Jacqueline Hick Jacqueline Hick Born Wise Wise Born Hick Jacqueline

‘Jackie was born wise, and born unperturbed,’ said of his friend Jacqueline Hick. Jacqueline Hick (1919–2004) was one of Australia’s most successful figurative painters. In a long and fruitful career she also explored printmaking and enamelling. Her subjects included the Australian landscape, musical and theatrical performances, and city life. Above all, Hick was drawn to the human figure. Whether observing the foibles of modern Jacqueline Hick living or the displacement of Aboriginal people’s traditional lifestyles, her figurative works sought to expose human insensitivity. Hick’s later works, depicting the figure in an Born wise Gloria Strzelecki aquatic environment, explored movement and expressions of light.

Gloria Strzelecki Gloria Jacqueline Hick: Born wise showcases many of Hick’s finest works, and traces a life that, like her art, was imbued with wit, wisdom and empathy.

Cover: Pas de Trois (detail), c. 1964, oil and

synthetic polymer paint on composition board, ISBN 978-1-74305-200-6 134.1 x 181.6 cm; Maude Vizard‑Wholohan Art Prize Purchase Award 1964; Art Gallery of South Australia

Cover design by Liz Nicholson, designBITE, and 9 781743 052006 Clinton Ellicott, Wakefield Press Jacqueline Hick Born wise

Jacqueline Hick Born wise Gloria Strzelecki Wakefield Press Gloria Strzelecki is a freelance curator and writer, and has 1 The Parade West been Gallery Manager at the Adelaide Central School of Art Kent Town since 2009. She has worked at the Art Gallery of South South Australia 5067 Australia as a curatorial research assistant, and from 2007 www.wakefieldpress.com.au until 2009 was co-director of a contemporary art space, ‘A Room of Her Own’, which she established in Adelaide. First published 2013 She is the author of Kathleen Sauerbier: A modern pursuit, also part of the Carrick Hill series. Text copyright © Gloria Strzelecki, 2013 Also in this series Copyright for the works of Jacqueline Hick is jointly held John Dowie: A life in the round, Tracey Lock-Weir by Mark Galaz, Michele Galazowski, Daniel Galazowski Ivor Hele: The productive artist, Jane Hylton and Meredith Nickels, aside from Late shift workers, William Dobell: Portraits in context, Jane Hylton Dark mourning and Boys at the dam whose copyright rests Hans Heysen: Into the light, Jane Hylton and John Neylon with the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Robert Hannaford: Natural eye, John Neylon Nora Heysen: Light and life, Jane Hylton Every effort has been made to trace and contact the owners of Adrian Feint: Cornucopia, edited by Richard Heathcote works reproduced. Kathleen Sauerbier: A modern pursuit, Gloria Strzelecki

All rights reserved. This book is copyright. Apart from any fair Cover: Pas de Trois (detail), c. 1964, oil and synthetic dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or polymer paint on composition board, 134.1 x 181.6 cm; review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be Maude Vizard‑Wholohan Art Prize Purchase Award 1964; reproduced without written permission. Enquiries should be Art Gallery of South Australia addressed to the publisher. Half-title page: Andamooka Creek, 1970–1975, oil on board, 63.0 x 100.0 cm; Purchased with a Visual Arts Board Edited by Charlotte Michalanney, Wakefield Press Grant, 1975; Hamilton Art Gallery Carrick Hill series designed by Liz Nicholson, designBITE Designed and typeset by Clinton Ellicott, Wakefield Press Title page: Self-portrait, c. 1947, oil on plywood, Printing and quality control in China by Tingleman Pty Ltd 53.0 x 45.6 cm; Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art; University of Western Australia National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry First published to coincide with the exhibition Born Wise: Author: Strzelecki, Gloria. The art of Jacqueline Hick held at Carrick Hill from Title: Jacqueline Hick: born wise / 27 March to 30 June 2013. Gloria Strzelecki. ISBN: 978 1 74305 200 6 (pbk.). Notes: Includes bibliographical references. Subjects: Hick, Jacqueline, 1919–2004. Painters – South Australia – Biography. Women painters – South Australia – Biography. , Australian – South Australia – 20th century. Dewey Number: 759.994 Contents

