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Home , Brushstrokes (sculpture), Dorrit Black, Ethel Spowers, Frank Hinder, George Bell (painter), Helen Ogilvie

Cosmopolitan

Art from the 1930s in the University of Western Art Collection and the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art

1 2 Cosmopolitan

Art from the 1930s in the University of Western Australia Art Collection and the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art

Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery 31 August – 7 December 2019

1 Published by the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery University of Western Australia on the occasion of the exhibition Cosmopolitan: Art from the 1930s in the University of Western Australia Art Collection and the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art Curated by Sally Quin Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery 31 August – 7 December 2019

All rights reserved. ISBN 978-1-925793-17-8

The book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. No illustration in this publication may be reproduced without the permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.

Catalogue design: Clare McFarlane Printer: Scott Print

Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery The University of Western Australia 35 Stirling Highway Crawley Western Australia 6009

Front cover:

Ethel Spowers, Harvest, 1932, linocut, 19.3 x 29.1 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, University Senate Grant, 1982

Frontispiece:

Adelaide Perry, Woman pilot, 1931, oil on composition board, 49.5 x 39.3 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, McGillivray Bequest Fund, 1983

Sybil Craig, Cyclamen, 1932, oil on canvas board, 37.5 x 29.6 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia, CCWA 242

2 3 4 Contents

Introduction ...... 7

Paris/// ...... 15

Other modernisms: the case of Western Australia ...... 31

List of works ...... 42

Acknowledgements ...... 46

5 6 Introduction

The decade of the 1930s in Australia was framed by two cataclysmic events – the Wall Street Crash of October 1929 which precipitated the Great Depression, and entry into the Second World War in September 1939. Bearing witness to the widespread poverty and social unrest of the Depression, as well as the rise of totalitarian regimes of the extreme right in , prompted a heightened consciousness of global affairs and a movement towards the ideologies of the left amongst many Australians: democracy was in crisis, had failed, and nothing short of complete transformation was required.1

For many artists working in this environment art invariably acted as a political statement, an expression of values. In the late 1930s Norwegian-born Harald Vike produced a series of portraits in Perth’s public library (figs 1 & 2).In the Reading Room, Perth Library, 1937 (fig. 1), shows a woman reading intently, the red beret leaving no doubt as to her (or Vike’s) left-wing political leanings. Image left: The library provided books and newspapers, but also Fig. 1. Harald Vike, In the Reading Room, Perth Library, 1937, oil on shelter, warmth, and a sense of community in troubled canvas on cardboard, 30.3 x 25.3 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, McGillivray and Sir Claude Hotchin Bequest times, particularly for the poor and unemployed. Funds, 1986 In contrast, became the chosen means by which artist confronted what he Image right: 2 Fig. 2. Harald Vike, Reader (Perth Library), c. 1937, oil on canvas on described as the ‘lurking terror’ of impending war. In board, 26 x 21 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, The three dancers, 1938 (fig. 4), disembodied eyes, ears, University Senate Grant, 2013

7 8 Image left: Fig. 3. James Gleeson, Madonna and child, 1939, oil on canvas on composition board, 50.5 x 36.5 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Gift of Sir James and Lady Cruthers, 2004 © Gleeson/O’Keefe Foundation

Image right: Fig. 4. James Gleeson, The three dancers, 1938, oil on canvas on board, 37 x 39 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, The Ruby Rose Maller Fine Arts Acquisition Fund, 1997 © Gleeson/O’Keefe Foundation umbilical cords, and genitalia join in a macabre dance. The dynamism of the machine age might also act as a In Madonna and child, 1939 (fig. 3), a subject normally stimulus to creative practice. In ’s The Strath associated with wholesome and life-giving succour is leaving the quay, 1938 (fig. 5), the ‘Strath’ refers to ships rendered distorted and fearsome. completed in 1931, the Stathnaver and Strathaird, built by P&O to service immigration from Europe to Australia, While Gleeson’s response to the turmoil of the times and as tourist liners. Hinder expressed the power and took an anarchic, and highly personal form, Vike beauty of these machines through Cubist methods. The sought to capture the dignity of ordinary people in main curvilinear form suggests the outline of the ship, a comprehensible, realist style. Working from Perth and the semi-organic ‘gills’ in the upper right may allude (Vike) and Sydney (Gleeson), both artists were affected to the aspiration of modern technology to be like nature by an increasingly connected global scene: Gleeson itself. In a rather different allusion to modern modes of was able to understand Surrealist concepts without travel, Perry’s Woman pilot, 1931 (frontispiece), travelling to Paris or London, through the art journals captures the casual glamour of female pilots of the and books available at Sydney Teachers’ College; 1930s, such as Amelia Earhart, Amy Johnson, and Vike’s choice of subject matter was informed by Australia’s Nancy Bird Walton, whose feats were widely socialist imagery and texts circulating internationally celebrated in the media. in the 1930s. Artists were variously motivated by ideological and Contemporary artists were increasingly enmeshed philosophical beliefs; a desire to reflect the changing in the expansion of technologies such as print and world around them; and a primary interest in film, and advances in various modes of transportation aesthetics. The wide dissemination of visual imagery which made the flow of information faster and more in the form of prints, journals and books, and new economical. Gleeson and Vike developed their opportunities for travel to the centres of European forms of aesthetic protest as a result of the very , led to experimentation with a range of cosmopolitanism which the world of global capital artistic styles in Australia: namely realism (often linked had made possible. to social issues), Surrealism, and .

9 Fig. 5. Frank Hinder, The Strath leaving the quay, 1938, watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, University Senate Grant, 1980

10 Printmaking as an original art form also developed As Smith concludes, all of these ‘tendencies … contain in the 1920s and 1930s, and was consumed in elements of truth’,7 opting for what he describes as the multiple formats: (fig. 9) created ‘Adopt, adapt, transform!’ approach: designs for the covers of ‘The Home’ magazine and other household journals; Eric Thake produced a Variably or consistently, certain artists pushed series of dynamic and inventive bookplates (figs 6, their practices beyond imitative adoptions of 7, 8). Both Preston and Thake moved between such imported style, through adaptations to local design-centred work and more traditional media such needs and tastes, to arrive at transformations as – but, in essence, these divisions were which asserted their own, independent value. becoming less relevant, artists adapting their methods Different from previous Australian styles, and to both popular and more rarefied contexts. And the distinct from international Modernism, they viewing public became increasingly familiar with such were at the same time dependent on both.8 alternative ways of viewing art. This essay traces these processes with special Cosmopolitan brings together these diverse works attention given to artworks which appear to from the 1930s, held in two collections – the University demonstrate transformation, using categories of Western Australia Art Collection and the Cruthers suggested by Smith: firstly, the introduction of Collection of Women’s Art.3 While a relatively modest strangeness (‘making Australia strange’) in art survey in terms of size, the exhibition captures of the period; and, secondly, ‘Emigres bearing something of the eclectic, and indeed elusive, Expressionism’, in the work produced by German artist, character of progressive visual culture of the 1930s. Elise Blumann, in Perth in 1939.9

