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== Early life and education ==
== Early life and education ==
Ogilvie was born in [[Corowa]] and grew up in rural [[New South Wales]] where she would go sketching with her mother, Henrietta, a watercolourist, before her family moved to [[Melbourne]] in 1920. There Helen attended the [[National Gallery of Victoria Art School|National Gallery School]] in 1922–25. Though she did not enjoy its conservative approach, in her last year her style was influenced by [[George Bell (painter)|George Bell]] while he briefly was the drawing master.<ref>Sheridan Palmer, All this I knew: Helen Ogilvie retrospective exhibition, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, 1995, pp. 1–2</ref><ref>Amelia Saward, 'Helen Ogilvie: Australian modernism and a changing sense of place,' in {{Cite web|last=Younger|first=Gavin|date=2019-07-17|title=Issue 23, December 2018|url=https://museumsandcollections.unimelb.edu.au/research_and_publications/university_of_melbourne_collections_magazine/issue-23,-december-2018|access-date=2020-10-12|website=Museums and Collections|language=en}}</ref> While at the school she became a member of the [[Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors]] and started exhibiting in 1924.<ref name=":0" />
Ogilvie was born in [[Corowa]] and grew up in rural [[New South Wales]] where she would go sketching with her mother, Henrietta, a watercolourist, before her family moved to [[Melbourne]] in 1920. There Helen attended the [[National Gallery of Victoria Art School|National Gallery School]] in 1922–25. Though she did not enjoy its conservative approach and prescriptive teaching methods, in her last year her style was influenced by [[George Bell (painter)|George Bell]] while he briefly was the drawing master.<ref name=":8">Sheridan Palmer, All this I knew: Helen Ogilvie retrospective exhibition, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, 1995, pp. 1–2</ref><ref>Amelia Saward, 'Helen Ogilvie: Australian modernism and a changing sense of place,' in {{Cite web|last=Younger|first=Gavin|date=2019-07-17|title=Issue 23, December 2018|url=https://museumsandcollections.unimelb.edu.au/research_and_publications/university_of_melbourne_collections_magazine/issue-23,-december-2018|access-date=2020-10-12|website=Museums and Collections|language=en}}</ref> While at the school she became a member of the [[Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors]] and started exhibiting in 1924.<ref name=":0" />


== Early career ==
== Early career ==
Inspired by seeing a book of [[Claude Flight]]’s [[Modernism|Modernist]] [[linocut]]s in 1928,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Maxwell|first=Helen|date=1995|title=Helen Elizabeth Ogilvie biography|url=https://www.daao.org.au/bio/helen-elizabeth-ogilvie/biography/|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=Design and Art Australia Online}}</ref> Ogilvie produced many linocuts and woodcuts from the 1930s onwards,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ogilvie, Helen, 1902-1993.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38359628|title=Wood engravings|date=1995|publisher=Brindabella Press|isbn=0-909422-24-9|location=Canberra|oclc=38359628}}</ref> and subsequently, [[Wood engraving|wood-engravings]]. Her work in a 1932 groups show is praised, with that of others in the show, for skills in cutting and "an intimate artistic facility for illustrative design".<ref name=":7" /> She exhibited frequently, but in an effort to survive in the [[Great Depression in Australia|Depression]] years she also produced [[bookplate]]s, greeting cards,<ref>'Original art on Christmas cards,' ''The Age'' Thursday 23 Dec 1954, p.5</ref><ref>'Hand-designed',''The Age'', Thursday 27 Oct 1955, p.10</ref> calendars,<ref>The Age, Tuesday 26 Dec 1933, p.5</ref> and later, illustrations for books including [[Russell Grimwade]]’s ''Flinders Lane: recollections of [[Alfred Felton]]'' (Melbourne University Press,Carlton, 1947)<ref>'The story of a benefactor', ''The Sydney Morning Herald '' Saturday, 10 Jan 1948, p.8</ref> and [[John Medley]]'s ''Stolne and surreptitious verses'' (Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1952).<ref>Illustrations mentioned in Peter Ryan review 'A well-carved cherry-stone', of a memoir of Medley by [[Geoffrey Serle]] and John Marginson in ''The Age'', Saturday 21 Aug 1993, p.151</ref> Buttons bearing her designs were sold for a shilling to raise funds for the 1955 building program at Melbourne University.<ref>''The Age'' Monday 25 Apr 1955, p.2</ref>
Inspired by seeing a book of [[Claude Flight]]’s [[Modernism|Modernist]] [[linocut]]s in 1928,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Maxwell|first=Helen|date=1995|title=Helen Elizabeth Ogilvie biography|url=https://www.daao.org.au/bio/helen-elizabeth-ogilvie/biography/|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=Design and Art Australia Online}}</ref> Ogilvie produced many linocuts and woodcuts from the 1930s onwards,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ogilvie, Helen, 1902-1993.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38359628|title=Wood engravings|date=1995|publisher=Brindabella Press|isbn=0-909422-24-9|location=Canberra|oclc=38359628}}</ref> and subsequently, [[Wood engraving|wood-engravings]]. Her work in a 1932 groups show is praised, with that of others in the show, for skills in cutting and "an intimate artistic facility for illustrative design".<ref name=":7" /> One of many women artists who took up relief printing, unlike Eveline Syme and Ethel Spowers, Ogilvie could not afford to study it overseas, and when she took up wood engraving in the 1930s it was her friend, the artist and printmaker Eric Thake who provided instruction.<ref name=":9">{{Cite book|last=Art Gallery of Ballarat (author) ; Julie McLaren (author) ; Louise Tegart (author)|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1101996633|title=Becoming Modern : Australian women artists 1920 - 1950|isbn=978-0-6484580-2-9|location=Ballarat, VIC|oclc=1101996633}}</ref> She focussed on subject matter which was close to home including farm animals, rural landscapes and Australian flora and fauna. Curator Sheridan Palmer in the catalogue for a 1995 Art Gallery of Ballarat retrospective described her as
{{quote|"a fiercely independent and resourceful woman, who was sophisticated in a simple way. She could turn her hand to many things, creating out of basic materials objects which suited her needs at the time."<ref name=":8" />}}
She exhibited frequently, but in an effort to survive in the [[Great Depression in Australia|Depression]] years she also produced [[bookplate]]s, greeting cards,<ref>'Original art on Christmas cards,' ''The Age'' Thursday 23 Dec 1954, p.5</ref><ref>'Hand-designed',''The Age'', Thursday 27 Oct 1955, p.10</ref> calendars,<ref>The Age, Tuesday 26 Dec 1933, p.5</ref> and later, illustrations for books including [[Russell Grimwade]]’s ''Flinders Lane: recollections of [[Alfred Felton]]'' (Melbourne University Press,Carlton, 1947)<ref>'The story of a benefactor', ''The Sydney Morning Herald '' Saturday, 10 Jan 1948, p.8</ref> and [[John Medley]]'s ''Stolne and surreptitious verses'' (Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1952).<ref>Illustrations mentioned in Peter Ryan review 'A well-carved cherry-stone', of a memoir of Medley by [[Geoffrey Serle]] and John Marginson in ''The Age'', Saturday 21 Aug 1993, p.151</ref> Buttons bearing her designs were sold for a shilling to raise funds for the 1955 building program at Melbourne University.<ref>''The Age'' Monday 25 Apr 1955, p.2</ref>


