Dorrit Black (1891-1951) Black Swans, 1937 signed within block: 'DB' [in monogram] signed, numbered, and inscribed with title below image edition: 22/50 linocut, printed in colour, from five blocks (red, pink, green, blue-grey and black) 23.5 x 32.0cm (9 1/4 x 12 5/8in).
Dorrit Black (1891-1951) Toucans, 1938 artist's monogram in block lower left: 'DB' titled and numbered and signed below block: 'Toucans 2/50 Dorrit Black' colour linocut on white oriental paper, printed in seven blocks in brown, black, grey, green, yellow, cobalt blue and red 23.0 x 23.0cm (9 1/16 x 9 1/16in).
Dorrit Black (1891-1951) Funeral, c.1929 titled, signed and numbered below image: 'Funeral 16/50 Dorrit Black'' colour linocut on thin wove paper, printed from four blocks in chrome yellow mixed with yellow ochre, vermillion mixed with crimson, viridian and black 19.0 x 21.0cm (7 1/2 x 8 1/4in).
Dorrit Black (1891-1951) Dutch Houses, 1929 colour linocut on thin cream oriental paper, printed in yellow ochre, red, green, greyish blue and cobalt blue 27.4 x 20.4cm (10 13/16 x 8 1/16in).
Dorrit Black (1891-1951) The Acrobats, 1927-28 initialled lower left: 'D.B.' colour linocut on thin cream oriental paper, printed from four blocks in yellow, red, viridian and black 25.0 x 17.5cm (9 13/16 x 6 7/8in).
DORRIT BLACK (1891-1951) Portrait of Rawi Bhavilai c.1950 oil on bitumen paper on board signed lower right: Dorrit Black artist's name and title inscribed verso 48.5 x 40cm (61.4 x 53cm framed) PROVENANCE: The Fred and Elinor Wrobel Collection, Sydney EXHIBITIONS: Faces in the Crowd: An Exhibition of Paintings from the Collection of Woolloomooloo Gallery, Sydney, Stanthorpe Art Gallery, Queensland, 2-28 November 1992, Tweed River Regional Art Gallery, New South Wales, 9 December 1992 - 3 January 1993, cat. no.12 Australian Women Artists of the Twentieth Century from the collection of Elinor and Fred Wrobel, Penrith Regional Art Gallery, Sydney, 8 March 1995 LITERATURE: RELATED WORK Portrait of Rawi Bhavilai, c.1949-51, oil on composition board, 41.7 x 37.9cm, illustrated in Lock-Weir, T, Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2014, p. 121 and p. 195
Dorrit Black (1891-1951) The Windswept Farm, 1937 linocut printed in cobalt blue, green, Indian red, pink and ochre 22.0 x 36.0cm (8 11/16 x 14 3/16in).
Dorrit Black (1891 - 1951) Watercolor and gouache on paper, signed lower left, measures 11 x 15.5 inches and 18.5 x 23 inches w/frame. Dorrit Black was one of a handful of intrepid Australian women who ventured overseas in the 1930s to complete and broaden their artistic training in the United Kingdom and continental Europe. Black, along with her peers Anne Dangar, Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme studied at the pioneering schools of Albert Gleizes and André Lhote in Paris and at the Grosvenor School, where they studied experimental lino-cutting under Claude Flight. Although Black, Spowers and Syme all reached international acclaim with their achievements in this democratic and radical medium, they nevertheless returned to Australia and mostly continued their artistic practice in the traditional forms of oil on canvas and works on paper. Dorrit Black, an Adelaidean, returned to the southern state and achieved broader success than her peers as an exhibiting society painter, a teacher of landscape painting (with Jeffrey Smart being a notable, and impressionable pupil)
DORRIT BLACK (1891 - 1951) MUSIC, 1927 - 28 colour linocut on thin cream oriental laid paper printed from five blocks in black, yellow, ochre, brick red, grey-green and cobalt blue 24.0 x 21.5 cm (image) 31.0 x 24.5 cm (sheet) edition: 10/50 signed with initials lower left: D.B. inscribed with title and numbered in margin upper left: Music 10/50 PROVENANCE Private collection Deutsher Galleries, Melbourne Private collection, Canada, acquired from the above in March 1978 Thence by descent Private collection, Canada EXHIBITED First Exhibition of British Lino-cuts, Redfern Gallery, London, 4 – 27 July 1929, cat. 49 (another example) Painting and Sculpture by A Group of Seven, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 26 March – 5 April 1930, cat. 6 (another example) Work by Members of the Arts and Crafts Society of Victoria, Town Hall, Melbourne, 13 – 24 October 1931 (another example) Exhibition of Oils, Watercolours and Lino Cuts by Dorrit Black, Royal South Australian Society of Arts, Adelaide, 7 – 23 July 1938, cat. 31 (another example) The Drawing, Print and Watercolour Exhibition, Contemporary Art Society of Australia, Melbourne, opened 2 December 1952, cat. 14 (another example) Dorrit Black 1891 – 1951, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, then touring, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Newcastle Region Art Gallery, New South Wales; The Ewing and George Paton Galleries, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 1975 – 76, cat. 50 (another example) A Survey of Australian Relief Prints 1900 – 1950, Deutscher Galleries, Melbourne, 13 April – 5 May 1978 Art Deco and works from the period, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, 16 June – 14 July 1980 (another example) Project 39 – Women's Imprint, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1 – 31 October 1982 (another example) Claude Flight and his Followers: The Colour Linocut Movement between the Wars, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 18 April – 12 July 1992, cat. 17 (another example) Modernism 1900 - 1950: prints and drawings from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 23 July – 25 September 1994 (another example) Review: Works by Women from the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 8 March – 4 June 1995 (another example) Art Deco: from Sydney Cinemas and Pubs to Skyscrapers, Museum of Sydney, Sydney, 12 June – 5 September 1999 (another example) Dorrit Black Collection, Josef Lebovic Gallery, Sydney, 17 April – 29 May 1999, cat. 1 (another example) Modern Australia Women: Paintings and Prints 1925 – 1945, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 24 November 2000 – 25 February 2001; then touring to the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, the S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney and the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Victoria (another example) The Story of Australian Printmaking, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 30 March – 3 June 2007 (another example) Australian Collection Focus: Colour, Rhythm, Design - wood & lino cuts of the 20s & 30s, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 12 March – 11 July 2010 (another example) Professor Sadler, Japan and Australian modernism, University Art Gallery, University of Sydney, Sydney, 3 April – 24 July 2011 (another example) Dorrit Black 1891 – 1951, Royal South Australian Society of Arts, Adelaide, 24 April – 15 May 2011, cat. 9 (another example) Sydney Moderns, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 6 July – 7 October 2013 (another example) Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 14 June – 7 September 2014 (another example) Modern impressions; Australian prints from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2 September 2016 – January 2017 (another example) Cutting Edge: Modernist British Printmaking, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 19 June – 8 September 2019 (another example) LITERATURE 'Art & linoleum cut out pictures with umbrella ribs', Sun, Sydney, 16 March 1930, p. 8 (illus., another example) Butler, R., and Deutscher, C., A Survey of Australian Relief Prints 1900/1950, Deutsher Galleries, Melbourne, 1978, p. 92 (illus., another example) North, I., The Art of Dorrit Black, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, and Macmillan, South Melbourne, 1979, cat. L.1, pl. 5, pp. 27 (illus., another example), 131 Waldmann, A., Project 39 – Women's Imprint, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1982, np. Edwards et al., Review: Works by Women from the Permanent Collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1995, n.p. Coppel, S., Linocuts of the Machine Age: Claude Flight and the Grosvenor School, Scolar Press, Aldershot, 1995, pp. 66, 152 (illus., another example), pl. 31, cat. DBI Topliss, H., Modernism and Feminism, Australian Women Artists 1900 – 1940, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1996, p. 142 (illus., another example) Hylton, J., Modern Australian Women: Paintings & Prints 1925 – 1945, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2000, p. 25 (illus., another example) Butler, R., Printed Images by Australian Artists 1885 – 1955, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2007, p. 205 (illus., another example) Campbell, H., Colour, Rhythm, Design: Wood & Lino cuts of the 20s & 30s, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2010, pp. 2, 16 (illus., another example) Mimmocchi, D., Sydney Moderns: Art for a New World, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2013, pp. 79, 178 (illus., another example), 310, 320 Grishin, S., Australian Art: A History, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2015, p. 232, pl. 23.4 (illus., another example) Lock-Weir, T., Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2014, pp. 8 – 9 (illus., another example), 154 (illus., another example), 199 (illus., another example) Samuel et al., Cutting Edge: Modernist British Printmaking, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 2019, pp. 15, 16 (illus.), 39, 40, 49, 70, 74, 90 (illus.) and illus. back cover (another example) ESSAY Adelaide-born Dorrit Black began her studies at the South Australian School of Arts and Crafts around 1910, moving to Sydney in 1915 where she attended Julian Ashton’s Sydney Art School. In England in late 1927, she studied for several months at London’s Grosvenor School of Modern Art, and later in France sought out other progressive teachers – André Lhote, who introduced her to Cubism and Albert Gleizes, who offered ‘a bridge from Cubism to pure abstraction: from the static to the dynamic.’1 Armed with this firsthand knowledge of developments in contemporary international art, when Black returned to Australia at the end of 1929 she joined the ranks of a small group of female artists, including Grace Crowley, Anne Dangar, and earlier, Margaret Preston, who, through the exhibition of their art, sometimes teaching – and in Black’s case, her energetic proselytising – played a critical role in the introduction and spread of approaches to modern art in Australia. While Black’s first introduction to the linocut technique was probably through Thea Proctor in Sydney during the early 1920s,2 the most significant influence on her work in the medium was Claude Flight. Teaching at the Grosvenor School from 1926 – 30, he revolutionised printmaking in the 1920s and 30s through his passionate advocacy of the colour linocut, regarding it as the modern medium for the modern age. His 1927 book, Lino-Cuts. A Hand-Book of Linoleum-Cut Colour Printing (1927), was the first major publication on the subject and quickly became the standard manual used by artists across the world. Although Black only studied with Flight for a few months, she absorbed his example of the use of bold colour, the reduction of subject matter to simplified shapes, and patterns based on a dynamic system of opposing rhythmic lines and forms. One of the earliest colour linocuts Black made after her encounter with Flight, Music, 1927 – 28 clearly reflects his influence in its strong design and lively sense of movement, and the master approved, writing to Black after seeing a trial proof, ‘I think it very good. I especially like the person at the piano… I think you have got away with the idea very well… I believe that rather abstract ideas work better in Lino-cuts than definite views.’3 Indeed, Flight’s admiration for this print was such that he included it, along with four others by the Australian artist, in