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

48 Under a Modern Sun: Art in Queensland 1930s–1950s 49 Notes 1 Gwendolyn Grant, from an unattributed press clipping dated 1929, quoted in Keith Bradbury & Glenn R Cooke, Thorns and Petals: 100 Years of the Royal Queensland Art Society , Royal Queensland Art Society, Brisbane, 1988, p.76. 2 Bradbury & Cooke, pp.35, 44. 3 Bradbury & Cooke, p.81. 4 Age , 19 October 1932, p.11. 5 Arthur Streeton, quoted in Bettina MacAulay, Songs of Colour: The Art of Vida Lahey , Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1989, p.73. 6 Vida Lahey, quoted in Bradbury & Cooke, p.76. 7 Daphne Mayo, quoted in Judith McKay, ‘Art for all’, in Daphne Mayo: Let There Be Sculpture , Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2011, p.69. For information on Mayo’s role in establishing the Godfrey Rivers Trust, which saw important Australian paintings such as William Dobell’s The Cypriot 1940 enter the Gallery’s Collection, see Judith McKay, ‘Daphne Mayo’s legacy to QAGOMA’, QAGOMA , <https://collection.qagoma.qld.gov.au/ page/daphne-mayos-legacy-qagoma>, viewed February 2025. For further information on Vida Lahey’s legacy, see Jacklyn Young, ‘Vida Lahey: Queensland art advocate’, QAGOMA , 30 September 2022, <https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/stories/vida-lahey-queensland-art- advocate>, viewed January 2025. 8 Judith McKay, ‘Art for all’, pp.69–70. 9 MacAulay, p.24. 10 In 1940, Clem Christesen founded the Brisbane-based literary journal Meanjin Papers , relocating to Melbourne in 1945 at the invitation of the University of Melbourne. Christesen remained editor until his retirement in 1974, and the magazine continues to be published today as Meanjin , an editorially independent imprint of Melbourne University Publishing since 2008. See ‘About Meanjin ’, in Meanjin , <https://meanjin.com.au/about-meanjin/> , and ‘ Meanjin Papers ’, in Informit , <https://search.informit.org/journal/meanjin1 >, viewed February 2020. 11 Bradbury & Cooke, p.114. 12 ‘United States Forces in Queensland’, National Archives of Australia , <https://www.naa.gov.au/ sites/default/files/2020-05/fs-234-united-states-forces-in-queensland-1941-45.pdf>, viewed January 2025. 13 See Kylie Hadfield, ‘A road trip through wartime Queensland’, RSL Queensland , 3 August 2002, <https://rslqld.org/news/latest-news/a-roadtrip-through-wartime-queensland> , viewed January 2025; and Robert Emerson Curtis, quoted in Michele Helmrich & Ross Searle, ‘The canvas of war’, Defending the North: Queensland in the Pacific War , The University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, 2005, unpaginated. 14 Laurence Collinson, quoted in Bradbury & Cooke, p.88. 15 ‘Exhibition of war art’, Telegraph , 8 June 1943, p.3. 16 Anne McDonald, Douglas Annand: The Art of Life , National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2001, p.43. 17 ‘Art in modern manner’, Telegraph , 25 February 1945, quoted in Chris Saines & Sheryl McDonald, Vincent Brown: An Early Brisbane Modernist , Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1990, p.9. 18 This was a scaled-down version of the ‘Herald Exhibition of French and British Contemporary Art’, which had opened at the then-named National Gallery of South Australia on 21 August 1939, and toured to Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney before being placed into storage during World War Two. The Brisbane iteration, which opened on 15 August 1945 — the day the Japanese surrendered — included works by French artists such as Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, and British artists, including Paul Nash, Augustus John and Ben Nicholson, among others. 19 Gertrude Langer, quoted in Glenn R Cooke, A Time Remembered: Art in Brisbane 1950 to 1975 , Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1995, p.38. 20 Stephen Rainbird, Breaking New Ground: Brisbane Women Artists of the Mid Twentieth Century , Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Art Museum, Brisbane, 2007, p.57. 21 Rainbird, p.57. 22 In 1847, the British named the landmass Fraser Island in honour of Mrs Fraser’s husband, Captain James Fraser, who perished during the ordeal; on 7 June 2023, the Queensland Government officially reinstated the name K’gari, given to the island by its Traditional Owners, the Badtjala/Butchulla people. 23 Bradbury & Cooke, pp.120–1. 24 For more information about Barjai and the Miya Studio, see Michele Helmrich, Young Turks and Battle Lines, Barjai and Miya Studio: An Exhibition Arranged by the University Art Museum, University of Queensland, Centering Around Young Brisbane Artists of the 1940s , The University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, 1988. 25 Charles Blackman, quoted in Thomas Shapcott, Focus on Charles Blackman , University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1967, p.11. 26 Anita Callaway, ‘Margaret Cilento’, Design & Art Australia Online , 1995, <https://www.daao . org.au/bio/margaret-cilento/biography/ >, viewed January 2024. 27 Nancy Underhill, ‘Thank you Brian and Marge’, in Remembering Brian and Marjorie Johnstone’s Galleries , The University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, 2014, p.21. 28 Louise Martin-Chew, in Remembering Brian and Marjorie Johnstone’s Galleries , p.39. 29 Information provided by donor Barbara Blackman, QAGOMA research files. QAGOMA holds Molvig’s Charles Blackman 1957, which immortalises the artists’ friendship. Molvig’s Archibald Prize-winning portrait Charles Blackman 1966 is held by the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. 30 Joe Rootsey, quoted in Bruce McLean & Diane Hafner, Joe Rootsey: Queensland Aboriginal Painter 1918–63 , Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 2010, p.15. 31 Bruce McLean, ‘Joe Rootsey: Queensland Aboriginal painter 1918–63’, in McLean & Hafner, p.16. 32 Cyril Gibbs was Head of the Art School at the College, and Melville Haysom was Senior Instructor of Painting and Drawing. 33 Vida Lahey, Art in Queensland 1859–1959 , published for the Queensland Art Gallery by Jacaranda Press, Brisbane, 1959, p.36. (pp.50–1) Joe Rootsey , (Top of Howick, south of Barrow Point) (detail) 1959