Beschreibung:

CHARLES BLACKMAN (born 1928) Golden Eve 1971 oil on board signed upper right: BLACKMAN 135 x 181cm PROVENANCE: Barbara Blackman, Melbourne OTHER NOTES: The motif of a lone female figure with picked flowers and fruit is a central one in the oeuvre of Charles Blackman The theme has endured since the early School Girl series in works such as There Was 1953 (Private collection) and in Portrait of Barbara 1955-6 (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne). The figure-flower marriage is also present in the Alice suite, including Alice in the Boat (All on a summers day) 1956 (Private collection) and Alice Closing up Like a Telescope 1957 (Private collection). The juxtaposition is continued in The Anteroom 1963 (James Fairfax Collection) and repeated in Nude on a Bed of Flowers 1993 (Private collection). On this reoccurring motif, Nadine Amadio wrote that 'for Charles Blackman girls and flowers are an eloquent form for his personal poetry … many of the girls and flowers images were reflections from his wife.' Golden Eve is one such painting. However, It is also a reflection on Blackman's European experiences. In 1970 he was granted the Moya Dyring studio at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. An exhibition on Matisse impressed Blackman, as did the stained glass art in the Gothic cathedrals of Paris. This is particularly clear in the current work in both content and form. While Old Testament themes are rare in the artist's paintings, his exposure to the whole gamut of European art led him to experiment with the religious narratives. Eve is here shown with hand to mouth, contemplating whether or not to eat the forbidden fruit – here shown as a citron (a rarely depicted iconographical alternative to the apple and fig). The bold black outlines of Eve's visage mimics both Matissian stencilling and stained glass delineation, and the primary colour triumvirate of the head is doubled in the fruit and flower arrangement. The theme of Eve also allowed the artist to return to the study of the nude – something Blackman had abandoned since the 1940s and returned back to only in1971. This large work also points to Blackman's sympathy toward Abstract Expressionism. Although strongly opposed to non-objective art – which was all the rage following the National Gallery of Victoria's 1968 The Field exhibition – Blackman often introduced expressive manners to fill in otherwise plain fields. The figure, and her surrounding, is built up as a mesh of overlapping dabs, scribbles and marks – fruit of a rapid and energetic brushwork, reminiscent of the growing New York school of figurative Abstract Expressionists. Golden Eve is an excellent example of Blackman's ability to absorb and adapt new styles and themes throughout his long career. We are grateful to Felicity St. John Moore for assistance in cataloguing this work. Petrit Abazi