Design and Art Australia Online

Painter and printmaker, husband of Dora Chapman , worked as a display officer assisting with Aboriginal display at Australian Museum, Sydney, in the 1940s. Combined with meeting Charles P. Mountford, this provided a new direction in his art. He created paintings using flattened forms, reduced colours and Aboriginal designs, e.g. Aboriginal design c.1946, oil pastel, ink wash on paper (AGSA) and NGA monoprints of native figure with spear and mimiprints 1949. In 1948 he produced a folio of six signed artist’s prints in edition of 150, introduced by Clive Turnbull (item 4350 Antique Bookshop, 1998). He also experimented with the printmaking techniques of clichè verre (ground glass), e.g. The Reptile 1948 (NGA). In 1950 he collaborated with film maker Malcolm Otton and poet Roland Robinson on the short film Wirritt Wirritt about an Aboriginal legend, sold to Dept of the Interior.

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Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1996

Last updated:

2007