painter, printmaker, theatrical designer and art teacher, was born on 29 November 1908 in Hobart, Tasmania. She studied art at the Hobart Technical College in 1924-27 with Lucien Dechaineux and Mildred Lovett then taught there, graduating in 'Art Graphic’ in 1930 and 'Art Plastic’ in 1932. She went to Sydney in 1932 and studied at Julian Ashton 's Sydney Art School with Adelaide Perry and Thea Proctor . Both had a profound influence on her, as is evident in her linocuts of 1933. Kingston returned to Hobart in late 1933 and resumed teaching at the college. She graduated in 'Art Applied’ in 1934 and exhibited with the Art Society of Tasmania (1929-35) before departing for study in London in 1937. There she studied stage design at the Slade School under Vladimir Polunin (the Diaghilev Company’s designer in 1937-40) and life drawing and painting at the Westminster School of Art under Bernard Meninsky and Mark Gertler. She also studied fabric design and printing at the Central School of Art and Craft. According to Butler, Kingston won the Betty Malcolm scholarship for stage and decorative painting from the University of London in 1939.
Her 1939 London Christmas card, Happy Christmas (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery [TMAG], National Gallery of Australia [NGA]), decorated with an identity card, ration book and a gas mask with a blimp in sky, was later annotated by the artist:
1939 was the only Christmas that, when I went out, I had to carry the things pictured, except the “blimp”, it was tethered outside the back fence of where I had a “bed sitter” in Adelaide Road, Chalk Farm./ Identity cards were a good thing in 1939./ The National Gallery Canberra has a print of this.
She made ballet costumes for Sadler’s Wells before returning to Sydney in 1940 on board the Strathmore . Her shipboard drawings (TMAG box 35) include a musical evening concert scene; her linocut, Ship’s Ventilator , was purchased by the AGNSW from Bloomfield Galleries in 1975.
Back at Sydney, Amie Kingston worked as a display artist for Farmers department store (1940-44) and exhibited (mainly flowers and views) with the Contemporary Art Society (1940-46), the Society of Artists (1940-47) and the Macquarie Galleries (1940-55, 1957-61). She worked extensively in theatrical design, not only making designs for the Helen Kirsova Ballet Company but also for the Sydney Conservatorium Opera School. Between 1941 and 1946 she designed 11 productions for the School, sometimes painting the scenery as well as preparing the designs. In 1948-53 she taught art at the Double Bay Design School with Dora Sweetapple and Muriel Medworth . Kingston married cartoonist Thomas Arthur Challen in 1942. She continued to teach art to children and adults for decades, retiring from teaching in 1976, then living at Elanora Heights under her married name of Challen [Challan [ sic ] acc. NGA website] until 1995. She died on 13 January 1996.
On 8 July 1941, the first season of the Kirsova Ballet opened at Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music. This debut represented the beginnings of a local, Australia-based professional ballet theatre in Sydney. Helene Kirsova, who formed the company, first visited Australia as the prima ballerina of the Monte Carlo Russian Ballet in 1936. She came with a substantial reputation, having danced with major European companies and having worked with such master choreographers as Massine and Fokine. The Kirsova Ballet was relatively short-lived in comparison with the first Melbourne professional company, established at almost the same time by Edouard Borovansky. The Kirsova Ballet ended its life as a professional company in May 1944. However, despite the brevity of its existence Kirsova’s company has an important place as the first company to extend its hand to a band of Sydney artists who aspired to ballet design. Among them were three women: Elaine Haxton , Alice Danciger and Amie Kingston. The Kirsova Ballet was a superb opportunity for Kingston, who …designed three ballets for Kirsova- Harlequin , Hansel and Gretel and Peter and the Wolf -the last being in preparation at the demise of the company. Kirsova is reported as having envisaged the ballet to Prokofieff’s music as having a 'Disney feeling’ and Kingston’s set design has a touch of Disney about it. It is flat and brightly coloured, with the decorative qualities associated with the Sydney style of the late 1940s; Kenneth Wilkinson described these qualities in 1945 as 'the natural grace and gaiety of youth’. Kingston’s work was not confined to ballet design, but Kirsova offered her a rare opportunity to work in the medium, which was her first love.
- Writers:
- Sayers, Andrew
- Date written:
- 1995
- Last updated:
- 1992