== War years ==
== War years ==
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== London ==
== London ==
After moving on from her directorship, her own oil paintings of abandoned country structures, were shown in 1956 at the gallery, which had been renamed [[Peter Bray Gallery|Peter Bray]].<ref name=":2">''The Age'' Tuesday 10 Apr 1956, p.2</ref> She had purchased a house in South Yarra,<ref name=":3">'Artist home after six years abroad', ''The Age'' Saturday 22 Jun 1963, p.8</ref> but that year she moved to London, where she was engaged with the Crafts Revival of the 1950s and 60s and because, as she complained in an interview, "art doesn't pay", she made a living designing modernist lampshades of Japanese papers and parchment for a period, selling them to the high society customers of interior designer David Hicks, of [[Knightsbridge]] and [[Oxfordshire]].<ref name=":3" />
After moving on from her directorship, her own oil paintings of abandoned country structures, were shown in 1956 at the gallery, which had been renamed [[Peter Bray Gallery|Peter Bray]].<ref name=":2">''The Age'' Tuesday 10 Apr 1956, p.2</ref> She had firmly established her reputation in Australia, with works already held in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, and had purchased a house in South Yarra.<ref name=":3">'Artist home after six years abroad', ''The Age'' Saturday 22 Jun 1963, p.8</ref> That year she moved to London, where she was engaged with the Crafts Revival of the 1950s and 60s and because, as she complained in an interview, "art doesn't pay", she made a living designing modernist lampshades of Japanese papers and parchment for a period, selling them to the high society customers of interior designer David Hicks, of [[Knightsbridge]] and [[Oxfordshire]].<ref name=":3" />


During her stay overseas, she visited and sketched the English countryside, and with Melbourne friend Hattie Alexander, described as her 'companion',<ref name=":3" /> toured Italy over 11 weeks.<ref>Interview, 'Australian plans London art show', ''The Age'' Friday 05 Jun 1959, p.8</ref> Though she produced sketches of European sites, she did not exhibit them but continued to paint small studies of Australian rural buildings, from memory and from sketches, holding two successful solo exhibitions of them in London, including one of 34 canvases, which sold out.<ref name=":3" />
During her stay overseas, she visited and sketched the English countryside, and with Melbourne friend Hattie Alexander, described as her 'companion',<ref name=":3" /> toured Italy over 11 weeks.<ref>Interview, 'Australian plans London art show', ''The Age'' Friday 05 Jun 1959, p.8</ref> Though she produced sketches of European sites, she did not exhibit them but continued to paint small studies of Australian rural buildings, from memory and from sketches, holding two successful solo exhibitions of them in London, including one of 34 canvases, which sold out.<ref name=":3" />