When writing about of this period one Though in this essay discussion of global interactions is inclined to resort to qualifying statements, due to focuses principally on those between Australia and the stylistic and conceptual diversity of art produced, Europe, new research relating to the evolution of as well as the exigencies of international and local modernism in non-western cultures alerts us to influence. Particularly problematic in discussing the the coexistence of multiple interpretations, and 1920s and 1930s is the perceived dependence of transformations, of modernist styles and concepts.10 Australian art on European models. The truly cosmopolitan and disparate nature of art of this period, rails against the reductive approaches Terry Smith has summarised the key theoretical that have so often framed a discussion of Australian approaches to this issue: the first relates to the ‘local- modernism. Art of the 1930s was the product of a international mismatch’, that is the time-lag between complex range of encounters leading to works which, the advent of modernism in Europe and settler though often difficult to define and sometimes societies like Australia, which renders the art ‘imitative unresolved, offer glimpses into a new artistic … and always too late’.4 A counter argument suggests consciousness. that: ‘Modernism in Australian art is not so much a lesser version of an international style that originated elsewhere, rather, it is a differentart. It is an , a home-grown product which emerged in response primarily to local needs’.5 A third response is that Australian artists ‘were largely indifferent’ to European modernism.6

11 Images left:

Fig. 6. Eric Thake, Bookplate (initials E.A.T. forming padlock design), 1931, woodcut, 7.3 x 4.9 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Gift of Mr Jeremy De Rozario, 2001

Fig. 7. Eric Thake, Bookplate for Dorothy Dennett (geometric bird design), 1934, woodcut, 6.7 x 5.8 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Gift of Mr Jeremy De Rozario, 2001

Image right: Fig. 8. Eric Thake, Bookplate for Jean Daley, 1930, metalcut, 9.2 x 6 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Gift of Mr Jeremy De Rozario, 2001

12 Fig. 9. Margaret Preston, Magnolia, c. 1937, linocut, 28.6 x 28.8 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, University Senate Grant, 1982 © Margaret Preston/Copyright Agency, 2019

13 Fig. 10. Eveline Syme, The kitchen sink, c. 1930s, pastel, 25.5 x 32.5 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia, CCWA 412

14 Paris/London/Sydney/ Melbourne

With increasing frequency in the late 1920s and 1930s Australian artists travelled overseas to further their studies, principally in Paris and London. Of those represented in Cosmopolitan, several attended the Académie André Lhote in Paris, including Eveline Syme (early 1920s) (fig. 10), (1928), (1927-1930) (fig. 11), and New Zealand-born Helen Stewart (1932). With Lhote, artists learned methods for structuring a composition around geometric proportions and interactions, involving dynamic symmetry and the golden section. In 1929 Black and Crowley took classes with at his Paris studio, and Crowley also attended his artist’s cooperative at Moly-Sabata in south-eastern France.11

Both Lhote and Gleizes were pioneering Cubists, principal members of the Section d’Or association of Cubist artists founded in 1912, and key disseminators of the Cubist style internationally. Cubism of the 1930s, in contrast to the earlier and abstruse analytic phase, was less inclined towards the fragmentation of the Fig. 11. Grace Crowley, Standing nude, n.d., pencil, 34.4 x 27 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, University Senate image. Rather, late Cubism was concentrated upon the Grant, 1982

15 Image above: Fig. 12. , Harvest, 1932, linocut, 19.3 x 29.1 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, University Senate Grant, 1982

Image right: Fig. 13. Alison Rehfisch,Autumn bunch, c. 1933-34, oil on artist’s board, 32 x 36 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia, CCWA 148 interaction of geometric shapes (often unmodulated The object was not relinquished but refined through planes of colour) to create a unified design, as in the design process. In Crowley’s Standing nude, n.d (fig. Eveline Syme’s The kitchen sink, c. 1930s (fig. 10). 11), the body is treated as a series of elegant lines, both angular and rounded, and partially transformed into On the teaching of Lhote and Gleizes, Crowley geometric forms – the half circles of the breasts and commented: the curved line representing the ribs, an almost playful interpretation of the underlying structure of the body. We were united in one belief, the constructive approach to painting, and this insistence of There was an informal aspect to these private Parisian the abstract elements in building up a design ateliers – one could stay for weeks or years, so artists was the keynote of teaching with Lhote and tended to move between several schools and teachers. Gleizes … we were discouraged from making A flexible tuition structure was also a feature of the merely a faithful record of the nude [model] … Grosvenor School of in London: there the abstract elements in line, shape and colour were no admission requirements and no fixed terms, were introduced in order to induce the student students purchasing a book of fifteen tickets valid for to construct from it a design within a given two months which could be used for all classes.13 The space.12 school was a lively meeting place for contemporary artists in London, and visitors included Henry Moore, John and Paul , and Graham Sutherland.14

16 17 18 Image left: Image above: Fig. 14. Alison Rehfisch,White tulips, 1936, oil on hessian on canvas, 51.2 x 41 cm, Fig. 15. Rah Fizelle, Reclining nude, n.d., pencil on paper, 55 x 76 cm, The University The University of Western Australia Art Collection, University Senate Grant, 1984 of Western Australia Art Collection, McGillivray Bequest Fund, 1982

Prior to studies in Paris with Lhote, both Dorrit Black to celebrate the dynamism of contemporary life – (in 1927) and Helen Stewart (in 1931) spent time at athletes in motion, motorbikes at full throttle, and the Grosvenor School. Other Cosmopolitan artists scenes which featured the sleek architectural lines who studied there were Eveline Syme (1929, after a of the modern metropolis. The major exponents of period with Lhote), Ethel Spowers (1929 and 1931), Flight’s linocut technique represented in Cosmopolitan Maisie Newbold (1930), Alison Rehfisch (1933) (figs 13 are Dorrit Black, Eveline Syme and Ethel Spowers. & 14), (1934-35), and Peter Purves Smith Harvest, 1932 (fig. 12), by Spowers, demonstrates the (1935-36). These artists were trained variously by the bold pattern and rhythmic design characteristic of school’s founder, , a follower of Clive Bell’s Grosvenor School linocuts. theory of significant form – that is the primacy of the formal elements of the artwork (line, colour, shape) During her time at the Grosvenor Alison Rehfisch over concern for narrative subject matter – and Claude was particularly influenced by the teaching of Iain Flight, who taught linocut printmaking between 1926 Macnab. Artist Jean Appleton referred to Rehfisch’s and 1930. still lifes as ‘weighty’, the result of the artist’s attention to the ‘underlying structure’ of forms.16 White Tulips, Compared to the traditional methods of relief printing 1936 (fig. 14), was painted while settled in a studio in (with wood and metal), the softer material of linoleum Bloomsbury and exhibiting in London and Paris, and presented less technical demands. Flight considered is notable for this effect of solidity and weight with it ‘the perfect vehicle for modern artistic expression’.15 a vital, animated quality. Particularly striking is the The subject matter related to this technique tended glove (placed so as to sit partly upright, rather than

19 Image left: Fig. 16. Nora Heysen, Self-portrait, 1939, oil on canvas on board, 39.5 x 29.6 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia, CCWA 692

