A cool thing to have

 
Posted by Jacklyn Young   ●   20 Sep 2023

Artists’ multiples — ranging from LPs to ceramics, posters and books to clothing, mass-produced objects and toys — are a passion for Queensland artist and collector Scott Redford.

Redford has been generously gifting multiples to the Gallery and the Research Library since 2008, including a major donation of over 700 objects to the Library in 2022. The artist’s gifts capture and reflect mainly on popular music, culture and graphic design.

Vinyl LPs, Artists’ Multiples, Posters, Books and Ephemera: A gift from Scott Redford

Barbara Kruger ‘Consolidated / Business of punishment’ 1994

Barbara Kruger, United States b.1945 (cover artwork) / Consolidated / Business of punishment / London Records, 1994 / Two vinyl LP records, 33 1/3 rpm; in paper sleeves and cardboard cover; 31.5 x 31.5cm / Gift of Scott Redford 2008–14 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library / © 1994 London Records USA

The popular and so-called low-brow art of the twentieth century has informed both Redford’s own work and his taste in collectable records, music-related ephemera and artists’ multiples.

Like one of Redford’s ceramic works in the Collection, My beautiful pink polar bears 2005 (illustrated) (made with collaborating artist Michael Littler), which was inspired by a small ceramic figure signed only ‘Robin’ that the artist found in a Brisbane junk shop,1 Jeff Koons’s Seated Ballerina 2010-15 is modelled on porcelain figurines created by Ukrainian artist Oksana Zhnikrup for mass production in the Soviet Union. Koons worked with Japanese retailer UNIQLO (2010–15) to create a T-shirt featuring the Seated Ballerina, and two of the original figurines and a t-shirt feature in his 2022 gift.

Scott Redford ‘My beautiful pink polar bears’ 2005

Scott Redford (Artist), Australia b.1962 / Michael Littler (Collaborating artist, Australia b.1964 / My beautiful pink polar bears (detail) 2005 / Ceramic / Ten bears: 26 x 25 x 50cm (each) / Gift of the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Foundation for the Arts through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2009. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Scott Redford/Copyright Agency

Jeff Koons ‘Seated Ballerina’ 2010-15

Oksana Zhnikrup, Ukraine 1931–93, Ballerina Lenochka c.1974 Porcelain figurine, 20 cm (high), © Oksana Zhnikrup Estate / Jeff Koons, United States b.1955, UNIQLO, Seated ballerina T-shirt 2010–15, Cotton T-shirt, © Jeff Koons / Jeff Koons [exhibition catalogue], Gagosian, Beverley Hills 2017, 1 v; col. ill., Artwork © Jeff Koons / Gifts of Scott Redford, 2022 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library

Multiples designed by artists are created and marketed to avid collectors around the world. Redford writes ‘. . . the legacy of fine art’s modernist avant-garde can be found everywhere in our daily life from shop displays and advertising to food packaging and sneakers’.2

Calvin Klein designer Raf Simons and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts collaborated to produce a line of Warhol-inspired sneakers (illustrated). The footwear is made from black canvas and features a printed portrait of the artist in purple.

To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Andy Warhol’s famed 1962 work 32 Campbell’s soup cans (illustrated), the Campbell Soup Company released limited-edition cans of their condensed tomato soup.

Andy Warhol & Raf Simons ‘Calvin Klein iconica canvas sneaker‘

Andy Warhol, United States 1928–87 / Raf Simons (Designer) for Calvin Klein / Calvin Klein iconica canvas sneaker / One pair of black and purple canvas sneakers / 25cm (long) / Gift of Scott Redford, 2022 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library / © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Copyright Agency

Andy Warhol ‘Campbell’s condensed tomato soup’ 2012

Andy Warhol, United States 1928–87 / Campbell Soup Company / Campbell’s condensed tomato soup 2012 / Aluminium cans of condensed tomato soup / 10.16 x 6.35cm / Gift of Scott Redford, 2022 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library / © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Copyright Agency

