COLLEGE of ARTS and SOCIAL SCIENCES Research School of Humanities and the Arts SCHOOL of ART & DESIGN

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

COLLEGE of ARTS and SOCIAL SCIENCES Research School of Humanities and the Arts SCHOOL of ART & DESIGN 5 COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Research School of Humanities and the Arts SCHOOL OF ART & DESIGN ART AND DESIGN HIGHER DEGREE BY RESEARCH DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ELLA MARY ELIZABETH MORRISON PETR HEREL: THE ARTIST’S BOOK AS ABERRANT OBJECT A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY OF THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY 20 FEBRUARY 2018 © Copyright by Ella Mary Elizabeth Morrison 2018 All Rights Reserved 1 Declaration of Originality I, Ella Mary Elizabeth Morrison 2018, hereby declare that the thesis here presented is the outcome of the research project undertaken during my candidacy, that I am the sole author unless otherwise indicated, and that I have fully documented the source of ideas, references, quotations and paraphrases attributable to other authors. Word count: 88,148 2 Acknowledgements To my Chair of Panel Robert Wellington, for your guidance, enthusiasm and honesty. To Roger Butler and David Hansen, for your advice. To Helen Ennis, for your encouragement. To Philip Jackson at the National Library of Australia, and Australian Prints and Drawings at the National Gallery of Australia, for your support. To my family, for reminding me of everything else. To Frazer, for understanding and celebrating the whirlpool with me. And to Petr, for your generosity, and for creating these labyrinthine books that never end. This research is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship. 3 Petr Herel: the Artist’s Book as Aberrant Object 4 Abstract The principal innovation of this dissertation is to present the artist’s book as aberrant object. This sustained investigation of the artist’s book draws upon interdisciplinary theories from art history, anthropology, linguistics, economics, socio-cultural studies, and material studies to examine the artist’s book’s place in art history, its collection and display, and individual analysis. I contend that the artist’s book, which defies institutional classification and sits outside of the canonical narrative of the history of art, provides a vital case study to question the inherent media bias towards traditional forms of painting and sculpture in collection, display, and discourse of contemporary art in our national cultural institutions and scholarship. The value of a critical engagement with aberrance is demonstrated by numerous case studies examining Petr Herel’s books interwoven throughout this research. Combined, this dissertation presents a nonlinear narrative. Part One, comprising two chapters, sets a foundational understanding of the artist’s book as aberrant object, before articulating a new experiential methodology necessary to engage with such works. Part Two, comprising three chapters, uses this identification of the aberrant object to expose new themes and unstudied concepts in Herel’s work. This non- linearity intentionally reflects the interpretive process of circling around such material, and mirrors the way I think about the artist’s book as a challenging, subjective object. With no concrete definition, and no prescribed start or endpoint, this dissertation identifies and engages with a necessarily nebulous interpretation of the artist’s book. I argue that the attribution of aberrance to the artist’s book is not a pejorative, but a positive term that casts new light on why the artist’s book sits so uncomfortably in art historical discourse. I demonstrate that rather than limiting analysis, examining aberrance generates room for contemporary experimentation that embraces qualities of tactility, emotion, and temporality that jar with conventional art histories. It is from this foundational idea of artist’s book as aberrant object that I have examined Herel’s work in relation to the encounter, Surrealism, the visual presence of text, and ideas of cartography and belonging. In writing the first comprehensive study of Petr Herel’s artist book practice, I propose a new manner of analysing the artist’s book with wider applications in contemporary object-based analysis. 5 Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 7 Petr Herel: a biographical chronology ...................................................................................... 33 Part One: Methodology Chapter One ................................................................................................................................. 43 Artist’s Book: Aberrant Object Chapter Two ................................................................................................................................ 75 The Experience of the Encounter Part Two: Interpretation Chapter Three ............................................................................................................................ 110 The Surreal Artist’s Book Chapter Four .............................................................................................................................. 139 On Viewing Words Chapter Five ............................................................................................................................... 163 Cartography, Nostalgia, Way Finding and Nowhere Conclusion.................................................................................................................................. 197 Appendix .................................................................................................................................... 205 Image List ................................................................................................................................... 