in the vanguard of the described her at this time thus: renaissance of printmaking in the State in the 'Jacqueline, when she gets to work on a plate, 1 950s. is liable to use any means which come\ to The three, Christine Miller, Thelma Fisher and hand to achieve the texture she wants. Hick all studied etching under f ohn Coodchild Orthodox collectors are puzzled and the at the School of Art at the end of the 1 930s. purists even shocked by the unusual ways in in Miller described this an article'Etching with.which she expresses the crisp softness of South Austral ia' ( i n the Australla n Wome n's chicken feathers, the sparkle ofa diamente Dlgest): necklace, or the sinuous grace of a fold of THE RELIEF PRINT, AND THE ADVENT OF MODERNISM 44 material. They could not be blamed, for they could not possibly imagine her at work with a cnltd s greasy crayon, smears of plasticine, or a sharpened wedge of a splintert lu.qroiin" has,a tlnely developed sense of fun, a'nd the sttgnily acid humour of some of her prinl> of cafe socie.ty and the gossip of the bri'ds" tubl" are a subtle comm1,n1 on the superfici'ality of that way of living "r Hick's Widows (cat. t0Z). Cafe, poultrv Seller a,no,Larntval {cat. l0B) of the 1q40s are really the f irst widely known Adelaide prints wilh a conscience Ih"y coincide wirh ihe upheavalat tne 5octety of Arls. with a,splinler group seiling up rhe C.A.S. in 1942, cha|enetns ine iStif status quo philosophy of thisiiriety year old"a estaDltshment. N OTES 1. Both Norman and Lionel Lindsay, as well as other lesser lights, had experimented with rettet pnnting_ since the early years of the century (see Sydney Ure Smit'h,The Revival ot the Woodcut' in Art in Australia Third Series. \umber Four, May, 1923; bur Norman did not continue and Lionel translated his technical skills into the- most "difficult" area of wood engraving. 2 Manuscript notes c. lg2g_3S,see lan North Ihe Art of Dorrit B/ack Adelaide,1979, p.22 and p.45 note 6. 3. ln 1930 and 1931, see North ibid. p.64. 4. tbid. 5. Miller further remarked on the,flat pattern conscious manner' of Harris, prints and added'in style the prints refel back io tn" Beggarslaff Brothers, ralher than to the japanese'; from Conversation Z November, 963. .l typescript in possession of her husband, Dr. Emil Aldor of Melbourne 6. Other artists whose work appears in the C^hapbook include Ken Cotton, Crace C,ooper, Marjorie Cwynne, Ruby Heniy, Margarel Slevens. lo Sieber and'Dorrit' Black 7. Conversation op. cit. B l,am gratefulto Roger Butler ior first drawtng my attention to Dowie,s work in Phoenix. Linocuts byW. M. Rolland, C. Wallman and A. Stephens, as well ui ny Vuy Voke, Victor Adolfsson and Dorrit Black were included in issues of the.l 930s. 9. Christine G. Miller'Etching in South Australia' Australian Wom"en,s Digest, vol 3, no. 4, May 1947 , p.19. 10 rbid. 11 tbid. 45 TH E LAST D ECAD ES A renaissance of printmaking in South . (see cat, 109), must have been a revelation Australia in the 1950s and to a 19601 was verv much town,often.equatr ng pri ntmaking with the result of the work, enthusiasm and John Uoodch i ld's representational etdhinss infl uence of a number of individuals from Sellbach's work is similarly absrract, 5ur bolder, outside who ' came, saw and in printmaking less subtle (see cat. 114). terms conquered Adela ide's- isolated conservatism.r- These were Sellbach and Schepers were not completely most importantly isolated. Udo Sellbach and Karen Schepers, both lacqueline Hick, who afrer her 1940s Cerman-born artists who arrived work had travelled to Europe and studied at the in Adelaide in London the mid-50s and revolutionised attitudes Central School and at the F Leser to Studio in paris, printmaking in a relativel.y short trme. Following had come back to ndeliide, continued her work them were Franz Kempf f rom Melbourne and later was to join Cha.rles Reddington Sellbach's teaching team at the Schooiof Art. from Ameriiu, inJ f o.uf students who had travelled overseas: Ceoff Another locally born artist was Ceoff Brown Brown, Ceoff Wilson, Brian Seidel, Syd Balland who had trained at the School of Art in the late Barbara Hanrahan. 