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{{short description|Australian artist}}
{{short description|Australian art critic, art historian and artist (1907–1992)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Use Australian English|date=January 2012}}
{{Use Australian English|date=January 2012}}
{{Infobox writer
[[File:McCulloch 1934.png|thumb|Alan McCulloch c.1934]]
| embed =
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[[File:McCulloch trapped in a bank.jpg|thumb|Drawing by Alan McCulloch of himself and his future wife c. 1938. Reproduced in McCulloch’s ''Trial by Tandem'', 1950.]]
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Alan McLeod McCulloch
| honorific_suffix = AO
| image = McCulloch 1934.png
| image_size =
| image_upright =
| alt =
| caption = Alan McCulloch c.1934
| native_name =
| native_name_lang =
| pseudonym =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1907|08|05}}
| birth_place = [[St Kilda, Victoria]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1992|12|21|1907|08|05}}
| death_place = [[Kew, Victoria]]
| resting_place =
| occupation =
| language =
| nationality = <!-- use only when necessary per [[WP:INFONAT]] -->
| citizenship = <!-- use only when necessary per [[WP:INFONAT]] -->
| education = [[Scotch College, Melbourne|Scotch College]]; [[Working Men's College, Melbourne]]; [[National Gallery of Victoria Art School]]
| alma_mater =
| period =
| genre = encyclopaedist, journalist, cartoonist, visual artist
| subject = art criticism, Australian art history, humour
| movement =
| notable_works = ''The Encyclopedia of Australian Art''
| spouse = Ellen Bromley Moscovitz (1908–1991)
| partner = <!-- or: | partners = -->
| children = Susan
| relatives = Wilfred (brother)
| awards = [[Officer of the Order of Australia]], Emeritus Medal, [[Australia Council]]
| signature =
| signature_alt =
| years_active = 1935–1991
| module =
| website = <!-- {{URL|example.org}} -->
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'''Alan McLeod McCulloch''' [[Officer of the Order of Australia|AO]] (5 August 1907 – 21 December 1992) was one of Australia's foremost art critics for more than 60 years,<ref name=":0" /> an art historian and gallery director, [[cartoonist]],<ref>Lindesay, Vane. ''The inked-in image : a social and historical survey of Australian comic art''. 1979 Richmond, Vic : Hutchinson of Australia (new edition)</ref> and painter.
'''Alan McLeod McCulloch''' [[Officer of the Order of Australia|AO]] (5 August 1907 – 21 December 1992) was one of Australia's foremost art critics for more than 60 years,<ref name=":0" /> an art historian and gallery director, [[cartoonist]],<ref>Lindesay, Vane. ''The inked-in image : a social and historical survey of Australian comic art''. 1979 Richmond, Vic : Hutchinson of Australia (new edition)</ref> and painter.


==Early Life==
==Early Life==
⚫
[[File:McCulloch trapped in a bank.jpg|thumb|Drawing by Alan McCulloch of himself and his future wife c.1938. Reproduced in McCulloch’s ''Trial by Tandem'', 1950.]]
Born in [[St Kilda, Victoria|St Kilda]] in Melbourne and brought up in [[Sydney]], Alan McCulloch had developed keen interest in art as a child. The family returned to Melbourne after his father died when McCulloch was ten. He attended [[Scotch College, Melbourne|Scotch College]] from 1920 to 1922 then went to work to support the family.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Maslen |first=Geoff |date=29 August 1991 |title=McCulloch collection a personal memorial |pages=14 |work=The Age}}</ref> He was employed in a clerical position at [[BHP]] in Melbourne, then worked as a teller with the [[Commonwealth Bank]] for eighteen years. He enrolled in night classes at the [[Working Men's College, Melbourne|Working Men's College]], and then the [[National Gallery of Victoria Art School|National Gallery School]] (1926-1935).
Born in [[St Kilda, Victoria|St Kilda]] in Melbourne and brought up in [[Sydney]], Alan McCulloch had developed keen interest in art as a child. The family returned to Melbourne after his father died when McCulloch was ten. He attended [[Scotch College, Melbourne|Scotch College]] from 1920 to 1922 then went to work to support the family.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Maslen |first=Geoff |date=29 August 1991 |title=McCulloch collection a personal memorial |pages=14 |work=The Age}}</ref> He was employed in a clerical position at [[BHP]] in Melbourne, then worked as a teller with the [[Commonwealth Bank]] for eighteen years. He enrolled in night classes at the [[Working Men's College, Melbourne|Working Men's College]], and then the [[National Gallery of Victoria Art School|National Gallery School]] (1926-1935).