== Return to Australia and late career ==
== Return to Australia and late career ==
Ogilvie returned to Australia in 1963 where the subjects of her paintings and drawings continued to be humble rural buildings which she was aware were disappearing; in an interview she bemoaned the lack of protection given such relics in Australia, compared to the UK.<ref name=":3" /> Reception of her paintings in Australia, as opposed to her earlier prints, was lukewarm; [[Donald Brook]] in reviewing her 1968 Macquarie Galleries solo describes them as 'sweet and stiff'.<ref>[[Donald Brook]], 'Painters demonstrate', ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' Thursday 03 Oct 1968, p.9</ref> By the late 1970s she was producing little work but remained interested in the art world. The last of her solo exhibitions that she was able to attend opened at aGOG (Australian Girls' Own Gallery), Canberra, on her 89th birthday, 4 May 1991.
Ogilvie returned to Australia in 1963 where the subjects of her paintings and drawings continued to be humble rural buildings which she was aware were disappearing; in an interview she bemoaned the lack of protection given such relics in Australia, compared to the UK.<ref name=":3" /> While Australian artists continued to follow European and international trends, Ogilvie devoted her art to Australian subjects, determined to create a new tradition of Australian printmaking and artistic practice.<ref name=":9" /> Reception of her paintings in Australia however, as opposed to her earlier prints, was lukewarm; [[Donald Brook]] in reviewing her 1968 Macquarie Galleries solo describes them as 'sweet and stiff'.<ref>[[Donald Brook]], 'Painters demonstrate', ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' Thursday 03 Oct 1968, p.9</ref> By the late 1970s she was producing little work but remained interested in the art world. The last of her solo exhibitions that she was able to attend opened at aGOG (Australian Girls' Own Gallery), Canberra, on her 89th birthday, 4 May 1991.


Ogilvie died suddenly in Melbourne on 1 August 1993.
Ogilvie died suddenly in Melbourne on 1 August 1993.


== Legacy ==
== Legacy ==
At the time of curator Sheridan Palmer's touring Ballarat Art Gallery Ogilvie retrospective, ''The Age'' critic Robert Nelson in his review highlighted "the artist's deficiencies in painting which were already noted in her years at the Gallery School in Melbourne. Ogilvie's floral works in linocut show decorative flair, but this late flowering of the ornament of the '20s won't win Ogilvie a place among the mighty."<ref>Robert Nelson, 'Neglected artist evaluated', ''The Age '' Wednesday 5 Oct 1995, p.26</ref> However her work has since enjoyed a renewed interest and reevaluation, and has featured in six major surveys of Australian women's art (see section 'Posthumous exhibitions', below),<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":6" /> and other shows and events.
Critical response to Ogilvie's work was sparse, limited mainly to the prints and to vague praise or her 'fine impressions in line and colour'<ref name=":10" /> or of lino-cutting skills,<ref name=":7" /> 'the work of a sound craftsman [sic]', 'decorative' and with a sense of colour that is 'agreeable and harmonious'.<ref name=":11" /> By the time of curator Sheridan Palmer's touring Ballarat Art Gallery Ogilvie 1995 retrospective, ''The Age'' critic Robert Nelson in his review highlighted "the artist's deficiencies in painting which were already noted in her years at the Gallery School in Melbourne. Ogilvie's floral works in linocut show decorative flair, but this late flowering of the ornament of the '20s won't win Ogilvie a place among the mighty."<ref>Robert Nelson, 'Neglected artist evaluated', ''The Age '' Wednesday 5 Oct 1995, p.26</ref> However her work, especially her printmaking, has since enjoyed a renewed interest and reevaluation, and has featured in six major surveys of Australian women's art (see section 'Posthumous exhibitions', below),<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":6" /> and other shows and events.