218 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 302 6 Introduction The title page of Petr Herel’s Carnet d’un Malade (1979) is largely vacant (Fig. 1a). The page, oriented in landscape, is overwhelmingly white. This immediately draws my eye to the handwritten text nearing the upper right-hand corner. Written in dark blue ink is the book’s title, which translates to ‘notebook of a sickly person’. My eyes follow the swooping lines of the handwriting, noting the large slopes and angles created within such small forms. The word malade, written on its own line, is smudged. The blue ink becomes hazy, as if the word has been covered by a thin sheet, or rests just under an uppermost layer of the paper itself. The word appears to have been smudged in one action, suggesting the movement of a damp finger. The word bleeds out into the area around it. Malade is disintegrating, falling apart, slowly decaying, and losing its physical presence, as might the sickly person it describes. This extension out into the page makes what was before vacant now an important space that supports these words—white becomes an extension of blue. Focusing on this white mass, an embossed diagonal line appears, leading my eye from the title to the text below that notes the date. Following this more conventional inscription is an unexpected form: an ambiguous shape that is also bleeding. A book is supposed to communicate clear meaning, to be readable. Instead, on the very first page of this artist’s book, Herel has left me staring into a void. The artists’ books of Czech-born Australian artist Petr Herel (1943-) are complex, challenging, and wondrous objects. They have been largely neglected by previous art historical discourse. Current scholarship on the artist’s book is vague and contradictory, with specific analyses unable to articulate the subjective, experiential encounter evoked by Herel’s work in hand. There is very little writing on the artist himself. Consequently, this dissertation not only brings to the fore an understudied artist, but also an understudied medium. It both proves and addresses the urgent need for a contemporary analysis of Herel’s work and the artist’s book more broadly. Using an innovative mix of contemporary, interdisciplinary methodologies and theory, I present a new manner to critically engage with the artist’s book that brings together the experiential, phenomenological, and subjective qualities that, despite being intrinsic to the book as art object, have been omitted in previous scholarship. In writing the first comprehensive study of Herel’s artist book practice, I propose a new manner of analysing the artist’s book with wider applications in contemporary object-based analysis. 7 Underlying this new approach is my definition of the artist’s book as aberrant object. To be aberrant is to “depart from an accepted standard”.1 The aberrant object can be understood as one “created through displacement”.2 It is an object removed from its original context, re-examined to create a new entity. In the case of Herel’s work, the conventional, recognisable codex is transformed into a holistic art object. I argue that this attribution of aberrance is not a pejorative, but a positive term that casts new light on why the artist’s book sits so uncomfortably in art historical discourse. I demonstrate that rather than limiting analysis, as has been the case in previous scholarship, examining aberrance generates room for contemporary experimentation that embraces qualities of tactility, emotion, and temporality that jar with conventional art histories. It is from this foundational idea of artist’s book as aberrant object that I have examined Herel’s work in relation to the encounter, Surrealism, the visual presence of text, and ideas of cartography and belonging.3 This dissertation
Recommended publications
  • Printmaking and the Language of Violence
    PRINTMAKING AND THE LANGUAGE OF VIOLENCE by Yvonne Rees-Pagh Graduate Diploma of Arts (Visual Arts) Monash University Master Of Visual Arts Monash University Master of Fine Arts University of Tasmania Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Tasmania MARCH 2013 This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for a degree or diploma by the University or any other institution, except by way of background information and duly acknowledged in the thesis, and to the best of my knowledge and belief no material previously published or written by another person except where due acknowledgement is made in the text of the thesis, nor does the thesis contain any material that infringes copyright. YVONNE REES-PAGH MARCH 2013 i This thesis may be made available for loan and limited copying and communication in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968. YVONNE REES-PAGH MARCH 2013 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge and thank my supervisors Milan Milojevic and Dr Llewellyn Negrin for their advice, assistance and support throughout the project. I am eternally grateful to my partner in life Bevan for his patience and encouragement throughout the project, and care when I needed it most. DEDICATION I dedicate this project to the memory of my dearest friend Olga Vlasova, the late Curator of Prints, Russian Museum, St Petersburg. Printmaking brought us together in a lasting friendship that began in Tomsk, Siberia in 1990. iii CONTENTS Abstract ............................................................................................. 01 Introduction ....................................................................................... 02 Chapter One: The Central Argument Towards violence ..................................................................... 07 Violence and the power of etching ..........................................