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Having written a critique of [[William Dobell]]'s 1943 ''The Billy Boy'' for the ''[[The Argus (Melbourne)|Argus]],'' McCulloch was hired as its art critic 1944–1947,<ref>{{Cite news |last=McCulloch |first=Alan |date=7 November 1945 |title=Art Exhibition : reviewed by McCulloch |pages=9 |work=Argus |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12151530 |access-date=2022-11-25}}</ref> and after the [[World War II|Second World War]] during which his brother Wilfred was killed in [[Fall of Singapore|Singapore]], Alan became art editor under [[George Johnston (novelist)|George Johnston]] of a new ''Argus'' weekly national magazine, ''Picture Post'', to which he was also appointed as a cartoonist.<ref>{{Cite news |date=10 June 1946 |title=Drawings For National Gallery |pages=2 |work=The Argus |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22238596 |access-date=2022-11-25}}</ref> Aspiring to the quality and status of the German cosmopolitan ''[[Simplicissimus (magazine)|Simplissimuss]]'' they published major Australian writers and commissioned illustrations from the '[[Dunera boys|''Dunera'' boys]]' [[Frederick Schonbach]], [[Erwin Fabian (artist)|Erwin Fabian]] and [[Klaus Friedeberger]], and other artists including [[Albert Tucker (artist)|Albert Tucker]] and Noel Counihan.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kerr |first=Joan |date=2007 |title=Alan McLeod McCulloch b. 1907 |url=https://www.daao.org.au/bio/alan-mcleod-mcculloch/biography/ |website=Design & Art Australia Online}}</ref>, but after three years were laid off for their even-handedness in ignoring directives requiring a bias agianst left-wing artists,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lindesay |first=Vane |date=2014 |title=Alan McCulloch: cartoonist of distinction |url=https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/La-Trobe-Journal-93-94-Vane-Lindesay.pdf |journal=La Trobe journal |volume=93-94 |pages=175}}</ref> when it became the ''[[Australasian Post]]'' with its very different ethos.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Childs |first=Kevin |date=22 December 1992 |title=McCulloch, art historian, dies |pages=6 |work=The Age}}</ref> He recalled; <blockquote>Suddenly I was on top of the world. I started writing about all the people I thought were going to be good in the future. I published a lot of such as Arthur Boyd and Albert Tucker's drawings. It lasted three years. ''The Argus'' hated the things I wrote, regarding them as far too left-wing. I was regarded as a dangerous character.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Lancashire |first=Rebecca |date=9 December 1992 |title=Interview : Drawing on a life in art |pages=15 |work=The Age}}</ref></blockquote>Johnstone departed for Greece and McCulloch to the United States where, having arrived with only £1,000, he walked from [[San Francisco]] to [[Los Angeles]]. There, in 1948, he married Ellen Bromley Moscovitz (1908–1991) an Australian-born actress, businesswoman and US citizen. They remained together until her death in 1991.
Having written a critique of [[William Dobell]]'s 1943 ''The Billy Boy'' for the ''[[The Argus (Melbourne)|Argus]],'' McCulloch was hired as its art critic 1944–1947,<ref>{{Cite news |last=McCulloch |first=Alan |date=7 November 1945 |title=Art Exhibition : reviewed by McCulloch |pages=9 |work=Argus |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12151530 |access-date=2022-11-25}}</ref> and after the [[World War II|Second World War]] during which his brother Wilfred was killed in [[Fall of Singapore|Singapore]], Alan became art editor under [[George Johnston (novelist)|George Johnston]] of a new ''Argus'' weekly national magazine, ''Picture Post'', to which he was also appointed as a cartoonist.<ref>{{Cite news |date=10 June 1946 |title=Drawings For National Gallery |pages=2 |work=The Argus |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22238596 |access-date=2022-11-25}}</ref> Aspiring to the quality and status of the German cosmopolitan ''[[Simplicissimus (magazine)|Simplissimuss]]'' they published major Australian writers and commissioned illustrations from the '[[Dunera boys|''Dunera'' boys]]' [[Frederick Schonbach]], [[Erwin Fabian (artist)|Erwin Fabian]] and [[Klaus Friedeberger]], and other artists including [[Albert Tucker (artist)|Albert Tucker]] and Noel Counihan.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kerr |first=Joan |date=2007 |title=Alan McLeod McCulloch b. 1907 |url=https://www.daao.org.au/bio/alan-mcleod-mcculloch/biography/ |website=Design & Art Australia Online}}</ref>, but after three years were laid off for their even-handedness in ignoring directives requiring a bias agianst left-wing artists,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lindesay |first=Vane |date=2014 |title=Alan McCulloch: cartoonist of distinction |url=https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/La-Trobe-Journal-93-94-Vane-Lindesay.pdf |journal=La Trobe journal |volume=93-94 |pages=175}}</ref> when it became the ''[[Australasian Post]]'' with its very different ethos.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Childs |first=Kevin |date=22 December 1992 |title=McCulloch, art historian, dies |pages=6 |work=The Age}}</ref> He recalled; <blockquote>Suddenly I was on top of the world. I started writing about all the people I thought were going to be good in the future. I published a lot of such as Arthur Boyd and Albert Tucker's drawings. It lasted three years. ''The Argus'' hated the things I wrote, regarding them as far too left-wing. I was regarded as a dangerous character.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Lancashire |first=Rebecca |date=9 December 1992 |title=Interview : Drawing on a life in art |pages=15 |work=The Age}}</ref></blockquote>Johnstone departed for Greece and McCulloch to the United States where, having arrived with only £1,000, he walked from [[San Francisco]] to [[Los Angeles]]. There, in 1948, he married Ellen Bromley Moscovitz (1908–1991) an Australian-born actress, businesswoman and US citizen. They remained together until her death in 1991.