Artists’ multiples are arguably the most democratic artform, often inexpensive and, in some cases, made with the express purpose of free distribution, such as Shepard Fairey’s Obey giant stickers and Damien Hirst’s matchboxes (illustrated). Multiples feed fans’ growing desire to own memorabilia, echoed by Redford himself: ‘Personally, I get as much pleasure from buying a Hirst matchbox from his Pharmacy restaurant as viewing any of his other works because I get to hold it and own it’.3

Damien Hirst ‘Pharmacy’ 1998–2003

Damien Hirst, United Kingdom b.1965 / Pharmacy 1998–2003 / 60 matchbooks, Pharmacy Restaurant, Notting Hill, London / 3 x 100 x 70cm (box) / Gift of Scott Redford, 2022 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library / © Damien Hirst/DACS/Copyright Agency

Mr Brainwash (the pseudonym for Thierry Guetta) is a pop artist, street artist and videographer. His style has been referred to as a ‘collision of street art and pop art’. London spray can (illustrated) was created for his 2012 London exhibition ‘Life is beautiful’.

Mr Brainwash ‘London spray’ 2012

Mr Brainwash (Thierry Guetta), France b.1966 / London spray 2012 / Aluminium spray can (limited edition) / 20 x 6cm / Gift of Scott Redford, 2022 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library / © Thierry Guetta

Drawing on Andy Warhol’s colourful portrait of Marilyn Monroe as his inspiration, Mr Brainwash created a series of work featuring celebrities, designers and tastemakers (illustrated), including Michael Jackson, Madonna, Jack Nicholson, and Star Trek’s Mr Spock. The artist aligns his artistic intentions with those of the original Pop artists, producing art for everybody.

Mr Brainwash ‘Marilyn Monroe’ c.2010

Mr Brainwash (Thierry Guetta), France b.1966 / Icons: Marilyn Monroe c.2010 / 6 small round metal pins / 3.17cm / Gift of Scott Redford, 2022 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library / © Thierry Guetta

It’s not surprising that art that connects with a global audience lends itself to protest, calls for social change, or examines social and political discontent. Artists such as Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Mr Brainwash, Invader and Barbara Kruger give voice to the concerns of the ‘masses’.

Postal stamps, featuring graffiti by Banksy (illustrated) commemorate the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Shepard Fairey’s Time Magazine cover featuring Barack Obama (illustrated) looks a lot like the unofficial campaign poster ‘Hope’, from 2008, when Obama was still a presidential candidate. The ‘Vote’ cover focuses on the importance of voting, the addition of the bandana referencing the COVID-19 pandemic, political division in the United States, racial discrimination and voter suppression; and inspired by a Chinese propaganda poster from the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), Fairey transforms the motif into an anti–war message (illustrated).

Mr Brainwash presents icons exhibition postcards (illustrated).

For the cover of the New Yorker (illustrated), artist Barbara Kruger reimagined her iconic 1989 silk-screen portrait Untitled (Your body is a battleground) in support of abortion rights and is a statement about the United States’ Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Banksy ‘PTN PNH! Putin Go F**k Yourself Stamps (Banksy Graffiti) UkrPoshta Ukraine’ 2023

Banksy / PTN PNH! Putin Go F**k Yourself Stamps (Banksy Graffiti) UkrPoshta Ukraine 2023 / 1 sheet of 6 postal stamps / 11 x 11cm / Gift of Scott Redford, 2023 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library / © Banksy

Shepard Fairey ‘Time Magazine’ (Barack Obama: Person of the Year), December 29, 2008–January 5, 1989

Shepard Fairey, United States b.1970 / Time Magazine, (Barack Obama: Person of the Year), December 29, 2008–January 5, 1989 / 1 v.; (chiefly col. ill.): 26 x 20cm / Gift of Scott Redford, 2022 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library / Cover art © Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey ‘Obey giant: Guns and Roses’ c.2019

Shepard Fairey, United States b.1970 / Obey giant: Guns and Roses c.2019 / Vinyl sticker / 15.5 x 9.5cm / Gift of Scott Redford, 2022 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library / © Shepard Fairey

Mr Brainwash ‘Mr Brainwash presents icons’ 2010

Mr Brainwash (Thierry Guetta), France b.1966 / Mr Brainwash presents icons 2010 / Limited edition postcards / 10 x 15cm / Gift of Scott Redford, 2022 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library / © Thierry Guetta