Image right: Fig. 17. Nora Heysen, Ruth with a blue background, 1933, oil on canvas, 75 x 60 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia, CCWA 690 lying inert); the centrifugal profusion of tulips; and the The air should be as positive as a cube of ice. background drapery – a series of abstract lines which You have to construct the empty space just appear to move in a circular motion. No area of the as definitely as you construct the object, and canvas is given undue emphasis, with all component when considering solids – consider them parts contributing to the dynamic design. The geometrically. …[Cubism] is the only way in composition retains a rhythmic unity through careful which to grasp the essential forms of nature.17 repetition and contrasting of elements – an ovoid shape is echoed in the vase, tray, plate, apple and Clearly not all Australian artists followed the Paris- curling apple peel; the principle tones of green and Grosvenor School trajectory. Others represented orange-brown are complementary in their contrast, in Cosmopolitan studied at alternative London creating an element of vibrancy. establishments: Kathleen Sauerbier at the Central School of Art, London, between 1925 and 1927; Artist and art historian Mary Cecil Allen summarised Rah Fizelle (fig. 15) at the Polytechnic School and the importance of overall design to the modernist Westminster School of Art under Bernard Meninsky artist in a lecture given in Melbourne in 1935: in 1927; and Nora Heysen at the Central School of Art between 1934 and 1936 (figs 16 & 17). Following early Modern art consists of an intimate study of the training at East Sydney Tech in the 1920s, Frank Hinder positive and negative space. It is a question (fig. 5) travelled to America to study at the Art Institute of the relativity between the foreground, of Chicago and the New York School of Fine and the background and the middle distance. Applied Art. Artists utilised modern methods in varying Negative space, the atmosphere surrounding degrees within their practices. Portraits produced by the central object, must not be a vacuum. Nora Heysen, for instance, are characteristic of the

20 21 Fig. 18. Dorrit Black, Landscape, Noarlunga, c. 1937, watercolour, 23.8 x 29.7 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, University Senate Grant, 1984

strong impulse towards realism in art of the period, In the 1930s modern art in Melbourne was centred but they also display a modernist emphasis upon form around the Bell-Shore school in Bourke Street, opened – in the interaction of flat planes of colour and a lack by George Bell and Arnold Shore in 1932. Then at the of ornament. age of fifty-five Bell left Melbourne to study with Iain Macnab at the Grosvenor School, for sixteen months Increasingly, key aspects of a modernist language, over 1934-35. Though Bell had previously studied in as taught in London and Paris, could be studied in Paris (1904-1906) and lived and worked as an artist Australia. In the 1930s a number of Australian artists in England (1907-20), he felt compelled to renew his who had trained overseas set up private schools style around Grosvenor School principles. On returning in Sydney and Melbourne, away from state-run to Melbourne in 1936, and with the partnership with institutions which were generally antagonistic towards Shore soon dissolved, Bell began to incorporate modernist art. many of Macnab’s unconventional teaching methods, railing against students’ attempts to attain naturalistic In Sydney, Dorrit Black opened the Modern Art Centre effects, and encouraging individual development. in the early 1930s. As did many Australian artists As Mary Eagle notes, both Bell and Macnab ‘made a on returning from Europe, Black applied modernist specialty of remaking trained artists’.18 principles to a depiction of the local landscape, as in Landscape, Noarlunga, c. 1937 (fig. 18). Grace Crowley This approach stood in strong contrast to that of and Rah Fizelle opened their contemporary art school another influential Melbourne art teacher, Max in 1932, the Crowley-Fizelle Studio, teaching the Meldrum. Believing painting to be a science, Meldrum principles of geometric abstraction. and developed methods based on analysis of tone and Frank Hinder taught at the school and other associates tonal relationships, aiming to replicate appearances. included Black, Roland Wakelin, , Grace Honing students’ skills of observation of the tonal Cossington Smith, Frank Weitzel, Frank Medworth, relationships found in nature was central. Artists who Gerald Lewers, and Dorothea Lange, a German studied under Meldrum in Cosmopolitan include émigré sculptor. The culmination of this movement of and Alma Figuerola (figs 19 & 20). abstraction in Sydney was the group show, Exhibition 1, held at David Jones Gallery in 1939.

22 Fig. 19. Clarice Beckett, Evening on the Yarra, c. 1930, oil on paperboard, 32.2 x 49.5 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Gift of Mrs M.W. Moody in memory of Thomas and Henry Ingram Moody, 1949

23 Image left: Fig. 20. Alma Figuerola, Miss Carmen Figuerola, c. 1930s, oil on canvasboard, 47 x 37 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia, CCWA 740

Image right: Fig. 21. , Old and New Melbourne, 1937, oil on board, 67.5 x 53 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia, CCWA 703

In Beckett’s Evening on the Yarra, c. 1930 (fig. 19), the (fig. 22) also formed part of the Bell circle from 1937, transition from water to sky is represented as a series representing a somewhat different artistic approach of bands of subtly differentiated tone. Thus rendered, with his expressive scenes of urban life. the atmosphere appears as an abstract zone, prompting us to reconsider the notion that naturalistic Bell embraced difference and encouraged artists landscape painting and modernist abstraction are to find their own particular style, as Eagle and Jan poles apart.19 A methodology of painting based Minchin suggest: ‘Bell’s formal teaching was towards on tonal analysis was, nonetheless, diametrically finding individual ways of expressing, concretely, opposed to the Grosvenor and Bell school’s insistence ideas born in the imagination. Depending on the on plastic form. temper of the times it led as readily to surrealism and expressionism as to abstraction’.21 This approach Numerous artists pursued study with Bell, having resulted in an eclectic range of styles, while a general spent time at the Grosvenor School: Maisie Newbold rejection of the formal training of the academy meant commenced with Bell in 1934, Eveline Syme in 1936, a broader range of artists might participate in the and Peter Purves Smith in 1937. Like the Grosvenor modern movement. Lina Bryans (fig. 21), for example, School, there was a flexible teaching structure and had no formal training when she started exhibiting students could study for short periods. It was also in the 1930s but was widely travelled, and developed a meeting place for artists and, in particular, artists her art in the company of a circle of artists and newly arrived in Melbourne. Scottish-born Ian intellectuals, many of whom were associated with Bell. Fairweather arrived in Melbourne from China, via Bali, in 1934, and Mary Eagle suggests he was influential Interestingly, much original work in Cosmopolitan was on students and teachers alike for the short period he produced by artists who did not study abroad in the was in the city.20 Russian-born artist 1930s, such as Yvonne Atkinson, who studied with Bell

24 25 Image left: Fig. 22. Danila Vassilieff, In the park, n.d., oil on canvas mounted on composition board, 30 x 35.5 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Dr Albert Gild Fund, 1976

Image right: Fig. 23. Margaret Francis, Lady with a green face, 1939, oil on cardboard, 153 x 40 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia, CCWA 311

Overleaf Image left: Fig. 24.Peter Purves Smith, Sketch for New York, c. 1936, watercolour and pencil, 53 x 35.4 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Dr Albert Gild Fund, 1981

Image right: Fig. 25. Yvonne Atkinson, Fisherwoman with cat, 1937, oil on board, 49.7 x 38.5 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia, CCWA 257