1940s and made a number of prints. ln-1 955 his F_linders Sellbach and Schepers came first to Landscape (cat. 11 l)'ancl /mpressron Melbourne on arrival in Australia tastern were purchased for the Callerv. At this in 1955 and trme Sellbach showed his work first he,was developing a multi-plate etching there at the- method (see Athenaeum Gallery with the Velbouine cat. I l0). Brown travelled to Europe fi rst in 99nl".Tpotary Art Society. They then came to 1951 and was in London in Adelaide where they helped studying al the Cenrralschool, learning Charles Ban non techniques.1958-59 set up lithographic and etching workshops and evolving his style before at re,turning to Adelaide--briefly 5t. Peter's College. They brougFt with them a to teach with Charles Bannon peter,s, wrde experience of printmaking in Cermany. at St. ind then at the School of Art. Brown's Both had trained at the Kdlner il/erkschulen. work iodav conlin ues- Sellbach organised the Kd/ner presse, the slightly abstracted representaiional printing notations commercial and artists' lithographs and of the objects around him of these working with some of Cerminy's early days, now, though, with larger formats leadine and printmakers. Schepers had been a prizeriinner more muted colours. of the Dankspende des Deutschen Volkes and ^ A student contemporary of Brown,s at the Art had been commissioned to do a series of 5chool, Geoff Wilson, also went to Eneland to lithographs by two Cerman art societies.2 study printmaking at the Hamm"rrfiith 5chool- - ,qrt They gradually established themselves in in the mid 1950s. He returned to printmaking circles in Australia, Adelaide at the end of the decade and by 195g being contin-ued two of the four artists, with Gleeson and lacki making prints. He, too, now teaches to represent Australia at the Fifth lnternationai at the School of Art. Wilson's early prints show B.iennale of Contemporary Colour Lithography his interest in dynamic absrract fo'rms. inii f," at Crncinnati. later tempered into works like his best known se.ries, the El Dorado ln1957, Sellbach set of 1972 (see cat.l24), had a one-person show at which should be seen in the conte*t oiihor" the Society of Arts, and in t 958 Ron Applevard years. Here his.stro.ng formal sense remains, and purchased a number of their prints- all hrs craltsmanship, but the works are more lithographs- for the State Cillerv: Schepers, retined, f ull of delicate nuance and wit. ln these Ci ty Scene, Cologne, street Scene, Coloene and personal, Fruit subtle ways they contrast with the StillIile, and Sellbach's frees in a iirv and ootd,larg^e screenprints Skull made by others in the in a Landscape. One of Sellbach's orints early 1970s. was illustrated in an article by Appleyard in the Bulletin of the Art Gallery of Soit'h A'ustralia ,Anoth,er, local printmaker was Brian Seidel, who had also (.f uly 1960) entitled'Some Recent Australian studied at the South Australian Craphic Art'. School of Art in the late 1940s and SOi. rn 1959 he won his first Maude Vizard-Wholohan"uriv The free abstract forms exploiting the natural printmaking, with Disrob ing 1cat. ttZ1. qualities of the methods used were"new to Hel,ll"_fgr agatn Adelaide. won tt rn 1961 (see cat. 1 l3), and then Schepers' fine control of fl uid. travelled in the United abstract form, beautifully Srates and f nslanl crafted, and evocative studying printmaking at the Universiiy of-io*u THE LAST DECADES 53 and at the Slade School in London. Seidel was The show itself was in cha.rge of printmaking at the South Australian described in glowing terms:Ceoflrey Dutton in fhe lVew! Art 5chool from t964-66. During this time he ,one fZO wrote the informative printmaking Uclober. 1960) said it was of the liveliest booklet dn anc,most promise_packed in,Au,stralia; published by Longmans in 1965,ih exh ibitions, in whtch ncetatde lor a long lime,,usine a dozen work by a number of hil Adelaide dtllerenttechniques'. colleagues He adde"d, almost as if was illustrated and discussed. wrtn surpnse,'. Working with a . . The most striking thing about more painterly, dynamic style lhis whote exhibirion lhan Brown, he too used represenlational is the rense iigi";; you of t,iv i ng pore n tia r i subjects, and was more interested plavs I iieit i r"h e g ra p l-r i c in of artsiT," . :y6arbara l9 Hanrahan,s light and shade on already visualised irriu.u, work was coniid'ered than in their essential Other students inctudeJ ntynes form. and?:lst^1ndilg. Alun Leach_lones. The Maude Vizard-Wholohan prize was the Most informed critics around most important art prize in South Australia. lt . Australia soon became aware of Schepers; i"J sLriu".'d,s was first held in 1957 (when Murrav ' ' work Criffin won and role in South Austi.alia: iror Airn the print section), and was organised iointty Uy ' writin,g in rhe Heratd titooz tne 5octety ot Arts and the Art Callerv. lt then ,tprllY^."9lllg:i 