Barbara Kruger ‘New Yorker: Who Becomes a “Murderer” in Post-Roe America?’ May 9–22, 2022

Barbara Kruger, United States b.1945 / New Yorker: Who Becomes a “Murderer” in Post-Roe America? May 9–22, 2022 / 1 v.; col. ill.: 26 x 20cm / Gift of Scott Redford, 2022 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library / Cover art © Barbara Kruger

From eBay, Redford purchased 135 photographs of Dismaland (illustrated) — a temporary art project organised by Banksy — taken by an unknown photographer. A sinister twist on Disneyland, Banksy described Dismaland as a ‘family theme park unsuitable for children’4 that examines the plight of refugees. After it closed, the building materials were repurposed as shelters for refugees in the Calais ‘Jungle’ (a migrant camp in France in 2015–16).

‘Untitled’ 2015

Unknown / Untitled (Photographs of Dismaland, a temporary art project organised by Banksy) 2015 / Photographs / 15 x 10cm. / Gift of Scott Redford, 2022 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library / All photographs: C Callistemon © QAGOMA

Jacklyn Young is Senior Librarian, QAGOMA Research Library

Endnotes
1 Francis E Parker, ‘From appropriation to aggression’, Scott Redford: Introducing Reinhardt Dammn [exhibition catalogue], Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2010, p.48.
2 Scott Redford, ’Acquisitions and Collections: Multiples and fans’, Artlines, no.2, 2010, p.33.
3 Redford.
4 ‘Banksy Dismaland show revealed at Weston’s Tropicana’, BBC News, Bristol, 20 August 2015, https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-bristol-33986235 viewed September 2023.

QAGOMA Research Library

This gift from Scott Redford to the QAGOMA Research Library is a treasure trove of items that can inspire and enrich, support scholarship and engage artists, visitors, researchers and students.

The QAGOMA Research Library is located on Level 3 of the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). Open to the public Tuesday to Friday 10.00am to 5.00pm. visit us in person or explore the the Scott Reford gift through the online catalogue. Access to special collections is available by appointment.

Featured image: A selection of objects from the gift of Scott Redford to the QAGOMA Research Library, 2022

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Vida Lahey: Queensland’s art advocate

 
Posted by Jacklyn Young   ●   30 Sep 2022

In 2022 as we celebrate 40 years of the Queensland Art Gallery at South Bank, it is fitting to note that when the new building designed by Robin Gibson opened in 1982, it occurred in the same year as the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vida Lahey1, described as ‘an indefatigable advocate for art in Queensland’.2

While Francis Vida Lahey (1882–1968) is widely known for her oil paintings — her Monday morning 1912 (illustrated) is a highlight of the QAGOMA Collection — and as a watercolourist of distinction, her legacy as a tireless campaigner for a new Queensland Art Gallery and promoter of arts education is of equal importance.

Vida Lahey ‘Monday morning’ 1912

Vida Lahey, Australia 1882-1968 / Monday morning 1912 / Oil on canvas / 153 x 122.7cm / Gift of Madame Emily Coungeau through the Queensland Art Society 1912 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © QAGOMA

Vida Lahey ‘Geraldton wax in vase’ 1950s

Vida Lahey, Australia 1882-1968 / Geraldton wax in vase c.1950s / Watercolour on paper / 34.5 x 44.5cm / Gift of Rosemary Goodchild through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation 2015. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © QAGOMA

Lahey, and fellow Queensland artist Daphne Mayo (1895–1982), had a long association with the Queensland National Art Gallery (as it was then known). Lahey was a member of its Board of Advice from 1923 until 1930. In 1929, Lahey and Mayo founded the Queensland Art Fund (QAF) and were both members of the QNAG Art Advisory Committee until 1937. During the life of the QAF, 52 works were acquired and presented to the Gallery and the Fund was instrumental in securing the Darnell bequest.2

In 1936, with the support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Lahey established and administered the Queensland Art Library (QAL). The Carnegie Bequest of over 200 books, 34 large colour reproductions of famous pictures, and 2000 photographs covering painting, sculpture and architecture were supplemented by private donations, including those from Lahey and fellow artists. Lahey was instrumental in the success of the library, and organised lunch-time art lectures, creating an invaluable resource for arts education in Queensland.3

