Bold Impressions: A Comparative Analysis of Artist Prints and Print Collecting at the Imperial War Museum and Australian War Memorial Alexandra Fae Walton A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the Australian National University, June 2017. © Copyright by Alexandra Fae Walton, 2017 DECLARATION PAGE I declare that this thesis has been composed solely by myself and that it has not been submitted, in whole or in part, in any previous application for a degree. Except where stated otherwise by reference or acknowledgement, the work presented is entirely my own. Acknowledgements I was inspired to write about the two print collections while working in the Art Section at the Australian War Memorial. The many striking and varied prints in that collection made me wonder about their place in that museum – it being such a special yet conservative institution in the minds of many Australians. The prints themselves always sustained my interest in the topic, but I was also fortunate to have guidance and assistance from a number of people during my research, and to make new friends. Firstly, I would like to say thank you to my supervisors: Dr Peter Londey who gave such helpful advice on all my chapters, and who saw me through the final year of the PhD; Dr Kylie Message who guided and supported me for the bulk of the project; Dr Caroline Turner who gave excellent feedback on chapters and my final oral presentation; and also Dr Sarah Scott and Roger Butler who gave good advice from a prints perspective. Thank you to Professor Joan Beaumont, Professor Helen Ennis and Professor Diane Davis from the Australian National University (ANU) for making the time to discuss my thesis with me, and for their advice. Thank you also to Lan Tran for her expert guidance in navigating the PhD administrative processes. My thesis was greatly enhanced by the interviews that I was kindly granted by: Dr Anna Gray, Lola Wilkins, Professor Peter Stanley, Ryan Johnston, Warwick Heywood, Laura Webster and Jon Cattapan in Australia. And Diane Lees, Angela Weight, Kathleen Palmer, Richard Slocombe, Sara Bevan, Jenny Wood and the late Roger Tolson in the UK. I was very sad to hear of Roger Tolson’s passing, and glad that his good work lives on at the Imperial War Museum (IWM). Thanks go to all of the interviewees for their generosity with their time, their insightful comments, and their support. The two war museums were very generous in allowing me to conduct my research there, sometimes in ‘behind the scenes’ staff areas. At the Memorial I would like to thank all the staff of the Art Section, and particularly Alex Torrens and Margaret Beadman who helped me access some of the internal files. At the IWM I would like to thank all my art curator colleagues, past and present, including Claire Brenard for help finding past annual reports. Thank you also to Sarah Henning for helping me access other Museum archival records. I am also grateful to the IWM for allowing me to take periods of study leave from work in the final months of the PhD. Friends at the Research School of Humanities and the Arts and the School of Art History and Theory at the Australian National University made the PhD journey such a great experience. Thank you for the chats, laughs, lunches, and hot pot dinners: Veronica Bullock, Kathy Chen, Tzu-Yu Chiu, Jennifer Clynk, Megan Deas Faulkner, Cut Dewi, Judith Downey, Ian Edelstein, Martha Kinsman, Laura Parker, Kaaren Sephton, Jane Smyth, Rouran Zhang and Margaret Prescott. A special thank you to Alastair MacLachlan and those from the chapter writing workshop who read and commented on some of my chapters. The ANU provided support in a myriad of ways, including granting me a Vice Chancellor’s Travel Award that allowed me to research in the UK. Thank you to Inger Mewburn, the thesis whisperer, and the organisers of the Thesis Boot Camp. Thank you also to my friends and history peers, Dr Emily Robertson and Dr Meggie Hutchison who organised the Art, War and Truth conference in 2014. I would also like to gratefully acknowledge the funding I received towards my PhD in the form of an Australian Postgraduate Award. Finally, I would like to thank my dear friends and family for always uplifting me and supporting me. In particular, Robyn Kahonde, Rachel Allen, Lizzie Hayes and Christine Walton patiently listened to a lot of thesis chat. Marie and Ken Devlin hosted me at their home for three months when I returned from fieldwork. Bill Walton read and commented on some of my chapters – thank you Dad. The biggest thank you to my partner in love and life, Alan Devlin, for emotionally, financially and practically supporting me for so many years through the PhD. Abstract This thesis examines the historical development of the artist print collections of the Imperial War Museum and