Until 1949 he and his wife toured America and McCullloch recorded their travels in ''Highway Forty''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Alan |first=McCulloch |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/2956451 |title=Highway forty. |date=1951 |publisher=F.W. Cheshire |oclc=2956451}}</ref> while also writing magazine articles. They cycled through Europe, meeting [[Marcel Duchamp]] and other [[Surrealism|Surrealists]], and in [[Paris]] visited [[Georges Braque]] and developed a taste for the [[School of Paris]] artists,<ref name=":0" /> adventures about which he wrote in ''Trial By Tandem''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McCulloch |first=Alan |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/11348802 |title=Trial by tandem |publisher=Allen & Unwin |year=1951 |edition=2nd |location=London |oclc=11348802}}</ref>
Until 1949 he and his wife toured America, meeting [[Marcel Duchamp]] and other [[Surrealism|Surrealists]], and McCullloch recorded their travels in ''Highway Forty''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Alan |first=McCulloch |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/2956451 |title=Highway forty. |date=1951 |publisher=F.W. Cheshire |oclc=2956451}}</ref> while also writing magazine articles. The couple cycled on a [[Tandem bicycle|tandem]] through Europe from [[Paris]] to [[Positano]] in Italy, and in Paris visited [[Georges Braque]] and developed a taste for the [[School of Paris]] artists,<ref name=":0" /> adventures about which he wrote in ''Trial By Tandem''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McCulloch |first=Alan |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/11348802 |title=Trial by tandem |publisher=Allen & Unwin |year=1951 |edition=2nd |location=London |oclc=11348802}}</ref> They sailed from England for Australia on the SS Strathmore on 26 October 1949.<ref>UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960</ref>


Back in Australia in 1951 he became an associate editor for ''[[Meanjin]]'' (until 1963), and was invited by [[Keith Murdoch]] to be art critic on the ''[[Melbourne Herald]]'', 1952–1982.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McCulloch |first=Alan |date=1 January 1952 |title=ART REVIEW : Only one outstanding work last year |pages=6 |work=The Herald |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article246038731 |access-date=2022-11-25}}</ref> During the 1960s he was appointed Australian correspondent for the European magazine ''[[Art International|Art Internatlonal]]'', and established the annual Georges Invitation Art Prize.
Back in Australia in 1951 he became an associate editor for ''[[Meanjin]]'' (until 1963), and was invited by [[Keith Murdoch]] to be art critic on the ''[[Melbourne Herald]]'', 1952–1982.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McCulloch |first=Alan |date=1 January 1952 |title=ART REVIEW : Only one outstanding work last year |pages=6 |work=The Herald |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article246038731 |access-date=2022-11-25}}</ref> During the 1960s he was appointed Australian correspondent for the European magazine ''[[Art International|Art Internatlonal]]'', and established the annual Georges Invitation Art Prize.


