Women of the Hills: a Remote Centre Working in Isolation from External 4 Artists Would Go to Paint and Draw
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Betsey taught art at Perth Image Credits: Technical Extension Service, Cover: Margaret Woodward, From the Training of Oscar the Wild, c. 2000, Fremantle Prison and Midland pastel and conté on paper Image courtesy of Shire of Mundaring Collection and the artist Women of the Hills presents a selection of work, from the 1930s Technical College. From 1969 ii: Kathleen O’Connor, Still Life, c1950, oil on canvas she gave up teaching, travelled Image courtesy of Janet Holmes à Court Collection and Kathleen O’Connor Advisory Committee to the 1980s, by six influential artists with a strong connection extensively with Kitch and iii: Betsey Linton, Coastal Plain from Greenmount, 1984, watercolour focused on her art, exhibiting on paper with other Darlington artists. Image courtesy of Janet Holmes à Court Collection to the Darlington region: Betsey Linton, Elizabeth Blair Barber, iv: Elizabeth Blair Barber, Gingin Landscape, c.1960s, oil on canvas on board In 1987, Betsey’s work was Image courtesy of the Blair Barber family Helen Grey-Smith, Margaret Woodward, Philippa O’Brien and included in the Art Gallery of v: Helen Grey-Smith, Lemons, 1976, oil on board Image courtesy of Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The Western Australia’s exhibition University of Western Australia and the Grey-Smith family Madeleine Clear. Western Australian Art and vi: Philippa O’Brien, Open Book, 1990, watercolour Image courtesy of Shire of Mundaring Collection and the artist Artists 1900-1950. Later in life, vii: Madeleine Clear, Road Into Helena Valley, 1991, gouache, pastel, Betsey Linton was a prolific charcoal Image courtesy of Shire of Mundaring Collection and the artist artist discovering oil pastels viii This exhibition highlights the work of women artists viii: Margaret Woodward, Karri Country, 1971, oil on canvas and focusing on her distinctive Image courtesy of Curtin University Art Collection and the artist who worked in the Perth Hills during the decades landscapes which incorporated prior to the founding of the Mundaring Arts Centre floating, ghost-like figures. She Footnotes: in 1979 and the Shire of Mundaring Art Collection in passionately continued her 1. Janine Burke, Australian Women Artists 1840-1940, Greenhouse 1986. It also aspires to acknowledge and examine Publications, 1980 creative artwork, sometimes iii 2. Victoria Hammond, A Century of Australian Women Artists 1840- the contribution each of these women made to the on the back of Cornflake boxes, 1940s, Deurtscher Fine Art, 1993 Western Australian arts community. until her final years.7 3. Caroline Ambrus, Australian Women Artists. First Fleet to 1945: For the first half of the twentieth century, art History, Hearsay and Her Say, Irrepressible Press, 1992 teaching and practice in Western Australia remained 4. Caroline Ambrus, Australian Women Artists, p.1 The selected artists are represented in major public 5. Anne Grey, Line, Light and Shadow. James W R Linton: Painter, and private art collections, including the Art Gallery of traditional and conservative. The influential teacher, Craftsman, Teacher, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1986, p.47 James WR Linton, came to WA from London, bringing Elizabeth Blair Barber 6. Barbara Chapman, Betsey Linton, Mundaring Arts Centre, 1999 Western Australia (AGWA), the University of Western the training and techniques learnt through study at Elizabeth Blair Barber (1909-2001), then Betty 7. Georgie Boddington, Interview with Emma Mahanay Bitmead, Mundaring Arts Centre Australia, Curtin University, Murdoch University, prominent establishments, such as the Slade School August 2013 Edith Cowan University, Janet Holmes à Court, Kerry Bunning, met Betsey Linton as a young woman 8. Jenny Mills, Correspondence with Emma Mahanay Bitmead, 7190 Great Eastern Highway and Westminster School of Art. Linton taught at the September 2013 Stokes, Australia Council and Artbank, as well as attending JWR Linton’s life classes during the 1930s. Mundaring Western Australia 6073 Perth Technical College and founded the Linton Born in Perth in 1909, Blair Barber also had a strong 9. Jenny Mills, Elizabeth Blair Barber, Gomboc Gallery, 22 May 1995 numerous hospital and local council art collections. 10. Jenny Mills, I buried my dolls in the garden: The life and works of +61 8 9295 3991 School of Art in 1901. He opened the Murray Street connection with the Hills. Her father was the resident Elizabeth Blair Barber, University of Western Australia Press, Framing this retrospective exhibition as the 2014 [email protected] Studio in 1923 and in 1925 established evening doctor in Kalamunda until 1951, where she spent 1999 Shire of Mundaring Art Acquisition Exhibition provides life-drawing classes twice a week. These life classes 11. Janda Gooding, Western Australian Art and Artists 1900-1950, www.mundaringartscentre.com.au an important opportunity to represent historical work much of her childhood amongst the bush developing The Art Gallery of Western Australia, 1987, p.9 became an important artistic and social avenue for her lifelong love of wildflowers and orchids. Later in 12. Paul Thompson, Elizabeth Blair Barber …running with the hares Gallery hours: Tuesday to Friday 10am – 5pm; by significant women artists, currently missing from artists and also Perth’s cultural community.5 life, her husband bought the pear orchard Mundaring while hunting with the hounds… Curtin University of Technology, Saturday and Sunday 11am – 3pm; the Shire of Mundaring’s Art Collection. 