Child Art Scholarship class

A Queensland Art Gallery Child Art Scholarship class, c.1940s / Photographer unknown / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library

Colour theory and design: Tone and colour analysis

‘Colour theory and design: Tone and colour analysis’, c.1920–50 / Handwritten teaching notes by Vida Lahey / Gift of Helen Creagh and Margaret Shaw / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library

Lahey taught art at the Brisbane Girls High School, later known as Somerville House, where she was the part-time art mistress from 1912 until 1916. In 1941, at the invitation of the QNAG Trustees, she pioneered creative art classes for children at the Gallery (illustrated). Influenced by the teaching methods Lahey observed while travelling through Europe, the United States and Canada, she wrote in a report to the Gallery’s Trustees, ‘I try not to instruct them at all but evoke from them their own ideas… children’s work should be as spontaneous as possible and give full opportunity for the sense of freedom and release which is so valuable to them’.4 Lahey’s handwritten teaching notes, ‘Colour Theory and Design. Tone and Colour Analysis’ (illustrated) are held in the QAGOMA Research Library Collection along with photographs of the children enjoying her art classes held at the Gallery.

Throughout her life, Lahey was a strong advocate for a new dedicated home for Queensland’s art collection and, although this dream remained unfulfilled at the time of her death in 1968, we acknowledge her tireless work and advocacy for the Queensland Art Gallery and for arts education in Queensland.

Jacklyn Young is Senior Librarian, QAGOMA

1 Woolcock, Phyllis. ‘Art gallery was her elusive dream’. Courier Mail, Saturday magazine, Saturday 26 June 1982.
2 MacAulay, Bettina. Songs of Colour: The Art of Vida Lahey. Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1989, p.22.
3 MacAulay, p.24-5.
4 Lahey, Vida. Children’s Creative Art Class Report to Queensland National Art Gallery Trustees, 7 November 1948, p.2.

View Vida ‘Lahey’s Colour Theory and design. Tone and Colour analysis’

Handwritten teaching notes by Vida Lahey

‘Colour theory and design: Tone and colour analysis’, c.1920–50 / Handwritten teaching notes by Vida Lahey / Gift of Helen Creagh and Margaret Shaw / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library

Vida Lahey’s slide box

Slide box and glass slide, c.1930s–40s used by Vida Lahey in her art lectures / Gift of Helen Creagh and Margaret Shaw / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library

Vida Lahey painting from nature

Vida Lahey painting from nature, c.1927 / Photographer unknown / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library

Vida Lahey Memorial Travelling Scholarship

The Vida Lahey Memorial Travelling Scholarship gives a young or emerging Australian artist or young Australian art history student or graduate an extraordinary opportunity to develop their practice or research through an itinerary of international or national travel that will contribute to an understanding of Australian art.

QAGOMA Research Library

The QAGOMA Research Library is located on Level 3 of the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). Open to the public Tuesday to Friday 10.00am to 5.00pm. visit us in person or explore the online catalogue. Access to special collections is available by appointment.

Featured image: Left: ‘Colour theory and design: Tone and colour analysis’, c.1920–50; Handwritten teaching notes by Vida Lahey; Gift of Helen Creagh and Margaret Shaw; Collection: QAGOMA Research Library / Right: Vida Lahey painting; Daphne Mayo Collection, UQFL119; Photographer unknown; Image courtesy: The University of Queensland, Brisbane
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Mella Jaarsma asks: What does it feel like to live in another’s body?

 
Posted by Jacklyn Young   ●   14 Sep 2020

A frog skin is one of the fascinating and surprising items collected by the QAGOMA Research Library, and can be found specifically in the file of Mella Jaarsma, the Netherlands-born artist living in Indonesia. The skin accompanies the preliminary sketches for her ‘The Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT3) proposal, Hi inlander 1999, the work acquired by the Gallery in 2000. 