between 1934 and 1939, and Margaret Francis, in 1939. and formal correlations. Throughout the canvas there The art of both Atkinson and Francis may be seen in are echoes of ellipsoid forms – the clouds, the sail, the context of the introduction of a certain enigmatic the curve of the boat, and the fish head clasped in the quality to Australian art.22 sitter’s hand. Other shapes are repeated: the bow- shape in the hair, the tail of the fish, and her oddly In Francis’ Lady with a green face, 1939 (fig. 23), the turned out feet; the vertical line of the boat’s mast and profile portrait format, which tends to ‘flatten’ facial the cat’s tail; the empty crescent eyes of both cat and features, allows for simplification, and concentration on woman; the serpentine forms of the eels and the rope the dramatic effects of the curved outline of both hat entwined around the bollard on the pier. A sequence of and silhouette. The painting shows strong attention to grasping gestures is also apparent – the figure grasps design – the feather echoes the sitter’s almond eyes; the cat’s tail in one hand, and a fish in the other, just as the line from ear to chin is repeated in the outline of the eels in the basket appear to be breaking free. the hat. This is a portrait of a well-heeled bohemian with a distinctive fashion style – but the green tinge of The painting presents a careful arrangement of the skin suggests a desire to infuse the portrait with an repeated shapes and gestures, creating both unexpected, and somewhat fearsome, element. compositional variety and unity. Fisherwoman with cat also elicits intrigue – the subject is perplexing, and the At the Bell School Yvonne Atkinson was drawn to the organisation of formal elements only increases this work of fellow-student Peter Purves Smith: ‘His lovely sense of ambiguity. What relationship does the odd mad little were to me simply entrancing...’.23 tableau on the jetty have to do with the departing – or Here Atkinson is likely referring to the whimsical series is it (perhaps) returning – boat? of animal sketches made by Purves Smith in 1937. Purves Smith was also capable of dystopian visions, as The paintings of both Atkinson and Francis are in Sketch for New York, c. 1936 (fig. 24), where spectral enlivened by a dissonant and mildly unsettling buildings, an ominous dark cloud, and a series of dead quality. In Atkinson’s work, in particular, there is also trees represents the seemingly doomed metropolis. a sense of whimsy and humour, the product of a very personal (and therefore largely inscrutable) mode of Atkinson’s work was similarly imaginative, but of an imaginative expression. even more cryptic nature. Fisherwoman with cat, 1937 (fig. 25) appears as a riddle – a series of visual puns

26 27 28 29 30

Other modernisms: the case of Western Australia

We have, in this quiet, sleepy hollow of Australia, been for a long time immune and practically untouched by the tremendous conflict of ideas which has already raged for some time in Europe. At last the enchanted pall that hung over us is being diispated [sic.].24

The above lines are taken from the editorial of the Black Swan journal of 1937, an annual publication of the Guild of Undergraduates at the University of Western Australia. This issue marked a very deliberate change of focus – from short fiction and poetry to lengthy articles on politics and society. In the editorial of the following issue of 1938 the fervour of the times is made ever more explicit: ‘the tremendous rush of events and the feeling of living constantly on the brink of a volcano effectively blast all inward peace’.25

Such evocative language was uncommon in public discourse in Western Australia. As Tom Stannage demonstrated in his study of newspaper images and illustrations in the Western Mail in the interwar years, the state was promoted as a land of ‘consensus, harmony, open social mobility’, despite the real social upheaval caused by the Depression and imminent threat of war.26

Depictions of the local landscape dominated Western Australian art. However, the accelerated speed at which news and ideas were now circulated brought global issues increasingly to the consciousness of the intelligentsia, including the editors of the Black Swan. Ruptures also began to surface in fiction of the 1930s with the publication of two novels set in Western Australia, J. M. Harcourt’s Upsurge (1934) and Katharine Susannah Prichard’s Intimate Strangers (1937), which describe the debilitating effects of the Depression on their central protagonists.27

There was a parallel sense of aspiration towards modern urban life, particularly in the form of architectural design. John Oldham’s The Gledden Building, 1936 (fig. 26), captures something of a New Fig. 26. John Oldham, The Gledden Building, 1936, watercolour, 59.5 x 39 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, York cityscape. The panels of vertical fluting on the Gift of Oldham, Boas, Ednie Brown Architects, 1937

31 32 Fig. 27. Bessie Saunders, Portrait of Iris Francis, c. 1938, watercolour, 29 x 24 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia, CCWA 889

exterior of the building, and the narrow rectangular Sheldon Cheney’s Expressionism in Art (1934), Carl windows, contribute to the structure’s upward Einstein’s Georges Braque (1934), Herbert Read’s Art momentum. Though hardly a skyscraper, the building Now (1933), and Myfanwy Evans’, The Painter’s Object towered above others in the city.28 A leading left-wing (1937). Alec King, an academic within the English figure of the period, Oldham clearly envisaged modern department, wrote knowledgeably about Surrealism design in relation to utopian . Notably, such in the Black Swan in 1937, and the art critic at The West imagery presents an alternative to the predominantly Australian, Charles Hamilton, urged tolerance in the rural subject matter of Western Australian art. face of new ideas, attempting to describe the bases of progressive art to a wider audience.33 Several venues Progressive art practice in the 1930s centred around were available for the display of modern art, namely the activities of the Workers’ Art Guild, a left-leaning Pastoral House and Newspaper House, both located cultural group incorporating sections for theatre, in the city. music and the visual arts. Artists associated with the Guild were Harald Vike, Herbert McClintock (who The high point of these interactions (and also their used the name Max Ebert), and John Lunghi. Vike swan song) was the exhibition ‘Modern art’, which held weekly drawing classes for the Guild and, with opened at Pastoral House in August 1939, presented McClintock, worked on sets, costumes and publicity for by the plastic and graphic arts section of the Workers’ their theatrical productions. Though the artists shared Art Guild, in association with the University of Western a studio, Vike was committed to realism, and broadly Australia’s Adult Education Board. The exhibition was to the principles of Social Realism, while McClintock accompanied by a series of lectures on the nature of chose to work in a Surrealist mode, the only artist in modern art and its relationship to society.34 the city known to have been pursuing this style.29 The exhibition combined examples of modern art – In September 1938 a public debate on modern art high-quality facsimile reproductions from the Carnegie was held between Vike and McClintock at the Modern Art Set – with original works by local artists (John Women’s Club. The West Australian reported that Lunghi, Harald Vike and Herbert McClintock), and ‘[Vike] did not understand how those who became Melbourne-based artists of Meldrum’s tonalist school completely divorced from the real could have anything (Clarice Beckett, Colin Colahan and Nutter Buzzacott). worthwhile to say. Nevertheless, every artist had the The international prints selected included works by right to express himself in his own way’.30 McClintock, Dufy, Picasso, Braque, Klee, Kokoschka, Marc, John alternatively, suggested that: ‘An artist should be a Nash and Diego Riviera. Though a supporter of the sensitive membrane vibrating to the tune of his own show, Charles Hamilton in The West Australian had time’.31 Clearly this ‘vibration’ did not have to come in to admit that such ‘reproductions necessarily fail to the form of realism, thus echoing international debates convey the full message of their originals’.35 around the value of Social Realism as opposed to the more esoteric and personal imagery of Surrealism. Less than three weeks after the opening of the exhibition war was declared, McClintock left for Sydney Within the circle of the Workers’ Art Guild and the in 1940 and Vike for Melbourne in 1941, and this university there was certainly an understanding of progressive moment was left undeveloped. Though the central issues of contemporary art.32 In 1936, and modernist ideas certainly reached Western Australian over the following years, the Carnegie Foundation shores in the 1930s, their adoption was fitful and made a gift of around 200 books to the university fleeting, occurring with most vigour between 1938 library, together with a set of facsimile reproductions and 1940. Some Western Australian artists did travel of art works (The Carnegie Art Set). Texts included to Europe to further their studies but either they did