the first of the regular exhibitions of colour linocuts that he organised at the Redfern Gallery in London in 1929.4 The image was inspired by a jazz evening at the Dominion Arts Club in London and the dynamism of the composition, with its sweeping arcs of background line, colour and pattern, and the stylised dancing figures, gives vivid expression to the energy and excitement of the experience. Printed on delicate cream paper in five colours – black first, followed by yellow ochre, red-brown, grey-green and blue – from five separate linoblocks, this impression is inscribed with the edition number 10/50, however as was often the case with relief prints (linocuts and woodcuts) by Australian artists at the time, it is unlikely that the entire edition was ever completed. Other catalogued impressions of Music are held in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Art Gallery of South Australia and the National Gallery of Australia. 1. Lock-Weir, T., Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2014, p. 56 2. Freak, E., ‘The Modern Medium: Colour Linocuts’ in Lock-Weir, ibid., pp. 144 – 145 3. Claude Flight, letter to Dorrit Black, 25 March 1928, cited in Lock-Weir, ibid., p. 36 and Coppel, S., Linocuts of the Machine Age: Claude Flight and the Grosvenor School, Scolar Press in association with the National Gallery of Australia, Aldershot, 1995, p. 66 The other prints by Black included in the Redfern Gallery exhibition were The Acrobats, 1927 – 28; Wings, 1927 – 28; The Castle, Taormina, c.1929; and Argentina, c.1929. KIRSTY GRANT
DORRIT BLACK (1891-1951) The Castle, Taormina c.1928-29 colour linocut on cream wove paper, printed from five blocks in yellow ochre, blue, green, red brown, ed. 5/50 initialled lower right in pencil upon image editioned and titled beneath image: Sicily, The Castle, Taormina 5/50 20 x 26cm PROVENANCE: Sotheby's, Sydney, 17 November 1988, lot 142 The Collection of Colin Lanceley Leonard Joel, The Estate of Colin Lanceley, Sydney, 16 November 2015, lot 202 Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITIONS: First Exhibition of Linocuts, The Redfern Gallery, London 1929, cat. no. 41 (another example) A Group of Seven, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney 1930, cat. no. 26 (another example) Drawing, Print and Watercolour, Contemporary Artist's Society, Adelaide 1952, cat. no. 9 (another example) A Survey of Australian Relief Prints 1900-1950, Deutscher Galleries, 13 April - 5 May, 1978, cat. no 124 (another example) Dorrit Black Collection, Josef Lebovic Gallery, Sydney 1999, cat. no. 3 (another example) Out of the Darkness: Prints and Drawings from the University of Western Australia Art Collection, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Perth 2010 (another example) Dorrit Black: Retrospective Exhibition, Royal South Australian Society of Arts, Adelaide 2011, cat. no. 15 (another example) Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 14 June - 7 September 2014 (another example) LITERATURE: Lock, T., Dorrit Black Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2017, p. 50, 152, 200 (illustrated, another example) Butler, R. & Deutscher, C., A Survey of Australian Relief Prints 1900-1950, Deutscher Galleries, Melbourne, 1978, p. 93 (illustrated, another example) OTHER NOTES: Dorrit Black was at the forefront of the modernist movement, and a key participant in bringing these ideas to Australia from Europe in the 1920s. Leaving Adelaide for England in 1927, Dorrit Black attended the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London to study under Claude Flight three days a week. Flight took great interest in Black's rhythmic use of colour and suggested using a multi lino-block to refine the build-up of colour within each print, a technique executed by only his most advanced students. Having forged a great relationship, Flight and Black kept in close contact even after Black had departed London to travel around Europe. The pair would write to each other about their learnings and exchange concepts, with Flight even displaying her works amongst his own and that of other students. Joining her Australian comrades, Grace Crowley and Anne Dangar, Black enrolled in the Academie Lhote on Rue d'Odessa in Montparnasse. Intrigued by the aims and methods of the Cubist Modernist Movement, Black was eager to work with teacher Andre Lhote, one of the original Cubist artists. In the late 1920s, Black travelled through Europe, spending three weeks in Taormina, Sicily. This is where Black would produce some of her most prolific works blending the modern printmaking teachings of Flight with the Cubist perspectives of Lhote. "The Castle, Taormina" demonstrates volume and solidity through the advanced overlaying of colour and the dramatic vertical forms and shadows. Rather than the use of thick black outline, Dorrit expertly balances her use of block colour and integrates shadowing and depth through segmented line to depict the angled surface of the landscape. Dorrit successfully represents the towering heights of the Sicilian mountains and the dramatic formations of cloud in the sky, dissecting her subject into a balanced and striking modernist composition. Her geometric depiction and patterning of the landscape is a great example of her experimentation with modern methods and her complete adherence to the principles she had recently learnt. In 1929, Claude Flight held the First Exhibition of British Linocuts at Redfern Gallery, London. Five linocuts by Black had been selected, including "The Castle, Taormina". Flight wrote to Black: "let me congratulate you on your prints they are wholly delightful & the ones I like especially are 'music' (wings), and the landscape (The Castle, Taormina). The landscape is the best lino landscape I have seen yet - I wish I had done it myself". Hannah Ryan, Art Specialist RELATED WORK: The Castle, Taormina, 1928, oil on canvasboard, 54 x 37cm, University Art Collection, The University of Sydney, Sydney.