==Exhibitions ==
==Exhibitions ==
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*1924, 18–27 November: An Exhibition Of Etchings & Drawings, with [[Hans Heysen]], John D. Moor, [[Lionel Lindsay]], [[John C. Goodchild|John Goodchild]], John L. Berry, Frank H. Molony, R. J. Waterhouse, Fred. C. Brltten, [[Lloyd Rees]], d’A. Boxall, J. Barclay Godson, Arthur Reed, H. Van Raake, B. E. Minns, Harold D. Herbert, James S. MacDonald, Norman Carter, [[Thea Proctor]], [[Alfred Clint|Alfred T. Clint]], [[Margaret Preston]], [[Albert Henry Fullwood|A. Henry Fullwood]], [[Raymond McGrath|Raymond H. McGrath]], Don Finley, Hamilton Mack, [[Adrian Feint]], F. M. Grey, Montague White, Audrey Hardy, K. Sauerbier, Professor [[Leslie Wilkinson]], Hardy Wilson, [[Daryl Lindsay]], [[Sydney Ure Smith]].<ref name=":0">Advertisement, The Sydney Morning Herald, Tue, Nov 18, 1924, p.6</ref> Exhibition Hall, Sixth Floor, Farmer & Company, department store, cnr. Pitt, Market & George Streets, Sydney
*1924, 18–27 November: An Exhibition Of Etchings & Drawings, with [[Hans Heysen]], John D. Moor, [[Lionel Lindsay]], [[John C. Goodchild|John Goodchild]], John L. Berry, Frank H. Molony, R. J. Waterhouse, Fred. C. Brltten, [[Lloyd Rees]], d’A. Boxall, J. Barclay Godson, Arthur Reed, H. Van Raake, B. E. Minns, Harold D. Herbert, James S. MacDonald, Norman Carter, [[Thea Proctor]], [[Alfred Clint|Alfred T. Clint]], [[Margaret Preston]], [[Albert Henry Fullwood|A. Henry Fullwood]], [[Raymond McGrath|Raymond H. McGrath]], Don Finley, Hamilton Mack, [[Adrian Feint]], F. M. Grey, Montague White, Audrey Hardy, K. Sauerbier, Professor [[Leslie Wilkinson]], Hardy Wilson, [[Daryl Lindsay]], [[Sydney Ure Smith]].<ref name=":0">Advertisement, The Sydney Morning Herald, Tue, Nov 18, 1924, p.6</ref> Exhibition Hall, Sixth Floor, Farmer & Company, department store, cnr. Pitt, Market & George Streets, Sydney
* 1932, 5–16 April: with [[Sybil Andrews]], [[Cyril Power]], [[Ethel Spowers]], [[Eveline Winifred Syme|Eveline Syme]], [[Eric Thake]], John Dick, [[Christian Waller]], [[Dorrit Black|Dorrit Block]], Ron Meadows, Marjorie Wood, Michael O’Connell. Everyman's Library, 332 Collins Street<ref name=":7">’Designs in Lino Cut’, The Age, Tue, Apr 5, 1932, p.8</ref>
* 1932, 5–16 April: with [[Sybil Andrews]], [[Cyril Power]], [[Ethel Spowers]], [[Eveline Winifred Syme|Eveline Syme]], [[Eric Thake]], John Dick, [[Christian Waller]], [[Dorrit Black|Dorrit Block]], Ron Meadows, Marjorie Wood, Michael O’Connell. Everyman's Library, 332 Collins Street<ref name=":7">’Designs in Lino Cut’, The Age, Tue, Apr 5, 1932, p.8</ref>
* 1932, to 29 October: Helen Ogilvie, [[Peggie Crombie]], Helen Boyd, paintings and prints. Collins House, Melbourne.<ref>'Exhibition at Collins House,' ''The Age'', Tue, Oct 25, 1932, p.5</ref>
* 1932, to 29 October: Helen Ogilvie, [[Peggie Crombie]], Helen Boyd, paintings and prints. Collins House, Melbourne.<ref name=":11">'Exhibition at Collins House,' ''The Age'', Tue, Oct 25, 1932, p.5</ref>
* 1933, 16–23 October: The Arts and Crafts Society Annual Exhibition, Melbourne Town Hall<ref>'The Arts and Crafts Society: Annual Exhibition,' ''The Age'', Monday 16 Oct 1933, p.5</ref>
* 1933, 16–23 October: The Arts and Crafts Society Annual Exhibition, Melbourne Town Hall<ref name=":10">'The Arts and Crafts Society: Annual Exhibition,' ''The Age'', Monday 16 Oct 1933, p.5</ref>
* 1936, 14–25 July: New Melbourne Art Club exhibition, Athenaeum Gallery<ref>'The modern spirit,' ''The Age'', Tuesday 14 Jul 1936, p.9</ref>
* 1936, 14–25 July: New Melbourne Art Club exhibition, Athenaeum Gallery<ref>'The modern spirit,' ''The Age'', Tuesday 14 Jul 1936, p.9</ref>
* 1937, from 12 July: New Melbourne Art Club exhibition, Athenaeum Gallery<ref>'New Melbourne Art Club's Exhibition', The Age, Tuesday 13 Jul 1937, p.3</ref>
* 1937, from 12 July: New Melbourne Art Club exhibition, Athenaeum Gallery<ref>'New Melbourne Art Club's Exhibition', The Age, Tuesday 13 Jul 1937, p.3</ref>
Line 71: Line 73:
* 2000/1, 24 November 2000 - 25 February 2001: ''Modern Australian Women: paintings and prints 1925-1945'', [[Art Gallery of South Australia]], Adelaide, SA. Then national tour.<ref name=":6">{{Citation | author1=Hylton, Jane, 1950- | title=Modern Australian Women, paintings and​ prints 1925-1945 | date=2000 | publisher=Art Gallery of South Australia | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/224548601 | access-date=14 October 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Nunn|first1=Pamela Gerrish|last2=Hylton|first2=Jane|last3=Hart|first3=Deborah|last4=Drayton|first4=Joanne|date=2003|title=Modern Australian Women: Paintings and Prints 1925-1945|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1358789|journal=Woman's Art Journal|volume=24|issue=2|pages=44|doi=10.2307/1358789|jstor=1358789|issn=0270-7993}}</ref>
* 2000/1, 24 November 2000 - 25 February 2001: ''Modern Australian Women: paintings and prints 1925-1945'', [[Art Gallery of South Australia]], Adelaide, SA. Then national tour.<ref name=":6">{{Citation | author1=Hylton, Jane, 1950- | title=Modern Australian Women, paintings and​ prints 1925-1945 | date=2000 | publisher=Art Gallery of South Australia | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/224548601 | access-date=14 October 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Nunn|first1=Pamela Gerrish|last2=Hylton|first2=Jane|last3=Hart|first3=Deborah|last4=Drayton|first4=Joanne|date=2003|title=Modern Australian Women: Paintings and Prints 1925-1945|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1358789|journal=Woman's Art Journal|volume=24|issue=2|pages=44|doi=10.2307/1358789|jstor=1358789|issn=0270-7993}}</ref>
* 2011/12, 20 October 2011 - 15 December 2012: ''[http://www.lwgallery.uwa.edu.au/exhibitions/past/look-look-again Look, Look Again]'', highlights from the [[Cruthers Collection of Women's Art|Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art]] (CCWA), gifted to the University of Western Australia in 2007, with publication titled ''Into the Light''<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/800667960|title=Into the light : the Cruthers Collection of Women's Art|date=2012|publisher=UWA Publishing|others=Cruthers, John., Kinsella, Lee., Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery.|isbn=978-1-74258-485-0|location=Crawley, W.A.|oclc=800667960}}</ref> and symposium ''Are we there yet?''. [[Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery]], University of Western Australia, Perth, WA
* 2011/12, 20 October 2011 - 15 December 2012: ''[http://www.lwgallery.uwa.edu.au/exhibitions/past/look-look-again Look, Look Again]'', highlights from the [[Cruthers Collection of Women's Art|Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art]] (CCWA), gifted to the University of Western Australia in 2007, with publication titled ''Into the Light''<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/800667960|title=Into the light : the Cruthers Collection of Women's Art|date=2012|publisher=UWA Publishing|others=Cruthers, John., Kinsella, Lee., Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery.|isbn=978-1-74258-485-0|location=Crawley, W.A.|oclc=800667960}}</ref> and symposium ''Are we there yet?''. [[Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery]], University of Western Australia, Perth, WA
* 2019, 18 May – 4 August: ''Becoming Modern : Australian women artists 1920-1950,'' Art Gallery of Ballarat<ref name=":9" />