As an artists, McCulloch held several solo exhibitions of his paintings and drawings in London and Melbourne.
As an artist, McCulloch held several solo exhibitions of his paintings and drawings in London and Melbourne.


As a curator, in 1965, he assembled an exhibition of [[Aboriginal Bark Paintings]] from the Chaseling and Cahill collections from the [[Museum of Victoria]] to tour to the USA (Houston Fine Art Gallery, Texas).<ref>McCulloch, Alan. ''Aboriginal bark paintings from the Cahill and Chaseling collections, National Museum of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia'' : [catalogue of an exhib.,] Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Tex. [17 December 1965 – 30 January 1966]</ref>
As a curator, in 1965, he assembled an exhibition of [[Aboriginal Bark Paintings]] from the Chaseling and Cahill collections from the [[Museum of Victoria]] to tour to the USA (Houston Fine Art Gallery, Texas).<ref>McCulloch, Alan. ''Aboriginal bark paintings from the Cahill and Chaseling collections, National Museum of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia'' : [catalogue of an exhib.,] Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Tex. [17 December 1965 – 30 January 1966]</ref>
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==Legacy==
==Legacy==
After the death of Ellen his wife for 45 years, McCulloch, after recovering from an operation and suffering from [[Parkinson's disease]], moved in March 1991 to a retirement home in [[Kew, Victoria|Kew]],<ref name=":3" /> and in his remaining months resumed making art and continued his friendships with visits from Louis Kahan, Albert Tucker and [[Andrew Sibley]], and where with his daughter Susan he worked on the 3rd edition of their ''Encyclopedia''.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />
After the death of Ellen his wife for 45 years, McCulloch, after recovering from an operation and suffering from [[Parkinson's disease]], moved in March 1991 to a retirement home in [[Kew, Victoria|Kew]],<ref name=":3" /> and in his remaining months resumed making art and continued his friendships with visits from Louis Kahan, Albert Tucker and [[Andrew Sibley]], and with his daughter Susan he worked on the 3rd edition of their ''Encyclopedia''.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />


The move, and its expense, forced him, on 29 August 1991, to auction off his collection of 450 artworks and items of memorabilia at the Victorian Artists Society. Every lot sold, mostly to collectors and friends of the 84-year-old critic, writer and artist.<ref name=":3" /> Top price paid was $9000 for one of two oils by [[John Russell (Australian painter)|John Peter Russell]], while [[Tom Roberts]]' blographer Andrew McKenzie bought The Australian Impressionist’s palette for $1200. Cartoons McCulloch drew for the ''Australasian Post'' fetched an average of $I00 each. ''The Age'' reported that even with the current  downturn in the art market, many collectors picked up bargains.<ref>{{Cite news |date=5 September 1991 |title=Arts News |pages=14 |work=The Age}}</ref>
The move, and its expense, forced him, on 29 August 1991, to auction off his collection of 450 artworks and items of memorabilia at the [[Victorian Artists Society]]. Every lot sold, mostly to collectors and friends of the 84-year-old critic, writer and artist.<ref name=":3" /> Top price paid was $9000 for one of two oils by [[John Russell (Australian painter)|John Peter Russell]], while [[Tom Roberts]]' blographer Andrew McKenzie bought The Australian Impressionist’s palette for $1200. Cartoons McCulloch drew for the ''Australasian Post'' fetched an average of $I00 each. ''The Age'' reported that even with the current  downturn in the art market, many collectors picked up bargains.<ref>{{Cite news |date=5 September 1991 |title=Arts News |pages=14 |work=The Age}}</ref>