F oreword b y D r P aula F urb y 7 preface b y R ichard H E A T H C O T E 8

Introduction 1 1

C hapter 1 ‘The time of discovery’ 1 3

C hapter 2 ‘Take a bath in all the art’ 2 0

C hapter 3 ‘Mad to paint’ 2 4

C hapter 4 ‘Earth, sea and city’ 2 9

C hapter 5 ‘Born wise’ 3 3

Gallery 3 6

NOTES 1 1 8

BIBLIOGRAPH y 1 2 1

BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE 1 2 2

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1 3 4

I nde x of W O R K S 1 3 5

Foreword

Jacqueline Hick was a brilliant Australian artist 7 whose work primarily arose from the circum- stances of her life. Talented in any medium she chose, Hick was able to achieve her aim of representing the reality of her subjects as well as a personal reaction to them. Her reactions could vary, from humorous, amused satire to deep compassion or trenchant comment. She loved representing the human figure but also expressed the beauty of the Australian land- scape and a fascination with music performance, among many other subjects. In 1988 I was privileged to stay with Jacqueline Hick for several days in her home at Jindalee, Brisbane, conducting interviews and looking at works with the artist. During that time and in later interviews after she returned to live in Adelaide, I was able to gain insights into her dedication as an artist, her keen interest in being part of the western tradition in art, her sense of humour and her deep compassion for human tragedy. She told me about the wartime experiences of her husband Frank Galazowski, which I believe influenced her development as a mature artist. Carrick Hill Trust and curator Gloria Strzelecki are to be congratulated for presenting a new ­retrospective exhibition and accompanying ­publication on this significant artist. Of par- ticular interest is Gloria’s focus on Hick’s early prints and later, grand, symbolic on Aboriginal dispossession. Jacqueline Hick was a sincere and humane artist, and her work is likely to be a revelation to those who have not previously experienced her contribution to Australian art.

Dr Paula Furby

The widows, 1944, aquatint on paper, 23.9 x 24.8 cm (plate), 34.5 x 37.7 cm (sheet); David Murray Bequest Fund 1944; Art Gallery of South Australia Preface