Proposal for ‘Hi inlander’

Mella Jaarsma, The Netherlands/Indonesia b.1960 / Preliminary sketches and proposal for Hi inlander 1998 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library / © Mella Jaarsma

The Research Library collects a range of material on artists from QAGOMA’s Collection and exhibitions, holding thousands of files on artists from Queensland, within Australia, and including the Asia Pacific region. This treasure trove of ephemera, photography, correspondence and curiosities are an important resource which can provide insight into the artists’ creative processes and their history of engagement with the Gallery.

In this work, Mella Jaarsma takes up the issues of social location and difference in their most radical and irreducible form. Through Hi inlander (Hello native), Jaarsma asks: What does it mean to walk around in another’s skin, to see through their eyes, to make food with their hands, to eat their food and to become, therefore, like them? More acutely, what does it feel like to live in another’s body? Does a different body make a different person?

Mella Jaarsma ‘Hi inlander’ 1999

Mella Jaarsma, The Netherlands/Indonesia b.1960 / Hi inlander 1999 / Treated skins (kangaroo, frog, fish and chicken) / 244 x 97cm (kangaroo); 140 x 84cm (frog); 150 x 100cm (fish); 152 x 95cm (chicken) / Purchased 2000. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Mella Jaarsma

The title of the work underlines these interrogative meanings: ‘Hi inlander’ was a colonial Dutch greeting to indigenous Indonesians, derogatory in its implications of their colonised status.

The ‘second skins’ in Hi inlander come from Javanese gurami fish, frog skins, chicken skin and feet, and kangaroo hides sourced commercially by the artist. They cover the body from head to shin, resembling a jilbāb, the Muslim woman’s veil – a traditional mark of Islamic belief much debated in recent years, and undeniably a mark of difference.

Mella Jaarsma ‘Hi inlander’ 1999

Performers wearing the chicken and frog skins during the opening night and weekend of ‘APT3’

Mella Jaarsma, The Netherlands/Indonesia b.1960 / Hi inlander 1999 / Treated skin (frog) 140 x 84cm / Purchased 2000. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Mella Jaarsma

As part of the artwork, these skins were worn by performers who mingled with visitors during the opening night and weekend of ‘APT3’, their eyes and feet only visible. The eyes permit social contact and interaction, and despite ethnic, age and cultural difference, are the common expressive tools of all humanity.

The meat of the same animals that provided skins for these jalabib, were cooked on three contemporary Indonesian stoves, the material of each – stone, tiles, zinc – corresponding with a particular social status.

Hi inlander recognised the diverse customs and foods that constitute human societies. Crucially, Mella Jaarsma’s work insists that we must accommodate differences rather than despise them for social harmony to be a reality.

Watch | Mella Jaarsma performance

Gallery visitors cook and share food with each other

QAGOMA Research Library

The QAGOMA Research Library is located on Level 3 of the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). Open to the public Tuesday to Friday 10.00am to 5.00pm. visit us in person or explore the online catalogue. Access to special collections is available by appointment.

Jacklyn Young is Librarian (Collections), QAGOMA

Featured image: Preliminary sketches for Hi inlander 1998 and the work

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Loma Lautour: A rebellious spirit

 
Posted by Jacklyn Young   ●   25 Feb 2020

Known for her versatility as an artist, her work ethic and her unconventional lifestyle, Loma Lautour is an eccentric and engaging personality in Australian art history. Living a bohemian existence in Sydney’s artist community during the 1920s and 30s, she established herself as a talented sculptor, jeweller, modeller, printmaker and craft-worker.

Loma Lautour

Thought to be Loma Lautour and Deetje Andriesse in their Sydney studio c.1937 / Loma Lautour scrapbook 1935-53 / Gift of Miss Cecilia McNally / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library

Loma Lautour c.1930s-40s / Gift of Miss Celia McNally / Loma Lautour scrapbook 193553 / Gift of Miss Cecilia McNally / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library

Loma Lautour draped in one of her embroidery pieces made of fine silver wire sewn, with coloured silks, c.1940s / Loma Lautour scrapbook 1935-53 / Gift of Miss Cecilia McNally / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library

Loma Kyle Turnbull was born in 1902 at Mellool Station, Moulamein, in the Riverina district of New South Wales. When her mother died the following year, Loma was sent to England to be raised by relatives. Following her return to Australia at the age of 12, she changed her surname to ‘Lautour’ after her maternal great-great-grandfather, General Peter Lautour.

