A trip to Geelong with Ballarat Arts Alive

Last Saturday’s bus trip to Geelong, organised by local group Ballarat Arts Alive, was so engrossing, I completely forgot to take any photos. These shots of me talking about two of my early linocuts in the permanent collection of Geelong Gallery* were snapped by Shane Jones towards the end of a jam-packed day.

L-R: Deborah Klein, Jazz Age Memories and Sunny Sunday Afternoon, 1985, linocuts. 

Collection: Geelong Gallery.

As I mentioned to the group, the 1920s wind-up gramophone, record cabinet, Art Deco clock and vase depicted in Jazz Age Memories (LHS above), are still in my possession. They are an important part of my history and are therefore much treasured. All were purchased very cheaply at various London antique markets when I lived there in the 1970s. For the purpose of this post, the original position of the ceramic pieces is recreated below. Nowadays, however, they reside in a locked display cabinet, safe from any unwanted attention - and inevitable carnage - from our resident feline, the notorious Alice.

Saturday’s extensive tour also included visits to the new premises of Boom Gallery, with terrifically informative artist talks by current exhibiting artists Anita Iocovella and Ellie Malin, and, directly after our lunch break, to the headquarters of internationally renowned company, Back to Back Theatre.  

Warmest thanks to the Ballarat Arts Alive team for a truly memorable day.

*The linocuts are part of the current exhibition, The O’Donohue and Kiss Gift, which finishes on 28 July. For further information about these and other works in the exhibition, visit my Blog Post of 26 June, The past made present, HERE.

The past made present

It has been many years since I’ve seen these early linocuts, two of the first works I made after graduating from art school in 1984.

The work on my left is titled Jazz Age Memories (1985) in homage, if I remember correctly, to the writings, lives and times of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Fitzgerald. (The former has long been one of my favourite authors and both, particularly the latter, would have a direct impact on several future works including this one). I still have the 1920s wind-up gramophone and art deco clock and vase, all of them purchased in London, my home for most of the 1970s. 

The basis for the title of the second linocut, Sunny Sunday Afternoon, (1985), is The Kinks song, Sunday Afternoon by Ray Davies, for no other reason than I’ve always loved it. I seem to recall that it was on constant replay in my head when I made the work. 

Both prints represent interiors of the rented house in East St Kilda where I was living at the time and were transcribed from detailed charcoal drawings made from life. 

Half a lifetime later, the linocuts are on view at Geelong Gallery, as part of The O’Donohue and Kiss Gift. Reconnecting with them has brought back a flood of memories, thus this little trip down memory lane. 

The works in the exhibition are selected from two major gifts to the gallery by collectors Rosemarie Kiss and the late Conrad O'Donohue in 2010 and 2019. Also included are prints by Australian artists Rick Amor, Grahame King, Katherine Hattam, Helen Ogilvie and John Ryrie, British artists Thomas Rowlandson and George Cruikshank, French artist Gustave Doré, Spanish artist Francisco Goya and American artists James McNeill Whistler and Philip Pearlstein, among many others.

The O’Donohue and Kiss Gift at Geelong Gallery continues to 28 July. 

Cutting through time

A belated post on last Friday’s memorable visit to Cutting Through Time: Cressida Campbell, Margaret Preston, and the Japanese Print at Geelong Gallery. In conversation before a packed audience, Senior Curator Lisa Sullivan and Roger Butler, Emeritus Curator of Australian Prints and Drawings at the National Gallery of Australia, discussed the prints of Margaret Preston and the influence of Japanese prints on her work. Roger wrote the catalogue raisonné on Preston’s prints (1987, revised 2005) and his knowledge of, and contribution to, Australian printmaking is immeasurable.

I first met Roger in the mid 1980s when I was the Administrative Assistant at the Print Council of Australia, so we go back a long way. But long before we met, Roger had already had a profound influence on my life, because he also wrote the catalogue essay for the Art Gallery of Ballarat publication Melbourne Linocuts and Woodcuts of the 1920s and 1930s (1981). As art school undergraduates, we were given very little instruction on relief printmaking and I taught myself to make linocuts primarily through studying examples in the catalogue. It was my bible, and even now, it’s never far from my sight. 

Roger served as president of the PCA from 1986-1990 and was editor of their quarterly journal IMPRINT from 1987-95. It’s always such a delight to catch up with him, although nowadays it doesn’t happen often enough.

Currently Geelong Gallery is printmaking nirvana, with three major exhibitions focusing on prints. Aside from Cutting Through Time, there is The O’Donohue and Kiss Gift (which will feature in my next post), and Dianne Fogwell’s epic multi-layered, multi-panelled relief print installation, Prescience, part of which is pictured below.

The exhibitions all run to 28 July and really need to be seen in the flesh. They shouldn’t be missed. 

Photo credit top image: Kate Gorringe-Smith.

Images 2-6: Margaret Preston: Installation view, Anemones, 1925, Fuchsia and balsam, 1928, Protea, 1925, Flannel flowers, 1929. (Hand-coloured woodcuts). 

Images 7-8: Cressida Campbell: Journey around my room, 2019 and Interior with Chinese Lantern, 2018. (Painted woodblocks). 

Images 9-10: Dianne Fogwell, Prescience (Multi-panelled relief print. Installation views).

Jazz age memories

I’m delighted to learn that two of my early, rarely seen relief prints, Jazz age memories and Sunny Sunday afternoon (not pictured), both 1985, are now part of the permanent collection at Geelong Gallery, thanks to the generosity of donors Conrad O'Donohue and Rosemarie Kiss.

Both works were made shortly after I graduated from art school and are a continuation and development of the still lifes and interiors on which I was primarily focused in my final year of undergraduate study. The subject matter was drawn from my immediate surroundings. When I began the series, I was living in an early 1940s apartment in Westbury Street, St Kilda East. 

As shown in the following photos, snapped in the living room of our house in Ballarat, the Art Deco clock and vase, together with the wind-up gramophone and record cabinet are still treasured possessions. All were purchased in London, where I was based for most of the 1970s - the clock, vase and gramophone cabinet at Portobello Road Market and the gramophone at an antiques fair in Alexandra Palace. I remember the gramophone came complete with a scratchy 78 rpm record on the turntable - Mel Torme’s classic recording of Rodgers and Hart’s Mountain Greenery, which I love to this day. I wouldn’t have paid more than a few pounds for any of these objects, but purely for the precious memories they hold, each and every one is priceless. 

The two ceramic sculptures seen in the preceding three photos are by Melbourne-based artist, David Pearson. Aside from a fragmentary view of Untitled 17, Shane Jones’s surrealist  glove painting directly above, top right, remaining artworks are by me. Click on images for a clearer view.

Pictured top: Deborah Klein, Jazz age memories, 1985, linocut on handmade paper; edition 4/25. Geelong Gallery, Gift of Conrad O’Donohue and Rosemarie Kiss, 2010. © Courtesy of the artist.