Dorrit Black 1881 - 1951 Corner of the Garden (C. DB 32) Linoleum cut printed in colors, circa 1936, signed in pencil, titled and numbered 4/50, on tissue thin Japan paper, unframed image: 260 by 308 mm 10¼ by 12⅛ in sheet: 304 by 377 mm 12 by 14⅞ in
DORRIT BLACK (1891 - 1951) STUDY FOR MIRMANDE (WITH SURROUNDING HILLS), c.1934 pencil on paper 24.5 x 34.0 cm (sheet) 43.0 x 53.0 cm (frame) bears inscription verso: coll: / Mrs Goble PROVENANCE Ruth Goble, the artist's niece Private collection, Melbourne RELATED WORKS Mirmande (with surrounding hills), 1934, oil on canvas on paperboard, 35.6 x 45.9 cm, in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Mirmande, 1928, oil on canvas, 60.0 x 73.8 cm, in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide Study for 'Mirmande', c.1928, pencil on paper, 21.0 x 25.7 cm, in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide Study for 'Mirmande (II)', c.1934, pencil on paper, 24.1 x 34.0 cm, in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide This work is located in our Melbourne Gallery
DORRIT BLACK (1891-1951) Untitled (Landscape) watercolour, on paper double-sided signed lower left: Dorrit Black signed verso lower right: Dorrit Black (i) 26 x 37.5cm (image); (ii) 37.5 x 26.5cm (image, verso) PROVENANCE: The Estate of Jim Alexander
DORRIT BLACK (1891-1951) Landscape with Small Ravine and Barn watercolour on paper certificate of authenticity from Ian North dated 1975 affixed verso 24 x 36cm PROVENANCE: Private collection, Melbourne The estate of the above
Dorrit Black (1891-1951) Toucans, 1938 artist's monogram in image lower left: 'DB' titled and numbered lower left: 'Toucans 5/50' signed lower right: 'Dorrit Black' colour linocut on white oriental paper, printed in seven blocks in brown, black, grey, green, yellow, cobalt blue and red 23.0 x 22.5cm (9 1/16 x 8 7/8in).
Dorrit Black (1891-1951) Portrait of Rawi Bhavilai, c.1950 signed lower right: 'Dorrit Black' oil on bitumen paper on board 48.5 x 40.0cm (19 1/8 x 15 3/4in).
DORRIT BLACK (1891 - 1951) CORNER OF THE GARDEN, c.1936 colour linocut on paper 26.0 x 31.0 cm (image) 28.5 x 35.0 cm (sheet) edition: 2/50 signed in image with artist’s monogram signed, numbered and inscribed with title below image: Corner of the Garden 2/50 Dorrit Black PROVENANCE Estate of Edith Lawrence, London Thence by descent Private collection, London Bonhams, London, 16 December 2021, lot 23 Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED Paintings by Dorrit Black, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 18 – 28 March 1936, cat. 26 (another example) British Lino–cuts, Ward Gallery, London, 10 June – 8 July 1936, cat. 39 (another example) Dorrit Black Memorial Exhibition, Royal South Australian Society of Arts, Adelaide, 1952, cat. 63 (another example, as ‘The Garden’) Drawing, Print and Watercolour, Contemporary Art Society of Australia, Adelaide, 1952, cat. 20 (another example, as ‘The Garden’) Exhibitions of Paintings by the late Dorrit Black, Hahndorf Academy Gallery, Adelaide, 1959, cat. 36 (another example, as ‘The Garden’) Australian Women Artists: One Hundred Years 1840 – 1940, George Paton and Ewing Galleries, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 2 – 27 September 1973; and touring, cat. 10 (another example, as ‘Garden’) Dorrit Black 1891 – 1951, Art Gallery of South Australia, and touring, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Newcastle Art Gallery, New South Wales; The Ewing and George Paton Galleries, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 1975 – 76, cat. 60 (another example) Claude Flight and His Followers. The Colour Linocut Movement between the Wars, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 18 April – 12 July 1992, and touring, cat. 28 (another example) Dorrit Black (1891 – 1951), Royal South Australian Society of Arts, Adelaide, 24 April – 15 May 2011, cat. 33 (another example) Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 14 June – 7 September 2014 (another example) Spowers and Syme, Canberra Museum and Art Gallery in association with the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 13 August 2021 – 12 February 2022 (another example) LITERATURE ‘Art Exhibition. Miss Dorrit Black’, Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 18 March 1936, p. 12 Burke, J., Australian Women Artists: One Hundred Years 1840 – 1940, George Paton and Ewing Galleries, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 1973, cat. 10, pp. 23, 37 (illus., another example, as ‘The Garden’) North, I., The Art of Dorrit Black, Macmillan, Melbourne and Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 1979, cat. L.32, pl. 19, pp. 73 (illus., another example), 132 Burke, J., Australian Women Artists: 1840 – 1940, Greenhouse Publications, Melbourne, 1980, pl. 12, p. 96 (illus., another example), 162 Coppel, S., Linocuts of the Machine Age: Claude Flight and the Grosvenor School, Scolar Press, Aldershot, England, in association with the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1995, cat. DB 32, p. 161 (illus., another example) Lock–Weir, T., Dorrit Black. Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2014, p. 204 (illus., another example) Samuel, G. (ed.), Cutting Edge. Modernist British Printmaking, Bloomsbury, London, 2019, pp. 50 – 51, 70, 75, 115 (illus., another example) Noordhuis – Fairfax, S. (ed.), Spowers and Syme, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2021, pp. 52 (illus., another example), 94 RELATED WORK Study for Corner of the Garden, c.1936, watercolour on paper, 28.0 x 38.5 cm, in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide Other examples of this print are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Hans Heysen (1877-1968) Rural Landscape, 1951 signed and dated lower right: 'HANS HEYSEN / 51' charcoal on paper 30.5 x 39.0cm (12 x 15 3/8in). For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