33 34 Fig. 28. Kathleen Sauerbier, Ochre Cliffs and Gull Rock, looking south from Maslin, c. 1936, oil on canvas, 65.9 x 58.8 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia, CCWA 674

not return to Perth, or were not inclined to establish article in the Black Swan of 1934 there was recognition alternative art schools once home.36 A key stumbling that Harald Vike was painting a new kind of landscape, block to the continuity and development of progressive his style ‘distinctly refreshing to West Australia’: art was the absence of a private art school akin to the Crowley-Fizelle model in Sydney or the Bell School in He has gone past the usual drab greys of our Melbourne, where modern methods and theory might bush and found niches of brilliant harmony in be taught, and individual creativity encouraged. colour and rhythm. …He has a fine sense of form and knows how to co-orinate [sic] that Without the networks provided by such schools, form into significant design. Reds. [sic] Blues modern art only emerged in Perth in isolated instances and yellows he uses with a bright clear quality in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and only occasionally that is outstanding.37 beyond the circle of the Workers’ Art Guild. One such example is the work of Iris Francis produced around Echoing the theories of Clive Bell, elements of design 1940, when she was experimenting with Cubism. (colour and form) create harmony and rhythm. Yet Francis’ major work, Self-portrait, c. 1940, held in the Vike’s landscapes were post-impressionist and show State Art Collection, demonstrates a familiarity with a strong influence of van Gogh – of works produced the basic tenets of late Cubism (particularly the work in the late nineteenth century, some 40 years earlier. of Picasso and Gleizes of the 1920s and 1930s). The That such an example of time-lag influence still struck painting includes a cello, an artist’s palette and brush, observers as novel indicates the conservative nature and an abstract painting made up of sinuous lines and of landscape imagery ubiquitous in Western Australia blocks of colour. Leisure and domestic items are also at the time. pictured – golf clubs, an electric mixer and pressure cooker. Rather arrestingly, the artist’s eye stares out In Perth, a new conception of the local landscape was from the thumbhole of the palette. found in works of literature, rather than painting, prior to 1938. In Katharine Susannah Prichard’s Intimate It is telling that Cubism, of the type promoted at the Strangers, the central protagonist, Greg, is tormented Crowley-Fizelle studio, did not emerge in Perth, except by nightmarish visions of World War One combat in the experimentation of Francis. Lacking formal while sunbathing at the local beach.38 His wife Elodie tuition in the methods of geometric abstraction, is portrayed as ecstatic in the sun and surf but is also Francis used her skills as a commercial artist, and unsettled by a fear of sharks when swimming in of reproductions, in the creation of this ocean.39 Philip Masel’s In a Glass Prison describes the self-portrait. Though the intersecting planes of Hinder Swan River as deceptively calm, capable of being or Crowley might not be achieved without more ‘galvanized into turbulent activity’.40 In other words, specialised training, this work is nonetheless highly the local landscape was charged with a certain inventive, and particularly in relation to its subject potency – one which might affect those who inhabit it. matter which describes the tension between the private and professional life of the painter. Francis was Of works in Cosmopolitan, Kathleen Sauerbier’s Ochre depicted by her friend Bessie Saunders in Portrait of Cliffs and Gull Rock, looking south from Maslin, c. Iris Francis, c. 1938, (fig. 27). 1936 (fig. 28), presents a powerful South Australian landscape scene using modernist means: the pictorial The advancement of Western Australian modernism space is compressed and there is concentration on was also clearly affected by the predominance of the form of the jagged cliff face; indicate traditional landscape imagery, both in popular formats movement and the force of nature; and a restricted like the newspaper, and in the fine art arena. In an range of colours is used, namely the complementary

35 36 Fig. 29. Elise Blumann, Portrait of Phyllis Krantz, 1939, oil on board, 54 x 49 cm, Collection of the family of Phyllis Krantz

contrast of orange and blue which creates vibrancy. key to the development of her art practice in Australia. In Western Australia this kind of transformation of the She had not to seek new subject matter, for it was land had to wait until the arrival of German émigré visible outside her front door. Elise Blumann in 1938. Blumann’s encounter with the local landscape produced an original vision. Counter The Portrait of Phyllis Krantz, 1939 (fig. 29), held to the process of style being transformed through in a private collection, is one of the earliest works engagement with modern methods in Europe; in the produced in Australia. It shows the sitter set against case of Blumann, it is the physical locality of Western the brilliant blue of the Swan River, staring outwards Australia that transforms style. with a penetrating gaze. Blumann recounts the making of this portrait in a diary entry of 12 May, 1939: Blumann arrived in Perth with her husband and two children in January 1938. She was forty years old, Behind Phil’s [sic] head I painted the had trained at the Royal Art School in Berlin (1917-19) landscape here for the first time…I am and the School of Applied Arts in Hamburg (1919-20), happy with this work, very little colour and and had seen much contemporary art in her travels very clear…expressed with only a few lines… around Europe. Once in Perth, architect Harold Krantz and this is painted exactly the way the was engaged to design a modernist home for the landscape is.42 family, in bushland on the banks of the Swan River. Blumann set up her studio on the first floor with The painting presents bands of colour in flat uninterrupted views of the river. Though she began to brushstrokes indicating land, sea and sky. One year paint there in 1939, her first exhibition in Perth took earlier Blumann had produced Self-portrait, 1937 place in August 1944 at the Newspaper House gallery, (fig. 31), while in England. The basic composition of and under the name of Elise Burleigh. the two portraits is similar with face and upper torso close up against the picture plane, and a landscape After arriving in Perth, and during the war years, background representing the various stretches of land, Blumann interacted with a small circle of artistic sea and sky. And yet key aspects of Blumann’s style are people – dancer Linley Wilson, theatre producer Keith visibly altered in the portrait of Phyllis. George, architect Harold Krantz and his wife Dorothy, Phyllis Krantz, and Ferdinand and Marianne Korwill. In an interview in 1946 Blumann stated that: ‘[in There does not appear to have been any contact Australia] I had to use entirely new brushes, colours between Blumann and other modern artists in Perth, here. Australia is starker, more defined than Europe’.43 though she would certainly have known of their Compared to the English self-portrait, the brushstrokes activity through Keith George, who had been an active in portrait are broader and less varied; member of the Workers’ Art Guild. the palette is saturated and colours striking, eschewing the subdued tones of the English self-portrait. Here, The reasons for her desire for privacy are easy to there is also more attention to decorative detail – in understand: she was not a politically engaged artist the repetition of shapes (the outline of the hat’s veil and so the activities of the Workers’ Art Guild would echoed in the foreground waves and background have held little interest; and there was also a growing clouds); and the finer rendering of the facial features, suspicion of Germans in Australia. Indeed, her in contrast to their increasing simplification in the later husband Arnold was interned at Fremantle Prison for Australian work. Both paintings include a small boat three weeks in June 1940 before being released as ‘a in the background but where, in the earlier work, this friendly alien’.41 Another powerful cause for this relative is rendered with deftly drawn lines, it has become a isolation was her absorption in the natural world, the simple triangular shape in the portrait of Phyllis.