1990 closed Mondays and Public Holidays Farm, which lent its name to both the town and Shire 13. Obituaries, She loved life’s vibrant canvas: Elizabeth Blair of Mundaring, where she painted every weekend.8 Bunning, Sunday Times (Perth), 2/12/2001, General News p.57 Janine Burke’s book, published in 1980, was the Betsey Linton 14. Painter still creating in her 90s, The West Australian, Friday, 5 first to provide recognition of Australian Women May 2000, Today p.8 Artists from the period 1840-1940.1 It included work Betsey Linton (1905-2004), then Betsey Currie, was a The Blair Barber family moved to Melbourne in 1925, 15. Fiona Jordon, Interview with Emma Mahanay Bitmead, October Thank you to all the Collection Managers for their student of JWR Linton at the Perth Technical College. and Elizabeth enrolled at the prestigious National 2013 assistance in presenting this selection of work. by one West Australian artist, Kathleen O’Connor, 16. Paul Thompson, Elizabeth Blair Barber, 1990 She helped run his popular life classes in the mid Gallery of Victoria Art School from 1927-30. She We would also like to express our gratitude to the who studied at Perth Technical School at the turn 17. Ted Snell, Darlington and the Hills, Curtin University of ii twenties, along with Hal Missingham, Ivor Hunt and studied under the disciplined traditional teaching Technology, 1990, p.11 artists, their families and private collectors for their of the century before spending the majority of her Jamie Linton, and became Linton’s assistant in 1929. of Bernard Hall. Bored by the conservatism of Hall’s 18. Catherine Czerw, Guy Grey Smith: A Collective View, Mundaring enthusiasm and dedication to their arts practice, and life studying and working in Europe. During the included work by Blair Barber in the Darlington Arts Centre, 2011 When JWR Linton retired from teaching in the late teaching, she elected to undertake additional evening their contribution not only to this exhibition, but to early 1990s, a subsequent publication by Victoria and the Hills exhibition, also at Curtin University. 19. Lou Klepac, Guy Grey Smith: Retrospective, The Western 2 1930s, Betsey and other students rented a property classes at the George Bell School, along with artists Australian Art Gallery, 1976 the Arts in Western Australia. Hammond covered the same period in women’s art Other acknowledgements included exhibitions at above Mortlocks in Hay Street and continued running who were to become important figures in Australia’s 20. Maggie Baxter, Helen Grey Smith: A Retrospective Exhibition, history. Her book redressed this under-representation Mundaring Arts Centre: There was a Presence in 1998, 6 Curtin University, 1987 of Western Australians and included Florence Fuller, the life classes, which by then had become an art history, including Russell Drysdale. George Bell 21. Gavin Fry, Margaret Woodward paintings 1950-2002, The Beagle which featured examples of work by women artists integral element in Perth’s cultural scene. During this was an influential teacher who had returned from Press, Sydney, 2002 Marie England, Elise Blumann, along with Kathleen alongside the work of their male contemporaries; early period, Betsey produced watercolours inspired 22. Terrie Gomboc, Interview with Emma Mahanay Bitmead, O’Connor. Caroline Ambrus’ book of the previous year London with “new thoughts and methods which were September 2013 and the Betsey Linton solo exhibition in 1999, curated by JWR Linton’s landscapes and atmospheric skies. to shock the establishment.” 9 In 1931, Elizabeth 23. Ted Snell, Darlington and the Hills, p.13 Mundaring Arts Centre presents remained Sydney and Melbourne centric, however it by Barbara Chapman. married the West Australian Charles Bunning in 24. Philippa O’Brien, Correspondence with Emma Mahanay Bitmead, raised important issues of inequality between male October 2013 The Perth Hills have a long tradition as an artistic Toorak, Melbourne, before returning to Perth. and female artists and the disadvantages that were This exhibition situates the artwork of the selected 25. Mundaring Community Arts Centre Update, Hills Gazette, 9 April 3 retreat and creative hub away from the rigors of 1987 still faced by women. women artists within a broader West Australian art city life. JWR Linton acquired his property ‘Hovea’ Now an established wife of an important businessman 26. Press Release: Still Life in the Old Shed Yet, Mundaring Community historical context. Despite perceptions that WA was in Parkerville in 1921, where he and other invited Arts & Crafts Centre Inc. 1987 Despite the apparent “cultural and biological but wanting to be taken seriously as an artist, 27.