Charles Blackman: decades of art + love

In 1953 Charles and Barbara Blackman visited Whistlewood (home of Everywhen Art) and the McCulloch family for the first time. It was the start of a friendship and ongoing correspondence between Barbara and Charles Blackman and Alan and Ellen McCulloch that lasted for many decades as their professional lives similarly interwove. We are delighted to welcome back the Blackmans presence at Whistlewood with a book signing, in conversation and exhibition which covers Charles Blackman's entire exhibiting career from 1951 to 2018.

drawings, small sculptures and edition prints by Charles Blackman from the Blackman Family Collections

Curated by Christabel Blackman + Susan McCulloch

IN CELEBRATION OF Christabel Blackman's book
Charles & Barbara Blackman: A Decade of Art & Love

DECADES OF ART + LOVE: THE EXHIBITION

As with Christabel Blackman's insightful book Charles & Barbara Blackman: A Decade of Art and Love on her parents and the Melbourne and Brisbane art worlds of the 1950s, the works by Charles Blackman in this exhibition tell a personal and moving story.

Here, direct from the Blackman Family Collections, Christabel Blackman has curated an exhibition featuring intimate works of love, longing, humour, contemplation and perception over 6 decades of her father's prolific and important career.

Highlights include:
• Rare drawings from the early 50s
• a delightful pencil on paper drawing Schoolgirl and Cat- one of Blackman's most well known subject.
•  Jardin des Plantes - a line work which captures both the abundance and detail of one Blackman's favourite Parisian gardens
• The sea and Charles' love of swimming also features in several works, such as the 2012 ink and watercolour Mermaid and Cat and La Mere. The early 1950s The Diver  sketched while visiting St Kilda Baths is one of a series that first brought Charles' work to wider attention- not least because of the controversy that erupted after Melbourne Herald art critic Alan McCulloch favourably reviewed Blackman's work- noting that his drawings showed 'power and artistry.'
•A selection of artists' proofs from the Masterwork Series of prints, produced to celebrate Charles's 90th birthday in 2018 taken from some of his most famous paintings of the 1950s and 60s.
• Two delightfully quirky and equally poignant works (being some of the last works made by Blackman just before he died in 2018) Mort and Catasauqua. These artists proofs were originally made as illustrations of the first (1987) Australian publication of Mark Twain's book A Cat-Tale. Blackman's cats pay tribute to both poet T.S Eliot's 1930s Old Possums Book of Practical Cats and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats based on Eliot's poems.

SMALL SCULPTURES

A group of small , vibrantly coloured sculptures recognises Blackman's long history with three dimensional form - seen in early figures in terracotta (in the collection of Heide Gallery) and later figures, animals and other shapes cut out of cardboard which he would assemble into a 'mis en scene' in his home and occasionally, in exhibition. The small powder coloured bronzes in this exhibition were taken from such cardboard maquettes and made in a collaboration in 2016, between Blackman and artist David Bromley who powder coloured the works with luminous colours drawn from Blackman's own palette to best suit each individual image. The original cardboard maquettes are held in the Heide Gallery Collection.