Author(s): MCGREGOR KEN

Art and Design

Sydney-born Charles Blackman has been a major figure on the Australian art scene since the 1950s when he joined the Melbourne Drift, befriending artists life Arthur Boyd, John Perceval, Joy Hester and Mirka Mora. He became involved with the Antipodeans whose manifesto proclaimed the importance of figuration as opposed to the tide of international trends favouring abstraction. He would exhibit alongside many of his artist friends in the famous Whitechapel and Tate Gallery exhibitions in London in 1961-62. Noted in the 1950s and 60s for his "School Girl" series and the mesmerising "Alice in Wonderland" paintings, he is widely represented in Australian and overseas collections.