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. 

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.