Olympic Cake 1956.
Tag Archives: 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 the series was looking dated. Penguin was trying to be less literal and more cerebral, and designer Germano Facetti had the answer. In revamping the Bard’s work, Facetti commissioned David Gentleman to create an illustrationContinue reading “Shakespeare Gentleman Illustrator”
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 Iona. In the late 1950s, my parents decided to build a brand new house in the modern style. It would be right next door to the Iona Post Office. They called it “Carlowrie” after theContinue reading “Iona House Beginnings”
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 Bryans’ Colony. Lina Bryans knocked on the door of Ada May Plante (a painter friend of Jock Frater) for some help and the reclusive artist offered Lina a room to stay for the night whichContinue reading “Lina Bryans’ Pink Colony”
Young Lina Bryans
Lina Bryans was born in Europe but her parents were Australian. Bryans was a Hallenstein whose family had made their money from a successful tannery and leather business in Melbourne. Her maternal great-grandfather, Sir Benjamin Benjamin, had been Lord Mayor of Melbourne in the 1880s. The family moved from St Kilda to South Yarra in theContinue reading “Young Lina Bryans”
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 Victoria. | Lina Bryans, Landscape Quartet, 1971, oil on canvasboard (4 panels) | What an amazing painting. And finally her last two paintings. Softly swirling pale landscape. | Lina Bryans, Cooper Meander, 1971, oil on canvas onContinue reading “Music of Lina Bryans”
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.