8 This is the eighth book focussing on the work of his friendship with Hick and of Adelaide in of a South Australian artist, produced collabo- the 1940s. ratively between Wakefield Press and Carrick Jacqueline Hick is one of several South Hill in association with Carrick Hill’s in-house Australian women artists who rose to a position exhibition program. It would not have been pos- of national importance and significance during sible to present such a special series without their lifetimes. She was and is widely recognised the continuing contribution of the Carrick Hill for her early socio-realist works, her surrealist Development Foundation, and the support of the landscapes and still-lifes and her later, powerful Gordon Darling Foundation, who have assisted depictions of Australia’s Aboriginal people. with this publication and several others in the Her work shows a remarkable understanding of series. It remains a source of great pride for the human relationships, vulnerabilities and frail- Carrick Hill Trust to be in a position to con- ties, and of humankind’s capacity to disassociate tribute material so important to the history of the self from the unjust treatment of others. art in this state and nationwide. Growing up and initially studying art in This remarkable group of publications and Adelaide, and then practicing for much of her exhibitions commenced in 2000 with Tracey professional life in South Australia, Hick was Lock-Weir’s examination of the life of the late deeply influenced by another highly significant John Dowie (1915–2008) (John Dowie: A life in female artist, the modernist painter and print- the round). In 2013 Carrick Hill and Wakefield maker (1891–1951), who had con- Press are again collaborating, this time to siderable input as a teacher in the 1940s. During present the art of well-known Adelaide-born a period of significant change within the South artist Jacqueline Hick (1919–2004). This is the Australian art scene – and in Australian art gen- third in the series to focus on a woman artist, erally – Black inspired many of Adelaide’s young the previous two having been Nora Heysen (Nora artists keen to experiment with and Heysen: Light and life by Jane Hylton, 2009) to step beyond conservatism. Both Jacqueline and Kathleen Sauerbier (Kathleen Sauerbier: Hick and Jeffrey Smart moved within this circle, A modern pursuit by Gloria Strzelecki, 2011). engaging with fellow artists and students in All of the artists who have been the sub- lively discussions about art, politics and society. jects of this series had some kind of link with Carrick Hill is delighted to be able to present Ursula and Bill Hayward or with Carrick Hill. the work of such a significant Australian artist. Jacqueline Hick, along with her close friend, Gloria Strzelecki is to be congratulated on her expatriate artist Jeffrey Smart (born 1921), latest publication Jacqueline Hick: Born wise was a welcome guest at Carrick Hill and had and exhibition Born Wise: The art of Jacqueline access to the Haywards’ remarkable collec- Hick. We are grateful to her for bringing to our tion of works by modern British and French attention the remarkable contribution made by artists. Both Hick and Smart were encouraged Jacqueline Hick to the story of 20th century by the Haywards and received anonymous Australian art. patronage towards their travels and careers. I would like to acknowledge the recent assist- Richard Heathcote ance and support of Jeffrey Smart with this Director publication. Smart’s insights were most appre- Carrick Hill ciated and have added a richer understanding November 2012

JACQUELINE HICK: BORN WISE 9

Landscape, 1942, oil on canvas board, 31.5 x 43.4 cm; Carrick Hill Trust; Photograph by Peter Hoare

JACQUELINE HICK: BORN WISE 10

Recurring theme, 1966, oil on board, 121.9 x 121.9 cm; Private collection; Photograph by Peter Hoare

JACQUELINE HICK: BORN WISE Introduction

South Australia-born Jacqueline Hick (1919– displacement of Aboriginal people, they were 11 2004) is one of Australia’s most successful fig- never sentimental. This newly generated depth urative painters. In a long and fruitful career and direction garnered success for Hick among spanning over 50 years she explored various critics, public institutions, her peers and private media including painting, printmaking and collectors alike. She received major art prizes enamelling, and diverse themes and subject and continued to show her work in exhibitions. matter. Thematically, her works are intelli- Following further travel abroad in the late gent and make strong social observations that 1960s, this time to the United States of America comment on the human condition and man’s and Mexico, Hick’s work began to depict the insensitivity to his fellows. Always drawn to effects of the metropolis on its inhabitants, the human figure, Hick observed the foibles exploring the overall destructive and over- of modern living in her early social realist whelming nature of city life. After her travels, works – at times satirical and at times full of Hick continued to explore new subject matter. empathy. Her work was constantly informed by Inspired by her family’s excursions to the beach, her astute wit. and her new interest in scuba diving, she became After completing studies at the Girls’ Central attracted to the way the human figure moved Art School and South Australian School of Arts under water, and the manner in which light and Crafts, Hick attended Adelaide Teachers behaved in an aquatic environment. This stim- College and obtained her Art Teachers Certificate ulus formed the basis for her fluid and stylised in 1941. While her works from this period con- underwater swimmers series. tinued to make perceptive social observations, Hick moved to Queensland in the latter part she also began to reference international art of her life and career, where she continued to trends. As a result, her early works have an eerie paint the figure and landscape. She took up surrealistic quality. extracurricular activities that would further In the late 1940s Hick travelled to Britain influence her practice. These included joining and Europe. She studied at the Central School of the Queensland Ornithological Society and Art in London and the Léger Studio in France, further travel throughout Australia. Music and immersing herself in new techniques and devel- performance informed Hick’s paintings once opments. On her return to Australia during the again, due to her daughter’s employment as an early 1950s, she designed sets and costumes opera singer. Furthermore, Hick would travel to for various theatre and ballet productions. She Europe, visiting Britain, Italy and Greece. She also exhibited regularly with the Royal South returned to Adelaide in the early 1990s after her Australian Society of Arts, Contemporary Art husband’s death in December 1987. Her artistic Society and other art organisations and groups. output began to slow down, but she continued to After returning to Australia, Hick’s work attend exhibition openings. In 2004, Hick died matured and began to show a heightened sensi- aged 84. tivity to human suffering. Around this time, she Jacqueline Hick was one of few female artists painted the Australian landscape and its orig- of her time who successfully maintained both inal inhabitants, revealing an affinity with the an active career and family life. In the form- human condition and the plight of Indigenous ative years of her artistic career, she recalled Australians. Although her depictions commented that there was no ‘discrimination on account of on the demise of traditional lifestyles and the being a woman’.1 As her career progressed, Hick