DORRIT BLACK (1891 - 1951) FARMHOUSE, MT TORRENS, c.1945 oil on canvas on compressed card 24.5 x 24.5 cm signed lower left: Dorrit Black. PROVENANCE Old Clarendon Gallery, Adelaide Private collection, Adelaide Deutscher~Menzies, Melbourne, 1 May 2002, lot 56 The Cbus Collection of Australian Art, Melbourne, acquired from the above EXHIBITED Possibly: Exhibition by Group 9, Society of Arts Gallery, Adelaide, opened 2 November 1944 (as ‘The Farmhouse’) Possibly: Exhibition of Oils, Watercolours, Pastels and Linocut Prints by Dorrit Black, R.S.A Society of Arts Gallery, Adelaide, 25 October – 3 November 1945, cat. 25 (as ‘The Farmhouse’ dated 1943) on long term loan to Newcastle Art Gallery, New South Wales, prior to 2006 on long term loan to Gippsland Art Gallery, Victoria LITERATURE Possibly: Fuller, H. E., ‘Exhibition by “Group 9”: Novel Features in Works’, The Advertiser, Adelaide, 2 November 1944, p. 6 (as ‘The Farmhouse’) Nainby, B., Stanhope, Z., and Furlonger, K., The Cbus Collection of Australian Art, in association with Latrobe Regional Gallery, Melbourne, 2009, pp. 18, 66 (illus.), 213 ESSAY Dorrit Black was one of a handful of intrepid Australian women who ventured overseas in the 1930s to complete and broaden their artistic training in the United Kingdom and continental Europe. Black, along with her peers Anne Dangar, Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme studied at the pioneering schools of Albert Gleizes and André Lhote in Paris and at the Grosvenor School, where they studied experimental lino-cutting under Claude Flight. Although Black, Spowers and Syme all reached international acclaim with their achievements in this democratic and radical medium, they nevertheless returned to Australia and mostly continued their artistic practice in the traditional forms of oil on canvas and works on paper. Dorrit Black, an Adelaidean, returned to the southern state and achieved broader success than her peers as an exhibiting society painter, a teacher of landscape painting (with Jeffrey Smart being a notable, and impressionable pupil) and a strong advocate for artistic pursuits and social affairs, until her untimely passing after a road accident in 1951. In 1939, Dorrit Black, aged 48, purchased her own home in the suburban fringes of Adelaide after decades of living with, and providing primary care for, her ailing mother. Her new house was carefully arranged to suit her artistic pursuits, and a large south-facing window gave the artist direct views on to the hills of the Mount Lofty Ranges, where she had spent significant time as a child. Her paintings from this time reflected Black’s newfound self-sufficiency and confidence, becoming more realist and personal. 1 Farmhouse, Mount Torrens is one such work, humble in size and documentary in subject matter, it reflects a war-time austerity and Black’s socialist fervour in the home-effort. Based in the foothill township of Mount Torrens, whose prosperity and construction had dwindled some twenty years earlier, Black has painted an anonymous portrait of a countrywoman and her humble relationship with the vibrantly green land. Discreetly benign, this rural scene of a woman absorbed in her handcraft sitting on the porch a house has the quiet discipline and dignity of Black’s earlier works of wartime labouring scenes and activities of local patriotic organisations (for example The Cloth Cutters, c.1940 – 42, private collection). Still using the dynamic diagonal compositional techniques, flattened picture plane, simple geometric foundations and colour theory of Lhote and Flight, Farmhouse, Mount Torrens conceals its complexity with a childlike stylisation. This work, most probably included in Dorrit Black’s one-woman survey show at the Royal South Australian Art Society’s exhibition hall in 1945, demonstrates Black’s final determination to express the realities of nature and ordinary people without sentimentality and undue lyricism.2 A reporter from The Advertiser noted in print a year earlier that Black’s works ‘retain her love of plain uncompromising lines and colour. And her best is perhaps The Farmhouse.’3 1. Lock-Weir, T., Dorrit Black. Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2014, p. 112 2. North, I., The Art of Dorrit Black, Macmillan and Art Gallery of South Australia, 1979, Melbourne, p. 98 3. Fuller, H. E., ‘Exhibition by “Group 9”: Novel Features in Works’, The Advertiser, Adelaide, 2 November 1944, p. 6 LUCIE REEVES-SMITH
A Virginia E. Bailey vintage acrylic painting on canvas Joy, 1992, depicting an abstract composition with trees. Signed by the artist with a monogram and dated lower left. Framed. A printed paper label showing detailed information about the artwork on the back. One of a kind artwork. Vintage And Contemporary Fine Art For Wall Decor.
