Charles Blackman’s time in the Queensland sun

BLACKMAN, Charles Australia b.1928 The Blue Alice 1956-57 Tempera, oil and household enamel on board 122 x 122cm Acc. 2000.001 Purchased 2000. The Queensland Government’s special Centenary Fund

BLACKMAN, Charles Australia b.1928 The Blue Alice 1956-57 Tempera, oil and household enamel on board 122 x 122cm Acc. 2000.001 Purchased 2000. The Queensland Government’s special Centenary Fund / View full image

Brisbane’s influence on the art of Charles Blackman, one of Australia’s most important artists, will be explored in our new exhibition from 7 November 2015.

‘Lure of the Sun: Charles Blackman in Queensland’ features over 50 paintings and works on paper, and explores the connections and friendships Blackman made while living in Queensland. The ‘Lure of the Sun’ is presented as part of the Glencore Queensland Artists’ Gallery program, and tells a fascinating story about the development of one of the country’s foremost artists.

When the Sydney-born Blackman first ventured across the border into Queensland in the late 1940s he was welcomed by several notable friends and creative locals, including artist Laurence Hope and future wife Barbara Patterson. These friendships and connections had a lasting influence on Blackman’s creative oeuvre and his practice from this period.

Brisbane-inspired works from Blackman’s famous ‘Schoolgirl’, ‘Faces and flowers’ and ‘Alice’ series form a significant part of ‘Lure of the Sun’ and will be on display alongside works by fellow Australian artists Laurence Hope, Laurence Collinson and Jon Molvig.

Charles Blackman, Australia b.1928 / The Family (Judith Wright, Jack McKinney and Meredith McKinney) c. 1955 / Oil and enamel on Masonite / Gift of Barbara Blackman 2000. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program / Collection: National Portrait Gallery of Australia, Canberra / © Charles Raymond Blackman 1928. Licensed by VISCOPY Sydney 2005

Charles Blackman, Australia b.1928 / The Family (Judith Wright, Jack McKinney and Meredith McKinney) c. 1955 / Oil and enamel on Masonite / Gift of Barbara Blackman 2000. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program / Collection: National Portrait Gallery of Australia, Canberra / © Charles Raymond Blackman 1928. Licensed by VISCOPY Sydney 2005 / View full image

Blackman had maintained a significant connection with Queensland since his first visit and Brisbane remained an important influence later in his career. While in Queensland, he became acquainted with the early works of Sidney Nolan whose formative influence on the young artist can be seen in works such as the 1952 City Lights. The work that most honours the friendships that the self-taught Blackman forged in Brisbane is The family 1955, a painting of Judith Wright, Jack McKinney and their daughter Meredith which recalls a winter’s day picnic at Cedar Creek near Mount Tamborine.

Related Stories

  •
    Read •

    Charles Blackman and Brisbane’s young artists and writers

    Charles Blackman while in Brisbane in early 1948 met the young artists of the Miya Studio, including Laurence Hope, Don Savage, and Laurence Collinson, and the closely affiliated group of Barjai writers, including Barrett Reid. DELVE DEEPER: KNOW BRISBANE through the QAGOMA Collection SIGN UP NOW: SUBSCRIBE TO QAGOMA BLOG for the next Queensland Story Barrett (known as Barrie) Reid (1926–95), librarian, poet and editor, had an important early connection with Queensland through Barjai magazine. Reid met the Melbourne art patrons John and Sunday Reed in 1942, and later Sidney Nolan, when they visited Brisbane. John Reed and Max Harris were the joint editors of the most radical literary journal of the time, Angry Penguins, and Reid became its youngest contributor. Reid and Barjai artist, Laurence Hope hitchhiked to Melbourne in 1946 to visit the Reeds and cemented a lifelong friendship in doing so. Through his friendship with Barrett Reid, Blackman met the Reeds at Heide and, through them, saw Nolan’s early St Kilda works. With fellow students Barrett Reid and Cecel Knopke, Laurence Collinson established the Senior Tabloid of Brisbane State High School in 1943. In 1944, this student literary journal transitioned to the national, bi-monthly magazine Barjai, surviving until 1949. Collinson’s interests were artistic as well as literary, prompting the formation of the Miya Studio, which held its first exhibition (opened by critic Gertrude Langer) in the basement of the School of Arts in Stanley Street, South Brisbane, in December 1945. Know Brisbane through the QAGOMA Collection / Delve into our Queensland Stories / Read more about Australian Art / Subscribe to QAGOMA YouTube to go behind-the-scenes #CharlesBlackman #QAGOMA
  •
    Read •

    The lure of Brisbane’s sun on Charles Blackman

    Over several years spent in Queensland, Charles Blackman was nurtured by a series of relationships and profound connections to place, and these inspired some of his most innovative and important works. During his first visit to Brisbane in 1948 Blackman experienced a period of intense personal discovery essential to the launch his career; he found love and a means of artistic expression through a potent and highly individual visual language emanating from his psyche and focused on his inner world. DELVE DEEPER: KNOW BRISBANE through the QAGOMA Collection SIGN UP NOW: SUBSCRIBE TO QAGOMA BLOG for the next Queensland Story Charles Blackman is central to our understanding of the development of modern art in Australia. He gained immeasurably from his time in Queensland, consolidating as it did his artistic vision through the influence of fellow artists, writers and influential friends. Blackman himself elaborated on the lure of the sun in an interview conducted in London in 1965: I think that Queensland probably had the best influence on me as a person, its sunshine and its lightness and its colour and its friendly spirit probably helped me to flower as a personality in some way. Laurence Hope worked in Queensland from 1944 to 1952 and brought with him (from Melbourne) a modern vision in contrast to the conventional approach predominating local art societies. The links between Laurence Hope and Laurence Collinson, and their innovation in Melbourne, were particularly important to the Miya Studio group, which became the centre of expressionist art practice in Brisbane. Themes of love, loss and loneliness explored in Hope’s work were important influences on the young Blackman. It has been noted that there was a great similarity between Hope’s works’ moody, introspective quality and rough brushwork, and the drawings of the contemporary Melbourne artist Joy Hester, who was also close to the Blackmans. The sketch Tired girl 1950 is painted on the back of a letter from Barrie (later Barrett) Reid, Hope’s Miya Studio and Barjai journal associate. As a painter of ‘internal things’, Hope’s expressive and often darkly isolated figures, as seen in Sketch of Mo (Roy Rene) 1947 and in Tired girl, were important influences on Blackman’s understanding of human character and helped him develop his own powerful imagery. Blackman recognised this influence: [Hope’s] pictures impressed me, they were real live art . . . He taught me that you can actually draw your own images, you don’t have to use other people’s images. An image is something that you can make yourself . . . My own work became more personal. Know Brisbane through the QAGOMA Collection / Delve into our Queensland Stories / Read more about Australian Art / Subscribe to QAGOMA YouTube to go behind-the-scenes #CharlesBlackman #QAGOMA
Loading...