May Barrie, sculptor, was born in 1918 in Denmark, WA. Carving reductive biomorphic forms out of found sandstones for more than fifty years, Barrie has sharpened an ability to draw out sensual abstract forms from craggy rocks and intonate human relationships.
In 1941 Barrie completed a Diploma in Sculpture at the National Art School, Sydney. During the 1950s she studied under some of the most influential figures working at the height of the Australian Modernist period, including William Dobell, Edmund Harvey and, most influentially, her sculpture lecturer Lyndon Dadswell. Barrie also travelled extensively, often for study: in 1948 she travelled to Holland and South Africa, and since 1973 she has travelled to Europe, Afghanistan, Turkey, Greece, Yugoslavia, Italy, India, Nepal, Spain, France, Portugal, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Morocco, Mongolia, Oman and Tunisia.
In May 2009, aged in her nineties, Barrie was awarded the prestigious Balnaves Foundation Acquisitive Prize at Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi. Prior to this, in 1996, the Wollongong City Gallery staged a major retrospective exhibition in honour of her lifetime achievements.
Barrie has completed numerous commissions, including those for St Peters Church at Cremorne, NSW, in 1987; Wollongong Institute of Education, NSW, in 1974; Australian Buddhist Vihara, NSW, in 1974; Australian National University in 1973 and 1948; Fort Street Girls High School, NSW, in 1972; Beverly Hills Girls High School, NSW, in 1969; Lidcombe Scientific Laboratories, NSW, in 1968; St Luke’s Church at Liverpool, NSW, in 1964; Northern Suburbs Cemetery, NSW, in 1962; Berkeley High School, NSW, in 1962 and Fairfield Baby Health Centre, NSW, in 1960.
She is represented in the collections of the National Capital Development Commission, Australian National University, University of Wollongong and in numerous private collections.
Barrie is the mother of artist Tori de Mestre.
- Writers:
- Downer, Stella
- Date written:
- 1999
- Last updated:
- 2011
