20 21 ARTLINES 3 | 2025 UNDER A MODERN SUN 1940s In Queensland, the early 1940s were marked by the social upheaval that accompanied World War Two. Brisbane’s City Hall served as ‘a hub for civil defence activities’ and the capital became host to upwards of 80,000 United States’ servicemen, while north Queensland became, in the words of official war artist Robert Emerson Curtis, ‘the frontier state in the Pacific War most vulnerable to attack’.4 Allusions to the war were scarce in exhibitions at the RQAS, causing younger artists, such as Laurence Collinson of the breakaway Miya Studio, to rail that: ‘While literally millions of starving and tortured people in Europe are breathing their last, what do we see on the walls of our local galleries? Vases of flowers’.5 The paucity of war-related artworks in this context may have been more a consequence of artists wishing to provide relief from the realities of the conflict, than a denial of its existence. In some instances, however, the war created opportunities. For example, Bustard and his Sydney-based contemporaries Douglas Annand and Max Dupain were each employed as camouflage officers for the Royal Australian Air Force. Stationed variously in North Queensland, the Torres Strait and New Guinea, their roles afforded them the chance to capture new environments. From top Vincent Brown / Back of houses, Spring Hill c.1945 / Gift of Frank and Elizabeth Grigg through the QAG Foundation 2011; and Leonard Shillam / Reclining woman 1942 / Purchased 1994 with funds from Grace Davies and Nell Davies through the QAG Foundation Opposite, clockwise from top left Sidney Nolan / Mrs Fraser 1947 / Purchased 1995 with a special allocation from the Queensland Government. Celebrating the Queensland Art Gallery’s Centenary 1895–1995; Max Dupain and Jill White / Anzac Square c.1940–45, printed 1992 / Purchased 1992; and Charles Blackman / (Self-portrait in front of a boarding house, Spring Hill) 1951 / Purchased 2011. QAG Foundation In Brisbane, artists such as Vera Leichney continued to paint in a measured style that stood in stark contrast to the paintings of Vincent Brown, who had studied in London and was familiar with the European styles of Cubism and Fauvism. With his brilliant, non-representational use of colour and his emphasis on the underlying geometry of natural and built structures, Brown’s paintings were immediately perceived as revolutionary. More revolutionary still were the expressive paintings of Melbourne artist Sidney Nolan, who travelled to Brisbane in 1947 and embarked on a series of paintings inspired the tale of Mrs Eliza Fraser, who survived a shipwreck off K’gari (referred to as Fraser Island from 1847 until 2023) in 1836. The visceral qualities of Nolan’s paintings represented a new and stimulating aesthetic that would influence the practice of artists such as Sydney painter Charles Blackman, who saw Nolan’s artworks in Brisbane at the Moreton Galleries in 1948 and would soon form his own associations with Queensland. Sculptors Kathleen and Leonard Shillam progressed contemporary styles in their practices after they established themselves on Brisbane’s bayside. Their work revealed the influence of British modernist Henry Moore, whose sculptures Leonard had encountered during his studies in England in the late 1930s, and which Kathleen had seen in Melbourne in 1948.6 Through their work, their support of younger artists, and the support they received from gallerists Brian and Marjorie Johnstone, the Shillams became Queensland’s most prominent sculptors.
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