1ct. + awarded_ 300 pounds I962\, to Robert Hughes in Narion for oil paintingi, IOO ('Adelaide Sketchbook,,5"May j,ino pounds for watercolours and pounds roo) said 25 for they were 'two of the prilqs The prize was awarded to'both most technicaiiv interstate acc,o m pl i shed and 5outh Australian printmakers, and gen u i nely c rea tive'etchers with, in the and.l tthographers in first years, Seidel, Brown and Kemol lhe country,, to James beins i i,l h s. i m po rta n a rt i I suc,cessfu I am t c e,'e r i n im a [i n g i n o ng the. loca I s., Win ir i ng prin tr, Austratra'Y:]j ::: :, and others purchased rn Art and Ausualia, Februarv l96alp. from the exhibitors, form 236, who referred a nucleus of the Callery's to both artistranl tduir- *ort collection of at the.Arr Schoot. saying,Wirh Austra,lian graphic work of the irs-hi;hlv iiuin*a time. The Callery stalr, tr.ne equipment, and rn the late 1950s is noted also for its high standards this collecting scnootshould remain the pre_eminent of important Old Master and twentieth training- centurv ground for printmakers in overseas graphics Coya,s fi rst edition this.ouniry.' of the' Frull joined ilisasters of War and- Rouault,s Mlserere among , Kempf the staff of the Art School them. trom Melbourne in 1q61. Kempladded to the careful, carine and hardwort These were the fifties. 1960 was the turning lng ream itrlady at point. the School. H"e is rememO"r*J ioinir'.ofiw ln February a new graphic studio was intaglio gpened at work, and indeed oreunlr"J"BiJ*n the Art Schoolisponsored bv the Bros. Principal, PaulBeadle. in South Ausrralia, to m'an;i;.t;;""" lt involved an expansion inks of equipment and of staff ' in the tateir,job, rerpi skilled in the [?1":::d:1ag/ronao a number processes of lithography. etching. of successfulexhibitions in aquatint, South Australia and interstate. woodcut, linocut and silkscreenl Sel'l bach was Hi, brr oi'rH" in Darkness (cat 1'15) won tf," Vurau firzirO_ charge of the new studio, and with him were vvnotohan Karen Schepers print prize in 1967. Kempf has and Jacqueline Hick. Sellbach headed the Printmaking wanted a comprehensive workshoo Deparl ment for a and number of years, after - terminology established on an educational ii his'earlier veais tntroducing the printmakine Diploma basis.'A multi-media workshop was created, programme. though with improvised His work, mostly abstract, and tools,'stones from the mostl.y intaglio, Lands Department, incorporates'ttre iOeais oi n is and using whatever papers retigion. rv ere available. A student 1:*l1h t.t has been discussed at length of t"he time, Ditk Dy LJavrd uolan in Richards, describes the great graphic Imprint, l97t,l.ln 19t6"- love of art Kempf published the'handsom" instilled in students of tFat studio. lt ielt, he Uoot L.o n te m po r ar y Au s I i p says, more tr a an r i n t maker s like an artist's studio than an art (Lans6e1,y'1", Melbourne;, school. Other students (like which has had Robert Boynes) international recogn ition recall Sellbach's and Schepers, strong influence parlicularly the force of Sellbach's' artist who made prin ts was - Lnanes-,An,other'.foreign' personality^and the patient. caring teaching Keddtngton from Chicago. He started of reacntng 5chepers. (Schepers is also well re"memberEd at the Art School in 19i9, brineins ro" her mastery and teachingol intaglio with him an American style, and the neirv_' p fangled ideas of rocesses. ) Abstract'Expr"*ii" irr.'He did many prints The exhibition 1ot qqfe in South nustratia, n'i. of student work held at the uon t Knock the Rock (see e,nd of that.fi year cal. I lFr), an early rst was described by Elizabeth screenprint, being best known. \ oung in.fhe Advertiser (20 October,1960)as 'landmark'. a A locally born artist, The catalogue of the exhibition'had . on lhe other hand. an introduction paul Lawrence Dury1, was experimenrlne wiit'prints by Beadle in which he rn mon.otypes pedy -aid Sellbach and the new studio like Coober 1cai. t lz1.' made an wnrch ted to more developed environment'in which the graphic arts graphic work on in similar rhemes. of for "ni. -" {ustralia must surely be strdngly influenced,. exampr" ,liLi tnctdent at Anakie ol- lq65 THE LAST DECADES 54 Besides the establishment of the newlv- t.o.the poor standard of oil painting in invigorated printmaking department of the Art Adelaide). School the other major event of the early 1960s Three leading students of the was the formation of the South Australian Art School who were included in the fi rst October, 'l Craphic