(c) Charles Blackman. Licensed by VISCOPY Ltd, Australia
Lot 3. Charles Blackman Blog by Tim Abdallah
01Sep 2015
By Tim Abdallah, Head of Art
Reading Julian Barnes’ Keeping an Eye Open has introduced me to a painter I was vaguely aware of: Felix Vallotton, the turn of the century Swiss artist, and friend of Bonnard and Vuillard. Vallotton is a fairly obscure artist, and yet he comes alive in Barnes’ excellent book. Of particular interest to me was the clear inspiration he provided to Charles Blackman. The mood and style of Blackman’s Girl with Red Flowers is a good demonstration of the link to the curiously claustrophobic, poignant Swiss artist’s work. Blackman’s drawing and use of colour also show the debt.
Blackman’s best work, the paintings on which his reputation now rests, were painted during an intensive 10 year period beginning around 1953. The ‘Schoolgirls’ (c1954) and the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ (c 1956) are the best known paintings of the period, but around 1959, Blackman eschews all but the broadest thematic frameworks and presents the female without recourse to any iconographic or narrative program. In my opinion, these are Blackman’s best paintings. From 1960 onward, with a few exceptions, Blackman’s art is devoted to an exploration of girlhood as it transitions to womanhood. Like Vallotton, Blackman draws on an elemental theme for an extended exploration of a finite subject in order to produce paintings with infinite facets.
