Palms, Anzac Square is a work depicting Brisbane’s Anzac Square looking towards the War Memorial by Betty Quelhurst (17 September 1919-2008). We profile this and other Brisbane landmarks by Quelhurst in the Gallery’s Collection alongside contemporary photography for an artists viewpoint.
Focusing on recording life in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, Quelhurst mentioned about her work Palms, Anzac Square 1961 (illustrated): “When I was in Europe I was quite fascinated by the square, every city has a square, and when I came back I found that Brisbane had a square; Anzac Square. There were marvellous subjects for paintings to be found there. In fact I painted four pictures flat out there… I like this one because it leads the eye into the picture along the path, and it is decorative the way that the palms sort of branch out in the main stem from the left hand corner. It shows the life of people in the city, with people eating in the square, and walking along with their umbrellas and reading newspapers on the bench”.
Betty Quelhurst ‘Palms, Anzac Square’ 1961
Anzac Square looking towards the War Memorial 1968
Contemporaries of Quelhurst painting in Brisbane are some of the most recognised Queensland artists — such as Margaret Olley (1923-2011), Margaret Cilento (1923-2006) and John Rigby (1922-2012) — who also depicted Brisbane’s buildings in their paintings. Quelhurst however chose an environment where people met in public spaces or were at work, as with The convenience store, Breakfast Creek 1955 (illustrated) and Dry dock, South Brisbane 1962 (illustrated) built from 1876 to 87 and currently the site of the Queensland Maritime Museum.
It was the character and interaction of life in the suburbs that attracted the artist, with the focus of her work concentrated in south-east Queensland between Brisbane and Tugun, a beach-side coastal suburb of the Gold Coast where she lived for many years.
Betty Quelhurst ‘The convenience store, Breakfast Creek’ 1955
Breakfast Creek 1955 showing the convenience store and shoreline
Betty Quelhurst ‘Dry dock, South Brisbane’ 1962
South Brisbane Dry Dock 1964
Margaret Cilento ‘Old boatshed, West End, Brisbane’ 1946
John Rigby ‘Queen Street’ 1959
Margaret Olley ‘South Brisbane’ 1966
The emphasis on the holiday lifestyle of the Gold Coast had been a major interest of Quelhurst from the mid-1950s. She remarked that “the Gold Coast has a character all of its own and Surfers Paradise, with its modern outlook, offers tremendous variety for painting”.
The depiction of ‘human theatre’ has been a consistent element in the artist’s work. For all the development of the Gold Coast throughout the 1960s there are remarkably few scenes depicting life on the beach. In Winter sun – Surfers Paradise Beach 1961 (illustrated) Quelhurst skillfully portrays the reason Surfers Paradise became such an important venue for southern tourists — the winter sun.
Betty Quelhurst ‘Winter sun – Surfers Paradise Beach’ 1961
Portraits and self-portraits have been consistent in Quelhurst’s output, and portraiture was still a valid form of expression during the 1950s before abstraction became the dominant mode of artistic exploration. The self-portrait Girl in the yellow straw hat 1956 (illustrated) is her largest in scale, the figure has a solidity and strong volumetric presence, while her gaze is challenging, almost defiant. The work is evidence of the academic training she received under William Dargie at the National Gallery School, Melbourne, where Dargie imparted a strong sense of tonal values to her work.
Quelhurst was born at Laidley, a rural town in the Lockyer Valley Region near Brisbane. Her commitment to art with her career spanning several decades was a significant presence to the art scene in Queensland, including her contribution as a teacher, and her generous philanthropy through the Gallery’s Foundation.
Betty Quelhurst ‘Girl in the yellow straw hat’ 1956
Endnote
1 ‘A portrait of the Gold Coast: The art of Betty Quelhurst’. Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Surfers Paradise, 2001, p.19.
Curatorial extracts, research and supplementary material compiled by Elliott Murray, Senior Digital Marketing Officer, QAGOMA
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