At 24, Loma Lautour married Raymond Lindsay, the son of artist Norman Lindsay (1879–1969), and enrolled at the East Sydney Technical College, where she was taught by sculptor Rayner Hoff (1894–1937) and influenced by Jacob Epstein (1880–1959). After completing the course, she divided her time between exhibiting, teaching and adapting her skills to industrial arts, working for companies such as Mashman Bros Pottery at Chatswood in Sydney.

Loma Latour ‘Nirvana’ 1936

Loma Latour, Australia 1902-64 / Nirvana 1936 / Earthenware, modelled buff clay with clear glaze / 20 x 13.5 x 17cm / Gift of Mrs Violet M. Bennett 1994 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Estate of the artist

Loma Lautour with a selection of her modelling work during the 1930s. The bust second from the right, top shelf, is Les Suich, The Bulletin artist / Loma Lautour scrapbook 1935-53 / Gift of Miss Cecilia McNally / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library

Photograph of Untitled [Nude girl with hands behind her back] held in the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery Collection / Loma Lautour scrapbook 1935-53 / Gift of Miss Cecilia McNally / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library
Although it was not common in Australia for artists to work for commercial potteries, Lautour was more pragmatic, stating: ‘Chameleons may live on air and poets on love and kisses . . . but artists – call us prosaic if you like – need something more substantial’ (Pix, 1 March 1941). She found that ‘there is a steady living in sculpture provided you do what employers ask . . . [and make] something which will appeal to the general public’ (Woman, 25 July 1938).

Despite working in various forms of the industrial arts to earn a living during the 1930s, Lautour also exhibited with the Society of Artists, the Royal Art Society and the Woman’s Industrial Society. In 1936, the Art Gallery of New South Wales purchased The Egoist c.1936, her glazed earthenware bust of George Bernard Shaw.

Loma Latour ‘Brooch’ 1951

Loma Latour, Australia 1902-64 / Brooch 1951 / Silver wire, hand wrought and constructed / 3.3 x 6.2 x 1cm / Gift of Mrs Agnes Richardson 1996 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Estate of the artist

After World War Two, and the death of her second husband, Lautour moved to Brisbane in 1950, where her jewellery-making brought her prominence. She exhibited with the Royal Queensland Art Society, the Half Dozen Group of Artists, and the Moreton Galleries; and well-known Brisbane antique dealer Cecilia McNally sold her distinctive, contemporary jewellery. Lautour bought a waterfront acreage on Stradbroke Island, where she lived until her death in 1964.

The Queensland Art Gallery purchased Loma Lautour’s undated sculpture, Negro head, in 1953, and holds two of her ceramic works and three pieces of jewellery.

Jacklyn Young, Librarian (Collections), QAGOMA

QAGOMA Research Library

The QAGOMA Research Library is located on Level 3 of the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). Open to the public Tuesday to Friday 10.00am to 5.00pm. visit us in person or explore the online catalogue. Access to special collections is available by appointment.

Featured image: Loma Lautour’s workshop, where she is seen with examples of her jewellery. Visible in the picture is the medal she made for Pope Pius IV / Loma Lautour scrapbook 1935-53 / Gift of Miss Celia McNally / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library

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Art of giving: Library collections

 
Posted by Jacklyn Young   ●   6 Jan 2020

Special collections in your art library are important to the development and maintenance of our cultural heritage. The QAGOMA Research Library’s special collections are a treasure-trove of unique and rare items that can inspire and enrich, support scholarship and engage artists, visitors, researchers and students. Collecting these items is often only possible through a creative partnership with a generous donor.

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the QAGOMA Foundation, we gratefully acknowledge the benefactors who have donated to the Research Library through the Foundation: James C. Sourris AM / Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Foundation for the Arts / Patrick Corrigan AM / Estate of Marion Smith / Dr Caroline Turner AM / Dr Caroline Turner AM in memory of Jonathan Mane-Wheoki / Martin Wardrop / Timothy Roberts

Many of our important resources, acquired through the generosity of these Foundation members, have featured in major exhibitions at the Gallery, such as ‘Charles Blackman: Lure of the Sun’, ‘We can make another future: Japanese Art after 1989’, ‘Surrealism: The Poetry of Dreams’ and ‘Matisse: Drawing Life’.