    [Show full text]
  • 1915 - 2008 Title: Papers of Grahame King Date Range: 1967-1990 Reference Number: MS 20 Extent: 1 Box Prepared By: Peta Jane Jones
    MS 20 Papers of Grahame King Australian Prints and Printmaking Collection Summary Administrative Information Biographical Note Associated Content Acronyms Used Box Description Folder Description Summary Creator: King, Grahame 1915 - 2008 Title: Papers of Grahame King Date range: 1967-1990 Reference number: MS 20 Extent: 1 box Prepared By: Peta Jane Jones Overview Artist and teacher Grahame King was the fist President of the Print Council of Australia (PCA). In 1989, Roger Butler, the then President of the Print Council, and Curator of Australian Prints at the National Gallery of Australia invited Grahame King to speak at the First Australian Print Symposium. His presentation concerned the early history of the Print Council. In later discussions with Roger Butler he offered his papers relating to the formation and running of the Print Council to the National Gallery of Australia. This small collection includes papers that document Grahame King’s activities with the PCA, the adult education classes he taught and lectures he gave for university courses. The majority of documents comprising this collection are administrative and relate to the PCA; other material includes correspondence, newspaper clippings, financial records and copies of published articles. The collection has been described to item level. Keywords - 1 - Australian Printmaking; Prints; Print Council of Australia; National Gallery of Australia; Visual Arts Board (Victoria); National Print Symposium 1989 Key Names Grahame King; Roger Butler Administrative Information Access Contact the National Gallery of Australia Research Library reference desk librarians. Phone +61 2 6240 6530 Email [email protected] Provenance The papers were received by the Gallery in 1994 and lodged with the NGA Research Library as part of the Prints and Printmaking Research Collection in 2007.
    [Show full text]
  • A Bibliography of Australian Literary Responses to 'Asia'
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Flinders Academic Commons A Bibliography of Australian Literary Responses to 'Asia' compiled by Lyn Jacobs and Rick Hosking Cover illustration : Pobasso, a Malay chief Flinders Library William Westall, 1781-1850 Pencil; 27.7 x 17.6 cm Publication Series: No. 2 National Library of Australia Reproduced with the permission of The Library, the National Library of Australia Flinders University Refer to the Appendix B for details Adelaide 1995 ISBN 0-7258-0588-9 Contents Acknowledgments South East Asia (cont.) About The Authors Thailand Poetry Introduction Short Stories Novels Asia (general) Timor Poetry Poetry Short Stories Short Stories Novels Novels Plays Plays Vietnam Poetry North East Asia: Short Stories China Novels Anthologies Poetry Short Stories Plays Novels South Asia Plays Anthologies South Asia (general) Hong Kong Poetry Poetry Short Stories Short Stories Novels Novels Bangladesh Plays Poetry Japan Novels Poetry India Short Stories Poetry Novels Short Stories Plays Novels Korea Plays Poetry Nepal Novels Poetry Plays Short Stories Taiwan Novels Poetry Pakistan Short Stories Poetry Short Stories South East Asia Novels SE Asia (general) Sri Lanka Poetry Poetry Short Stories Short Stories Novels Novels Bali Plays Poetry Tibet Short Stories Poetry Novels Novels Plays Papua New Guinea Burma Short Stories Novels Cambodia (Kampuchea) Poetry Poetry Short Stories Short Stories Novels Novels Plays Indonesia Poetry Appendices Short Stories Appendix A - Tables Novels Appendix B - Cover illustration Plays Laos Poetry Short Stories Novels Malaysia Poetry Short Stories Novels Plays Philippines Poetry Short Stories Novels Plays Singapore Poetry Short Stories Novels Plays Acknowledgments This bibliography was compiled with the assistance of a grant from the Flinders University Research Committee.
