QAG-2015-21

LURE of THE SUN: Charles Blackman in Queensland page 35. Analysis of five Charles Blackman paintings from the Queensland Art Gallery Collection, dated 1951 to 1961, has allowed conservation staff to begin to understand the paint technology available to the artist at this specific time and his resulting choices of paint media. Both are important factors in authenticating artworks, as well as understanding how an aged painting should appear. Such research also assisted conservators in important decision-making about the care and treatment of artworks in preparation for this exhibition. During the late 1940s and 1950s, many painters explored the use of non-artist’s paints. In Australia, modern art was not commercially popular, and contemporary artists were often poor. Due to restrictions imposed during wartime, artist’s paints were expensive and in limited supply. Like many of his contemporaries, Charles Blackman explored the hardware store for art materials, and when he started painting, around 1949, he used tins of commercial and homemade paints on cardboard and masonite supports. 1 New commercial house-paint products were on the market at this time and were advocated by high-profile artists such as Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock. 2 Sidney Nolan was well known for his use of oil-based, Ripolin-branded enamel paint from the early 1940s, 3 which influenced younger artists like Blackman in his exploration of luminous colour, while Ian Fairweather used water-based house paints from the mid 1950s due to his allergy to turpentine. 4 The 1950s also saw an immense exchange of technical information among artists. Blackman describes his relationship with Arthur Boyd as an apprentice to a master, learning to make his own paint from Boyd. 5 Blackman talks of the joy of accompanying John Perceval on outdoor painting days in Williamstown, in Melbourne, and how this influenced technical aspects of his ‘Alice in Wonderland’ series. 6 Laurence Hope, Len French, Clifton Pugh, Danila Vassilieff and Robert Dickerson were also paint collaborators, 7 as were the group of seven painters (and one art historian) forming the Antipodeans. 8 According to Barbara Blackman, members of the tight-knit group of the Antipodeans were more ‘motivated by a wish to make a public expression of many years of mateship, than a statement about art’, 9 and this mateship involved strong relationships founded on technical expression. CHARLES BLACKMAN’S HOUSE PAINTS: ICY BLUES AND BLOOD REDS Anne Carter The bouquet (detail) 1961 Oil and enamel on composition board / 120.5 x 56cm / Purchased 1996. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery