Design and Art Australia Online

Kenneth Edward Roggenkamp was born in Ipswich on 30 March 1915 only son and eldest of three children born to Oswald Christopher Martin Roggenkamp and Vivienne May. Nothing is known of his childhood or early life but the family moved to Roma where his father was a pharmacist and where his sister the artist, Joy Roggenkamp (1928-99), was born. For a time during the 1940s he was a student with his sister at commercial art studio taught by P. Stanhope Hobday, the Hobday Art Studio. He served for eight years in the Royal Australian Navy 1939-48. During this time Roggenkamp accompanied Joy to North Queensland as they had a married sister living in Cairns. On one occasion, in December 1946, he, Joy and Peter Abraham, a fellow student at the Hobday Art Studio, held an exhibition at the Cairns City Council Chambers. They exhibited under the name The Yallalla (Tomorrow) Studio, which was based in the attic of the family home in Toowoong.

It was considered at that time that it was a breakaway from the Brisbane 'Miya Studio’, which is the painting outpost of the Barjai Youth Group. The work of these commercial art trained students would have been in contrast to the largely untutored members of the young group of artists:

They have done well to reject the violent and uninformed “modernism’' of the Wild Colonial Boys and Girls of Barjai, although it is to be regretted that the direction of their re volt has been back into the dead-end from which Australian painting has only recently begun to emerge – the gumtrees-and-sunshine formula which has cut out our painters from European developments for so many years ( Cairns Post , 1946).

However, the Roggenkamps, were commended for their bringing their show so far north, and encouraged to further study.

Roggenkamp could not participate in the exhibiting groups in which his much younger sister was involved but he did offer her support wherever possible and shared an exhibition with her at John Cooper’s Moreton Galleries in April 1946 – it was acknowledged that his sibling had the superior talent (Cooper, 1949). Apart from a small solo exhibition of landscapes from Southern Queensland at the Little Karma Gallery in 1951 and a joint exhibition at the Design Arts Centre in 1966 he exhibited his works at exhibitions by local art societies and prize competitions until just before his death. Little comment appeared about Roggenkamp’s work in reviews of these exhibitions but, as they were generally selected by an organising committees, they would have displayed a sound level of competence and skill.

He accompanied his sister to Jon Molvig’s art classes at St Mary’s Studio, Kangaroo Point in the mid 1950s which also had a recognisable influence on his production. During these later years Roggenkamp lived with his mother on Bribie Island where he formed a close friendship with the reclusive artist, Ian Fairweather. Roggenkamp’s portrait Mr R. (in the Queensland Art Gallery Collection) was painted by Maryke Degeus when she and Jon Molvig on one occasion were visiting Fairweather.

When Joy and his mother organised a survey exhibition of his works at the Sunnybank Galleries, Brisbane in 1979 she defended his reserve and modesty: “He was a quiet shy man who didn’t like mixing in the usual art circles and did not consider his work good enough to exhibit” ( The Courier-Mail , 1979). The critic, Dr Gertrude Langer, from the evidence of this survey gave an assessment of his career:

Ken worked somewhat isolated from the art world, and only came out with one or another painting at group exhibitions. He had contact with Jon Molvig, who saw his potential, and who must have influenced him towards a more expressionistic way of painting. His development from a more naturalistic and more commonplace vision towards the moody, introspective later work can be seen in this collection (Langer, 1979).

Writers:

Cooke, Glenn R.

Date written:

2011

Last updated:

2011