== Collections ==
== Collections ==

Revision as of 01:10, 15 October 2020

William Pate (c.1930–39) Portrait drawing of Helen Ogilvie, in Anne Montgomery's studio in the Rialto Building, Collins Street. Collection of the State Library of Victoria

Helen Elizabeth Ogilvie (4 May 1902, Corowa–1 August 1993, Melbourne) was a twentieth-century Australian artist and gallery director, cartoonist, painter, printmaker and craftworker, best known for her early linocuts and woodcuts, and her later oil paintings of vernacular colonial buildings.

Early life and education

Ogilvie was born in Corowa and grew up in rural New South Wales where she would go sketching with her mother, Henrietta, a watercolourist, before her family moved to Melbourne in 1920. There Helen attended the National Gallery School in 1922–25. Though she did not enjoy its conservative approach and prescriptive teaching methods, in her last year her style was influenced by George Bell while he briefly was the drawing master.[1][2] While at the school she became a member of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors and started exhibiting in 1924.[3]

Early career

Inspired by seeing a book of Claude Flight’s Modernist linocuts in 1928,[4] Ogilvie produced many linocuts and woodcuts from the 1930s onwards,[5] and subsequently, wood-engravings. Her work in a 1932 groups show is praised, with that of others in the show, for skills in cutting and "an intimate artistic facility for illustrative design".[6] One of many women artists who took up relief printing, unlike Eveline Syme and Ethel Spowers, Ogilvie could not afford to study it overseas, and when she took up wood engraving in the 1930s it was her friend, the artist and printmaker Eric Thake who provided instruction.[7] She focussed on subject matter which was close to home including farm animals, rural landscapes and Australian flora and fauna. Curator Sheridan Palmer in the catalogue for a 1995 Art Gallery of Ballarat retrospective described her as

"a fiercely independent and resourceful woman, who was sophisticated in a simple way. She could turn her hand to many things, creating out of basic materials objects which suited her needs at the time."[1]

She exhibited frequently, but in an effort to survive in the Depression years she also produced bookplates, greeting cards,[8][9] calendars,[10] and later, illustrations for books including Russell Grimwade’s Flinders Lane: recollections of Alfred Felton (Melbourne University Press,Carlton, 1947)[11] and John Medley's Stolne and surreptitious verses (Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1952).[12] Buttons bearing her designs were sold for a shilling to raise funds for the 1955 building program at Melbourne University.[13]

War years

During WW2 and after, Ogilvie worked in the Red Cross Rehabilitation Service at Heidelberg Military Hospital under Frances Wade, where she taught patients lino- and wood-cutting, and basketmaking using locally harvested European and Australian native rushes.[14][15][16] In 1948 Ogilvie, assisted by Helen Biggs, set up a school to train handicrafts instructors for Red Cross occupational therapy services.[17]

Gallerist

In late 1949 she became director of Stanley Coe Gallery at 435 Bourke Street, Melbourne,[18] for the period until 1955, and organised a program of exhibitions of the avant-garde;[19] John Brack,[20] Margo Lewers, Leonard French (who showed his Illiad series, amongst his earliest experiments with enamel house paint on Masonite, October 1952),[21] Inge King,[22] Arthur Boyd, Charles Blackman (whose radical 'schoolgirl' series was shown there in May 1953), Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack (whose first Australian show in a commercial gallery was there in 1953), Helen Maudsley, Clifton Pugh,[23] Michael Shannon and others.