JACQUELINE HICK: BORN WISE 12

Parable, 1966, oil on hardboard, 67.0 x 181.0 cm; Private collection; Photograph by Peter Hoare

added, ‘The general attitude is that the career into Hick’s work and life at a time when she had of a woman with a family is a secondary con- become somewhat overlooked as an artist. sideration, but for me it’s comparable with any Hick’s art and life were imbued with sen- profession.’2 Artist Ivor Francis recalled how sitivity, intelligence and wisdom, especially he once referred to Hick as ‘one of Australia’s toward fellow mankind. Born Wise: The art of leading women artists’.3 To this she responded, Jacqueline Hick (2013) is the first major retro- ‘Why woman?’4 At a time when it was difficult spective exhibition in close to 20 years to be for many women to sustain both a career and devoted solely to this important artist. The family, Hick maintained that her success was exhibition and this book seek to recognise and based on a professional attitude, strong work celebrate the artist’s important contribution ethic and sheer determination, which overrode to Australian art history and her sympathetic any thoughts of gender. Hick was also fortu- approach to humanity and the human figure. nate as one of very few women artists whose husbands were supportive of their career. As an artist she was not restrained by the imposed ­barriers that other women in different profes- sions may have encountered. The lengthy chronology of Jacqueline Hick’s career was last documented in the exhibition catalogue Jacqueline Hick, released during her previous retrospective exhibition in 1994 at the Royal South Australian Society of Arts. Dr Paula Furby analysed Jacqueline Hick’s life and career in a study undertaken in 1991. Furby’s thesis recorded Hick’s outstanding artistic output and significance to Australian art until the early 1990s. This pioneering research gives an insight

JACQUELINE HICK: BORN WISE Chapter 1 ‘The time of discovery’

Jacqueline Hick was born the first child of In an interview much later in life, Hick com- 13 Horace Barnett Hick and Julia Caroline Hick mented, ‘I was lucky in my mother and father, (née Thomson) on 8 December 1918, in the inner- they never put any obstacle in the way of what I western Adelaide suburb of Mile End. Brother wanted to do.’7 Anthony Daniel followed in 1924. The Girls’ Central Art School opened in 1932 Just before World War One, Horace and Julia as part of the South Australian School of Arts Hick migrated to Australia from Britain. Horace and Crafts. Programs involved four years of was involved with the British Army and would study. Notable teachers at the school included later serve in the Australian Army in France. He artists Dorrit Black, Ivor Hele, Marie Tuck, retired due to serious leg injuries and a bronchial Louis McCubbin and Mary P. Harris. Hick spoke condition.5 Julia was considered the ‘gypsy’ of highly of her tuition at the Girls’ Central Art the family as she was eccentric, chic and drove School. Indeed during the formative years of a Morgan, a small, stylish, sports car.6 She was her career, Harris and Black would prove to be also a proficient pianist. strong artistic and philosophical influences on Jacqueline Hick’s interest in art is said to have her development as an artist. stemmed from her mother’s creative influences. Mary P. Harris was responsible for teaching In 1934, after Hick’s drawing abilities were Hick about compositional style ‘based on the noticed in primary school, her mother enrolled Golden section and ancient Greek and renais- her at the Girls’ Central Art School in Adelaide. sance geometrical symbols’.8 Harris’ emphasis

