42. CHARLES BLACKMAN
Although Charles Blackmans first exhibition took place in the modest surroundings of his suburban Melbourne studio in 1952, the evocative works which he was to paint in the early years of his career would set him on a trajectory leading to future critical success and popular adulation.
Commenting on Blackmans 1952 exhibition, Alan McCulloch stated that Blackman had produced a large quantity of serious work at an age when most artists have not even approached their formative period. McCulloch went on to observe that the curiously evocative quality of nearly all Blackmans painting could easily carry this artist on to a very special place in the Australian art of our time.1
McCullochs prescient observations stress the potent imagery of the artists work, the enigmatic subjects of which can be difficult to apprehend, because, as with the current painting, they appear to be literally running away.
Examples from the mid-1950s such as the present work, The Flower Cart, maintain a tension between intense observation and restless movement, qualities which are seemingly embodied by the artist himself. Blackmans friend, Barrett Reid, was to describe him as a generous, quick and tender spirit who never sits still.2
Blackmans restless energy extended to numerous exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne during the 1954-1955 period, with the artist spending time in both Victoria and Queensland.3 It was during this period that Blackman began what he called his paper paintings, for which he used large pieces of lithographic paper for reasons of portability and economy. For an individual who didnt drive a car until he was 40, practical concerns such as this were key.4
While in works of similar composition, such as The Cigarette Shop (Running Home) 1954 in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, and Skipping Girl 1954, Blackmans powers of observation extend to fleeing figures set against painstaking depictions of advertising hoardings, in The Flower Cart 1954-55 the artist provides a more impressionistic backdrop.
The comparative simplicity of the current works composition is relieved by the artists rendering of the flower cart itself, which forms something akin to a floral sight screen. The bright colours of the flowers merge and blend, blurring at the right hand side as if to emphasise the movement of the lone figure in its flight.
As with many of Blackmans paintings, the central figure of The Flower Cart is solitary, faceless and ambivalent, a suburban will-o'-the-wisp who threatens to disappear into the surrounding environment and out of the viewers gaze forever.
However, for all the fugitive and solitary qualities of this fleeting presence, the warm palette employed by the artist in this work imbues it with a sense of light, playfulness and radiance. While in some of the artists other works the central figures flight takes on a more menacing aspect, in The Flower Cart the girl appears to be moving towards a place of comparative safety, rather than dashing into the unknown.
In this seminal early career painting, Blackman captures a seemingly mundane moment, transforming it into a powerful exploration of colour and movement and infusing it with complex emotional undertones.
1. Shapcott, T., The Art of Charles Blackman, London, Andre Deutsch, 1989, p.9
2. ibid., p.7
3. St John Moore, F., Charles Blackman: Schoolgirls and Angels, Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria, p.133
4. Shapcott, p. 18; St John Moore, p. 18.
Anne Phillips BA (Hons), MA