The opening show in February 1950 of a group twenty Victorian artists associated with George Bell, whose work was also shown, included Alan Warren, Alan Sumner, Constance Stokes, Roger Kemp, William Frater, Charles Bush, Daryl Lindsay, Phyl Waterhouse, Ada May Plante, Francis Roy Thompson, and Arnold Shore,[24] and was followed by a survey show of contemporary art from Sydney.

During her period as gallery director, work by Ogilvie was among others selected in 1950 to decorate the liner Oronsay,[25] and in 1954 her work was show together with that of Tate Adams and Kenneth Hood at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.[26]

London

After moving on from her directorship, her own oil paintings of abandoned country structures, were shown in 1956 at the gallery, which had been renamed Peter Bray.[27] She had firmly established her reputation in Australia, with works already held in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, and had purchased a house in South Yarra.[28] That year she moved to London, where she was engaged with the Crafts Revival of the 1950s and 60s and because, as she complained in an interview, "art doesn't pay", she made a living designing modernist lampshades of Japanese papers and parchment for a period, selling them to the high society customers of interior designer David Hicks, of Knightsbridge and Oxfordshire.[28]

During her stay overseas, she visited and sketched the English countryside, and with Melbourne friend Hattie Alexander, described as her 'companion',[28] toured Italy over 11 weeks.[29] Though she produced sketches of European sites, she did not exhibit them but continued to paint small studies of Australian rural buildings, from memory and from sketches, holding two successful solo exhibitions of them in London, including one of 34 canvases, which sold out.[28]

Return to Australia and late career

Ogilvie returned to Australia in 1963 where the subjects of her paintings and drawings continued to be humble rural buildings which she was aware were disappearing; in an interview she bemoaned the lack of protection given such relics in Australia, compared to the UK.[28] While Australian artists continued to follow European and international trends, Ogilvie devoted her art to Australian subjects, determined to create a new tradition of Australian printmaking and artistic practice.[7] Reception of her paintings in Australia however, as opposed to her earlier prints, was lukewarm; Donald Brook in reviewing her 1968 Macquarie Galleries solo describes them as 'sweet and stiff'.[30] By the late 1970s she was producing little work but remained interested in the art world. The last of her solo exhibitions that she was able to attend opened at aGOG (Australian Girls' Own Gallery), Canberra, on her 89th birthday, 4 May 1991.

Ogilvie died suddenly in Melbourne on 1 August 1993.

Legacy

Critical response to Ogilvie's work was sparse, limited mainly to the prints and to vague praise or her 'fine impressions in line and colour'[31] or of lino-cutting skills,[6] 'the work of a sound craftsman [sic]', 'decorative' and with a sense of colour that is 'agreeable and harmonious'.[32] By the time of curator Sheridan Palmer's touring Ballarat Art Gallery Ogilvie 1995 retrospective, The Age critic Robert Nelson in his review highlighted "the artist's deficiencies in painting which were already noted in her years at the Gallery School in Melbourne. Ogilvie's floral works in linocut show decorative flair, but this late flowering of the ornament of the '20s won't win Ogilvie a place among the mighty."[33] However her work, especially her printmaking, has since enjoyed a renewed interest and reevaluation, and has featured in six major surveys of Australian women's art (see section 'Posthumous exhibitions', below),[34][35][36] and other shows and events.

Exhibitions

Solo

  • 1948, May: Exhibition of watercolour drawings[37]
  • 1956, April: Paintings, Peter Bray Gallery, Melbourne[27]
  • 1963, February/March: Australian Country Dwellings, shown with The Landscapes of Lucien Pissarro at Leicester Galleries Gallery, Audley Sq., Mayfair, London[38][39]
  • 1967, March: Leicester Galleries Gallery, Audley Sq., Mayfair, London
  • 1968, September: joint solo with David Rose, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney[40]
  • 1968, October: Helen Ogilvie Paintings, Leveson Street Gallery, North Melbourne[41]
  • 1972, from 3 May: Macquarie Galleries (joint solo with Nancy Borlase)[42]
  • 1974, 2–13 June: Leveson Street Gallery, Melbourne.[43]
  • 1979, 11-30 July: solo alongside Trevor Weekes and Denese Oates, Macquarie Galleries[44]
  • 1982, 1 October - 31 October: Project 39: Women's imprint, part of Women and the Arts Festival, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales
  • 1991, May 1991: australian Girls Own Gallery, Canberra, ACT[45]

Group

Posthumous

Solo:

  • 1995: All this I knew, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Ballarat, VIC. and travelling[52][53]
  • 1995/6, 15 December – 14 January: Helen Ogilvie Retrospective, McClelland Art Gallery, Langwarrin

Inclusions in:

  • 1995, 5 March - 30 April: Australian Women Printmakers 1910-1940, Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum, Castlemaine, VIC[34]
  • 1995, 8 March - 2 April: The Women's View: Australian women artists in the Bendigo Art Gallery, 1888-1995, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, Vic
  • 1995, 8 March - 8 June: National Women's Art Exhibition, with Speaking of Women, four guest lectures; by Nancy Underhill, Ann Thomson, Margo Neale, Joan Kerr; held over successive Fridays, 10-31 March 1995, by the Art Gallery Society, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW
  • 1995, 4 August - 5 August: Women and Art auction preview for Dalia Stanley Auctioneers, auction held 6 August 1995, Mary Place Gallery, Paddington, NSW
  • 2000/1, 24 November 2000 - 25 February 2001: Modern Australian Women: paintings and prints 1925-1945, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, SA. Then national tour.[36][54]
  • 2011/12, 20 October 2011 - 15 December 2012: Look, Look Again, highlights from the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art (CCWA), gifted to the University of Western Australia in 2007, with publication titled Into the Light[35] and symposium Are we there yet?. Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA
  • 2019, 18 May – 4 August: Becoming Modern : Australian women artists 1920-1950, Art Gallery of Ballarat[7]

