Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 10 : Record of press coverage, March 1982 - May 1984

.._ The Couri e r-Mail 26 June 1982 - Saturday Mag~lne Art gallery was her elusive dream By PHYLLIS WOOLCOCK BY a happy coincidence, the oi,ening of the new Queensland .A(rt Gallery occurs in the same y~ar as the I00th anniversary of tlie birth of Vida Lahey. Few peo– ple worked harder for the further– ance of art in this state than this illy woman painter, born in Pimpa– rna, Queensland, on August 26 1~82. ' •Iri 1959, Vida Lahey wu oommiuioned towrite "Art in Qucenaland, 1859-1959." S~e wrote enthusiastically about four aorea of land adjoining the Botanic Gar– d4"1 which had been declared a 1ite for a n.- state gallery, :She died in 1968, shortly after her 86th birthday, her dream of a new Queensland Art Gallery unfulfilled. ·Although she exhibited in the company oC aome of the greats of Australian art, Vida Lahey never "front-paged" herself. s,e wu 1UOCiated mainly with her nower 1t1ldies (oil and watercolor) until 1980 wlien , her, very fine painting, "Monday ~om1ng • 1912, wu featured on the jack• et•cover of a book - "Australian Women Attists, 1840-1940" by Janine Burke. ·Unlike her later paintings, simply 1iined "V. Lahey", this early work was sisncd "F.V. Lahey" - a reminder that alie w11 called Frances Vida, after her grandfather, Francis Lahey, who brought bia family 10 Queensland in 1862. ·Although Vida's hair wa~ brown the otiginal Lahey, were red-haired and irish Francis beina born in County Cavan and hil youngest son, David (Vida's father), in tl(e neiahboring County Weat Meath. The dt1cendants of Francis have left their rre.rk on Queensland in place names a~hievement and community service. ' }$.}$.~ '.Francis established an arrowroot plan– tation and factory at Pimpama anrl Lahcy'a Arrowroot wu launched. His M!"S '"'.Cl'.e 10,like the family into the tim, ber•m1lhng industry when David opened tl!e first mill at Canungra in 1884. The mill brought in mill-workers and the Uheys had a boarding house built for their employee,. It later became the CJnun,ra Hotel. A second mill wu o~ned 1n Brisbane. · · Of David's 12 children, one died in in– fancy and a 10n wu killed in World War I. 1'1!r« arc still alive - Oswald, a one time mw1onary amona the leJ?Crs in India Mavis (Denholm) and Janie Lahey. Tw~ members of the family received the MBE - . Vida (for services to art in 1958) and Romeo, prominent in the national parks' m9vcmen1 and co-founder with the late Arth_ur Groom of Binna Burra Lodge, Lam1ngton National Park. As eldest in a large ramily, Vida never shirked family responsibilities, She was a!Jo known lo play Cupid and two broth• el'I, Eric and Bertram, both married girl! who studied art under her.. When 1bc painted "Monday Morning" depictina her sister, Esme, and helper' doing the family wuh, the household, then ,at. "Greyland(, lndoorooeilly, i1 believed, with the add1uon of live-in relations and staff, to have numbered 23! Vida had been away and was seeing a familiar routine with new eyea. She had a strong belief in the dignity of domeatic l1• bor and perhaps, like her art heroes, Char• din and Vermeer, wanted to preserve the image or an ordinary domestic scene. Any idea that she painted this picture in a spirit of feminist rebellion is denied by 1hose who knew her best. Definitely "not the Auntie Vi we knew," according to her nieces. Her family had recently sent her to Melbourne for two years' study al the Na– tional Gallery School 10 round off her studies at the Brisbane Central Technical Collcsc, Al this time, she had no reason to feel housebound, World War I both helped and held back Vida Lahey'• art. She went 10 London, one ofth~ wo~ld'1 great art centres, but her ob– Jcct 1n going there was 10 provide a home be1e for her servicemen brother& and cous– ins to come to on leave. And she was an in– defatigable war w9rker. Aner three yean of wartime London, she went 10 Paris to study and her writing ripples with excitement at being in the heartland of art. · On her first day at Colarossi'• studio. she was the first student there. Only the model, eating her roll al the stove, had ar– rived. Parisian models fascinated her, so different from models in life classes in Australia. They posed differently and 1herc were no discree1 kiminos in between poses for them. Vida had never seen such nimsy underwear! She went to a display of rhythmic exer– cises at Raymond Duncan's studio. Ray, mond was a brother of Isadora and like her punued the Lire Beautiful. Vida was not impressed to see men cavorting in Grecia n c~tumea, decided that "hairy legs and bony knees don't 'go' with Greek attire" and found the whole display "comic". Vida Lahey was to have further study and tra vels , including two rears in Tasmania, painting with her artist friend , Mildred Lovell. When she sc11led down a11in lo paint and teach in Brisbane she found a public apathetic 10 art and the Queensland Art Gallery in the doldrums . With practical d•termlnation and cour- Vida Lahey age - the difficult courage of an ,o11ttn~t y shy woman -she decided to do •oll'et hin about it. She assisted sculptor Oaphnr Mayo to establish the Queensl~1d Art Fund in 1929. This brough1 loa exhibi– tions lo Brisbane, acquired 01 , of art and es1ablishcd an art library. Vida Lahey took charge of s librarv for several years. The OAF olsa .1aved th~ 1mportu~t Darnell bequest for .he Gallery by forming a fund-raising commillee. To clo1m the $20,000 bequest a sini lar sum had lo be raised. Vida Lahey pioneered creative art class– es for children in Queensland. She taught privately and also star1ed Saturdays class, .cs for children al the Queensland Art Gal– lery in 1941. Muriel Shaw attended Lahey adult classes in the 'JOs and later helped with the children's classes, She remembers the Lahey ability to mo1iva1c a subject and make students "sec color". Wi1h children, she encouraged 1hem 10 make 1hcir own dcci~ions .all ,the lime. Copying was out and 1mag1nat1on given free rein . "She had a great apprecia tion of simple lhings, Each bunch of nowcrs seemed new lO her." , ~ida La hey, MB E, and Society of Art · 1s1s medallist, exh1b11cd in most state cap- 11als and is represented in most stale gal, leries and major publ ic collections. 1-ler work was exhibited in America at the New English Arl Club. and in the Paris International Exhibition of 19J7, She was a foundation member of lhe Contempo– rary Group and the Watcrcolor Institute Sydney, and a life member of the Rovai Queensland Art Society. She w•as a mc'm• bcr of the art advisory commillcc of the Queensland Art Gallery, 1931 -37. The QAG,owM her oil pain1ing, "Monda y Morning", ' Pllylll1 Woolcotll •l1hu lo 1tkno•ltd11 h,lp rt<tht4 r,... lht 0,1,y l.lbrary and lht hmllyol lht talt Vida 1.ahty.