The James C. Sourris AM Collection in ‘Matisse: Drawing Life’ 2011

The Patrick Corrigan AM Collection of Australian Exhibition Catalogues is a unique group of items that Mr Corrigan accumulated over the last three decades and generously donated to the Library. The catalogues span nearly 120 years, beginning with the famous 1898 exhibition of Australian art held at Grafton Galleries in London. His gift, together with the donation of rare Australian art books from the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Foundation for the Arts, including several limited editions, and a gift of 200 books and exhibition catalogues on Indigenous art and artists from the late Martin Wardrop, have significantly enhanced the Library’s holdings on Australian art.

The rare book collection gifted by the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Foundation for the Arts

Charles Blackman’s Buderim Mt Sketchbook: Civilization versus Eden, dated 1984 — gifted to the QAGOMA Research Library through the Foundation by the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Foundation for the Arts — and the correspondence between Ian Fairweather and Marion Smith, dated 1955-73 — donated by the Estate of Marion Smith — are resources that afford us a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the lives and practices of these Australian artists. A selection of the Fairweather letters were included in a new book, Ian Fairweather: A Life in Letters (Text Publishing, 2019), edited by Claire Roberts and John Thompson, and supported by the Australian Research Council, QAGOMA, and QAGOMA Foundation Committee member and former Gallery trustee Philip Bacon AM.

Charles Blackman ‘Buderim Mt Sketchbook: Civilisation versus Eden’ 1984

Charles Blackman, Australia b.1928 / Buderim Mt Sketchbook: Civilisation versus Eden (detail) 1984 / Full (faux) black leather sketchbook with gilt borders and red endpapers / 1 v.; ill. (some col.) / Gift of the Josephine Ulrich and Win Schubert Foundation for the Arts through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2013. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library / © Charles Raymond Blackman 1984/Copyright Agency

Letter from Ian Fairweather to Marion Smith, Bribie Island 1959

Letter from Ian Fairweather to Marion Smith, Bribie Island, June 8 [1959] / Transcript: Bribie June 8 [1959] / Gift of the Estate of Marion Smith through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2013 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library / ©Ian Fairweather 1959/DACS/Copyright Agency

Pages from the album of Ethel Fairweather

Pages from the album of Ethel Fairweather showing a photograph of her brother Ian, pressed flowers and photographs of the island of Sark, where the Fairweather family holidayed c.1908 / India and Channel Islands: Fairweather Photograph Album 1898–1908 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library / © QAGOMA

The James C. Sourris AM Collection of Rare Books featured in the ‘Matisse: Drawing Life’ and ‘Surrealism: The Poetry of Dreams’ exhibitions. One of the most impressive and iconic of all the surrealist periodicals, Minotaure, is a particular highlight of this collection. Minotaure emphasised the interaction between the visual arts, literature and science, and boasts an impressive list of contributors, including Hans Arp, Balthus, Georges Bataille, Hans Bellmer, Brassaï, André Breton, Marc Chagall, Giorgio de Chirico, Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp,  Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Aldous Huxley, Carl Jung, Wassily Kandinsky, Jacques Lacan, Man Ray, René Magritte, Andre Masson, Henri Matisse, Roberto Matta, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Raymond Queneau and Diego Rivera.

Surrealist related material from the James C. Sourris AM Collection

The Library has an extensive collection of Asian and Pacific art resources. Dr Caroline Turner AM, former deputy director of the Queensland Art Gallery, has generously helped us to acquire a complete collection of Kiroku — a photo-journal created by renowned Japanese photographer Daido Mariyama — and key resources on Pacific art in memory of Jonathan Mane-Wheoki. Timothy Roberts’s gift of a Thos Pringle photograph album of Māori women and a limited-edition book on Louis Vuitton designed by Takashi Murakami have also added to the diversity of material held in this collection.

Images of Kiroku by Daido Moriyama, gifted by Dr Caroline Turner AM, and installed in ‘We Can Make another Future: Japanese Art After 1989’.

QAGOMA Research Library

The QAGOMA Research Library is located on Level 3 of the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). Open to the public Tuesday to Friday 10.00am to 5.00pm. visit us in person or explore the online catalogue. Access to special collections is available by appointment. 

Jacklyn Young, Librarian (Collections), QAGOMA

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Ian Fairweather: A life in letters

 
Posted by Jacklyn Young   ●   22 Oct 2019

Once you’re famous there’s just no way to keep your letters out of the hands of the curious! Letters give us a humanising insight into the private world of an artist. They can provide a glimpse into their daily life, travel, friendships, moments of joy and despair as well as their creative process — that’s why we love to read them. And there’s a strange pleasure too in seeing the handwriting of an artist that we admire.

Pages from the album of Ethel Fairweather

Pages from the album of Ethel Fairweather showing a photograph of her brother Ian, pressed flowers and photographs of the island of Sark, where the Fairweather family holidayed c.1908 / India and Channel Islands: Fairweather Photograph Album 1898–1908 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library / © QAGOMA

Testimony of friendship: The letters of Ian Fairweather to Marion Smith

After leaving the peaceful English Channel island of Jersey where renowned artist Ian Fairweather (1891-1974) was raised, his life was characterised by travel and turbulence until he settled on Bribie Island off the north coast of Brisbane, Queensland, at the age of 61. During the next two decades, the famously reclusive artist frequently corresponded with friends and family and many of his letters survived, including those he wrote to Marion Smith which are now held in the QAGOMA Research Library.

Marion Smith (1938-2008) was born in Sandgate in Brisbane and after living in Deagon, Red Hill and New Farm in Brisbane, she moved to Paddington in Sydney. She worked as a stenographer at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, and helped Fairweather type the manuscript for The Drunken Buddha (University of Queensland Press, 1965), his English translation of a popular Chinese tale which he illustrated with his paintings. Smith visited the artist on Bribie Island and through that initial contact, they became penfriends.

Ian Fairweather painting at Bribie Island

Robert Walker, Australia 1922–2007 / Ian Fairweather (from ‘Hut’ series) 1966, printed 2006 / Gelatin silver photograph / 39.8 x 29.3cm / Purchased 2007. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Robert Walker/ Copyright Agency, 2019

Marion Smith

Photograph of Marion Gwendolyn Smith from her British Passport, Commonwealth of Australia, issued in Brisbane, 2 July 1959 / Image courtesy: Eugenie Law-Smith

As well as being a testimony to their friendship, the letters shed light on Fairweather’s personality, his day-to-day existence on Bribie Island and his sadness as Bribie changes with the opening of the bridge connecting it to the mainland, his enduring love of nature, fascination with the Chinese language, reading habits, quirky and quarrelsome nature, and his evolution as a painter.  The letters between the two friends are at times poignant, funny, troubling and occasionally, a heartbreaking read.

Read a selection of 23 letters and their transcripts from Fairweather to Smith

Letter from Ian Fairweather to Marion smith, Bribie Island, June 8 [1959] / Gift of the Estate of Marion Smith through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2013 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library / © Ian Fairweather/ DACS/ Copyright Agency

Letter from Ian Fairweather to Marion Smith, Bribie Island, c.1955 / Gift of the Estate of Marion Smith through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2013 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library / © Ian Fairweather/ DACS/ Copyright Agency

Envelope addressed by Ian Fairweather to Marion Smith, Deagon, postmarked 25 June 1956 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library / © Ian Fairweather/ DACS/ Copyright Agency

Ian Fairweather: A Life in Letters

Ian Fairweather: A Life in Letters includes 354 transcripts from the 700 known letters written by Fairweather. Given the Fairweather’s solitary and singular life his dedication to correspondence can be seen as a paradox and a form of communication that best suited his choice of lifestyle. A Life in Letters (Text Publishing, 2019), edited by Claire Roberts and John Thompson was supported by the Australian Research Council, QAGOMA, and former Gallery trustee Philip Bacon AM

QAGOMA Research Library

The QAGOMA Research Library is located on Level 3 of the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). Open to the public Tuesday to Friday 10.00am to 5.00pm. visit us in person or explore the online catalogue. Access to special collections is available by appointment.

Feature image detail: Letter from Ian Fairweather to Marion Smith

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