McCulloch died in the aged accommodation on 21 December 1992,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Shmith |first=Michael |date=28 December 1992 |title=A black year for our great creators |pages=16 |work=The Age}}</ref> and was remembered as a stalwart champion of modernism for his ''Encyclopedia,'' and for his newspaper and magazine reviews defending and promoting work of [[Charles Blackman]], [[John Brack]]. [[Leonard French]], [[Julius Kane]], [[Roger Kemp]], [[Inge King]], [[Clifford Last]], [[Clement Meadmore]], [[John Perceval]], [[Clifton Pugh]] and [[Fred Williams (artist)|Fred Williams]]. Though sceptical of [[Color field|Color Field]] abstraction, he nevertheless supported its individual proponents [[Sidney Ball (artist)|Sidney Ball]], [[Janet Dawson]], [[Robert Jacks]] and [[Jan Senbergs]]. In his obituary art critic [[Christopher Heathcote]] paid tribute to Alan McCulloch as... <blockquote>...one of the great supporters of Modern Australian art. For more than 30 years he attempted to foster advanced painting and sculpture... The contemporary art scene as we know it today would not have developed without his resolute dedication to contemporary Australian culture... His writing may not have been concerned with complex ideas but this quiet and gentle man was arguably the most influential art critic to have practised in this country.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Heathcote |first=Christopher |date=22 December 1992 |title=Obituary : Alan McCulloch, 1907-1992 : An art critic who fostered a generation |pages=14 |work=The Age}}</ref></blockquote>[[Arthur Boyd]] was a 15 year-old artist when McCulloch, and his brother Wilfred, also a painter,<ref>{{Cite news |date=15 November 1939 |title=Exhibitions of art : Yesterday's two openings |pages=5 |work=The Age}}</ref> had encouraged him to pursue a career in art,<ref name=":3" /> and they enjoyed an enduring friendship, with Boyd living with the McCullochs in Shoreham where the men built a studio in which both painted.<ref name=":3" /> While in Europe in the 1940s McCulloch had made lasting contacts with art critics and later founded an Australian branch of the [[International Association of Art Critics]].<ref name=":0" />
McCulloch died in the aged accommodation on 21 December 1992,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Shmith |first=Michael |date=28 December 1992 |title=A black year for our great creators |pages=16 |work=The Age}}</ref> and was remembered as a stalwart champion of modernism for his ''Encyclopedia,'' and for his newspaper and magazine reviews defending and promoting work of [[Charles Blackman]], [[John Brack]]. [[Leonard French]], [[Julius Kane]], [[Roger Kemp]], [[Inge King]], [[Clifford Last]], [[Clement Meadmore]], [[John Perceval]], [[Clifton Pugh]] and [[Fred Williams (artist)|Fred Williams]]. Though sceptical of [[Color field|Color Field]] abstraction, he nevertheless supported its individual proponents [[Sidney Ball (artist)|Sidney Ball]], [[Janet Dawson]], [[Robert Jacks]] and [[Jan Senbergs]]. In his obituary art critic [[Christopher Heathcote]] paid tribute to Alan McCulloch as... <blockquote>...one of the great supporters of Modern Australian art. For more than 30 years he attempted to foster advanced painting and sculpture... The contemporary art scene as we know it today would not have developed without his resolute dedication to contemporary Australian culture... His writing may not have been concerned with complex ideas but this quiet and gentle man was arguably the most influential art critic to have practised in this country.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Heathcote |first=Christopher |date=22 December 1992 |title=Obituary : Alan McCulloch, 1907-1992 : An art critic who fostered a generation |pages=14 |work=The Age}}</ref></blockquote>[[Arthur Boyd]] was a 15 year-old artist when McCulloch, and his brother Wilfred, also a painter,<ref>{{Cite news |date=15 November 1939 |title=Exhibitions of art : Yesterday's two openings |pages=5 |work=The Age}}</ref> had encouraged him to pursue a career in art,<ref name=":3" /> and they enjoyed an enduring friendship, with Boyd living with the McCullochs in Shoreham where the men built a studio in which both painted.<ref name=":3" /> While in Europe in the 1940s McCulloch had made lasting contacts with art critics and later founded an Australian branch of the [[International Association of Art Critics]].<ref name=":0" />

Revision as of 10:54, 26 November 2022

Alan McLeod McCulloch

AO
Alan McCulloch c.1934
Alan McCulloch c.1934
Born(1907-08-05)August 5, 1907
St Kilda, Victoria
DiedDecember 21, 1992(1992-12-21) (aged 85)
Kew, Victoria
EducationScotch College; Working Men's College, Melbourne; National Gallery of Victoria Art School
Genreencyclopaedist, journalist, cartoonist, visual artist
Subjectart criticism, Australian art history, humour
Years active1935–1991
Notable worksThe Encyclopedia of Australian Art
Notable awardsOfficer of the Order of Australia, Emeritus Medal, Australia Council
SpouseEllen Bromley Moscovitz (1908–1991)
ChildrenSusan
RelativesWilfred (brother)

Alan McLeod McCulloch AO (5 August 1907 – 21 December 1992) was one of Australia's foremost art critics for more than 60 years,[1] an art historian and gallery director, cartoonist,[2] and painter.