    [Show full text]
  • MS 49 Papers of the Print Council of Australia Australian Prints and Printmaking Collection
    MS 49 Papers of the Print Council of Australia Australian Prints and Printmaking Collection Summary Administrative Information Biographical Note Associated Content Acronyms Used Box Description Folder Description Summary Creator: Print Council of Australia Title: Papers of the Print Council of Australia Date range: 1966 - 2000 Reference number: MS 49 Extent: 95 boxes + 11 ring binders Prepared By: Peta Jane Jones Overview The collection represents a non-governmental organisation involved in the visual arts with broad activities and influence. The collection includes mainly correspondence, exhibition details, printmakers, gallery/art centres, colleges/universities, entry forms, slides, receipts and copies of newspaper clippings. They provide a comprehensive history of the administrative processes of the council and its exhibitions. The majority of the collection contains correspondence written by administrative staff; of greater interest is the correspondence, often handwritten by the artists themselves. In the earlier boxes the exhibition detail is more comprehensive with itineraries (drafts and finals) and forms stating the exhibiting galleries and artist lists with print sales included. Also of interest are the artists’ biographies, sometimes with handwritten notes; these were used for exhibition catalogues, print directories, Imprint and member print submissions. There are approximately 2000 slides in this collection mainly representing prints associated with PCA exhibitions. PCA committee records including ballot forms for nominating committee members, agendas and minutes of Annual General meetings, bank statements and bank reconciliation statements also comprises part of the collection. Keywords 1 Australian Printmaking; Exhibitions (see biographical section for list); patron/member prints. Key Names Grahame King; Robert Grieve; Geoff La Gerche; Neil Caffin; Udo Sellbach; Roger Butler; Barbara Hanrahan; various printmakers (see biographical section).
    [Show full text]
  • Udo Sellbach Was Just a Teenager When in 1944 Hitler Ordered More Than Half a Million German Youths to the Still Russian Front
    Andrew McNamara and Wiebke Gronemeyer that the idea for the dark rectangular shape found in many of his abstract paintings of the mid-1960s came from watching a sheet drying on a clothes line in the intense Australian sunlight. Whether quotidian or highly Udo charged, these vivid references seem to overwhelm and predetermine any assessment of his oeuvre. Yet there is also something elusive in Sellbach’s art. One Sellbach: result of this push and pull reception is that Sellbach’s abstract paintings are often interpreted figuratively, whereas the seemingly figurative, largely graphic work, often appear to verge on the abstract. Seeing it, Born in Cologne on 9 July 1927, Udo Sellbach was just a teenager when in 1944 Hitler ordered more than half a million German youths to the Still Russian front. It was a mere nine months before the unconditional surrender. The war was already long lost.1 The mass conscription of young boys—many taken straight from school—was a forlorn act to prevent the Russian advance into eastern Germany. Sellbach was conscripted in late February 1945—just three months before the end of World War II when the Russian forces were already rapidly advancing on the German capital. After weeks of ferocious fighting Sellbach was captured, but rather fortuitously escaped execution. He fled Berlin on foot and eventually made his way home through a shattered country only to find his home city largely abandoned.2 Cologne had suffered severe bombing since 1942. By May 1945, it was a wasteland of rubble, ‘an endless panorama of ruins’
    [Show full text]
  • Public Place Names (Weston) Determination 2013 (No 1)
    Australian Capital Territory Public Place Names (Weston) Determination 2013 (No 1) Disallowable Instrument DI2013-79 made under the Public Place Names Act 1989 — section 3 (Minister to determine names) I AMEND the notice published in Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No. S24 dated 8 February 1978 as specified in Schedule A and I DETERMINE the names of the public places that are Territory land as specified in Schedule B and as indicated on the associated plan. Dorte Ekelund Delegate of the Minister 27 May 2013 Page 1 of 7 Public Place Names (Weston) Determination 2013 (No 1) Authorised by the ACT Parliamentary Counsel—also accessible at www.legislation.act.gov.au SCHEDULE A Public Place