European Influences in the Fine Arts: Melbourne 1940-1960
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INTERSECTING CULTURES European Influences in the Fine Arts: Melbourne 1940-1960 Sheridan Palmer Bull Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree ofDoctor ofPhilosophy December 2004 School of Art History, Cinema, Classics and Archaeology and The Australian Centre The University ofMelbourne Produced on acid-free paper. Abstract The development of modern European scholarship and art, more marked.in Austria and Germany, had produced by the early part of the twentieth century challenging innovations in art and the principles of art historical scholarship. Art history, in its quest to explicate the connections between art and mind, time and place, became a discipline that combined or connected various fields of enquiry to other historical moments. Hitler's accession to power in 1933 resulted in a major diaspora of Europeans, mostly German Jews, and one of the most critical dispersions of intellectuals ever recorded. Their relocation to many western countries, including Australia, resulted in major intellectual and cultural developments within those societies. By investigating selected case studies, this research illuminates the important contributions made by these individuals to the academic and cultural studies in Melbourne. Dr Ursula Hoff, a German art scholar, exiled from Hamburg, arrived in Melbourne via London in December 1939. After a brief period as a secretary at the Women's College at the University of Melbourne, she became the first qualified art historian to work within an Australian state gallery as well as one of the foundation lecturers at the School of Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne. While her legacy at the National Gallery of Victoria rests mostly on an internationally recognised Department of Prints and Drawings, her concern and dedication extended to the Gallery as a whole. Franz Philipp, a Viennese art history doctoral student, whose passage of exile was deeply traumatic, arrived in Australia on board HMT Dunera. He rose to become the 'co-architect' of the newly founded Fine Arts Department ofthe University of Melbourne, where he instituted a rigorous standard of 'continental' scholarship. Professor Joseph Burke, a graduate in Fine Arts and a British war-ti~e civil servant, was appointed to the first Herald Chair of Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne in 1946. His mission was not only to establish art historical studies in the University, but also to take art into the public sphere; both these responsibilities demanded a multifarious role in the fine arts and cultural environment in Melbourne. Together with other important Europeans and Australians, these three scholars assisted in the cultural revision of the post-war period, legitimating cultural and educational paradigms and processes by establishing a more dynamic cross-cultural and international programme of scholarship and change within the arts more generally. Individually and collectively, Ursula Hoff, Franz Philipp and Joseph Burke became a seminal force in the academic, intellectual, museological and cultural environment of post-war Melbourne. ""' 11 ... Declaration by Author This is to certify that (i) the thesis comprises only my original work towards the PhD except where indicated in the Preface. (ii) due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used. (iii) the thesis is less than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices. Sheridan Palmer Bull 20 December 2004 111 Preface Interviews and other material of mine collected in my professional role as an art curator, principally between 1994 and 2000, and in the research and writing for my Honours B.A. thesis at LaTrobe University in 2000, has been drawn on to a minor extent for this dissertation. A very small number of sentences relating to Dr Ursula Hoff have been adapted from my Honours thesis, "'A discriminate and prudent judgement": A study of Dr Ursula Hoff. v Acknowledgements This research project involved the goodwill and intellectual generosity of many individuals. I would like particularly to thank Dr Ursula Hoff, a woman of incisive perception, enormous intellectual capacity and admirable spirit. June Stewart, Gordon Thomson, Dr June Philipp, and Rickard and Helen Burke have each contributed immensely to my understanding of the three main protagonists; without this the cohesive narrative of the thesis and the depth and breadth of analysis could not have been attained. I owe them all my deep gratitude. I have been enormously helped by many others who have talked about their experiences and have shared their knowledge with me. Amongst these are: Julian Agnew, --~ Dr John Armstrong, Dr Ian Britain, Stephen Coppel, Erwin Fabian, Dr June Factor, Dr Barbara Falk, the late Hilda Fletcher, Klaus Friedeberger, Bob Garlic, Dr Robert Gaston, Dr Richard Haese, Tom Hazel, Professor Peter Herbst, Annely Juda, Jennifer Marshall, Marilyn McBriar, Dr Ian McPhee, Joyce McGrath, Dr Lotte Mulligan, Bernice Murphy, Louise Myer, the late Lenton Parr, the late Dr John