Nothing is currently known of Joyce Abbott’s background or training but most likely Sydney based. She was active by 1932 as a member of the Australian Watercolour Institute and had a joint exhibition with already established Sydney illustrator and children’s book author, Pixie O’Harris at the Wynyard Book Club, Sydney, in 1937 later illustrating O’Harris’s Aboriginal theme Goolara in 1943. Abbott contributed a picture story of her own on 'The adventures of Naroo and his playmate, Kawana’ to the 2 November issue of The New South Wales school magazine of literature for our boys and girls indicating that Abbott may have travelled to Central Australia. Abbott remained a contributor until 1947.
Joyce Abbott was a finalist in the 1943 Wynne Prize and the 1944 and 1945 Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Abbott illustrated children’s books by Gladys Lister and in 1953 A booklet for Australian Museum Sydney Australian Aborigines / illustrated by Joyce Abbott ; in collaboration with Beryl Graham and F.D.McCarthy in 1953 but has no currently known work in from the late 1950s on. A scant few works in oil and on paper are listed at auction.
- Writers:
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- Date written:
- 2019
- Last updated:
- 2019