DORRIT BLACK (1891-1951) The Castle, Taormina c.1928-29 colour linocut on cream wove paper, printed from five blocks in yellow ochre, blue, green, red brown, ed. 5/50 initialled lower right in pencil upon image editioned and titled beneath image: Sicily, The Castle, Taormina 5/50 20 x 26cm PROVENANCE: Sotheby's, Sydney, 17 November 1988, lot 142 The Collection of Colin Lanceley Leonard Joel, The Estate of Colin Lanceley, Sydney, 16 November 2015, lot 202 Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITIONS: First Exhibition of Linocuts, The Redfern Gallery, London 1929, cat. no. 41 (another example) A Group of Seven, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney 1930, cat. no. 26 (another example) Drawing, Print and Watercolour, Contemporary Artist's Society, Adelaide 1952, cat. no. 9 (another example) A Survey of Australian Relief Prints 1900-1950, Deutscher Galleries, 13 April - 5 May, 1978, cat. no 124 (another example) Dorrit Black Collection, Josef Lebovic Gallery, Sydney 1999, cat. no. 3 (another example) Out of the Darkness: Prints and Drawings from the University of Western Australia Art Collection, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Perth 2010 (another example) Dorrit Black: Retrospective Exhibition, Royal South Australian Society of Arts, Adelaide 2011, cat. no. 15 (another example) Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 14 June - 7 September 2014 (another example) LITERATURE: Lock, T., Dorrit Black Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2017, p. 50, 152, 200 (illustrated, another example) Butler, R. & Deutscher, C., A Survey of Australian Relief Prints 1900-1950, Deutscher Galleries, Melbourne, 1978, p. 93 (illustrated, another example) OTHER NOTES: Dorrit Black was at the forefront of the modernist movement, and a key participant in bringing these ideas to Australia from Europe in the 1920s. Leaving Adelaide for England in 1927, Dorrit Black attended the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London to study under Claude Flight three days a week. Flight took great interest in Black's rhythmic use of colour and suggested using a multi lino-block to refine the build-up of colour within each print, a technique executed by only his most advanced students. Having forged a great relationship, Flight and Black kept in close contact even after Black had departed London to travel around Europe. The pair would write to each other about their learnings and exchange concepts, with Flight even displaying her works amongst his own and that of other students. Joining her Australian comrades, Grace Crowley and Anne Dangar, Black enrolled in the Academie Lhote on Rue d'Odessa in Montparnasse. Intrigued by the aims and methods of the Cubist Modernist Movement, Black was eager to work with teacher Andre Lhote, one of the original Cubist artists. In the late 1920s, Black travelled through Europe, spending three weeks in Taormina, Sicily. This is where Black would produce some of her most prolific works blending the modern printmaking teachings of Flight with the Cubist perspectives of Lhote. "The Castle, Taormina" demonstrates volume and solidity through the advanced overlaying of colour and the dramatic vertical forms and shadows. Rather than the use of thick black outline, Dorrit expertly balances her use of block colour and integrates shadowing and depth through segmented line to depict the angled surface of the landscape. Dorrit successfully represents the towering heights of the Sicilian mountains and the dramatic formations of cloud in the sky, dissecting her subject into a balanced and striking modernist composition. Her geometric depiction and patterning of the landscape is a great example of her experimentation with modern methods and her complete adherence to the principles she had recently learnt. In 1929, Claude Flight held the First Exhibition of British Linocuts at Redfern Gallery, London. Five linocuts by Black had been selected, including "The Castle, Taormina". Flight wrote to Black: "let me congratulate you on your prints they are wholly delightful & the ones I like especially are 'music' (wings), and the landscape (The Castle, Taormina). The landscape is the best lino landscape I have seen yet - I wish I had done it myself". Hannah Ryan, Art Specialist RELATED WORK: The Castle, Taormina, 1928, oil on canvasboard, 54 x 37cm, University Art Collection, The University of Sydney, Sydney.
Dorrit Black (1891-1951) Corner of the Garden (Coppel DB.32) Linocut printed in yellow ochre, vermilion, viridian, cobalt blue, grey, circa 1936, on buff oriental laid tissue, signed and numbered 2/50 in pencil in the lower left margin, a rare impression (Coppel records only three unsigned proofs and that the edition is unknown), with margins, a paper split to the centre left image and the upper right sheet corner with a paper loss, generally in good condition, framed Block 257 x 307mm. (10 1/8 x 12in.); Sheet 285 x 353mm. (11 1/4 x 13 7/8in.) For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Dorrit Black (1891-1951) Backs of Homes, Veere (Coppel DB.9) Linocut printed in black, red, yellow, blue, circa 1929, on cream oriental laid paper, initialled in pencil lower right image and numbered 6/50 in pencil in the left margin, annotated by Claude Flight Backs of Houses, Veere, Dorrit Black, £2.2.0 in black ink in the left margin, some minor surface defects, otherwise in good condition, framed Block 232 x 310mm. (9 1/8 x 12 1/4in.); Sheet 237 x 306mm. (9 3/8 x 12in.) For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
DORRIT BLACK (1891-1951) The Castle, Taormina c.1928-29 colour linocut on cream wove paper, printed from five blocks in yellow ochre, blue, green, red brown, ed. 5/50 initialled lower right in pencil upon image editioned and inscribed with title beneath image: Sicily, The Castle, Taormina 5/50 20 x 26cm PROVENANCE: Sotheby's, Sydney, 17 November 1988, lot 142 The Collection of Colin Lanceley Leonard Joel, The Estate of Colin Lanceley, Sydney, 16 November 2015, lot 202 Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITIONS: First Exhibition of Linocuts, The Redfern Gallery, London 1929, cat. no. 41 (another example) A Group of Seven, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney 1930, cat. no. 26 (another example) Drawing, Print and Watercolour, Contemporary Artist's Society, Adelaide 1952, cat. no. 9 (another example) A Survey of Australian Relief Prints 1900-1950, Deutscher Galleries, 13 April - 5 May, 1978, cat. no 124 (another example) Dorrit Black Collection, Josef Lebovic Gallery, Sydney 1999, cat. no. 3 (another example) Out of the Darkness: Prints and Drawings from the University of Western Australia Art