Names (Weston) Determination 2013 (No 1) Division of Weston: Artists REVOKE DIVISION FROM Unwin Place Weston Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No. S24 dated 8 February 1978, Schedule ‘B’ and the associated plan. Page 2 of 7 Public Place Names (Weston) Determination 2013 (No 1) Authorised by the ACT Parliamentary Counsel—also accessible at www.legislation.act.gov.au SCHEDULE B Public Place Names (Weston) Determination 2013 (No 1) Division of Weston : Artists NAME ORIGIN SIGNIFICANCE Bellette Street Jean Mary Bellette Painter and teacher (c.1908-1991) Jean Bellette studied extensively in Australia and Europe and is best known for her neo-classical style of painting. Awarded the Sir John Sulman Prize in 1942 for her work For Whom the Bell Tolls and 1944 for Iphigenia in Tauris. Also awarded the inaugural ‘Carillon City Festival Prize’ in Bathurst, NSW in 1955 for Still Life. The Jean Bellette Gallery is located in the historic village of Hill End near Bathurst.
    [Show full text]
  • BOOK ARTS NEWSLETTER ISSN 17549086 No
    BOOK ARTS NEWSLETTER ISSN 17549086 No. 127 September - October 2019 Published by Impact Press at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UWE Bristol, UK ARTIST’S COVER PAGE: KURT JOHANNESSEN THE HAIR COLLECTION 2009 2019, SEE PAGE 40 I : N I A ’ B E P - C, C, L W P - O P - A ’ B F E P - I N P - N A ’ P P - R R P - S P P - Artists’ Books Exhibitions in the Bower Ashton Library is exhibition at UWE, Bristol Bower Ashton library showcases, UWE, Bristol, UK celebrates work made at the Stichill Marigold Press over the past twenty-ve years: a captivating assortment of Leonard McDermid pamphlets, poems, cards, pieces and objects that ‘provoke Monday 2nd September - ursday 31st October 2019 smiles or quiet pondering’. e work presents itself quite Leonard McDermid is an artist, poet, printer and award- minimally, in limited colour palettes, formed in sizes that winning publisher. He has lived in the Scottish Borders for are human which ask to be held. over y years and he has exhibited widely, with work held in many private collections and some public collections. Landway, Leonard McDermid, Stichill Marigold Press, 2017 In the 1990’s Leonard founded the Stichill Marigold Press, through which he uses traditional letterpress printing methods to communicate a very personal interpretation of his observations. He appreciates and welcomes both the creative possibilities and the limitations of the medium. Above and below: A selection of Leonard McDermid’s books, He says: produced under his Stichill Marigold Press imprint. I start with an idea and sometimes other ideas come from that idea, and that’s because it begins to be a pamphlet (rather than anything else), because there starts to be a relationship and you get this homogenous content of a book.
    [Show full text]
  • War and Peace: 200 Years of Australian-German Artistic Relations
    Rex Butler & A.D.S. Donaldson, War and Peace: 200 years of Australian-German Artistic Relations REX BUTLER & A.D.S. DONALDSON War and Peace: 200 Years of Australian-German Artistic Relations The guns were barely silent on the Western Front when on 23 November 1918 Belgian-born Henri Verbrugghen took to the stage of the recently established NSW Conservatorium and softly tapped his baton, bringing the audience to silence. Then into this silence Verbrugghen called down the immortal opening chords of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the ‘Choral’, with its celebrated fourth movement ‘Ode to Joy’, based on Schiller’s words. A difficult piece to stage because of the considerable orchestral forces required, the performance was nevertheless a triumph, and all the more so for the occasion it marked, the Allied victory over Germany. Due to the long lead time and the necessity for extensive rehearsal, its being played at the signing of peace was a coincidence, but nevertheless a very serendipitous one. And the point was not lost on the critic for the Sydney Morning Herald, who in their review wrote: The armistice and the blessings of peace were not in sight when the program of the Conservatorium Orchestra on Saturday afternoon was projected, but by an extraordinary coincidence the inclusion of Beethoven’s ‘Choral Symphony’ with the Ode to ‘Joy, thou spark from Heaven descending’, brought the whole body of players and singers into line for the celebration of the glorious Allied victory.1 The real coincidence here was perhaps not the fortuitous programming of Beethoven at the moment of the signing of the Treaty at Versailles, but that of Germany and Australia itself.
