Charles Bla C kman
From the Maitland regional art gallery collection
Charles Blackman was only 24 when he held his first solo exhibition in 1952. In a review of the exhibition, art critic Alan McCulloch predicted that Blackman would attain “a special place in the Australian art of our time”.1 Charles Blackman certainly did make his mark and, over his long career, became one of Australia’s most significant and celebrated figurative artists.
Charles Blackman also holds a special place in the Maitland Regional Art Gallery (MRAG) Collection. There are more than three hundred Blackman artworks in our Collection, and most of the works are drawings, paintings and prints on paper, donated to the Collection by the artist himself between 2005 and 2012.
In an interview with James Gleeson in 1979 2 , Blackman stated,
“I draw
That is what I love most of all”
and Blackman was a master draughtsman. He was known for his prolific output, making numerous preliminary sketches and notes on paper as a part of his creative process, which he later resolved into completed works during the act of painting.3 In this exhibition of Charles Blackman artworks from the MRAG Collection we are privy to this process with a selection of his drawings and paintings alongside prints, collages and cut-outs, created over a period of more than forty years.
The major themes, series and motifs in Blackman’s work across his career are evident across the range of his works held in the MRAG Collection: the hatted schoolgirls; influences from literature, including Alice in Wonderland; girls and flowers, and the female figure. There is also the cat, which features in the very first Blackman artwork acquired into the MRAG Collection in 1978, the etching Rainy Day.
Blackman was also an autobiographical artist and likened some of his works to mental snapshots or “poetic Kodachomes”.4 There are many works in the MRAG Collection that directly reflect significant life moments, including drawings and portraits of the people in his life. However the most enlightening, and very special, is the letter he wrote from London in 1965, Letter to Georges Mora, in which he speaks of his latest work and his friends Barry Humphries, Mirka Mora, Colin Lanceley and John and Sunday Reed.
MRAG is very fortunate to have had the support of Charles Blackman over many years and this exhibition pays tribute to the artist’s life, work and legacy to Maitland.
We are also very pleased to have this support continued by Charles Blackman’s family and I would like to thank his daughters Christabel and Bertie Blackman for their assistance with this exhibition and catalogue.
by Cheryl Farrell Collection Management CuratorMaitland Regional Art Gallery
1 Nadine Armadio Charles Blackman The Lost Domains, A.H. & A.W. Reed Pty Ltd, Sydney, 1980, p.10.
2 Charles Blackman, James Gleeson interviews: Charles Blackman 26/4/1979, The James Gleeson oral history collection, National Gallery of Australia, p.11.
3 Geoffrey Smith, “Which Way, Which Way? The Production and Reception of Alice in Wonderland ”, Smith G. and Moore F. S. Charles Blackman : Alice in Wonderland, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2006, p.21.
4 Felicity St John Moore, Charles Blackman : schoolgirls and angels, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1993, p.11.
ARTWORKS
1. Figure (Cut Out), c.1965, paper card, 26 × 32.5cm
Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts
Program by Charles Blackman, 2008
2. Rainy Day, n.d., etching on paper, 14.5 × 14.5cm
Purchased with the assistance of the Art Gallery Society, 1978
3. Angel, c.1953-1958, ink on paper, 56 × 76.5cm
Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts
Program by Charles Blackman, 2008
4. Barbara and Charles, n.d., pencil on paper, 53.4 × 42.5cm
Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts
Program by Charles Blackman, 2008
5. Barbara, c.1952, pencil on paper, 81.5 × 53.5cm
Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts
Program by Charles Blackman, 2008
6. Cut Outs (Children), 1964, pen and cutouts on paper cardboard
51 × 39.5cm.
Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Charles Blackman, 2008
7. Female portrait, c.1982, charcoal on paper, 101.5 × 76cm
Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Charles Blackman, 2012
8. Portrait (Halifax Hayes), c.1979, charcoal on paper, 83.5 × 59.3cm
Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Charles Blackman, 2012
9. Proust, c.1976, oil on paper card, 100 × 83.5cm
Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Charles Blackman, 2012
10. Drink Me, c.1979, pencil on paper, 33 × 25.1cm, Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Charles Blackman, 2008
11. Figures, n.d., photo silkscreen print on paper, 73 × 49.5cm (each)
Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Charles Blackman, 2012
3. 5. 4. Charles blackmanCharles Blackman (12/08/1928 - 20/08/2018) is one of Australia’s most revered and iconic painters. Defined by the Antipodean Manifesto (February 1959) as a member of an emerging group of contemporary figurative artists, he is most renowned for his schoolgirl paintings and his series on Alice in Wonderland, painted whilst he worked at the famous Mirka Café in Melbourne. He won the Helena Rubinstein travelling scholarship in 1961, which led him to a London life working and travelling throughout Europe with Arthur Boyd, Brett Whiteley and Barry Humphries. Later he fell head over heels in love with Paris, which he revisited constantly.