Art Society, in December,1'961. Most 960, Art School exhibition, and who had been very people involved were conne_cted with the Art much involved in the Craphic Societv, were School. The aims of the Society were set in out Leach-Jones, Boynes and Hanrahan, Leach- the catalogue to the first exhibition held in lones had trained in England beine born i 962. The introductory words are salutory: there and coming to Au"stralia- aged trienty two 'For the fi rst time in South Australia a society a[ter cludies at Liverpool College of Art. He war devoted entirely to the creation and greater at the South Ausrralian Art Sch6olfrom 1960-63 appreciation of fine prints has been formed, (in the last year having work included in the .1920s 'Since the printmaking in South Australian Print Survey) and then returned to Australia has been comparafively neglected Europe. The Art Callery owns a work from this except for a few isolated instances, and lt is time,.very different to the geometric prints by our intention to present exhibitrons entirely which he i\ now best (nnrrn devoled lo fi ne prints execuled in every Hanrahan was a student at the Schoolfrom available medium )9r'-99 and then specificallv in printmaking 'Prints, we feel, deserve as much attention as trom 1960-61 , when ,he went to lhe Centraf painting or sculpture and it rs in the hope of School in London (where she gained a Diploma fostering greater tnterest in the Craphic arts oIetching, with distinction) She iaught at the lhat this societY ha. been formed.' South Australian School of Art in 1967-65, before The patron and office returning again to London for 1965-66, bearers were, to studr printmaking respectively, Kym Bonython, Barbara Hanrahan lgain at the Central School. Her own (President), Alun Leach-Jones (Secretary) and account"ofthis trme-and her own is recorded Udo Sellbach (Treasurer). The last three all art- in lmprint,197B,3. showed work as did Brown, Reddington, She remains one of the most original, and Schepers, Wilson and Lisette Kohlhagen, as well independent, prinrmakers in Austiilia. The as Lesley Bedford, Brian Callan, lan C-handler, powerful images of sexual confrontation, the Peter Ferguson, Barbara Harvey, John Howell, interest in ideas of Heroes and Heroines as lennifer Marshall, f udy Sutterby and Peter pivots of civilization, and the concern with the Voormey. Forty three prints were shown, in processes of generation of both things and lithography, etching and aquatint, drypoint, people are central to -her art (see cat'11 l B, 119 woodcut and silkscreen, with aquatint and and 120).- A painstaking craftsman, she has lithography most popular. always found the making of prints very suited to her visual creativity. She is ohe of the iew ln 1963 the second show was held at David printmakers in Australia to earn her living by lones Callery: 134 works with a more splendid her prints and her writing catalogue. Again a glossary and notes on Another gra.phic arts media were deemed ex-student of the School, who had necessary. studied printmaking Udo Sellbach, President at the time, wrotean in the early'l 960s, and returned to teach at the rntroduction. Drawings were included in this School in i965, was Sydney Ball After years york show and new print eihibitors were Robert two in New his prints in the mid 1960s bear Boynes, Peter von Czarnecki and Franz Kempf. little relation to his Sellbach gradually South Australian experience and were another was making less prints, and breath here exhibited onlv drawings.- of fresh alr to the Adelaide, and {rt School, environment. They are not onlv laroo By the third, and lasr, show in -1964 the bright, tull of Lmpalr, rhey !r" rr",;; "'' quality seemed to go down. lt was after all the element often lacking in South"i." Australian art early 1960s and Adelaide somewhat isolated. (*eecat l2l and 122). lnformation in relative terms was hard to get ln 19^63, a year after the new wing was added and the amount of energy needed to set Lip and to the State Callery, the Art School'moved to mainlain such a reawakFning of vision, new premises in North Adelaide, with new. enormous. Sellbach did not exhibit (he had pri ntmaki ng fac i I ities. ln'1964, twenty years resigned from the Art School in Augu:t, 1963). after foundation, the Contemporary Ait Society Schepers was, it seems, stiil outstan-dine. The acquired its first premises, creating another crilics also 3gp""6 on the 'vigorous'.'viial' important venue for exhibitions. -- screenprints of Ceoff Wilson. Bovnes' and Leach-Jones' work