    [Show full text]
  • Richard Tipping
    RICHARD TIPPING Born 1949, Adelaide, Australia Lives and works in Sydney Bachelor of Arts, Flinders University, Adelaide Masters and Doctorate, University of Technology, Sydney Lecturer at University of Newcastle SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2017 ‘Instant History’, Australian Galleries, Sydney 2012 ‘No King: Signs & Photographs’, Arthere Photomedia, Sydney ‘Studio’, Australian Galleries, Roylston Street, Sydney 2011 ‘Off the page – Poetic Text as Public Art’, Customs House, Sydney 2009 ‘Hearth’, Australian Galleries, Smith Street, Melbourne 2008 ‘Only Emotion Endures’, Australian Galleries, Glenmore Road, Sydney ‘Subvert I Sing’, Multiple Box, Sydney 2007 ‘Multiple Choice’, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, Lake Macquarie, NSW ‘Fresh Concrete’, John Miller Gallery, Newcastle, NSW ‘Imagine Silence’, Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide 2004 ‘Errrorism’, Multiple Box, Sydney ‘Art Signs and Word Sculptures’, Banning + Low, Washington DC, USA ‘Signs of Newcastle’, RocketArt, Newcastle, NSW 2003 ‘Exit Strategy’, The Studio, Sydney Opera House, Sydney ‘Street Talk’, Banning Gallery, New York, USA 2002 ‘Public Works’, Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide 2001 ‘One Two Many’, Multiple Box, Sydney 1998 ‘Versions: Perversions, Subversions and Verse’, Ubu Gallery, New York, USA 1997 ‘Hear the Art’, The Eagle Gallery, London, UK 1996 ‘Multiple Pleasures’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 1994 ‘Art Allergy’ Rhumbarellas Gallery, Melbourne ‘Between the Lines’, United Artists Gallery, Melbourne 1983 ‘Fast Art’, Garry Anderson Gallery, Sydney ‘Ideagraphics’, Rosyln Oxley
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Report 2016–17
    ANNUAL REPORT 2016 –17 CONTENTS President’s foreword 4 Director’s statement 6 Year in brief 8 Building 11 Art 13 People 49 Ideas 61 Audience 65 Partnerships 75 Platforms 81 Sustainability 89 Appendices 95 Cover image Emily Floyd Kesh alphabet 2017 (detail) aluminium, two part epoxy paint, steel fixtures, screen prints on paper, dimensions variable Art Gallery of New South Wales Atelier and Contemporary Collection Benefactors 2016 © Emily Floyd Acknowledgments Compiled by Shireen Huda Edited by Lisa Girault Art Gallery of New South Wales ABN 24 934 492 575. Entity name: The Trustee for Art Gallery of NSW Trust. The Art Gallery of New South Wales is a statutory body established under the Art Gallery of New South Wales Act 1980 and, from 15 March 2017, an executive agency related to the Department of Planning and Environment. The Hon. Don Harwin MLC Minister for the Arts Parliament of New South Wales GPO Box 5341 SYDNEY NSW 2001 Dear Minister, It is our pleasure to forward to you for presentation to the NSW Parliament the Annual Report for the Art Gallery of New South Wales for the year ended 30 June 2017. This report has been prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Annual Report (Statutory Bodies) Act 1984 and the Annual Reports (Statutory Bodies) Regulations 2010. Yours sincerely, Mr David Gonski AC Dr Michael Brand President Director Art Gallery of New South Wales Trust Art Gallery of New South Wales 11 October 2017 3 PRESIDENT’S FOREWORD On 14 June 2017, the NSW Government On behalf of the Board of Trustees and staff of the announced a $244 million funding Gallery, I sincerely thank the NSW Government for its commitment for our Sydney Modern Project support and foresight, and its commitment to enriching the lives of the community through this investment in to support the expansion of the Art Gallery State cultural infrastructure.
