Charles Blackman | |
|---|---|
| Born | Charles Raymond Blackman (1928-08-12)12 August 1928 Sydney, Australia |
| Died | 20 August 2018(2018-08-20) (aged 90) Sydney, Australia |
| Education | East Sydney Technical College |
| Occupation | Painter |
| Known for | Alice in Wonderland series |
| Political party | Antipodeans |
| Spouse(s) | Barbara Patterson Genevieve de Couvreur Victoria Bower |
| Children | 6 |
Charles Raymond BlackmanOBE (12 August 1928 – 20 August 2018)[1] was an Australian painter, noted for theSchoolgirl, Avonsleigh andAlice in Wonderland series of the 1950s. He was a member of theAntipodeans, a group of Melbourne painters that also includedArthur Boyd,David Boyd,John Brack,Robert Dickerson,John Perceval, andClifton Pugh. He was married for 27 years to author, essayist, poet, librettist and patron of the artsBarbara Blackman.[2]
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Blackman, born 12 August 1928 inSydney, left school at 13 and worked as an illustrator withThe Sun newspaper while attending night classes atEast Sydney Technical College (1943–46) though was principally self-taught. He was later awarded an honorary doctorate. He came to notice following his move toMelbourne in the mid-1940s, where he became friends withJoy Hester, John Perceval andLaurence Hope as well as gaining the support of critic and art patronJohn Reed. His work met critical acclaim through his earlySchoolgirl andAlice series, the latter Blackman's conception ofLewis Carroll's most famous character. For some time while painting the Alice series, Blackman worked as a cook at a café run by art dealer Georges Mora and his wife, fellow artistMirka Mora.
In 1959 he was a signatory to theAntipodean Manifesto,[3] a statement protesting against the dominance ofabstract expressionism. The manifesto's adherents have been dubbed the Antipodeans Group.
Blackman's own work is associated with dreamlike images tinged with mystery and foreboding. In 1960 he and his family lived in London after Blackman won aHelena Rubenstein travelling scholarship, settling in Sydney upon his return five and a half years later.[4] In 1970 he moved to Paris, when awarded an atelier studio in theCité internationale des arts. He lived there for a year at the same time asJohn Coburn, and subsequently returned often, as Paris was for him a lasting source of inspiration.
After 27 years of marriage, Blackman divorced his wife Barbara in 1978, largely because of his alcoholism. He married the young artist Genevieve de Couvreur, a 19-year-old friend of his children.[5] She divorced him after eight years, as his alcoholism grew deeper, and in 1989 he married a third wife, Victoria Bower, whom he also later divorced. He had six children, Auguste, Christabel, Barnaby,Beatrice, Felix and Axiom, most of them artists and musicians in their own right.[citation needed]
Blackman's accountant and close friend, Tom Lowenstein, set up the Charles Blackman Trust to manage his affairs. Lowenstein periodically sold off Blackman's works to pay his expenses.[6] He lived with dementia in a rented home in Sydney.[7] On 20 August 2018, a week after his 90th birthday, he died in the aged care facility he moved into earlier that year.[8]
Blackman was appointed an Officer of theOrder of the British Empire (OBE) for services to Australian art in 1977.[9]
A portrait of Blackman byJon Molvig won theArchibald Prize in 1966.
In August 2010, the Blackman Hotel opened inSt Kilda Road,Melbourne. It features 670 digitally reproduced fine art prints by Blackman.[10]
Ursula Dubosarsky's novelThe Golden Day was directly inspired by Blackman's 1954 paintingFloating Schoolgirl,[11] which is in the collection of theNational Gallery of Australia inCanberra.[12]
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