Piggot, Professor John Poynter, Harley Preston, Frank Ritchie, Bryan Robertson, Wolfgang Sievers, Professor F.B. Smith, Professor Bernard Smith, John Stringer, Walter Struve, George Tibbits, Professor Peter Tomory, Felix Werder, Terry Whelan, Essie Wicks and Irena Zdanowicz. Access to restricted or unpublished manuscripts is a great gift to a researcher, and I am immensely grateful to Ursula Hoff and Graham Ryles, Dr Jon Whiteley ofthe Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Dr Catherine Speck, Antonio Pagliaro and Chris Wallace Crabbe for permitting me such access. I also thank Dr Kerstin Knight for her invaluable translations and David Loram for his photographic expertise and generous co-operation. The staff of libraries and archival repositories are without doubt critical to any research student. I am particularly indebted to the following: Michael Watson of the National Gallery of Victoria Shaw Research Library, Jane Brown of the Elisabeth Murdoch Library at the School of Art History, Cinema, Classics and Archaeology, Tony Vll Miller and the staff of the Baillieu Library and the University of Melbourne Archives; Margaret Shaw of the National Gallery of Australia Research Library and Graeme Powell and the staff of the National Library Canberra; Dermot McCaul and Gerard Hayes of the State Library of Victoria and the staff of the Borchardt Library, LaTrobe University. In London, I was greatly assisted by Dorethea McEwan of the Warburg Institute Archive, Tim Davies of the Courtauld Institute Library, the staff of the Tate Gallery Archives, of the Manuscripts Department of the British Library and of the Public Record Office, Kew. Mary Clapinson and Colin Harris of the Department of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library and Dr Jon Whiteley and Colin Harrison of the Ashmolean Museum greatly assisted my research in Oxford. My research in Cambridge was facilitated by the staff of Trinity College Library and Kettle's Yard Museum. Carl Bridge, director of the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King's College, London, provided access and use of their facilities as well as a welcome place during long days of research in London. Cathy Leahy, Maria Zagala and Kirsty Grant of the Print Department, and Terry Lane and Jennifer Phipps, all of the National Gallery of Victoria, assisted me with requests, questions and important information. I would also like to thank the staff of the Australian Centre. It was my very good fortune to have Professor Kate Darian-Smith, of the Australian Centre, as a supervisor. Without her advice and belief in this project, it may not have reached its conclusion. In addition, Dr Jeanette Hoorn and Dr Christopher - Marshall as supervisors provided valued assistance. Dr Alison Inglis and Dr Charles Green gave valuable advice. All of these I thank sincerely. I thank most gratefully my friends, both in Australia and England, who were generous with accommodation and helpfulness in many ways. Finally, and most importantly, my deepest thanks go to my daughters, Alexandra and Lily, for their patience and tolerance, and to Philip for his personal support and wise encouragement. Vlll .··::. CONTENTS · Abstract Preface v Acknowledgements Vll List of Illustrations Xl Abbreviations XIV Introduction 1 1. The European Crisis 17 Ursula Hoff 20 The Hamburger School 25 Franz Philipp and the Viennese school 36 The Rescue of German scholarship 43 2. Transitions: London 1933-1945 51 The dismissed savants 58 The Warburg Institute's relocation 67 Exodus 76 Joseph Burke: a minimus incipe 81 3. Relocation to the Antipodes 95 The Cinderella continent 97 Desolation and dreams 102 Making connections 107 Melbourne 's Europeanisation 112 A different proposition 120 Melbourne's cultural transition 127 4. The Glass Bead 138 Daryl Lindsay and the National Gallery of Victoria 141 Relocating art 148 A modern vision 154 Ursula Hoff: museology and masterpieces 157 A chair and a social contract 170 Joseph Burke's arcadia 174 Cultural elitism and the common man 182 Franz Philipp and the ideals ofscholarship 186 lX 5. Melbourne in the 1950s 194 Mostly a man's world 197 Cultural courtships 202 The partnership: art and education 208 New blood and old 217 Bernard Smith, Eric Westbrook: Culture, capitalism and consumerism 230 The spectacle ofculture 23 7 Traditional forte 243 Epilogue: Et in Arcadia Ego 248 Bibliography 254 Appendix A: Joseph Burke Archive 272 Appendix B: Report to the State Library of Victoria on Ursula Hoff s Private Library 287 ""' X Illustrations 1. Detail of map of Europe c 1912- Historischer Schul-Atlas, Leipzig, 1924. Ursula Hoffs school atlas, c. 1925. 2. Ursula Hoff, passport photograph, Hamburg, 1 July 1933 - HP/Private. 3. German art historians, Hamburg Kunsthalle, press photograph, 1927, showing A=Warburg, B=Tolnay, C=Panofsky,D=Saxl- Source: Kunstchronik, EML. 4. Oskar Kokoschka, Die Windsbraut, 1914, (the Tempest or The bride ofthe wind), Oil on canvas, 181x 220cm, Basle Kunstmuseum- Originally purchased for the Hamburg Kunsthal/e,1924. Confiscated by the Nazis and exhibited in the Entartete Kunst exhibitions, sold Lucerne in 1939.