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

31 Patrons at the Queensland Art Library in George Street, Brisbane Miles Evergood , Queensland landscape (detail) c.1931–32 Resistance to innovation in painting was also notable. As authors Keith Bradbury and Glenn R Cooke have established, Miles Evergood’s gently experimental landscapes caused consternation when they were shown at Jeanettie Sheldon’s Gainsborough Gallery in 1932, despite being modestly priced in deference to the Depression. 3 Born in Melbourne, Evergood lived for many years in the United States and England before spending 1931 to 1932 in Brisbane, where he joined the RQAS and became an active member of the city’s art circles. His paintings Queensland landscape and Mount Nebo no.2 (p.104), both from this period, feature a lively and loosely applied palette that speaks equally to Queensland’s brilliant, heat-infused light and to Post‑Impressionism, recalling artworks by Australian artists Rupert Bunny and John Russell, who spent much of their working lives in Europe. In the former sense, the artworks relate to Bustard’s Summer haze 1937 (pp.29, 111) and Charles H Lancaster’s A corner of Brisbane 1937 (pp.29, 113), both shown in the RQAS’s 49th annual exhibition (at which Lancaster received the Jubilee Medal); and to the paintings of Vida Lahey, whose travels overseas during and after World War One attuned her to colour’s revolutionary potential. Like Lahey’s contemporaries, including photographers Rose Simmonds and Stanley Eutrope, she was engaged by the symbols of modern life that she observed around her. Sultry noon (Central Station, Brisbane) 1931 (p.118) exemplifies her work from the period, with the arcs of the railway terminal, train tracks and cloud formations creating visual dynamism within the composition. The developing city skyline featured in the left middle distance includes the station clock tower, the People’s Palace tower, the recently opened City Hall clock tower, and the Canberra Hotel (demolished in 1987). The view to the right depicts the old Trades Hall (demolished in 1967) and the Brisbane Gymnasium, which, prior to its demolition in 1938, sat above the rock cutting to the west of King Edward Park and Jacob’s Ladder. In October 1932, the art critic for Melbourne’s Age newspaper described Lahey’s painting as ‘a wonderfully sound and carefully considered study of tone values in full sunlight’. 4 Lahey’s still lifes also afforded her the opportunity to experiment with pattern and colour in ways that could be accommodated within acceptable limits and were recognised by her interstate peers. Arthur Streeton, for example, declared Lahey’s flower studies in her 1932 exhibition ‘an original step, and therefore a step in a new direction’. 5 The following year, Lahey was motivated to come to Modernism’s defence, prompted by the vehement opposition to innovation in art expressed in an exchange of letters to the editor of Brisbane’s Courier-Mail newspaper. In her rejoinder, she expressed the view that . . . art is not something separate from us . . . but is one of our languages; in fact, it is the only international language . . . If art, then, is a language, must it not express pictorially the tremendous change in ideas that is altering the context of the world today, and must not the search for new truths and fresh valuations find new expression in it, however jarring and discordant the result to our unaccustomed eyes? 6 Lahey’s Art and nature 1934 (pp.32, 81) — a watercolour featuring a bas relief plaster sculpted in the classical style by her friend Daphne Mayo, a burst of colour in the form of tangerine-hued Mexican sunflowers, and a book on renowned French modernist Henri Matisse — demonstrates her synthesis of traditional and contemporary approaches. In addition to Lahey and Mayo’s own work, they played leading roles in art advocacy and education in the state. In 1929, they established the Queensland Art Fund (QAF), which raised funds through public subscription towards