was also praised. . The growth of commercial galleries in Adelaide in the 1960s helped Ihe distr jbution of This exhibition was shown in Februarv at prints. Kym Bonython, whose gallery opened David Jones in Adelaide, and then, in Mirch, lirst in Adelaide from l9o0-67."was one' thirty works (prints only) were sent to Barry enlightened dealer. Others were L.lewellvn Stern's Callery in Sydney. They again aroused Calleries, (from 1967), Lidums, (from lq6l). The favourable interest (one critic contrasting them Peel Street Callerv (opened in lq57 and 55 becoming the Osborne Callery from 1962-78), as in Sydney, was due to the calibre of its artists. .1 C reen hi I I Cal lery (from 962) and Syden ham The shows of the Sydney group, Earthworks Callery (as Off The Beaten Track, 1970-73,lhen Poster Collective, and the Visual Croup of the as Sydenham Callery until1977). Progressive Art Movement, in Adelaide, held at Towards the end of the 1960s there was a the Experimental Art Foundation and the general settling of energy, in printmakrng at Contemporary Art Society respectively in 1977 least. Brian Seidel had taken over from Sellbach were a climax of a movement of which lulie at the Art School, followed by Ken Paul, and Ewington, in her article'Political Postering in then in 1968, Kempf took over from Paul, with Australia' (in I mpri nt 1978, 1 l, says Brown second in command. Schepers 'To my mind, it is the produced strongest and certainly no prints after1964. Leach-lones the healthiest, development in the art of the lived interstate after his return from Europe and -1 late 70s. Many young artists are giving up the year Hanrahan taught for a and then in 965 merely decoralive and absorbedly self- travelled back overseas. (She retu rned eight referential art in which they were educated years in later.)Charles Reddington left the State for engagement in social and political issues, the mid-1960s, as did Syd Balla little later. for dealing through their art with the lives and It is indicative of the climate of the late 1960s concerns of real people.' in Adelaide that the major printmaking event- A founder member of P.A.M. was Robert the 1966 Festival at exhibition the Boynes, who had studied printmaking in a Contem porary Art Society, entitled Au str al i an more conventional way in his time at the South PrintmakingToday, was nationally not State Australian School of Art in-1959-61. His orientated. Four printmakers (Brown, Kempf, contributions to the political print were few Schepers, Seidel) were local from eighteen but important: his Morals of Money (see cat. exhibitors- probably an even and fair 126)and Strikein Rlch of 1974mix cultural, rep rese n tat io n. visual and literary cliches to provoke and A few individuals made a few prints at the admonish the audience; aware, as was Ceorge turn of the decade. One was Cecil Hardy whose French Angas, that the impact of the visual hard edge abstracts can be related to the image is considerably stronger than the written interests of many local painters of the time (see chapters of his politically like-minded peers.s cat. 123). Another was Dora Chapman who Ann Newmarch has been the most prolif ic made schematic screenprints in the years and continuous of the artists eschewing the following her retirement from teaching painting .1968. 'fine' print tradition and producing political and drawing at the Art School in ln her screenprints with sufficient aesthetic power to dozen works she seeks to solve balances of emphasize her particular view. Her themes tone and form in a quite conscious way (see have followed those of the Left in Australia at cat.'124). the time: U S. imperialism, uranium mining, The major development in the 1970s in women's rights (see caI.127 and 1 28). She has Adelaide was the emergence of the polrtical also done more subtle works of her children print. These works questioned the role of the growing up and of domestic interiors: the artist's print in its relation to society, to the art 'domestic' issues of women's, or rather ethos of 'f ine' works and to the value system people's, lives as important as the more placed on art (financially as well as morally), as obviously worldly ones. no others had before. The sense of purpose Mandy Martin was a younger artist, involved behind these works and the vigour apparent in with P.A.M., who also has been concerned with them stands in marked contrast to other two women's issues as well as overty'political' dimensional work made at the time. The ones. Her faces of Kerr (see cal. 