Jacqueline Hick (right), brother Anthony Daniel John Hick (left) and mother Julia Hick (centre), early 1930s; Private collection

JACQUELINE HICK: BORN WISE 14 Louis McCubbin nicknamed Jacqueline Hick, Shirley Adams and Lexie Brook ‘The Terrible Trio’ due to their inseparable bond. Another lasting friend was fellow artist Jeffrey Smart.11 Like many students and associates from the schools, Hick, along with her classmates and friends, would often frequent coffee houses after class. A favourite was Judy’s, located at James Place in central Adelaide. Hick used Judy’s as inspiration for some of her social realist prints and figurative paintings. At times these works depicted oppression and hardship. She would also occasionally render the escapist ambience of the venue with humour and cheer. Hick’s keen interest in theatre and music began to emerge during her time in formal edu- cation. She was involved in school plays, some- times taking acting roles. In the program for a ‘“Poets and Painters” Play Evening’ staged by the South Australian School of Arts and Crafts and the Girls’ Central Art School, Hick played roles such as the Duchess of Milan in A Student of History of Art Opens Her Book and the doctor in ‘Poets’ and Painters’ Play Evening’ program, 1937; The Painter of Trees, a play by Vernon Knowles, Reproduced courtesy of the Friends of the South Australian performed on 19 June 1937.12 The next year School of Art Inc., and the Marshall Family she acted in productions of Quality Street, The on emotional expression in art would come to Dear Departed and in William Shakespeare’s shine through Hick’s practice as an artist. On Macbeth.13 Her interest in theatre and music a philosophical level, Harris admired art that would last a lifetime. Later she did work with was inspired and created by those ‘reformers the Adelaide Theatre Group and other like striving to reveal truth from behind the cobwebs companies. of thoughtless orthodoxy, conservatism, hypo­ After four years of intensive study Hick crisy, stuffy fixed ideas, commercialism and returned to the Girls’ Central Art School as a mystical blindness’.9 Dorrit Black taught Hick junior teacher in 1938, before she, the other how to control her expression, composition and members of The Terrible Trio, Jeffrey Smart and emotion, also instilling in her the importance friend Douglas Roberts enrolled at the Adelaide of discipline and hard work. While Hick’s works Teachers College in 1939.14 She obtained her Art were often filled with feeling, they were never Teachers Certificate in 1941. sentimental.10 For Hick, her years in formal education were Hick made lasting friendships during her time ‘the time of discovery’ in her life.15 While she at the Girls’ Central Art School and the South had developed a unique style based on her time Australian School of Arts and Crafts. Teacher at art school, the Herald Exhibition of French and

JACQUELINE HICK: BORN WISE British Contemporary Art proved to be a tremen- and the art books and art reproductions the 15 dous influence on her practice. The exhibition group shared saw Hick’s personal style take opened in Adelaide at the Art Gallery of South shape as her aesthetic awareness broadened. Australia in August 1939 and at that time was From 1941 to 1945 Hick was employed as the most significant art exhibition to have been an art teacher by the Education Department shown in Australia. It included modern works of South Australia and taught at the South by Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin, Australian School of Arts and Crafts. After Salvador Dalí and Duncan Grant.16 The experi- this period of teaching she made the decision to ence of seeing these works first hand had a pro- pursue her art practice full-time. found effect on the work of many young artists During the 1940s Hick undertook many in Adelaide, including Hick. sketching trips through the Fleurieu Peninsula Around this time she was involved with a (south of Adelaide) and the South Australian group of like-minded artists, writers, musicians outback. In 1945 she travelled to the Flinders and students from the University of Adelaide. Ranges and the Hawker area with her friend This informal group, which included writer Max Jeffrey Smart. She visited the MacDonnell Harris and artist David Dallwitz, would discuss Ranges in the Northern Territory with friends and debate contemporary art, and music and Shirley Adams and Louis Burges.18 For Hick these writing.17 Exposure to these lively conversations trips were significant. She never worked from