Early Life

Drawing by Alan McCulloch of himself and his future wife c.1938. Reproduced in McCulloch’s Trial by Tandem, 1950.

Born in St Kilda in Melbourne and brought up in Sydney, Alan McCulloch had developed keen interest in art as a child. The family returned to Melbourne after his father died when McCulloch was ten. He attended Scotch College from 1920 to 1922 then went to work to support the family.[3] He was employed in a clerical position at BHP in Melbourne, then worked as a teller with the Commonwealth Bank for eighteen years. He enrolled in night classes at the Working Men's College, and then the National Gallery School (1926-1935).

Career

Having written a critique of William Dobell's 1943 The Billy Boy for the Argus, McCulloch was hired as its art critic 1944–1947,[4] and after the Second World War during which his brother Wilfred was killed in Singapore, Alan became art editor under George Johnston of a new Argus weekly national magazine, Picture Post, to which he was also appointed as a cartoonist.[5] Aspiring to the quality and status of the German cosmopolitan Simplissimuss they published major Australian writers and commissioned illustrations from the 'Dunera boys' Frederick Schonbach, Erwin Fabian and Klaus Friedeberger, and other artists including Albert Tucker and Noel Counihan.[6], but after three years were laid off for their even-handedness in ignoring directives requiring a bias agianst left-wing artists,[7] when it became the Australasian Post with its very different ethos.[8] He recalled;

Suddenly I was on top of the world. I started writing about all the people I thought were going to be good in the future. I published a lot of such as Arthur Boyd and Albert Tucker's drawings. It lasted three years. The Argus hated the things I wrote, regarding them as far too left-wing. I was regarded as a dangerous character.[9]

Johnstone departed for Greece and McCulloch to the United States where, having arrived with only £1,000, he walked from San Francisco to Los Angeles. There, in 1948, he married Ellen Bromley Moscovitz (1908–1991) an Australian-born actress, businesswoman and US citizen. They remained together until her death in 1991.

Until 1949 he and his wife toured America, meeting Marcel Duchamp and other Surrealists, and McCullloch recorded their travels in Highway Forty[10] while also writing magazine articles. The couple cycled on a tandem through Europe from Paris to Positano in Italy, and in Paris visited Georges Braque and developed a taste for the School of Paris artists,[1] adventures about which he wrote in Trial By Tandem.[11] They sailed from England for Australia on the SS Strathmore on 26 October 1949.[12]

Back in Australia in 1951 he became an associate editor for Meanjin (until 1963), and was invited by Keith Murdoch to be art critic on the Melbourne Herald, 1952–1982.[13] During the 1960s he was appointed Australian correspondent for the European magazine Art Internatlonal, and established the annual Georges Invitation Art Prize.

As an artist, McCulloch held several solo exhibitions of his paintings and drawings in London and Melbourne.

As a curator, in 1965, he assembled an exhibition of Aboriginal Bark Paintings from the Chaseling and Cahill collections from the Museum of Victoria to tour to the USA (Houston Fine Art Gallery, Texas).[14]

Living a maritime lifestyle at Shoreham on Western Port Bay, McCulloch became the inaugural director (1970–1992) of the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, established in 1969 by the Mornington Shire Council, and it was under his leadership that the MPRG began developing a specialist collection of Australian prints and drawings.[15][16] He was curator of The Heroic Years of Australian Art 1977–78 touring exhibition. In 1981, having retired from art criticism he worked in 1980 to raise funds for a new art centre building at Mornington which was opened by premier John Cain on 17 November 1991,[17] shortly before McCulloch's retirement as director.[1]

The Encyclopedia of Australian Art

In 1968 McCulloch produced his most significant work, The Encyclopedia of Australian Art, with support from Voss Smith who had established a branch of Christie's in Melbourne, and who as the Australian representative for Hutchinson publishers was instrumental in convincing his London office to publish the mammoth reference work,[18][19] which started as a scrapbook of cuttings kept since the 1940s, and which became the main reference for connoisseurs, collectors, dealers, critics and historians of Australian art.[9]