37 38 Image left: Fig. 30. Elise Blumann, Summer nude, 1939, oil on board, 121.5 x 91.5 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Acquired with the assistance of the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council and the Dr Albert Gild Fund, 1976

Image above: Fig. 31. Elise Blumann, Self-portrait, 1937, oil on canvas, 52.5 x 62.5 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia, CCWA 37

These differences are largely the result of Blumann’s Korwill is portrayed leaning with her back against response to ‘the starker, more defined’ landscape of the upstairs balcony at the Blumann home, but the Western Australia – the expansive Swan River as seen presence of the sand dunes and towel suggest that from her studio and the stretch of white sand at the the figure has been transposed to a beach setting. The shoreline. The harsh light and flattening effects of the body in Summer nude is presented as blissful and at sun’s rays are fully explored in Summer nude, 1939 (fig. ease under the heat of the sun. The personal qualities 30), a portrait of Austrian refugee Marianne Korwill, of the sitter, namely her facial features, are deemed who had arrived from Austria, together with her superfluous, subsumed within a more universal theme husband and young daughter, some nine months after – the pleasure and sensation to be found in nature. the Blumanns in September 1938. The two women Korwill had just fled her homeland – knowing this, her developed a strong friendship, and in 1939 Blumann body appears assertive and life affirming – she had wrote: ’[Marianne] has such a fine and astonishingly found safe haven, away from the dark cloud spreading certain sense for drawing and painting – I keep inviting across Europe. her “to finish painting my pictures”. She’s almost always right in her criticism. I love her as a person – The landscape setting connects to the body in a she is a fine gift’.44 That Korwill could ‘finish painting number of ways: the sand dunes almost merge with [Blumann’s] pictures’, suggests an ability to advise at Korwill’s body whose skin tones they resemble; the crucial moments of a painting’s evolution. dark line marking the upper edge of the dune follows the line of her shoulders, again drawing her into nature. The orange beach towel is iridescent in its complementary contrast to the strip of blue ocean in

39 the distance, a necessary foil to Korwill’s pale body, facsimile reproductions of international art, together blanched under the sun’s rays. Light areas of colour on with Australian works. Pastoral House and Blumann’s the figure indicate the effects of harsh sunlight, against studio were separated by only seven kilometres but darker patches, suggestive of shadow. the manner in which the effects of European art were being presented at the group exhibition, and The principles of modernist design were eminently significantly transformed on the banks of the Swan, is suited to the ‘stark’ quality of the Western Australian symbolic of the complex modes of transmission that coast, where the intense light tends to flatten out defined art of the period. In the microcosm of 1930s the forms of the landscape, and where colours Perth we find an example of how global trends might appear more saturated. Blumann captures the interact with regional circumstances, producing a essential quality of this harsh environment through a beguiling variety of works. refinement of elements in the landscape, arranging passages of unmodulated colour, in a limited range, Sally Quin and in vibrant contrast. Curator

Summer nude was made in the same year in which the ‘Modern art’ exhibition at Pastoral House took place, with its valiant attempt to educate the Western Australian public about modern art by means of

Endnotes

1. See Stuart Macintyre, The Reds: The Communist Party of 4. Terry Smith, Transformations in Australian Art: The Twentieth Australia from Origins to Illegality, St. Leonards, N.S.W., Allen & Century – Modernism and Aboriginality, vol 2, Sydney, Craftsman Unwin, 1998, especially pp. 319-328. House, 2002, p. 11.

2. James Gleeson quoted in ‘James Gleeson Biography’, viewed 22 5. Ibid. July 2019, https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/ gleeson-james/ 6. Ibid.

3. The exhibition aims to elucidate key facets of Australian art 7. Ibid., p. 12. of the 1930s in relation to the contents of each collection. 8. Ibid., p. 39. Therefore, discussion of certain themes, and of some significant artists, is not included. All works are by Australian artists 9. Ibid., p. 40. (which may include artists who lived most of their creative lives away from Australia, as well as refugee and émigré artists 10. An example of scholarship that explores the response to newly arrived in Australia). An exception is the inclusion of six modernism of non-western artists and those from minority prints produced in America, the gift of Mrs M.W. Moody to the backgrounds in the West is: Kobema Mercer, ed., Cosmopolitan University of Western Australia Art Collection in 1949. Modernisms, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England, The MIT Press, 2005.

40 11. See Elena Taylor, Grace Crowley: Being Modern, , 29. McClintock had a history of involvement in radical politics, National Gallery of Australia, 2006, p. 11. though in this Surrealist phase he had moved away from direct social protest. In Melbourne in 1930 he and Judah Waten 12. Grace Crowley quoted in ‘Grace Crowley Biography’, viewed 29 published ‘Strife’, a magazine focusing on the struggles of the July 2019, https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/ unemployed. McClintock contributed the graphic content to the crowley-grace/ magazine, which only survived one edition.

13. Gordon Samuel and Nicola Penny, The Cutting Edge of 30. Bromfield, ‘Art and Radical Politics in Perth 1930 to 1940’, in Modernity: Linocuts of the Grosvenor School, Aldershot, Bromfield ed., p. 19. Hampshire, Lund Humphries, 2002, p. 9. 31. Ibid. 14. Rachel Power, Alison Rehfisch, Sydney, The Beagle Press, p. 71. 32. See Sally Quin, Bauhaus on the Swan: Elise Blumann, an émigré 15. Rachel Mustalish, ‘Materials and Techniques of the Grosvenor artist in Western Australia, 1938-1948, Crawley, Western Australia, School Artists’, in Clifford S. Ackley, ed.,British Prints from UWA Publishing, 2015, pp. 51-55. the Machine Age: Rhythms of Modern Life 1914-1939, London, Thames & Hudson, 2008, p. 189. 33. See Alec King, ‘Surrealism mostly for the Bourgeois’, in Black Swan, April, 1937, pp. 5-9. On Hamilton’s writing see Quin, pp. 16. Power, p. 71. 54-55.

17. Mary Cecil Allen quoted in Mary Eagle and Jan Minchin, The Bell 34. Quin, p. 53, and Bromfield, p. 20. School: Students, Friends, Influences, Deutscher Art Publications, Melbourne, Resolution Press, Sydney, 1981, p. 92. 35. Ibid., pp. 53-54.

18. Ibid., p. 40. 36. Hal Missingham studied in Paris and at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London (1926-32), but only returned to Perth 19. See Terry Smith, ‘pictures of, painting as’, in Geoff Levitus, ed., briefly in 1940, before moving to Sydney; Beatrice Darbyshire Lying about the Landscape, Sydney, Craftsman House, 1997, studied at the Royal College of Arts, London (1924-1927), especially pp. 43-51. returning to Perth in 1927. An expert etcher, she did not 20. See Mary Eagle, ‘Russell Drysdale and Peter Purves Smith in the participate in the contemporary art scene some ten years later; 1930s’, in Eagle and Minchin, pp. 96-100. Of Swiss origin, John Lunghi arrived in Perth in 1937 having studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London, and 21. Eagle and Minchin, ‘Introduction’, p. 9. participated in Workers’ Art Guild activities with Vike and McClintock, though little is known about this artist; Kathleen 22. See Smith, Transformations in Australian Art: The Twentieth O’Connor spent most of the 1920s and 1930s in Paris, and so her Century – Modernism and Aboriginality, p. 40. impact on the Western Australian art scene was negligible.

23. Yvonne Atkinson quoted in Eagle and Minchin, p. 176. 37. ‘Harold [sic] Vike: An Appreciation’, in Black Swan, August, 1934, 24. ‘Editorial’ in Black Swan (Journal of the Guild of Undergraduates no author, pp. 73-74. of the University of Western Australia), April, 1937, unpaginated. 38. Katharine Susannah Prichard, Intimate Strangers, Sydney, The editorial board was Gabriel Parry, Noel Henderson, Alec Angus & Robertson, 1976 (1937), p. 24. King, David Fienberg, and Charles Hosking. 39. Ibid., p. 164. 25. ‘Editorial’ in Black Swan, April, 1938, unpaginated. The editorial board was Gabriel Parry, John Fewings, Winifred Henderson, 40. Philip Masel, In a Glass Prison, London, Thomas Nelson & Sons, Donald Thomas, Neil O’Connor, and Gresley Clarkson. 1937, p. 227.