Collection, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Perth 2010 (another example) Dorrit Black: Retrospective Exhibition, Royal South Australian Society of Arts, Adelaide 2011, cat. no. 15 (another example) Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 14 June - 7 September 2014 (another example) LITERATURE: Lock, T., Dorrit Black Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2017, p. 50, 152, 200 (illustrated, another example) Butler, R. & Deutscher, C., A Survey of Australian Relief Prints 1900-1950, Deutscher Galleries, Melbourne, 1978, p. 93 (illustrated, another example) OTHER NOTES: Dorrit Black was at the forefront of the modernist movement, and a key participant in bringing these ideas to Australia from Europe in the 1920s. Leaving Adelaide for England in 1927, Dorrit Black attended the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London to study under Claude Flight three days a week. Flight took great interest in Black's rhythmic use of colour and suggested using a multi lino-block to refine the build-up of colour within each print, a technique executed by only his most advanced students. Having forged a great relationship, Flight and Black kept in close contact even after Black had departed London to travel around Europe. The pair would write to eachother about their learnings and exchange concepts, with Flight even displaying her works amongst his own and that of other students. Joining her Australian comrades, Grace Crowley and Anne Dangar, Black enrolled in the Academie Lhote on Rue d'Odessa in Montparnasse. Intrigued by the aims and methods of the Cubist Modernist Movement, Black was eager to work with teacher Andre Lhote, one of the original Cubist artists. In the late 1920s, Black travelled through Europe, spending three weeks in Taormina, Sicily. This is where Black would produce some of her most prolific works blending the modern printmaking teachings of Flight with the Cubist perspectives of Lhote. "The Castle, Taormina" demonstrates volume and solidity through the advanced overlaying of colour and the dramatic vertical forms and shadows. Rather than the use of thick black outline, Dorrit expertly balances her use of block colour and integrates shadowing and depth through segmented line to depict the angled surface of the landscape. Dorrit succesfully represents the towering heights of the Sicilian mountains and the dramatic formations of cloud in the sky, dissecting her subject into a balanced and striking modernist composition. Her geometric depiction and patterning of the landscape is a great example of her experimentation with modern methods and her complete adherence to the principles she had recently learnt. In 1929, Claude Flight held the First Exhibition of British Linocuts at Redfern Gallery, London. Five linocuts by Black had been selected, including "The Castle, Taormina". Flight wrote to Black: "let me congratulate you on your prints they are wholly delightful & the ones I like especially are 'music' (wings), and the landscape (The Castle, Taormina). The landscape is the best lino landscape I have seen yet - I wish I had done it myself". Hannah Ryan, Art Specialist RELATED WORK: The Castle, Taormina, 1928, oil on canvasboard, 54 x 37cm, University Art Collection, The University of Sydney, Sydney.
Dorrit Black (1891-1951) Portrait of a man, 1946 signed and dated lower right: 'Dorrit Black /46' oil on card 52.0 x 37.0cm (20 1/2 x 14 9/16in). For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Dorrit Black (1891-1951) The Castle, Taormina, c.1928-29 initialled in image lower right: 'D.B.' colour linocut on cream wove paper, printed from five blocks in yellow ochre, blue, green, red and brown 22.5 x 28.5cm (8 7/8 x 11 1/4in). (22.5 x 36.5cm sheet) For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Dorrit Black (1891-1951) Chapman's Pool, 1935 colour linocut on thin paper printed from four blocks in blue, ochre, Indian red, black 18.2 x 30.0cm (7 3/16 x 11 13/16in). For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Dorrit Black (1891-1951) Wool Quilt Makers, 1940-41 monogrammed in image upper left: 'DB' colour linocut on thin oriental laid paper, printed from five blocks in red, yellow, black, blue and dark brown 23.5 x 31.5cm (9 1/4 x 12 3/8in). For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
DORRIT BLACK (1891 – 1951) THE POT PLANT, 1933 colour linocut on paper 30.5 x 19.0 cm (image) signed in image with artist’s monogram signed, numbered and inscribed with title below image: The Pot-plant 12 X 30 [sic.] Dorrit Black PROVENANCE Private collection, Adelaide Thence by descent, Private collection, Perth EXHIBITED Contemporary Group, Farmer’s Blaxland Galleries, Sydney, 24 October – 4 November 1933, cat. 88 (another example) Women Artists of Australia, Education Department Art Gallery, Sydney, 12 – 25 July 1934, cat. 205 (another example) Colour Prints. Also Paintings by R.O. Dunlop, Basil Jonzen, Richard Eurich, Redfern Gallery, London, 12 July – 14 August 1934, cat. 8 (another example) Fifth Exhibition of British Linocuts, Ward Gallery, London, 1 June 1934, cat. 37 (another example) Dorrit Black (Retrospective), Royal South Australian Society of Arts, Adelaide, 25 October 1945, cat. 55 (another example) Dorrit Black 1891 – 1951, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, and touring, 1975 – 1976, cat. 57 (another example) Claude Flight and His Followers. The Colour Linocut Movement between the Wars, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 18 April – 12 July 1992, and touring, cat. 23 (another example) Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 14 June – 7 September 2014 (another example) LITERATURE Art in Australia, 15 November 1938, Third Series, No. 73, p. 63 (illus., another example, as ‘Pot Plant’) Draffin, N., Australian Woodcuts and Linocuts of the 1920s and 1930s, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1976, p. 42 (illus., another example) North, I., The Art of Dorrit Black, Macmillan and Art Gallery of South Australia, 1979, Melbourne, cat. L.19, pl. 15, pp. 60, 61 (illus., another example), 63, 132 Coppel, S., Claude Flight and His Followers. The Colour Linocut Movement between the Wars, National Gallery of Australia, 1992, p. 19 Coppel, S., Linocuts of the Machine Age: Claude Flight and the Grosvenor School, Scolar Press, Aldershot, England, in association with the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1995, cat. DB 20, p. 57 (illus.) Lock-Weir, T., Dorrit Black. Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2014, pp. 156 (illus.), 202 (illus. another example) RELATED WORK Other examples of this print are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom.