David Dallwitz, Jacqui and Shirley at Normanville, 1945, ink on paper, 28.0 x 38.0 cm; Private collection; Photograph by Peter Hoare

JACQUELINE HICK: BORN WISE 16 photographs, but instead would sketch scenes, An expressive scene of tumultuous white take these drawings back to her Adelaide studio water crashing into large brown and grey rocks, and begin to paint. As she described, ‘I work on a Rocks and white water (1943) is one painting she lot of sketches first making sure I understand the produced during a Fleurieu Peninsula trip. By subject . . .’19 While Hick was an accomplished contrast, Landscape (1942) depicts an austere- draftsperson she did not consider her drawings looking scene. In an eerie landscape, broken finished works and often did not exhibit them.20 and desolate trees are rendered in muted greys She explained, ‘I put away the sketches . . . and while uninhabitable hills are painted in subdued start to work on the canvas . . . the picture might greens. While the subject matter differs slightly, grow perhaps slightly differently from the way a painting with the same title, Landscape (1943), I intended it to but I let the paint take over as bears similarities in its interpretation. It features much as I can . . .’21 a surreal and desolate landscape, painted in deep reds and dark, dull browns. Ambiguous cage-like objects sink into the barren foreground, giving the work a distorted, sinister feeling.22 Despite often painting landscapes, Hick pre- ferred to consider herself a figurative artist. Her interest in the human form was not purely aes- thetic, but rather a response to the way figures interacted with their surroundings. Even her barren landscapes are not so much about the view depicted, but about loneliness and isolation, conveyed by the absence of figures. Hick was an acute observer of people and human absurdi- ties, and this keen interest in humanity, coupled Landscape, 1943, oil on cardboard, 43 x 49.5 cm; with her gentle demeanor meant that a lifelong Elder Bequest Fund 1943; Art Gallery of South Australia interest in the figure was firmly entrenched in her artistic practice. The beginnings of figurative work can be seen in Jacqueline Hick’s early social realist paintings such as Late shift workers (1945) and in prints like Judy’s (1943) and Ladies lounge (1947). Late shift workers presents a group of tired workers commuting on public transport. Hick’s subdued and dark tones mimic a night- time atmosphere and evoke the workers’ emo- tional and physical weariness. Hick’s painting is a sensitive and sympathetic study of the chal- lenging conditions of city life during World War Rocks and white water, 1943, oil on board, Two. On the other hand, Ladies lounge comments 34.0 x 45.5 cm; Private collection; Photograph by on the foibles of modern living. The women in Peter Hoare Ladies lounge socialise and smoke, giving the

