Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 8 : Pressclippings, 1977-1981

A Physics lecturer at the University of Queensland, Dr John Steele, has just published the first attempt et a catalogue of art works by Conrad Martens. Conrad Martens, one of Australia', best known colonial artists, worked 11 artist on the 811ag/11 with Charles Darwin, prior to settling in Sydney in 1836, Dr Steele's book, Conrad Martens in Ou11ensl•nd, concentrates on a five-month vi1lt Martens paid 10 Brisbane and southern Queensland In 1861, 1katchlng country lha1 had no1 long been open for selllemant, Dr Steele, a 11nlor lac1urar who ha also qualified es an Anglican priest, 11 an ••Plrt on the areas of southea11 Ouaen1land vislled by Marten,. He ha, previously published two historical book, with the University of Oueen,land Preu, both concerned with the earlv hl1tory of this state. Dr Steele • aid that he first became lntare11tc1 in hil!ory during two years of POii-doctorai lludv overseas. "I reallaad how well documented local hi1tory wn In California and Ontario and felt that something similar 1hould be dona for Brisbane. "The great need now l1 to study Dr John StHlt1 picturtld ar thtl 11xhibition. the period between 1842 and the arrival of new settlers and the 1epar– atlon of the colonv from New South Wales In 1869. "With mv first books on ••Plorers and convicts I simply P•thered documents which were falrlv well deflnad. "However with work on the free •ttlers there Is a wide range of primitive sources end not being a full– time historian, I don't have time to sift through everything. "One reason I did Martens was that it will at 11111 cover some ground and may be Iha first of several books on that period." Dr Steele said 1h11 other historians prefer 10 call him an anliquarlan rather than a historian. He describes his approach to hil!ory as scientific, trying 10 find out what 1he facts really ware than making a value judgement. He said 1ha1 lhe work on Conrad Martens was very much a detective exercise. "The material as well II being In public llbrarl11 and public a" collect– ion, throughout Australia w111catter– ed In private hands ovar••· "I found nlna of his watercolour Plllntln{ll in England In the PO-Ion of the daandlnt of an -Iv IQUltter. A 1lgnlflcant feature of tha book is the comparison of a number of Ma"en's works with Prnant-dav photographs, graphically Illustrating how the topography has or has not been affectad by • century and a quarter of European hebilation. "I approached Iha book as an ••arcisa In topographical hl11ory and it turned out also 10 be an art book," he uplained. Illustrated by more than a hundred flna pencil sketches and 16 watercolours, the na,ratlve bv Dr Steele reconnruct1 Marten's journev, giving an eyewitness account of a vllal phase in early Aunrallan sa11lemen1. Coincid ing with lhe publication of lhis book by Iha University of Queensland Preu Is an exhibition at lhe ,Qysenslaod Art Gallacx Conr,d Marten, in OuHml•nd. ~ The exhibition was operoed on November 22 bv Mr Ju11ice W.B. Campbell, Chancellor of the Univer– sity of Queensland and Iha Chairman of Governo~ of the Utah Foundation. The Utah Foundation made a grant of $3,000 to the University of Queensland Prest towards the publish– ing of the book. The 8Khibition has been IUPPOrt· ed by the Utah Foundation and works of art have been loaned from the collection, of the Mitchell end Di•son.raries, the Di•son Galler– ies, Sy~• the National Library of Australia, Canberra, the John O•lev Memoriar" Library, Brllbane, and private owners.