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Thursday, March 31, 2016

A visit to Canberra

Shane and I spent most of the Easter break in Canberra. The primary focus of our stay was an exhibition of 130 works by renowned Australian painter Tom Roberts, mounted by the National Gallery of Australia. One of this country’s finest artists, Roberts (1856-1931) was a member of the legendary group of Australian Impressionists known as the Heidelberg School.

The show opened in early December and attracted record-breaking visitor numbers throughout its run. It ended on Easter Monday, but numerous works can still be viewed on the NGA website. To access the works, which are divided into key periods, go HERE and click on Gallery.

Pictured below is one of Roberts's most iconic works, Shearing the Rams, 1890, oil on canvas on composition board, 122.4 x 183.3 cm. Collection: National Gallery of Victoria:

The NGA’s extensive permanent collection was an added bonus. The following is a random, eclectic selection - a mere smidgen of the gallery's myriad treasures.

A work that never fails to enchant is Heri Dono’s Flying angels, 2006, polyester resin, clock parts, electronic components, paint, wood, cotton gauze:

Details of Flying Angels:


Catching an angel's shadow (photograph by Shane Jones):

Walking David Hockney’s A Bigger Grand Canyon, 1998, oil on 60 canvases (20.7 m 7.44 m overall). Photo by Shane Jones:

Below: plunging into Hockney’s A Diver, 1978 (AKA A Diver, Paper Pool 17) paper pulp (12 panels) Sheets: 91.4 x 71.1 cm; Overall: 182.8 x 434.3 cm. Photo credit: Shane Jones.

We were delighted to see so many of Hockney’s works on display. Below, Shane views An image of Gregory, 1984-86 and Caribbean tea time, 1987. To his left is Roy Lichtenstein’s Nude with blue hair from the Nudes series, 1994:

Three works by David Hockney. Left: An image of Gregory, 1984-86, from the Moving focus series, lithograph, screenprint, collage, hand painted frame. Right: Caribbean tea time, 1987, folding screen from the Moving focus series 1984-87, lithograph, screen print, stencil, collage, paint, plastic and wood. Right: An image of Celia, 1984-86, from the Moving focus series, lithograph, screenprint, collage, hand painted frame:

An artist I’ve long admired is Annette Messager. This is Mes voeux (My vows) 1989, gelatin silver photographs, coloured pencil on paper, string. The images of body fragments reference ex-votive offerings:

Another commanding lense-based work is Christian Boltanski’s haunting Pourim reserve, 1989, gelatin silver photographs, tin biscuit boxes, wall lights:

Like Heri Dono, Tina Modotti recognises the power of puppetry as a conveyer of social and political narratives. Pictured below is her Hands of marionette player, Mexico, 1926, gelatin silver photograph:

Unknown artist: Comb (Kerem Seker) c. 19th century, from the Torres Strait Islands, Queensland:

Yessie Mosby, Kulkalgal Ya people: Dhoeri (Initiate) Masig (Yorke Island) Torres Strait Islands, Queensland. (2010, bamboo cane, twine, natural earth pigment, goose, cockatoo and cassowary feathers):

Yessie Mosby, Kulkalgal Ya people: Dhoeri (Priest) Masig (Yorke Island) Torres Strait Islands, Queensland. (2010, bamboo cane, twine, natural earth pigment, goose, cockatoo and cassowary feathers):

The NGA’s Pacific art collection mainly comes from Melanesia (New Guinea, Vanuatu New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands). The objects in the space below are of deep cultural significance. Many contain ancestors and bush spirits and once provided a magical connection between the living and the dead.

Viewed from above, Shane studies the intricately carved Ancestor pole (bisj) c. 1960s, wood, ochres and bast, originating from the Omandesep, Asmat people of Papua, Indonesia (foreground right):

Friday, March 25, 2016

Easter Greetings

An Easter egg from Deborah Klein's Art Blog


Happy Easter, everyone.
Deborah

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Recalling MODERN MYTH

As recent visitors to this blog will be aware, several of my Homo-insecta watercolours were lately part of the group exhibition Modern Myth at Counihan Gallery In Brunswick, which ran from 5 February - 6 March. Its visionary curator was Dominica Vavala, who was also a participating artist.

At Domenica’s behest, photographer Tim Gresham took a number of installation views; however, I’ve only recently got around to collecting them from him. Although it’s somewhat after the event, I’m posting a selection of them now, mainly for the benefit of those who couldn’t make the show, but also as a personal memento of an exhibiting experience I'll always look back on with unreserved pleasure.

To learn more about the works reproduced below, I recommend the wonderful opening address by Modern Myth artist Jazmina Cininas which was reproduced in my Blog Post Modern Myth Floor Talks on Wednesday, February 17. To read it, click HERE and scroll down.

Left-right: works by Carmel Seymour, Dear Plastic and Deborah Klein

L-R (background): works by Deborah Klein, Linda Studená, Carmel Seymour;
Centre foreground: works by Dear Plastic

Left: works by Linda Studená; right: works by Minela Krupić

Background left: works by Carmel Seymour and Dear Plastic;
Background right: works by Deborah Klein and Linda Studená;
Left partition: works by Paul Compton; right foreground work by Annette Phillips

Right: works by Domenica Vavala; far left: work by Eddy Carroll 

Left-right; works by Eddy Carroll, Annette Phillips, Paul Compton and Deborah Klein

L-R: works by Eddy Carroll

L-R: works by Jazmina Caninas, Domenica Vavala and (foreground right): Annette Phillips

Foreground right: works by Jazmina Cininas and Alesh Macak

Left wall: works by Deborah Klein, Linda Studená; far wall: Minela Krupić; right: Dear Plastic

Left: Minela Krupić; Centre: Jazmina Cininas: Right: Domenica Vavala: Foreground right: Annette Phillips

Domenica Vavala and Jazmina Cininas

Eddy Carroll

Paul Compton

Deborah Klein

Minela Krupić

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

A visit to Mulberry Hill

Last Sunday Shane Jones, Paul Compton, Bev Murray (L-R) and I paid our first ever visit to Mulberry Hill in Langwarrin South. A National Trust property, it is the former home of Sir Daryl Lindsay and Lady Joan Lindsay; the latter is best known for her novel Picnic at Hanging Rock.

We received a warm welcome from curator/caretaker Cara-Ann Simpson and her dog, Sebastian (pictured below, far right). In recent months Cara curated the exhibition Return to Hanging Rock in celebration of 40 years of Picnic at Hanging Rock. Paul, Shane and I all have works in the show.



Mulberry Hill from the front:

Below, L-R: Mulberry Hill visitor, Shane Jones and Cara-Ann Simpson

Mulberry Hill is very much as its former owners left it. We were enchanted at the way our works and those by other invited artists, including Danie Mellor, Sharon Blance, Julia de Ville, Leslie Rice, John Dyer Baizley, Robyn Rich and Malte Wagenfeld, were so seamlessly and imaginatively integrated with the rich and fascinating permanent collection.

The house and grounds are currently open on weekends between 11 am – 3.30 pm. Return to Hanging Rock runs until 27 March.

The following snapshots don't cover every part of the house, but will hopefully give those who have never been there an idea of what it's like.


The entrance hall

Pictured below, left: Sara’s pinafore and Miranda’s school dress - original costumes from the film of Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)Chief costume designer: Judith Dorsman in collaboration with Wendy Stiles, with assistance from Mandy Smith. Collection: National Film and Sound Archive.


Guest bedroom

Houseguests included Vivien Leigh, Lawrence Olivier, Sir Robert Menzies, Dame Nellie Melba, Sir Robert Helpmann and members of the Ballet Russe.

The bedroom is currently being restored. This stage shows the history of the house from 1926 to the last renovations undertaken by Sir Daryl and Lady Lindsay in the 1970s. The faded hand-block wallpaper is circa 1920-30s and is possibly related to artists within the Bloomsbury group. The Lindsays were friendly with a number of them, including Duncan Grant.

Pictured below centre (on top of the Georgian bow-fronted chest of drawers) is my Cabinet of Moth Masks (2010-13, acrylic on miniature plaster masks and timber cabinet). The mirror directly above it is early 19th century in a 17th century style:

Caught by the mirror as I photograph my work, Cabinet of Moth Masks:

From Cara’s catalogue notes: 

Miranda’s butterfly buckle represented her freedom and purity of spirit within Picnic at Hanging Rock. By contrast, Klein’s work conveys the more sinister nature of these similar and striking insects. Using a ‘myth-entomological’ approach, Klein compares the values of society and hierarchical values to those used as classification systems for etymological specimens within the scientific and museum realms. The masks, while stunningly beautiful are devoid of emotion and presented in a similar way to pinned, dead specimens in a museum. Eerily, in the opening scenes of Picnic at Hanging Rock, many of the images are presented through mirrors, while the entire film was shot through gauze over the lens providing the softened feel – reducing the harsh reality of the landscape and sharp features of the characters. 