129) were apt potential of the print as a cheap and therefore and powerful enough to be used on an accessible means of acquiring an aesthetic appropriate cover of a national 'political' decoration as wellas being a means of newspaper, Nation Revlew. P.A.M.'s conveying propaganda made the inherent consciousness of the falseness of many'gallery' qualities of a print more desirable and environments led her to use them as one of her compatible than the medium's usual rival of themes. pai nti ng. Andrew Hill is another whose work was ln the context of Adelaide printmaking th is involved in the movement (see cat. 130). A period was indeed revolutionary- not just in strong work by Jenni Hill, speaking of her Creek its'message'. Never since the early colonial descent, is Dlspatch to C.M.H. o11977 times had prints been used as propaganda fi rst ( il I ustrated in I mprint, 1978, 1). and 'art' second. As for the Founding Fathers, Allexcept Newmarch have since moved prints were once again the obvious way in away from the obviously political poster. which to satisfy felt needs. At the same time the fi ne art print tradition ln Adelaide the movement began under the was continued in Adelaide by both established aegis of the Progressive Art Movement, centred artists like Geoff Brown, Franz Kempf and at Flinders University. lts artistic success here, Barbara Hanrahan, as well as by less well THE LAST DECADES 56 .l31) known ones like Lidia Croblicka (see cat. and,Michael Skora (see cat. 132),who mostly' work in relief printing, recent art school graduates like Yvonne Boag (see cat l ]l)and Christine McCormack lsee"cat l14), as well as Basil Hadley who has had success in interstate print prizes (see cat. 135), Rita Hall, who has since turned to fabric printing, and Marsie Sheppard (see cat I ]6). 1n1978 the excellent facilities for printmaking at the new campus of the School of Art were opened. These are, it is said, the best of anv art school in Australia. The School of Art conii nues to produce printmaking graduates each year and indeed a very fine sJudent show was held rn 1980 of graduate work at a new, and, it seems, the first gallery in Adelaide solely dealing in artisti'prints: the Tynte Gallerv in North Adelaide. Previous graduates include Helen Eager, who works n6w in Sydney and Sam Turnbullwhose mystical images made in lithography in the past are now wSrked as drawings and watercolours. Charles Bannon and Robert lones both work as master printers, and the C.A.S. recentlv has set.up a facility for printmaking as part of its activ ities. Finally, the Art Callery of South Australia has 9 ney print room, opened in1979.lt includes, tor the first time, a central study area adjacent to its collection of some seventeen thousand prints, from which a mere one hundred or so are illustrated in this history. Such is the history of printmaking, in the free colony trom l8l6 until 1981 , the centenarv of the foundation of the Art Callery of South Australia. One wonders what will haooen in the future to this practice of making,viried and wonderful effects, by the invention of taking rm.pressrons on papers, commonly called prints'as Thomas Wilson, Adelaide,s second Mayor, wrote in Adelaide in 1854.6 N OTES 1. Much of the early part of this section was The written for Print winners of the print award until 1920 the Council of Australia,s were: forthco-ming book on printmaking Murray Griffi n in |957, Lesbia Thorne in in 1958, Brian Seidel - -- Australia. Much of the material foi this in 1959 and 196r section Robert Cridve in 1960, Eileen Mivor:n' rqct was collecled bv Elizabeth Cross. to Kenneth - "-' whom lam greatly indebted Jack in 1963, Lesbia Thoioe in 1964, Peter Medlen in 1965, Ceolf biown in Perhaps it is also relevant, in this Cerman 1966, Franz Kempf in 1967 , Cecil Hardy in connection, that reminiscences of the time 1970 include marked reference to purchases of 4. Conversation with Elizabeth German prints at the Art Callery and to the Cross, 197 6. travelling show of German prints in South 5 See lan North'The Dilemma of Robert Australia in 1959-60. lndeed the woodcuts Boynes' Bulletin of the Art Callerv of South of the young South Australians of the time Australia, vol. 35, 1977, {or a discussion oi relate in their rough, expressive joy of the Boynes'work. wood to the Cerman Expressionists ralher Thomas Wilson than to the mannered care On the History of Engravinr of Australia's o^n.l,opper,1B54, MS relief printmakers in colleciion ,f"Mirl S1 of the previous decades. C. Wilson, Adelaide. 57