Under a Modern Sun: Art in Queensland 1930s–1950s

149 City life 148 Under a Modern Sun: Art in Queensland 1930s–1950s CHARLES BLACKMAN Queensland would prove rich stimulus for Sydney-born painter Charles Blackman, connecting him with likeminded artists and writers with whom he forged enduring friendships. Blackman left school at 13, accepting a cadetship with Sydney’s Sun newspaper where he worked as a copy boy and then in the art department while attending evening classes at East Sydney Technical College. Resigning from the newspaper in 1948, Blackman hitchhiked to Brisbane where he met the artists of the Miya Studio, a breakaway group of younger painters, including Laurence Hope and Laurence Collinson, who railed against the conservatism of Brisbane’s art scene and the lack of social commentary in the work of established artists. The closely affiliated Barjai writers, including Collinson and poets Barrett Reid and Barbara Patterson, who became Blackman’s muse and wife, were formative influences. Significantly, Blackman saw Sidney Nolan’s series of paintings based on shipwreck survivor Eliza Fraser at Brisbane’s Moreton Galleries in 1948 and was inspired by Nolan’s naive, expressionist style. In 1951, Blackman and Patterson moved to Melbourne and, following their marriage, made annual trips to Brisbane see Barbara’s mother and visit poet Judith Wright and her husband Jack McKinney on Tamborine Mountain. Interior view, Spring Hill Brisbane 1951 and (Self-portrait in front of a boarding house, Spring Hill) 1951 (pp.150–1) date from this period and reveal Blackman’s appreciation for Brisbane’s distinctive architecture. As he later recalled: I especially liked the Spring Hill sort of slanting, slatting latticed timber houses . . . I still have terribly clear pictures of those sort of tropical nights; we use to play jazz records staring out into the crazy landscape. 1 Notes 1 Charles Blackman, quoted in Thomas Shapcott, Focus on Charles Blackman , University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1967, p.13. Charles Blackman , Interior view, Spring Hill Brisbane 1951