Collections

  • Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, WA
  • Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, TAS
  • Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, TAS
  • Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum, Castlemaine, VIC[55]
  • Benalla Art Gallery, Benalla, VIC
  • City of Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Ballarat, VIC
  • University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC
  • La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, VIC[56]
  • National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, VIC[57]
  • National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT[58]
  • Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia[59]
  • Queensland Art Gallery[60]
  • Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne, VIC[61]
  • Cruthers Collection of Women's Art at the University of Western Australia[62][35]

Publications about

  • Maxwell, Helen (1995), Helen Ogilvie : Wood engravings, Brindabella Press, ISBN 978-0-909422-24-0
  • Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum; McKay, Kirsten; Castlemaine Art Gallery & Historical Museum (1995), Women printmakers 1910 to 1940 in the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum, The Gallery and Museum, ISBN 978-0-646-23161-7
  • Ogilvie, Helen; Palmer, Sheridan; Ballarat Fine Art Gallery (1995), All this I knew : Helen Ogilvie retrospective exhibition, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, ISBN 978-0-949063-07-6
  • Into the light : the Cruthers Collection of Women's Art. Cruthers, John., Kinsella, Lee., Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery. Crawley, W.A.: UWA Publishing. 2012. ISBN 978-1-74258-485-0. OCLC 800667960.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  • Ogilvie, Helen; aGOG Australian Girls Own Gallery (1991), Helen Ogilvie : aGOG 4 May to 23 May 1991, aGOG, retrieved 14 October 2020