    [Show full text]
  • Frank Hodgkinson CV
    CHARLES NODRUM GALLERY 267 C HURCH STREET RICHMOND MELBOURNE VICTORIA 3121 AUSTRALIA Frank Hodgkinson Biography 1919 Born in Sydney 1936-38 Studied at Atelier, Sydney, under Datillo Rubbo 1939 Illustrator, The Herald, Melbourne 1940-46 Australian Imperial Forces in North Africa, Syria, New Guinea, and Borneo. Recorded assault landing at Balik-papan as a war artist 1947-53 Lived in London and Paris. Travelled extensively throughout Italy, Spain and France, absorbing collections in museums and church frescoes. Studied with Bernard Meninsky in London and at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, Paris. On-the-line Royal Academy, 1949 and 1950 1953-58 Lived in Sydney. Executed mural commissions; painted and exhibited throughout Australia. First abstractions exhibited in 1955 1958-59 Travelled on Rubinstein Scholarship through France, Spain and Germany 1960 Lived in Spain and painted for shows in Madrid and London 1961 Lived in Paris. Showed Salons Musee d'Art Moderne, Paris 1961-62 Lived in USA. Painted for shows in New York and Los Angeles 1962 Returned to Australia for exhibitions 1963-67 Lived in Spain. Travelled and exhibited throughout Europe 1968 Visited Australia for solo show for Festival of Perth, shown subsequently in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Journeyed through North-West Australia making notes of the Kimberleys for later work 1968-70 Lived in Rome 1971 Returned to Australia. Lived near south head of Trinity Bay, North Queensland 1972-73 Based near Melbourne, journeyed through Central Australia, South Australia and Queensland to study natural forms in the Olgas, the Flinders Ranges, the Glasshouse Mountains and the Coorong. Paintings shown at South Yarra Gallery.
    [Show full text]
  • Diploma Lecture Series 2011 Art and Australia Ll: European Preludes and Parallels Printmaking in Melbourne and Sydney: a 1960S A
    Diploma Lecture Series 2011 Art and Australia ll: European Preludes and Parallels Printmaking in Melbourne and Sydney: a 1960s and ‘70s Renaissance Elizabeth Cross 22 / 23 June 2011 Lecture summary: There are 3 significant factors shaping this a forte re-emergence of printmaking in the early 1960s: an improving Economy, extended and more nearly universal education and the Post-War waves of European Immigrants who brought to Australia their expertise in, vision of and familiarity with prints. Printmaking is an essentially democratic medium in its capacity for multiple (and affordable) reproducible images – and this too chimed with the egalitarian impulse of the times. It served the needs of a radical and politicized generation – the anti-Vietnam war, emerging Feminism, socialist Agit-Prop, trade-Unionism, Art and Language and – perhaps especially the emergence of Pop art with its blurring of boundaries between popular culture and “High” Art. In 1961 Sydney saw the formation of The Sydney Printmakers – its founding members included Earle Backen, Margaret Preston, Henry Salkauskas, Frank Hinder, John Coburn, Eileen Mayo, Eva Kubbos and Vaclovas Ratas, Weaver Hawkins. Many of these artists were either European and had training in printmaking or had studied in England and France. Hayter’s Atelier 17 in Paris was especially important for the revival of etching and aquatint, but most especially in the development of complex intaglio techniques which were highly suited to Abstraction. In Melbourne Tate Adams took over the Printmaking Workshop at what was then Melbourne Technical College (now RMIT) – formerly reserved for the use of Illustration students – and opened it to artists for use one day a week.
    [Show full text]