He was its sole author for several updates and reprints and a completely new edition in 1984, then was joined by his daughter Susan McCulloch in 1990, who co-edited for its third, 1994 edition. In that, McCulloch's personal note (one was included in each edition) was the last thing he wrote, just two weeks before he died. In it he says, "As with electricity we know what art does but we don't know what it is. Those who have tried to solve this problem have all concluded that the word 'art' cannot be defined. Support for this conclusion came from Murray in answer to a question about his Oxford English Dictionary; the word "art" gave me more trouble than any other word in the English language.".[20][21]

His daughter Susan and his granddaughter Emily McCulloch Childs continue work on the Encyclopedia into the third generation, using the criteria established by Alan McCulloch in 1968; artists are chosen for inclusion if their work is represented by major purchases in a national, state, or regional gallery or if they have won a significant prize. The Encyclopedia is now in its 4th edition (2006).

Legacy

After the death of Ellen his wife for 45 years, McCulloch, after recovering from an operation and suffering from Parkinson's disease, moved in March 1991 to a retirement home in Kew,[3] and in his remaining months resumed making art and continued his friendships with visits from Louis Kahan, Albert Tucker and Andrew Sibley, and with his daughter Susan he worked on the 3rd edition of their Encyclopedia.[8][9]

The move, and its expense, forced him, on 29 August 1991, to auction off his collection of 450 artworks and items of memorabilia at the Victorian Artists Society. Every lot sold, mostly to collectors and friends of the 84-year-old critic, writer and artist.[3] Top price paid was $9000 for one of two oils by John Peter Russell, while Tom Roberts' blographer Andrew McKenzie bought The Australian Impressionist’s palette for $1200. Cartoons McCulloch drew for the Australasian Post fetched an average of $I00 each. The Age reported that even with the current  downturn in the art market, many collectors picked up bargains.[22]

McCulloch died in the aged accommodation on 21 December 1992,[23] and was remembered as a stalwart champion of modernism for his Encyclopedia, and for his newspaper and magazine reviews defending and promoting work of Charles Blackman, John Brack. Leonard French, Julius Kane, Roger Kemp, Inge King, Clifford Last, Clement Meadmore, John Perceval, Clifton Pugh and Fred Williams. Though sceptical of Color Field abstraction, he nevertheless supported its individual proponents Sidney Ball, Janet Dawson, Robert Jacks and Jan Senbergs. In his obituary art critic Christopher Heathcote paid tribute to Alan McCulloch as...

...one of the great supporters of Modern Australian art. For more than 30 years he attempted to foster advanced painting and sculpture... The contemporary art scene as we know it today would not have developed without his resolute dedication to contemporary Australian culture... His writing may not have been concerned with complex ideas but this quiet and gentle man was arguably the most influential art critic to have practised in this country.[1]

Arthur Boyd was a 15 year-old artist when McCulloch, and his brother Wilfred, also a painter,[24] had encouraged him to pursue a career in art,[3] and they enjoyed an enduring friendship, with Boyd living with the McCullochs in Shoreham where the men built a studio in which both painted.[3] While in Europe in the 1940s McCulloch had made lasting contacts with art critics and later founded an Australian branch of the International Association of Art Critics.[1]

Awards

Exhibitions

  • 1991, to 22 April: Laughter on the Line, works commissioned by, or drawn by, McCulloch while arts editor of Australasian Post. Morington Peninsula Arts Centre[26]

Collections holding works by Alan McCulloch

Publications

  • McCulloch, Alan, McCulloch, Susan & McCulloch Childs, Emily. McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art. 2006 Fitzroy, VIC : Aus Art Editions (4th revised edition)
  • McCulloch, Alan; & McCulloch, Susan. Encyclopedia of Australian art. 1994 St Leonards, NSW : Allen & Unwin (3rd revised edition)
  • McCulloch, Alan. The Golden Age of Australian Painting: Impressionism and the Heidelberg School
  • McCulloch, Alan. Artists of the Australian Gold Rush.
  • McCulloch, Alan. Aboriginal bark paintings from the Cahill and Chaseling collections, National Museum of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Tex. (catalogue of an exhibition, 17 December 1965 – 30 January 1966)
  • McCulloch, Alan; Mornington Peninsula Arts Centre (1983). Selected drawings from the collections of the Mornington Peninsula Arts Centre. MPAC. ISBN 0-9591265-0-3. OCLC 27620037.