JACQUELINE HICK: BORN WISE impression that they are frivolously occupying 17 themselves. While this observation of humanity is trenchant, by comparison the print Judy’s is lighthearted, highlighting the lively discussions Hick and other artists would conduct over a cup of coffee. Hick was eager to explore other media besides painting with both Judy’s and Ladies lounge ­representations of this. Her etching tuition began under the instruction of John Goodchild at the South Australian School of Arts and Crafts. Goodchild had a keen interest in printmaking and was a passionate teacher of the subject. He was educated at the South Australian School of Arts and Crafts and the Central School of Art in London, where he also lectured. Upon his return to South Australia, Goodchild took up a teaching post at the School of Arts and Crafts. He would also be the principal at the school from 1941 Jacqueline Hick, mid 1940s; Private collection; until 1945. It is likely that Goodchild encour- Photograph by Colin Ballantyne aged Hick to travel to London to take up study at the Central School of Art given his association with it. After her first forays into acting during art school, Hick became actively involved in the theatre. She was a founding member of the Adelaide Theatre Group that formed in 1945. Hick worked as designer and was also on the Arts Advisory Board.23 One of the Adelaide Theatre Group’s rules was to hire artists to design the costumes and sets for productions. Hick was involved in stage design for No Triangle This and Fete Galante in 1946 and There is No Armour and Take What You Want in 1947. She also designed the costumes for the University of Adelaide Theatre Guild’s production of Volpone in 1947.24 Hick’s proficiency in costume design fil- tered through to her personal clothing designs, including skirts made in white and yellow linen, Jeff Smart and Jacqueline Hick exhibition catalogue, 1946; influenced by Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers Private collection series. Hick personalised store-bought clothes,

JACQUELINE HICK: BORN WISE 18 decorating them with colour lino block prints her artistic career.27 In 1942 a group of artists featuring sea nymphs, shells, Australian wild- including Hick, organised the first exhibition at flowers and other designs.25 This interest in the society to showcase by both local fabric design was taken further during 1947 and interstate artists that referenced interna- when Hick and artist friend Shirley Adams tional trends. Titled the First Exposition RSASA began silkscreen printing on fabric at the Associates Contemporary Group, it caused a sen- John Martin’s department store in Adelaide. sation among members and the wider public, Unfortunately there are no traceable examples who were accustomed to the society’s usual of Hick’s silkscreen work or her clothing designs. ­traditional exhibitions. Jacqueline Hick was already working in a wide This response to the exhibition and an variety of media and investigating other artistic increasing level of frustration with conserva- expressions when she took up mural painting. tive attitudes acted as catalysts for the for- Under the direction of Dorrit Black, Hick and mation of the South Australian branch of the a group of other artists painted a mural at the Contemporary Art Society. Artist David Dallwitz Adelaide Children’s Hospital. With Jeffrey Smart, was elected chairman with his wife Joan Christine Miller and Dorrit Black, she painted a Dallwitz as treasurer. Dorrit Black was the vice- mural at a local coffee house, suggested to be the chairman and writer Max Harris the secretary. establishment depicted in Judy’s.26 Committee members included Jacqueline Hick Hick actively exhibited her work from 1939. and artists Shirley Adams, Victor Adolfsson, She became a member of the Royal South Douglas Roberts, Ivor Francis and . Australian Society of Arts in 1942 and, despite The foundation members were Mary P. Harris, becoming one of many young artists frustrated Nancy Hambidge, Geoff Francis, Jeffrey Smart, with the society’s conservative outlook, con- Tasman Fehlberg, Marjorie Gwynne, Charmian tinued to regularly exhibit with it throughout Kimber and Lisette Kohlhagen.28 The society’s first Adelaide exhibition was not held until 1943, but many members, including Hick, showed their work in Melbourne at exhibitions organised by an interstate division of the society. An active member, Hick participated in annual exhibitions and played a significant role in fundraising.29 Later, when she was elected to the role of vice- president, Hick assisted in the purchase of the Adelaide branch’s premises on Porter Street in suburban Parkside.30 As well as regularly showing work with both the Royal South Australian Society of Art and the Contemporary Art Society, Hick was an active participant with Group 9, and exhibited with them in 1945, 1946 and 1948. Founded by Judy’s, 1943, etching and aquatint, printed in dark brown ink, from one plate, Dorrit Black in 1944, Group 9 pushed no philo­ plate-mark 18.4 x 24.5 cm, sheet (sight) 20 x 25.8 cm; Purchased 2004; sophical barrow, but the artists were Royal National Gallery of Australia South Australian Society of Art members whose

JACQUELINE HICK: BORN WISE