During a visit to the Gallery to view works by Joe Elenberg (1948‑80), Australian Gallerist Anna Schwartz reflects on the creativity of the Australian artist and their shared life together, with a focus on QAGOMA’s commanding marble sculpture Totem 1979 (illustrated).
Currently on display until 3 August 2025 at the Queensland Art Gallery is Rhinoceros head c.1977 (illustrated). Recently undergoing conservation and to respect Elenberg’s original vision for the work, all its parts have now been reunited as a whole and the bronze polished restoring the integrity of this striking sculpture. In storage over the past four decades, the bronze had been inadvertently separated from its base pieces, and an old memo found on file confirmed the glass had been accidentally broken. Anna Schwartz helped to inform our decision to use a comparable sheet of reflective black acrylic in place of the glass, and to retain the original wooden block, cracks and all. Its inclusion in the exhibition ‘Small Figures’ is the first time Rhinoceros head has been seen in its entirety since 1977.
Gallerist Anna Schwartz with ‘Rhinoceros head’
Joel Elenberg ‘Rhinoceros head’ c.1977
Reflections by Australian gallerist Anna Schwartz
Joel Elenberg was an extraordinarily imaginative, intelligent, wildly unpredictable person, so I can’t begin to speak for him. I first met Joel in 1970. I was 19 and he was 22. I think from the day we met each other, we didn’t spend a day apart. We were married, we had a child who was born in 1973, and Joel first went to Italy, to Carrara, in 1977. It was only three years later that he died, and all his marble works were made in that time. In Italy, where Joel worked with the artisans, they used to say, ‘Joel has magic hands’.
Watch | Anna Schwartz reflects on Joel Elenberg’s work
Joel Elenberg ‘Totem’ 1979
Totem was made in 1979, but I think it comes from a much more distant past when sculpture had a talismanic force and position in terms of society and culture. And it has that, but it comes also from the future where it’s projected beyond our imaginings. I think that’s one of the wonderful things about art and about a work like this. It’s a late work in the life and the career of Joel Elenberg, given he died at age 32. It seems extraordinary to me now to think that such a young artist could have produced work of this maturity.
Joel never really had an education; he left school very young. His art teacher at high school said to him, at the age of 14, ‘Elenberg, I’m going to say something to you that I don’t want you to tell anyone I told you: Leave school and be an artist’. So he actually did leave school and lived a wild, rebellious youth, but was totally dedicated to art and to being an artist. He went to art school for one day and had a fist fight on the front lawn with the director, who had told him something he had done was wrong. From that point on, and even before that point, he was totally self-educated. He was a voracious reader and stealer of books. He worked in many different materials, from drawing and painting to various sculptural [mediums]. But when he found stone, he found his medium.
Joel Elenberg Study for ‘Totem’
Before commencing his sculpture, Joel would undertake many preparatory drawings, and one remains in the Gallery’s Collection. This is a really beautiful, first-order drawing — absolutely beautiful. This is his thinking; this is his working-it-all out, the technical specifics of it. It’s so interesting because, every artist has their own particular hand, and they write in a way that flows through to the drawing.
This sculptural form comes from that process of ‘de-grossing’, of taking away what’s not necessary, but a lot of it is assemblage. And that’s what you see here.
He made this work in Carrara, in Torano, which is the village above Carrara, in a studio called SGF that was run by three local artisans — Silvio Santini, Paolo Grassi and Mario Fruendi. When Joel went there, he immediately fell into his real milieu, which was working in marble, and all the kind of tools and technologies were there at his disposal. He met artists from all over the world working in the same medium and was able to develop very quickly because of what was available to him. So Totem is really the pinnacle of this achievement. There were other works that were perhaps more lyrical and handmade, but this is certainly a very important work.
Joel was deeply influenced by all art that he saw, particularly empathetic to First Nations people and fascinated with early African art and art from the deep past. In terms of the twentieth century, he was drawn to leading postwar European artists Alberto Giacometti (1901–66) and Constantin Brâncuși (1876– 1957). Brâncuși was the most influential artist on Joel’s work. You can see strong influences in this sort of form of Brâncuși and this base is very Brâncuși-like. There is no artist from whom you can’t draw some supporting connection to another artist, it’s all a kind of river through time. And nobody’s uninfluenced, but the voice of an individual artist is, I think, what’s so fascinating. I think Joel Elenberg has a very strong individual voice.
Totem is a wonderful combination of stones. The pure white statuario marble, which is the very best marble, has the fewest veins in it so that you can actually cut it in any direction – like butter. It’s now very rare. The other is this lovely deep oxblood Rosso di Portogallo, red stone from Portugal. It invokes blood, and the human body.
Totem is a work that shows incredible virtuosity in his creation. The round forms were turned on a lathe. And the inlay was...
In the world of the fairy tale, witches and crones are not the only characters who generate mistrust and fear — ‘others’, outsiders and so-called misfits pushed to the margins of society, figure prominently in many tales. In these stories, people living outside the norm are branded as villains or monsters. The Beast from ‘Beauty and the Beast’ is a prime example. Given our social needs, stories of isolation reflect a deeply human anxiety. In stories, as in life, perceived differences inspire actions born of fear — from petty quarrelling to ostracism or vengeful retaliation.
While retribution and revenge are ever-present elements of fairy tales, so too are questions of cruelty, injustice and the redemptive power of kindness. The darker side of fairy tales holds a mirror to our motivations and helps us navigate the ethical decisions in our everyday lives.
‘Fairy Tales’ unfolds across three themed chapters. ‘Into the Woods’ explores the conventions and characters of traditional fairy tales alongside their contemporary retellings. ‘Through the Looking Glass’ presents newer tales of parallel worlds that are filled with unexpected ideas and paths. ‘Ever After’ brings together classic and current tales to celebrate aspirations, challenge convention and forge new directions.
Travel with us in our weekly series through each room and theme of the ‘Fairy Tales’ exhibition at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) as we focus on some of the works on display.
DELVE DEEPER: Journey through the ‘Fairy Tales’ exhibition with our weekly series
EXHIBITION THEME: 7 Into the Woods
Patricia Piccinini ‘The Couple’ 2018
Patricia Piccinini’s The Couple 2018 (illustrated) is haunting work that captures the isolation of those perceived as unwanted and unwelcome. Piccinini’s sculptures often touch on ideas of evolution, genetics and bioethics, seen through a lens of human empathy and curiosity. Her realistic creations are both familiar and foreign — illusions from an alternative world. The Couple presents a scene of intimacy and love in which two resting creatures lie in an embrace in a caravan, buffered from the cruel judgment of the world, if only in this moment. The characters’ uncanny otherness prompts contemplation of resilience, beauty and unconditional love.
Isobel Knowles, Van Sowerwine ‘You Were In My Dream’ 2010
Ideas of cloaking oneself through animal transformation pulse through the lush papercut stop‑motion animation and interactive installation You Were In My Dream 2010, by collaborating Australian artists Isobel Knowles and Van Sowerwine. Beginning with a small child sleeping on a jungle floor, the viewer wakes the child with a click of the mouse to find their face has been imposed onto the animated figure through a live video feed. Prompted to send their character on a magical journey by clicking on one of the many pulsing stars on the screen, echoes elements of the transformative chase in classic fairy tales, whereby a pursuit prompts the protagonist to shapeshift through several forms — a rabbit, monkey, wolf or bird. In a magical world that demands one to eat or be eaten, these changes are not without their own challenges.
The ‘Fairy Tales’ exhibition is at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Australia from 2 December 2023 until 28 April 2024.
‘Fairy Tales Cinema: Truth, Power and Enchantment‘ presented in conjunction with GOMA’s blockbuster summer exhibition screens at the Australian Cinémathèque, GOMA from 2 December 2023 until 28 April 2024.
The major publication ‘Fairy Tales in Art and Film’ available at the QAGOMA Store and online explores how fairy tales have held our fascination for centuries through art and culture.