26. Tom Stannage, Embellishing the Landscape: The Images of 41. Quin, p. 67. Amy Heap and Fred Flood 1920-1940, Fremantle, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1990, p. 18. On the predominance of the 42. Ibid., p. 29. For an expanded analysis of these early portraits see landscape tradition in painting in Western Australia see also pp. 28-44. Janda Gooding, Western Australian Art and Artists 1900-1950, 43. Ibid., p. 39. Perth, Art Gallery of Western Australia, 1987. 44. Ibid. 27. Stannage, p. 20.

28. Robyn Taylor, ‘Images of Modernity in Perth’s Architecture during the 1930s’, in David Bromfield ed.,Aspects of Perth Modernism 1929-1942, Crawley, Centre for Fine Arts, UWA, 1986, p. 28. This volume presents pioneering research on art of the 1930s in Perth.

41 List of works

Yvonne Atkinson, Fisherwoman with cat, 1937, oil on board, 49.7 x 38.5 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia, CCWA 257

Clarice Beckett, Evening on the Yarra, c. 1930, oil on paperboard, 32.2 x 49.5 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Gift of Mrs M.W. Moody in memory of Thomas and Henry Ingram Moody, 1949

George Bell, Portrait, c. 1930, oil on linen, 61.2 x 46.2 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Gift of Mrs M.W. Moody in memory of Thomas and Henry Ingram Moody, 1949

Portia Bennett, Lawson Flats, Riverside Drive, c. 1936, watercolour, 37 x 27.5 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, University Senate Grant, 1991

Dorrit Black, Landscape, Noarlunga, c. 1937, watercolour, 23.8 x 29.7 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, University Senate Grant, 1984

Dorrit Black, The rubbish destructor, c. 1937, watercolour, 41.6 x 49.3 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, University Senate Grant, 1984

Elise Blumann, Self-portrait, 1937, oil on canvas, 52.5 x 62.5 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia, CCWA 37

Elise Blumann, Study for nude, 1939, pencil, 25.4 x 19.8 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Australian Art Acquisition Fund, 1991

Elise Blumann, Summer nude, 1939, oil on board, 121.5 x 91.5 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Acquired with the assistance of the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council and the Dr Albert Gild Fund, 1976

Lina Bryans, Old and new Melbourne, 1937, oil on board, 67.5 x 53 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia, CCWA 703

Lina Bryans, Philip Maria (Philip Freedman), 1939, oil on board, 47.3 x 42.7 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia, CCWA 296

Ethel Carrick Fox, Nasturtiums, c. 1933, oil on canvas, 45.2 x 38.3 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Gift of Mr and Mrs Zygmunt Horawicz, 1989

Federico Castellon, The Gordian knot, 1936, lithograph, 24.2 x 37 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Gift of Mrs M.W. Moody in memory of Thomas and Henry Ingram Moody, 1949

42 Mary Cecil Allen, Folly Cove, 1935, thinned oil on paper, Margaret Francis, Lady with a green face, 1939, oil on cardboard, 38 x 51 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of 153 x 40 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University Western Australia, CCWA 262 of Western Australia, CCWA 311

Sybil Craig, Cyclamen, 1932, oil on canvas board, 37.5 x 29.6 cm, Wanda Gág, Ploughed fields, 1936, lithograph, 24.1 x 30.3 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western The University of Western Australia Art Collection, 1987 Australia, CCWA 242 James Gleeson, The three dancers, 1938, oil on canvas on board, Peggy Crombie, Still Life (Flowers), 1935, oil on canvas on board, 37 x 39 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, 38.7 x 41.7 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The Ruby Rose Maller Fine Arts Acquisition Fund, 1997 The University of Western Australia, CCWA 265 James Gleeson, Madonna and child, 1939, oil on canvas on Grace Crowley, Standing nude, n.d., pencil, 34.4 x 27 cm, composition board, 50.5 x 36.5 cm, The University of Western The University of Western Australia Art Collection, University Australia Art Collection, Gift of Sir James and Lady Cruthers, Senate Grant, 1982 2004

Beatrice Darbyshire, Mrs Whitfeld’s dog, n.d., etching, Oswald Hall, Street singer, Markets, 1935, linocut, 20 x 25.4 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, 20.7 x 11.5 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, 1949 Sir Claude Hotchin Art Foundation, 1990

Bessie Davidson, Guethary ll, c. 1940, oil on plywood, Frank Hinder, The Strath leaving the quay, 1938, watercolour 47.7 x 48 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm, The University of Western University Senate Grant, 1983 Australia Art Collection, University Senate Grant, 1980

Bessie Davidson, Seascape and coastal trees near Guethary, n.d., Nora Heysen, Ruth with a blue background, 1933, oil on canvas, oil on board, 45 x 54.9 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, 75 x 60 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of The University of Western Australia, CCWA 230 Western Australia, CCWA 690

Ian Fairweather, Mother and child, 1935, oil and pencil on paper Nora Heysen, Self-portrait, 1939, oil on canvas on board, on hardboard, 62.5 x 50 cm, The University of Western Australia 39.5 x 29.6 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The Art Collection, The Joe and Rose Skinner Bequest, 1978 University of Western Australia, CCWA 692

Ian Fairweather, Tethered horses outside gate, Peking, 1936, Rockwell Kent, And now where?, 1936, lithograph, 33.4 x 24 cm, oil on paper on cardboard, 76.5 x 77.5 cm, The University of The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Gift of Mrs M.W. Western Australia Art Collection, The Joe and Rose Skinner Moody in memory of Thomas and Henry Ingram Moody, 1949 Bequest, 1978 John Marin, Sailboat, 1932, drypoint, The University of Western Ian Fairweather, Houseyard, Peking, 1935, oil and pencil on Australia Art Collection, 1949 paper on hardboard, 55.5 x 56 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, The Joe and Rose Skinner Bequest, 1978 Reginald Marsh, Coney Island, c. 1935, etching, 37 x 51 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Gift of Mrs M.W. Ian Fairweather, Landscape with mountains, 1936, oil and pencil Moody in memory of Thomas and Henry Ingram Moody, 1949 on paper on cardboard, 49 x 55.5 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, The Joe and Rose Skinner Bequest, 1978 Herbert McClintock (Max Ebert), Portrait of Arthur Cross, 1934, pencil on cardboard, 37.7 x 30.2 cm, The University of Western Alma Figuerola, Miss Carmen Figuerola, c. 1930s, oil on Australia Art Collection, Gift of Mrs Delys Cross, 1993 canvasboard, 47 x 37 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia, CCWA 740 Herbert McClintock (Max Ebert), The recital, c. 1938, pen and ink and pencil, 30 x 23.5 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Rah Fizelle, Reclining nude, n.d., pencil on paper, 55 x 76 cm, Collection, McGillivray Bequest Fund, 1988 The University of Western Australia Art Collection, McGillivray Bequest Fund, 1982 Frank Mechau, Wild horses, 1936, lithograph, 15.6 x 35 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, 1987

43 Maisie Newbold, Portrait of lady with a coloured scarf, c. 1937, oil Kathleen Sauerbier, Thomas Martin’s farm and harbourmaster’s on canvas, 60.5 x 46.4 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, cottage, 1936, oil on canvas, 61 x 66 cm, Cruthers Collection of The University of Western Australia, CCWA 701 Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia, CCWA 717

Sidney Nolan, Bars, c. 1938, oil and monotype on blotting paper, Bessie Saunders, Self-portrait, 1934-35, watercolour, 33 x 25 cm, 25 x 38.8 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Gift of Phillip Gift of Mr Joseph Brown, 1980 Cook, 2005

