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

84 Under a Modern Sun: Art in Queensland 1930s–1950s 85 MARGARET OLLEY Margaret Olley’s long and successful career began in Brisbane in 1937 while she was a border at Sommerville House school for girls, where her talents were recognised by art mistress Caroline Barker. Olley enrolled briefly at the Central Technical College before moving to Sydney to study at the East Sydney Technical College, where Margaret Cilento was a fellow student. Olley graduated with first-class honours in 1945 and held her first solo exhibitions in 1948 at the Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, and Moreton Galleries, Brisbane. In 1949, Olley’s friend Anne Wienholt funded her travels to Paris where she flatted with Wienholt and Cilento and attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. The domestic scenes of French Intimists Édouard Vuillard (1868–1940) and Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947) would influence the still lifes for which Olley became best known. 1 In 1953, Olley returned to Brisbane and was welcomed into the artistic fold centred around her gallerists Brian and Marjorie Johnstone. Dating from this period, Allamandas I c.1955–58 reveals Olley’s new-found appreciation for colour. The painting was included in her 1960 exhibition at the Johnstone Gallery, with reviewer Dr Gertrude Langer noting that the ‘beautifully handled blues, and objects divested of their weight establish the [painting’s] soft, dreamy mood’. 2 Olley often painted in series, and her painting Still life with kettle c.1955 (Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney) features the same checked tablecloth and tea kettle, though Olley experimented more with reflections in Allamandas I . 3 Both paintings are transitional, featuring loosely applied brushstrokes that would find fuller manifestation in paintings such as the vividly hued, expressionist Cannas 1960. Notes 1 Chris Saines, ‘Introduction’, in Michael Hawker (ed.), Margaret Olley: A Generous Life , Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2019, p.15. 2 Gertrude Langer, ‘Show by M. Olley’, Courier-Mail , 9 October 1960. 3 Glenn R Cooke, QAGOMA research files. Margaret Olley , Allamandas I c.1955–58