Olympic Cake 1956.
Tag: history
Serial Suprematist
Stef studying the subtleties of Nixon’s Black cross painted in 1992.
Shakespeare Gentleman Illustrator
The first Shakespeare Penguin titles appeared in 1940. They were designed by the steadfast classicist Jan Tschichold. By the late 1960s … More
When Text is Enough
When the time came for Paul Auster’s Penguin books to be redesigned, he asked the art director to consider using a typographical rather than image based approach.
Atmospheric Content
“The pictorial idea, be it drawing, collage or photograph, will indicate the atmospheric content of the book.”
50 Shades of White
I’m noticing a trend in book design. Many shades of white.
Middlemarch Winter
“There is something in daubing a little one’s self, and having an idea of the process.”
Spooky Spirit
This little hoofed fellow is supposed to stop dead people coming out of their graves to interfere with the living.
Tree Goddess
A truly lovely tree goddess.
Alfred and Uma
Most of the fabulousness of the National Gallery of Victoria can be attributed to Mr Alfred Felton.
Ellsworth Kelly’s Facade
Shape, line and color in their purest forms.
Cézanne Seeing
When Ellsworth Kelly was a young boy, he put a print of this chesnut tree painting of Cezanne’s on his wall.
Sophie Tauber-Arp
‘The intrinsic decorative urge should not be eradicated, it is one of humankind’s deep-rooted, primordial urges.’
Iona House Green
Iona House was surrounded by our busy dairy and potato farm.
Iona House Red and Blue
Iona House in all its glorious Kodak Instamatic colour
Iona House Features
In the black and white days of the Iona House at 2060 Main Drain Road, Iona, family and possessions were falling gently into place.
Iona House Family
I contacted architect John Davidson last week and he kindly corresponded with me about the “Carlowrie” house at Iona.
Iona House Beginnings
As the grand-daughter of a Koo-We-Rup East Iona pioneer, my mother Hayden Ritson (Kavanagh) inherited all sorts of land around … More
Kavanagh and Featherstone
My great-grandparents, Owen Kavanagh and Catherine Featherstone, were early pioneers of Iona.
Swampland
I’ve always had a uneasy relationship with Australian land.
Fitzpatrick’s Drouin
Photographer Jim Fitzpatrick was an official war photographer for the Australian Information Service.
Drouin Drinkers
I spent my early years in Gippsland. The Swamp District.
Lina Bryans Richmond
Lina Bryans met a lovely architect Alex Jelinek in the 1950s and found a really large house at 39 Erin Street, Richmond.
Lina Bryans’ Pink Colony
Artists’ Colonies seem a particularly Melbourne thing in the early part of the 20th century. A dog bite was responsible for … More
Young Lina Bryans
Lina Bryans was born in Europe but her parents were Australian. Bryans was a Hallenstein whose family had made their … More
Music of Lina Bryans
In memory of Brian Finemore, Lina Bryans gave one of her major late works, Landscape Quartet, to the National Gallery of … More
Lina Bryans You-Beaut
Around the same time Lina Bryans was changing direction, there was a new generation of young curators on the scene in the Australian art world.
Independent Lina Bryans
Independent painter Lina Bryans was known for her portraits.
Eveline Syme
Modernist Eveline Syme also attended the George Bell school in Toorak, Melbourne.
Mary Cecil Allen
Melbourne born Mary Cecil Allen was a very well known artist and educator from the 1930s who after her death was another one of those ladies sidelined by art historians.
Frances Burke
Many students passed through George Bell’s art school.
Dancing and Painting
George Johnston was very positive about the state of the arts in Australia in 1966.
Football and Lifesaving
There is a big section in George Johnston and Robert Goodman’s The Australians on sport. The Sporting Life.
Hyde Park and Opera
Another chapter in The Australians by Robert Goodman and George Johnston is The Cities.
Fitzroy River and Judith Wright
In The Australians, published by Rigby Limited in 1966, Robert Goodman and George Johnston’s first chapter concerns The Land.
Robert Goodman and George Johnston
In 1962 an American photographer, Robert Goodman, conceived of an idea to produce a picture book on Australia.
Warm Australia
This ad still works 40 years later.
Far Away Australia
How about visiting the Ross River cattle station? A billy tea and damper picnic near the historic homestead.
Australian Sheilas
Ok. Well I like parrots.
Australian Ruins
Another Helvetica driven poster for the Australian Tourist Commission.