During a childhood illness, Charles was given some coloured crayons by his mother and that was it. A life changer. He immediately understood the force of the image, enabling him to become who he was. “You can’t stop people from being who they are” was one of his favourite sayings. Charles had always had an extraordinary insight into the complex language of the emotions and he had now found the tool to express this in his own instinctive way. A seemingly endless well of images surged forth from his brushes and pens throughout his entire life.
Drawing is the underlying denominator in all his artworks, whether it be a massive canvas layered in sheer colours, or the simplicity of an ink line drawing. He’d say
“You can’t hide behind a line”
Charles left school at thirteen to become a copy boy at the Sydney Morning Herald, where he drew comic strips and touched up photographs. This led to a sure sense of graphic composition; decisive on precisely what to leave in and, more importantly, what to leave out. As an impoverished young artist he made the most of whatever materials were on hand, often using the Conté crayons or tracing paper given to him by architect friend James Birrell. Drawings and paintings on paper were easily portable in a nomadic life.
Barbara Blackman, his first wife, was a life model and became a constant muse, (Barbara, c.1952), as did his later wife Genevieve (Female Portrait, c.1982). Charles’ portraits revealed the inner nature of the sitter, as seen in the portraits of his friends, photographer Axel Poignant, and builder Halifax Hayes (Portrait-Halifax Hayes, c.1979). His close friendships with artists, poets and writers led to artworks either colluded on together, such as the Brett Whiteley collaboration, Portrait of Hitler/ Tears Tears, 1963,
or created whilst living in close quarters, such as with Joy Hester and Gray Smith in Avonsleigh in 1954 and poet laureate Judith Wright and philosopher Jack McKinney on Tamborine Mountain in 1955. Literary influences also had a profound effect on his work, from John Shaw Neilson (essentially his poem Schoolgirls Hastening), to Joyce, Carroll, Rimbaud and Marcel Proust (Proust, c.1976).
Charles created many prints with innovative printmakers. With Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in the 1950s and 1960s he worked creating lithographs such as the schoolgirl images and The Aspendale papers suite of prints, including Angles of Time, 1966-1967. These were inspired by his coastal sojourn with Georges and Mirka Mora at their Aspendale beach house, which was next door to friends John and Sunday Reed. Charles Bannon at the Paddington Print Studio, a pioneer in independent printmaking, collaborated with Charles on colourful silkscreens.
Midlife, bedridden and inspired by Goya, Sydney printmaker Shelley Rose approached him to etch on copper plates, creating prints such as Rainy Day In 1974 Matthew Perceval introduced Charles to Satish Sharma, a master printer who had worked for Chagall and Miró. Satish came to work at Charles’ Paddington etching studio, Well House Press, where during this time he introduced new techniques and striking innovative colours. The Mother Goose series of 21 drypoints was produced, including images such as When she came there the cupboard was bare, 1977. An exploration of new photographic techniques resulted in a series of experimental offset lithographs, based on the painting Two Women, 1961, and the prints were used as ‘grounds’ to paint over. These multiple prints, (Figures, n.d.) in various colours are group hung at Maitland Regional Art Gallery for the first time ever.
Creative dexterity shines through this varied selection of Charles’ works and give us an insight into his working mind, how it ran fluidly and lucidly between the complex and the compelling, and through a simple gesture or moment, all could be expressed. He was a true master of the image. In his eighties, he joined artist Judy Cassab every fortnight for life drawing, like musicians keeping up their scales. A vital force in every sense, Charles kept drawing right up until his final days, creating illuminated and spiritual images.
By Christabel blackmanCharles blackman and the Maitland regional art gallery collection
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First published in 2019 by Maitland Regional Art Gallery (MRAG) PO Box 220, Maitland NSW, 2320 | mrag.org.au to accompany the exhibition Charles Blackman: from the Maitland Regional Art Gallery Collection
Exhibition dates 23 February — 11 August 2019
© Maitland Regional Art Gallery
© Christabel Blackman - essay
All images copyright of the artist
Exhibition Curator: Cheryl Farrell
Essay: Christabel Blackman
Editing: Cheryl Farrell, Anne McLaughlin
Design: Clare Hodgins
Catalogue printing: WHO Printing
ISBN: 978-0-6481664-6-7
MRAG is a proud service of Maitland City Council and is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