Australian War Memorial, and analyses the relationship of these collections to their institutions. Printmaking is an artistic medium that has historically been used by artists for social critique, and many high quality works of this type are present in the two collections. I argue that in both museums, when developing the print collections, curators were able to acquire beyond the strict interpretation of the museums’ collecting guidelines. As a result of this, the prints have challenged some of the more conservative underlying messages of the museums. National war museums are ideal for a study of contested histories, particularly those within their own collections, and the IWM and AWM are prominent institutions in this specialist category of museums. My hypothesis is that prints can destabilize the histories that war museums wish to present due to their historical use by artists for a variety of purposes that are somewhat unique to the medium. This is driven by the materiality of the print. This study also analyses how museum structures and internal cultures affected the development of the print collections. In particular, I have tried to answer the questions: What factors influenced the development of the print collections? And how did the professional agendas of curators inform that development? Print collecting flourished at key points in the histories of the institutions, particularly when fine art specialists were in charge of acquisitions. While print collecting broadly reflected the aims of the institutions at different times, on occasion it introduced divergent narratives into the war museums. This thesis is interdisciplinary in the way it uses a history methodology and museum studies framework. The historical research methods employed include archival research and semi- structured interviews with selected former and current museum staff. My research will add to academic and curatorial knowledge about how collections are formed in large national museums, and analyse the role and significance of two collections that have not previously been thoroughly examined. The thesis places the curator as the creator of the collection, not merely as someone who carries out instructions from management, but who negotiates between the institutional forces, social forces and the nature of the objects, to ultimately shape the collection. Table of Contents List of Abbreviations 1 Note on References 3 Introduction 4 Research design 6 Rationale for Case Studies 7 Background and Literature 8 The War Museums 8 Prints in the Context of War Art 16 The Role of the Curator 24 Methodology 30 Thesis Structure 34 1. Background to the IWM and AWM 38 The founding of the IWM in 1917 and early years: a government institution 38 Devised from within the Australian Army: the founding of the AWM 45 The war museums in the modern era: governance and underlying messages 51 The IWM Board of Trustees and the AWM Council 52 The gallery layouts of the AWM and IWM 53 Commemoration at the war museums 55 Visitors to the war museums 63 Art in the war museums 65 The role of art objects in war museums 65 2. Printmaking and the print collections 72 Artist prints 72 Definitions and technical processes 72 Why artists maKe prints 74 The social historical and art historical aspects of printmaking 77 The IWM and AWM print collections 80 Scope of the IWM and AWM collections 80 Characteristics of the print collections and reasons for collecting 83 Parameters of the collections and the study 89 3. IWM print collecting in the First and Second World Wars 92 IWM collecting of print folios and ‘eye-witness’ accounts from 1917 93 The DoI and transference of the MoI collection in 1918: persuasive propaganda 97 Britain’s Efforts and Ideals: national pride and commercial venture 101 Nevinson and Nash: British artists at the front 106 The collections unite: the foundation of the IWM print collection 111 The MoI and IWM: merging staff and merging ideologies 114 The difference in the Second World War scheme: official print commissions 119 The prints of the War Artists Advisory Committee 123 Allocating works and the end of the War Artists Advisory Committee 126 4. The Art Department under Joseph Darracott: print collecting at the IWM in the 1970s 130 The effect of staff professionalization on print collecting 132 Collecting known artists from the world wars 138 Broader collecting and international artists 143 Collecting new voices: new narratives 148 Print collecting as part of wider changes at the IWM 151 5. The curator’s vision: print collecting at the IWM from 1980 to 2014 154 The Art Department under Angela Weight 155 Social change and print acquisitions in the 1990s and early 2000s 163 Collecting historical prints 170 The Art Section from 2005-2014 174 Collecting prints for a complex museum 179 6.