Illustrated and written by McCulloch

Notes and references

  1. ^ a b c d e f Heathcote, Christopher (22 December 1992). "Obituary : Alan McCulloch, 1907-1992 : An art critic who fostered a generation". The Age. p. 14.
  2. ^ Lindesay, Vane. The inked-in image : a social and historical survey of Australian comic art. 1979 Richmond, Vic : Hutchinson of Australia (new edition)
  3. ^ a b c d e Maslen, Geoff (29 August 1991). "McCulloch collection a personal memorial". The Age. p. 14.
  4. ^ McCulloch, Alan (7 November 1945). "Art Exhibition : reviewed by McCulloch". Argus. p. 9. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
  5. ^ "Drawings For National Gallery". The Argus. 10 June 1946. p. 2. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
  6. ^ Kerr, Joan (2007). "Alan McLeod McCulloch b. 1907". Design & Art Australia Online.
  7. ^ Lindesay, Vane (2014). "Alan McCulloch: cartoonist of distinction" (PDF). La Trobe journal. 93–94: 175.
  8. ^ a b Childs, Kevin (22 December 1992). "McCulloch, art historian, dies". The Age. p. 6.
  9. ^ a b c Lancashire, Rebecca (9 December 1992). "Interview : Drawing on a life in art". The Age. p. 15.
  10. ^ Alan, McCulloch (1951). Highway forty. F.W. Cheshire. OCLC 2956451.
  11. ^ McCulloch, Alan (1951). Trial by tandem (2nd ed.). London: Allen & Unwin. OCLC 11348802.
  12. ^ UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960
  13. ^ McCulloch, Alan (1 January 1952). "ART REVIEW : Only one outstanding work last year". The Herald. p. 6. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
  14. ^ McCulloch, Alan. Aboriginal bark paintings from the Cahill and Chaseling collections, National Museum of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia : [catalogue of an exhib.,] Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Tex. [17 December 1965 – 30 January 1966]
  15. ^ Centre., Mornington Peninsula Arts. [Mornington Peninsula Arts Centre : Australian Gallery File]. OCLC 271079314.
  16. ^ McCulloch, Alan; Mornington Peninsula Arts Centre (1983). Selected drawings from the collections of the Mornington Peninsula Arts Centre. MPAC. ISBN 0-9591265-0-3. OCLC 27620037.
  17. ^ Gill, Raymond (2 December 1990). "Mornington holds at bay the ugly tide of suburbia". The Age. p. 40.
  18. ^ Shireen., Huda, (2008). Pedigree and panache : a history of art auction in Australia. ANU E Press. ISBN 978-1-921313-71-4. OCLC 232660665.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  19. ^ first reviewed in Thomas, Daniel (1968), "Book review of McCulloch, Alan. Encyclopedia of Australian Art (1968)", Art and Australia, 6 (3): 191–193, ISSN 0004-301X
  20. ^ McCulloch, Alan; McCulloch, Susan; McCulloch Childs, Emily (2006). The new McCulloch's encyclopedia of Australian art (4th ed.). Fitzroy: AUS Art Editions ; The Miegunyah Press. pp. ix. ISBN 0-522-85317-X. OCLC 80568976.
  21. ^ Peter Hill, Reviewer, The Age 10 November 2006
  22. ^ "Arts News". The Age. 5 September 1991. p. 14.
  23. ^ Shmith, Michael (28 December 1992). "A black year for our great creators". The Age. p. 16.
  24. ^ "Exhibitions of art : Yesterday's two openings". The Age. 15 November 1939. p. 5.
  25. ^ Lancashire, Rebecca (3 November 1992). "The Awards". The Age. p. 12.
  26. ^ Heathcote, Christopher (3 April 1991). "Funny days recalled in a remarkably fine set of cartoons". The Age. p. 14.
  27. ^ "Alan McCulloch". National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
  28. ^ "Alan McCulloch". National Gallery of Victoria. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
  29. ^ McCulloch, Alan. "Louis Kahan". Mornington Peninsula Regional Art Gallery.
  30. ^ McCulloch, Alan (1949). "Alan McCULLOCH (1949) Minori, pen and ink. Purchased 1954. The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia". Art Gallery WA Collection Online. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
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