References

  1. ^ a b Sheridan Palmer, All this I knew: Helen Ogilvie retrospective exhibition, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, 1995, pp. 1–2
  2. ^ Amelia Saward, 'Helen Ogilvie: Australian modernism and a changing sense of place,' in Younger, Gavin (2019-07-17). "Issue 23, December 2018". Museums and Collections. Retrieved 2020-10-12.
  3. ^ a b Advertisement, The Sydney Morning Herald, Tue, Nov 18, 1924, p.6
  4. ^ Maxwell, Helen (1995). "Helen Elizabeth Ogilvie biography". Design and Art Australia Online.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ Ogilvie, Helen, 1902-1993. (1995). Wood engravings. Canberra: Brindabella Press. ISBN 0-909422-24-9. OCLC 38359628.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ a b c ’Designs in Lino Cut’, The Age, Tue, Apr 5, 1932, p.8
  7. ^ a b c Art Gallery of Ballarat (author) ; Julie McLaren (author) ; Louise Tegart (author). Becoming Modern : Australian women artists 1920 - 1950. Ballarat, VIC. ISBN 978-0-6484580-2-9. OCLC 1101996633. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ 'Original art on Christmas cards,' The Age Thursday 23 Dec 1954, p.5
  9. ^ 'Hand-designed',The Age, Thursday 27 Oct 1955, p.10
  10. ^ The Age, Tuesday 26 Dec 1933, p.5
  11. ^ 'The story of a benefactor', The Sydney Morning Herald Saturday, 10 Jan 1948, p.8
  12. ^ Illustrations mentioned in Peter Ryan review 'A well-carved cherry-stone', of a memoir of Medley by Geoffrey Serle and John Marginson in The Age, Saturday 21 Aug 1993, p.151
  13. ^ The Age Monday 25 Apr 1955, p.2
  14. ^ "Interesting People". The Australian Women's Weekly. Vol. 10, no. 45. Australia, Australia. 10 April 1943. p. 14. Retrieved 12 October 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. ^ 'Craftwork for soldiers,' The Age Saturday, 14 Nov 1942, p.4
  16. ^ 'Rushes ready for basketmaking,' The Age Tuesday 28 Dec 1943, p.3
  17. ^ 'Handcrafts school to open,' The Age Tuesday 20 Jan 1948, p.5
  18. ^ 'New gallery' The Age Wednesday 07 Dec 1949, p.7
  19. ^ "Young people buy pictures". The Argus. No. 33, 031. Melbourne. 16 July 1952. p. 6 – via National Library of Australia.
  20. ^ Shore, Arnold (1955). 'Artist stresses human values'. (8 March 1955). The Argus (Melbourne, Victoria: 1848– 1957), p. 13. Retrieved 8 July 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71637449
  21. ^ Johnson, George & Heathcote, C. R. (Christopher Robin) & Zimmer, Jenny, (editor.) (2006). George Johnson : world view. South Yarra, Vic. Macmillan Art Publishing
  22. ^ Inge King's art has "the gadget air". (21 October 1952). The Argus (Melbourne, Victoria: 1848–1957), p. 5. Retrieved 8 July 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23217241
  23. ^ "Four art styles". The Argus. Melbourne. 21 June 1955. p. 9 – via National Library of Australia.
  24. ^ 'Show by twenty Victorian artists,' The Age Tuesday 14 Feb 1950, p.2
  25. ^ 'Australian art will decorate new Oronsay,' The Sydney Morning Herald Thursday 26 Oct 1950, p.6
  26. ^ a b The Age Friday 19 Nov 1954, p.4
  27. ^ a b The Age Tuesday 10 Apr 1956, p.2
  28. ^ a b c d e 'Artist home after six years abroad', The Age Saturday 22 Jun 1963, p.8
  29. ^ Interview, 'Australian plans London art show', The Age Friday 05 Jun 1959, p.8
  30. ^ Donald Brook, 'Painters demonstrate', The Sydney Morning Herald Thursday 03 Oct 1968, p.9
  31. ^ a b 'The Arts and Crafts Society: Annual Exhibition,' The Age, Monday 16 Oct 1933, p.5
  32. ^ a b 'Exhibition at Collins House,' The Age, Tue, Oct 25, 1932, p.5
  33. ^ Robert Nelson, 'Neglected artist evaluated', The Age Wednesday 5 Oct 1995, p.26
  34. ^ a b Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum. (1995). Women printmakers 1910 to 1940 in the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum. McKay, Kirsten. Castlemaine, Vic.: The Gallery and Museum. ISBN 0-646-23161-8. OCLC 37179933.
  35. ^ a b c Into the light : the Cruthers Collection of Women's Art. Cruthers, John., Kinsella, Lee., Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery. Crawley, W.A.: UWA Publishing. 2012. ISBN 978-1-74258-485-0. OCLC 800667960.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  36. ^ a b Hylton, Jane, 1950- (2000), Modern Australian Women, paintings and​ prints 1925-1945, Art Gallery of South Australia, retrieved 14 October 2020 {{citation}}: zero width space character in |title= at position 39 (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  37. ^ The AgeWednesday, 19 May 1948, p.5
  38. ^ catalogue, Helen Ogilvie: Australian country dwellings, London: Leicester Galleries, 1963
  39. ^ The Observer Sunday 10 Mar 1963, p.27
  40. ^ Listing, The Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday 28 Sep 1968, p.206
  41. ^ Listing, The Age, Friday 09 Oct 1970, p.15
  42. ^ Listing, The Sydney Morning Herald Sunday, 30 Apr 1972, p.107
  43. ^ Ogilvie, Helen; Leveson Street Gallery (1974), Helen Ogilvie, Leveson Street Gallery
  44. ^ Listing, The Sydney Morning Herald, Monday 09 Jul 1979, p.10
  45. ^ Ogilvie, Helen; aGOG Australian Girls Own Gallery (1991), Helen Ogilvie : aGOG 4 May to 23 May 1991, aGOG, retrieved 14 October 2020
  46. ^ 'The modern spirit,' The Age, Tuesday 14 Jul 1936, p.9
  47. ^ 'New Melbourne Art Club's Exhibition', The Age, Tuesday 13 Jul 1937, p.3
  48. ^ 'New Melbourne Art Club: Seventh Annual Show,' The Age Tuesday 22 Aug 1939, p.11
  49. ^ The Age Saturday 24 Oct 1953, p.9
  50. ^ The Age Thursday 14 Jun 1956, p.8
  51. ^ 'Exhibition of modern art', The Age, Tuesday 25 Aug 1964, p.14
  52. ^ Ogilvie, Helen; Palmer, Sheridan; Ballarat Fine Art Gallery (1995), All this I knew : Helen Ogilvie retrospective exhibition, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, ISBN 978-0-949063-07-6
  53. ^ Munk, Frances (1996), 'From Banksias to Slaughter Houses: The art of Helen Ogilvie’, Imprint, 31/1, Autumn, pp25-26, A review of the travelling exhibition 'All this I knew’ curated by Sheridan Palmer and organised by Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Ballarat, VIC.
  54. ^ Nunn, Pamela Gerrish; Hylton, Jane; Hart, Deborah; Drayton, Joanne (2003). "Modern Australian Women: Paintings and Prints 1925-1945". Woman's Art Journal. 24 (2): 44. doi:10.2307/1358789. ISSN 0270-7993. JSTOR 1358789.
  55. ^ "OGILVIE, Helen (1902-1993) – Collection :: Castlemaine Art Gallery". collection.castlemainegallery.com. Retrieved 2020-10-13.
  56. ^ "Helen Ogilvie works, State Library of Victoria". search.slv.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 2020-10-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  57. ^ "Helen OGILVIE | Artists | NGV". www.ngv.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 2020-10-13.
  58. ^ "Helen Ogilvie: NGA collection search results". artsearch.nga.gov.au. Retrieved 2020-10-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  59. ^ "Helen Ogilvie :: The Collection :: Art Gallery NSW". www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 2020-10-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  60. ^ "Helen Ogilvie works". collection.qagoma.qld.gov.au. Retrieved 2020-10-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  61. ^ "Ogilvie works in the collection, Ian Potter Museum search". storeroom.its.unimelb.edu.au. Retrieved 2020-10-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  62. ^ "Helen Ogilvie works - search". www.uwaccwa.uwa.edu.au. Retrieved 2020-10-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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