“Well, well! What an unenviable job judging must be!” — dissenting reports from the 1947 Travelling Scholarship and Art School Prizes

Mihai Bacaran   

The Judges’ Report in the 1948 issue of DAUB —  consists of two conflicting assessments of the work submitted by students for the Travelling Scholarship and the National Gallery Art School Prizes for 1947.^[1] Three of the judges: Douglas Dundas, Eric Thake and the then director of the National Gallery of Victoria, Daryl Lindsay, sign a report that praises the welcomed diversification of techniques, a trend that encourages “a freer expression of thought in all mediums.” The fourth judge, Alice M. E. Bale, the only woman in the judging panel, concludes in a dissenting report that: “the experimentalizing commended by the other judges is premature,” and recommends that the students should first gain “a sound knowledge of natural appearances and the ability to render them.” This dispute is representative of a larger antagonism between the modern and traditional ways of painting, and their respective supporters which extends beyond the doors of the Art School, to the status of modern art in mid-century Melbourne in collecting institutions, the university and the wider public sphere. Such is the controversy, that the results of the competition generate articles in Melbourne newspapers, for example “Modernist” Picture Wins £900  (The Argus, Melbourne, Vic.: Fri 19 Dec 1947, Page 3) and Problem in Art Awards (The Argus, Melbourne, Vic.: Sat 20 Dec 1947, Page 43).

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Priestley’s Penguins

Andrew Fuhrmann

There’s no doubt that Raymond Priestly (1886-1974) had a fondness for penguins. Open any of the fourteen volumes of his Australian diaries (1935-1938) and there they are on the inside cover. The personal bookplate of the eminent geologist and Antarctic explorer depicts an icy scene in bold black and white with a fur seal surrounded by four rather stout penguins. Continue reading “Priestley’s Penguins” →

‘Daub’ 1947, 1948 and 1949: The Magazine Produced by Students of the National Gallery of Art School

Daub was a magazine written and illustrated by students of the National Gallery of Art School, now the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) in the 1940s.[1] Then located in the State Library of Victoria building, painting instruction for the School took place in a long, light bathed studio overlooking Little Lonsdale Street in the city[2]. The 3^rd edition of the student magazine published annually from 1947 till 1961, DAUB (1949) is one object in the 44 boxes of the Lucy Kerley collection, which spans 9.42 kilometres. Generously illustrated with artworks, stories and poems by the current students, these documents are a rich source of the juvenilia produced by Melbourne’s artists of the 1940s and they give a glimpse into the life of the Art School and its students in the bustle of post-war Melbourne. Continue reading “‘Daub’ 1947, 1948 and 1949: The Magazine Produced by Students of the National Gallery of Art School” →

The beginnings of a brilliant career

Catherine Nunn

Daub is a student art magazine which records the first steps in the artistic careers of some of Australia’s most important artists. Several articles reflect the challenges of life at the School and the torment of the creative process, but they also record the self-awareness of these young artists about their place in the Western art lineage and their commitment to progressing contemporary art[1].

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What changes? What makes an artist?

Diana Tay

For a conservator, troubles begin, as troubles often do, in a collection, a museum or perhaps, in an archive. Materials change, degrade and then, comes the worry that we’ll lose a piece of history or a moment in time. However, the powers of digitisation have made many collections accessible today in what appears to be a visual freezing of time. In fact, as in fiction, this desire has continued for as long as collections continue to grow – our desire to have and to hold for as long as possible[i]. As an unsuspecting conservator browsing thorough DAUB (1949)[ii], a student art magazine by the National Gallery Art School, I found that it set off these reflections on time and artists. The materiality of time was evident in the thirty yellowed pages of drawings and articles printed in monochrome blue ink. Working with contemporary artists as part of my profession but recalling the saying that reading a book is like looking into someone’s mind, I found myself exploring how these student writings, particularly the more humourous or ironic notes and cartoons in the magazine, resonate nearly seventy years later. Continue reading “What changes? What makes an artist?” →