Helen Ogilvie, Bookplate for Germaine, n.d., process print from Bessie Saunders, Portrait of Iris Francis, c. 1938, watercolour, linocut by the artist, 9.2 x 6.9 cm, The University of Western 29 x 24 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University Australia Art Collection, Gift of Mr Jeremy De Rozario, 2001 of Western Australia, CCWA 889

John Oldham, The Gledden Building, 1936, watercolour, Ethel Spowers, Harvest, 1932, linocut, 19.3 x 29.1 cm, The 59.5 x 39 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, University of Western Australia Art Collection, University Senate Gift of Oldham, Boas, Ednie Brown Architects, 1937 Grant, 1982

Desiderius Orban, Studio window, Circular Quay, c. 1940, oil on Helen Stewart, Tulips in a vase, c. 1934, oil on canvas, linen canvas, 72.2 x 61.5 cm, The University of Western Australia 66.4 x 51.5 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The Art Collection, University Senate Grant, 1977 University of Western Australia, CCWA 678

Ethleen Palmer, Palm leaves & shadows, 1939, linocut, Eveline Syme, The kitchen sink, c. 1930s, pastel, 25.5 x 32.5 cm, 32 x 26.5 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western of Western Australia, CCWA 133 Australia, CCWA 412

Adelaide Perry, Woman pilot, 1931, oil on composition board, Eveline Syme, Head of a woman, n.d., oil on board, 34 x 28 cm, 49.5 x 39.3 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western McGillivray Bequest Fund, 1983 Australia, Gift of the Estate of Beverly Brown, CCWA 954

Margaret Preston, Magnolia, c. 1937, linocut, 28.6 x 28.8 cm, The Eric Thake, Bookplate for Jean Daley, 1930, metalcut, University of Western Australia Art Collection, University Senate 9.2 x 6 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Grant, 1982 Gift of Mr Jeremy De Rozario, 2001

Thea Proctor, Bonnets, shawls and elegant parasols, c. 1938, Eric Thake, Bookplate (initials E.A.T. forming padlock design), woodcut #24, 27 x 23.5 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, 1931, woodcut, 7.3 x 4.9 cm, The University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia, CCWA 221 Art Collection, Gift of Mr Jeremy De Rozario, 2001

Peter Purves Smith, Sketch for New York, c. 1936, watercolour Eric Thake, Bookplate for E. L. Thompson ( holding sail and pencil, 53 x 35.4 cm, The University of Western Australia Art boat), 1932, woodcut, 7.5 x 5 cm, The University of Western Collection, Dr Albert Gild Fund, 1981 Australia Art Collection, Gift of Mr Jeremy De Rozario, 2001

Alison Rehfisch,White tulips, 1936, oil on hessian on canvas, Eric Thake, Bookplate for V. S. Hewett, 1932, wood-engraving, 51.2 x 41 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, 8.2 x 6.1 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, University Senate Grant, 1984 Gift of Mr Jeremy De Rozario, 2001

Alison Rehfisch,Autumn bunch, c. 1933-34, oil on artist’s board, Eric Thake, Bookplate for P. Neville Barnett, 1932, wood- 32 x 36 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of engraving, 8 x 5.9 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Western Australia, CCWA 148 Collection, Gift of Mr Jeremy De Rozario, 2001

Kathleen Sauerbier, Ochre Cliffs and Gull Rock, looking south from Eric Thake, Bookplate for William Morrow, 1933, woodcut, Maslin, c. 1936, oil on canvas, 65.9 x 58.8 cm, Cruthers Collection 6.4 x 5 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia, CCWA 674 Gift of Mr Jeremy De Rozario, 2001

44 Eric Thake, Bookplate for Dorothy Dennett (geometric bird All artworks © The Artist’s Estate, apart from: design), 1934, woodcut, 6.7 x 5.8 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Gift of Mr Jeremy De Rozario, 2001 Fig. 3. James Gleeson, Madonna and child, 1939, oil on canvas on composition board, 50.5 x 36.5 cm, The University Danila Vassilieff,In the park, n.d., oil on canvas mounted on of Western Australia Art Collection, Gift of Sir James and composition board, 30 x 35.5 cm, The University of Western Lady Cruthers, 2004 © Gleeson/O’Keefe Foundation Australia Art Collection, Dr Albert Gild Fund, 1976 Fig. 4. James Gleeson, The three dancers, 1938, oil on canvas Harald Vike, Perth, 1937, ink and saxophone reed, 24 x 34.5 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Gift of Mr on board, 37 x 39 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Arthur Spartalis, 1988 Collection, The Ruby Rose Maller Fine Arts Acquisition Fund, 1997 © Gleeson/O’Keefe Foundation Harald Vike, In the Reading Room, Perth Library, 1937, oil on canvas on cardboard, 30.3 x 25.3 cm, The University of Western Fig. 9. Margaret Preston, Magnolia, c. 1937, linocut, Australia Art Collection, McGillivray and Sir Claude Hotchin 28.6 x 28.8 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Bequest Funds, 1986 Collection, University Senate Grant, 1982 © Margaret Preston/Copyright Agency, 2019 Harald Vike, Reader (Perth Library), c. 1937, oil on canvas on board, 26 x 21 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, University Senate Grant, 2013 Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. Harald Vike, Reader, Perth Library, 1937, pencil, 32.3 x 25.2 cm, The publisher apologises for any errors or omissions and The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Gift of Dr and would be grateful for notification of any corrections. Mrs R.K. Constable, 1985

Harald Vike, Self-portrait, 1938, pen, ink and pencil, 36 x 27.2 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, All photography Robert Frith / Acorn Photo Agency, apart Gift of Mr Arthur Spartalis, 1988 from: Figs 12, 16, 17, 21, 23, 25; and Fig. 20. Alma Figuerola, Miss Carmen Figuerola, Photo: Tony Nathan; Fig. 28. Roland Wakelin, Sketch of harbour, c. 1930s, watercolour and Kathleen Sauerbier, Cliffs and Gull Rock, looking south from pencil, 24 x 36.5 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Maslin, Photo: Jenni Carter; Fig. 29. Elise Blumann, Portrait Collection, University Senate Grant, 1982 of Phyllis Krantz, Photo: Mim Stirling.

45 Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the copyright holders of artists in the exhibition: Luise Andrewartha, Rowan Barker, Jenifer Beaty, Nils Blumann, James Bryans, Paul Bryans, Phillip Cook, Jo Daniell, Gleeson/O’Keefe Foundation, Enid Hawkins, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Belinda Henry, Barbara Keating, Gail Kimber, Lou Klepac, Nancy Mearns, Kevin Power, Angela Sturdy. For assistance with enquiries I am grateful to Jeni Cross, Chris McAuliffe, Bridget McDonnell Gallery, and Peter Perry.

I would like to acknowledge the work of all staff at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery and, in particular, Ted Snell, Chief Cultural Officer/Director, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery for his support of the project; and Kate Hamersley, Registrar, UWA Collections, for her guidance in relation to both logistical and aesthetic matters. I am grateful to Gemma Weston, Curator, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, for her advice and support throughout the development of the exhibition.

Sally Quin Curator The University of Western Australia Art Collection

Image right: Clarice Beckett, Evening on the Yarra (detail), c. 1930, oil on paperboard, 32.2 x 49.5 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Gift of Mrs M.W. Moody in memory of Thomas and Henry Ingram Moody, 1949

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