Pictured below, left: Louise Thomas, Portrait of a Girl, date unknown, oil on canvas. Thomas was a pupil of George Bell. Below, centre: Danie Mellor, An unsettled vision (the predicament) 2007-2008, pastel, pencil, glitter pen and watercolour on paper. Collection: Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery:


The kitchen

According to Cara, Joan Lindsay was not enamoured of cooking but was a keen jam maker. The copper pot in which she made her jams is displayed on the mantelpiece:

Pictured below:
Painting right: Daryl Lindsay, Stocks and Iris, 1967, oil on canvas
Painting left, Margaret Preston, Still Life, 1924, oil on canvas
All "food" on the table was made from fabric by Robyn Rich


Scullery

Pictured below: Joan Lindsay's well-used steamer trunk:


Daryl Lindsay’s studio

The wooden painted screen is by Colette Jueden (France):

I was fascinated by the silhouette below, a shadow of a shadow:

Below, I'm reflected in an antique mirror in a view recalling Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. Foreground is a Victorian spill vase belonging to Daryl Lindsay (Staffordshire, 1874-1990):

One of several parallels with my own work: two miniature plaster masks:

On the easel below: Daryl Lindsay, Belladonna Lilies, 1963, oil on canvas:



The Drawing Room

Pictured directly below: 
Left: Sharon Blance, Anne Lambert at Hanging Rock, 2014, giclée print on cotton rag paper, courtesy of the artist
Right: Paul Compton, The Vaudeville Cane is Booed Off the Stage, 2013, unique state etching, hand coloured. Private collection


Below: Paul Compton's one-of-a-kind artist book, Secret Flowerings (closed) on the sideboard, centre section, right. To the right directly above it are two copies of Joan Lindsay's autobiographical Time Without Clocks. Paul is the proud possessor of a first edition of this book.

Below:
Selected pages from Paul Compton’s remarkable artist book, Secret Flowerings, 2015, ink, paper, Chelsea cloth, turned by the artist himself:




Vignette Vitrine, 2012, miniature canvases in wooden display case, is the first silhouette-related work I ever made:


Below:
A drawing room still life: the coral and shells are real; the trompe l’oeil "chocolates" by Robyn Rich are made from fabric with beaded detailing.

The story of Picnic at Hanging Rock unfolds on Valentines Day. These exquisite Valentine's cards belonged to Joan Lindsay; some of them were loaned for the movie:


Joan Lindsay's Writing Room

Painting below right:

Robyn Rich, Chapter 18, 2014, oil on timber, depicts a piece of Mulberry Hill crockery with Chapter 18 of Picnic at Hanging Rock crumpled on top. (Chapter 18 is the chapter that was withheld from the original publication of the novel in 1967. It was published posthumously in 1987 under the title The Secret of Hanging Rock).

Pictured below, left: Lingerie tea dress c. 1900 incorporating daisy motif – the daisy was Miranda’s favourite flower. Collection: National Trust of Australia – Victoria.

Joan Lindsay designed the mural on the walls in the late 1930s. Fred Ward, a student of the National Gallery School, and later a theatrical and industrial furniture designer, transferred the design onto the walls, while Joan painted the lower and smaller fishbone ferns:


Staircase

Below: Shane Jones with his trompe l'oeil painting Fact or Fiction? 2010

Below: Shane Jones, Fact or Fiction? 2010, oil on MDF


Landing

Staffordshire Dalmation in silhouette:


Garden

The Mulberry tree from which the house takes its name:

I've always had a soft spot for gum nuts and gum nut flowers, and eucalyptus leaves have recently become central to my personal iconography:

Mulberry Hill volunteer Jack with Cara's dog Sebastian:

Under the Mulberry tree with Paul, Sebastian, Jack, Bev and Shane:

Left-right below: Paul, Deb, Jack and Bev pictured with faithful hound, Sebastian

Mulberry Hill was built in 1926; it was designed by architect Harold Desbrowe-Annear in the American Colonial style. The front columns, slate roof tiles, windows, doors and staircase were sourced from Whelan the Wrecker. As a result, the house appears to date from an earlier period.

All the items inside, aside from those in special exhibitions, including furniture, clothing, crockery and artworks, belonged to the Lindsays. The house is kept very much as if they still live and work there.

Joan Lindsay was the cousin of Arthur, Martin and Penleigh Boyd and was proud of her connection to this artistic dynasty. She was an accomplished artist in her own right, but turned to writing after her marriage. As the National Trust notes expand: ‘there was only room for one painter in the family’.

Mulberry Hill Curator Cara-Ann Simpson is exceptionally knowledgeable about the house and its former owners and was a marvellous host. A visit there is highly recommended. For those who live too far afield, but want to know more about Daryl Lindsay, go HERE. To learn about the multi-talented Lindsay family, go HERE. For more about Joan Lindsay, go HERE.