Charles Blackman

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Charles Blackman (born August 12, 1928) is an Australian artist.

[edit] Early life and initial success

Blackman, born in Sydney, left school at thirteen (some sources say fifteen) and worked as an illustrator with the Sydney Sun newspaper while attending night classes at East Sydney Technical College (1943-46). He came to notice following his move to Melbourne in the mid-1940s, where he became friends with becoming friends with Joy Hester and John Perceval as well as gaining the support of critic and art patron John Reed. His work met critical acclaim through his early 'Schoolgirl' and 'Alice' series, the latter Blackman's conception of Lewis Carroll's most famous character. For some time while painting the 'Alice' series, Blackman worked as a cook at a cafe run by fellow artist Mirka Mora. Blackman married the poet Barbara Patterson in 1951.

In 1959 he was a signatory to the Antipodean Manifesto, a statement protesting the dominance of abstract expressionism. The manifesto's adherents have been dubbed the Antipodeans Group. His work is associated with dreamlike images tinged with mystery and foreboding. In 1960 he lived in London after winning the Helena Rubenstein Scholarship, settling in Sydney upon his return six years later. After twenty-seven years of marriage, Patterson divorced Blackman in 1978 and he remarried in 1989. He has won many prizes and distinctions, culminating in a major retrospective in 1993 and an OBE for services to Australian art in 1997.

A portrait of Charles Blackman by Jon Molvig won the Archibald Prize in 1966.

[edit] Later life

After years of alcohol abuse, Blackman has been severely disabled by Korsakoff's syndrome, a brain disorder affecting memory. After suffering a stroke and heart attack in 1994, Blackman has subsequently been under full-time care. He owns none of his original paintings, rents his home and survives on a stipend arranged by his accountant of forty years from the sale of his prints. The subject of ownership of Blackman's paintings has been a controversial issue, though his former wife maintains that her possession of some of them has been for the sake of preservation and that she intends to donate them to galleries.^[1]

[edit] References