"Butterflies Path" by Charles Blackman
Currently lives in Sydney
1976-2001 - Lived and painted in NSW, Queensland, WA
1975 - Occupied Australian studio, Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris
1966-74 - Lived and painted in Sydney
1965 - Tour of northern France and Flanders
1960-64 - Travelled and studied overseas after winning Helena Rubinstein
Scholarship. Lived and painted in London, exhibited at Whitechapel and
Tate Galleries
1950s - Painted Schoolgirl series, followed by Alice in Wonderland series
1945-60 - Lived and painted in Melbourne
1943-46 - Studied East Sydney Technical College
1928 - Born Sydney, Australia
Blackman,
born in Sydney, left school at thirteen (some sources say fifteen) and
worked as an illustrator with the Sydney Sun newspaper while
attending night classes at East Sydney Technical College (1943-46). He
came to notice following his move to Melbourne in the mid-1940s, where he
became friends with becoming friends with Joy Hester and John Perceval as
well as gaining the support of critic and art patron John Reed. His work
met critical acclaim through his early 'Schoolgirl' and 'Alice' series,
the latter Blackman's conception of Lewis Carroll's most famous character.
For some time while painting the 'Alice' series, Blackman worked as a cook
at a cafe run by fellow artist Mirka Mora. Blackman married the poet
Barbara Patterson in 1951.
In 1959 he was a signatory to the Antipodean Manifesto, a statement
protesting the dominance of abstract expressionism. The manifesto's
adherents have been dubbed the Antipodeans Group. His work is associated
with dreamlike images tinged with mystery and foreboding. In 1960 he lived
in London after winning the Helena Rubenstein Scholarship, settling in
Sydney upon his return six years later. After twenty-seven years of
marriage, Patterson divorced Blackman in 1978 and he remarried in 1989. He
has won many prizes and distinctions, culminating in a major retrospective
in 1993 and an OBE for services to Australian art in 1997.
A portrait of Charles Blackman by Jon Molvig won the Archibald Prize in
1966. (Taken from Wikipedia.)
Charles Blackman has been involved in numerous solo and group exhibitions around Australia as well as London and Tokyo. His major retrospective was at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1993 entitled 'Charles Blackman: Schoolgirls and Angels.
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Awards
1997 - OBE
1963 - Georges Invitation Art Prize, Georges Gallery Melbourne (one
painting and one drawing)
1960 - Helena Rubinstein Scholarship, Melbourne
1960 - George Crouch Prize, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery
1960 - Wins prize. A. Shore, The
Age (February)
1958 - George Crouch Prize, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery
1958 - Rowney prize, Richmond Gallery Melbourne
Collections
National Gallery of Australia, and all state galleries
Numerous regional galleries and university collections