DORRIT BLACK (1891-1951) Landscape (Possibly Near Mirmande) c.1934-1940 oil on board signed lower right: Dorrit Black 26 x 40cm PROVENANCE: Gifted to the artist's niece Thence by descent Private collection, Melbourne LITERATURE: Lock-Weir, T., Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2014, p. 180 OTHER NOTES: Related Works: Houses, Mirmande 1934, oil on canvas 35.2 x 53.3cm, Private collection Study for painting 'Houses at Mirmande' 1934, pencil on paper, 18.4 x 26.7cm (sheet), Private collection Dorrit Black and her mother ventured to London and Europe between 1934-1935, first heading to France in March. They arrived in Mirmande and stayed for more than a fortnight. The bitter cold prevented her from painting so instead she made a series of preliminary sketches which she later fininshed in England. Black completed at least two major oils of Mirmande based on these sketches. Dorrit's time overseas during these years reinvigorated her commitment to modern art. This painting is quite likely painted after her second visit to Mirmande in 1934. The brushwork is quite impasto, in line with Dorrit's later works. The painting has a fragmented and Cubist feel, while the treatment of the trees refer back to the influence of Andre Lhote.
DORRIT BLACK (1891 – 1951) VIEW OF A BAY, SYDNEY HARBOUR, c.1921 – 22 oil on canvas on board SIGNED: signed lower left: Dorrit Black DIMENSIONS: 22.0 x 30.0 cm PROVENANCE: Private collection, Adelaide Elder Fine Art, Adelaide, 24 May 2015, lot 28 (as ‘Middle Harbour, Sydney, c.1920’) Private collection, Melbourne LITERATURE: North, I., The Art of Dorrit Black, Art Gallery of South Australia and Macmillan, Adelaide, 1979, cat O.18, p. 121
DORRIT BLACK (1891 – 1951) THE QUARTETTE c.1935 colour linocut SIGNED: signed, numbered, and inscribed with title below image edition: 4/50 DIMENSIONS: 15.0 x 24.0 cm PROVENANCE: Estate of Edith Lawrence, London Thence by descent Private collection, United Kingdom Tennants Auctioneers, United Kingdom Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED: Lino-Cuts 1936 (Seventh Exhibition of British Lino-Cuts), Ward Gallery, London, 10 June – 8 July 1936, cat. 19 (another example) Dorrit Black, Royal South Australian Society of Arts, Adelaide, 7 – 23 July 1938, cat. 40 (another example) Contemporary Art Society, 1952, cat. 23 Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 13 June – 7 September 2014 (another example, as ‘The String Quartette’) LITERATURE: North, I., The Art of Dorrit Black, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 1979, cat. L30, pl. 19, pp. 73 (illus., another example, as ‘The String Quartette, 1936’), 132 Coppel, S., Linocuts of the Machine Age: Claude Flight and the Grosvenor School, Scolar Press, Aldershot, England, in association with the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1995, cat. DB30, p. 160 (illus., another example, dated as 1936) Lock-Weir, T., Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2014, pp. 102 (illus.) 204 (illus., another example)
DORRIT BLACK (1891 – 1951) STILL LIFE (DAHLIAS) c.1929 – 30 oil on wood panel SIGNED: signed lower left: Dorrit Black DIMENSIONS: 39.0 x 33.0 cm PROVENANCE: Private collection Christie's, Melbourne, 11 July 1977, lot 54A Mrs Louis M. Robson, Adelaide Important Women Artists Gallery, Melbourne Private collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 1978 EXHIBITED: Dorrit Black, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 10 – 20 September 1930, cat. 18 (label attached verso) Dorrit Black, Royal South Australian Society of Arts Gallery, Adelaide, 7 – 23 July 1938, cat. 15(b) LITERATURE: North, I., The Art of Dorrit Black, Macmillan and the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 1979, O.34, p. 122 ESSAY: In late 1929, after two years of study and travel in England and Europe, Dorrit Black returned to Adelaide armed with firsthand knowledge and experience of international developments in modern art. Through the subsequent exhibition of her paintings and prints, her teaching, and energetic proselytising, Black joined the ranks of a small group of female artists, including Grace Crowley, Anne Dangar, and earlier, Margaret Preston, among others, who contributed to the introduction and spread of progressive artistic approaches in Australia. Following studies at the South Australian School of Art in Adelaide and later with Julian Ashton in Sydney, Black sailed for England in 1927, attending classes with Claude Flight at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art. Flight revolutionised printmaking in the 1920s and 30s through his passionate advocacy of the colour linocut – regarding it as the modern medium for the modern age – and Black (followed by other Australians, Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme), absorbed his example of the use of bold colour, the reduction of subject matter to simplified shapes, and patterns based on a dynamic system of opposing rhythmic lines and forms. Moving to Paris in December, Black studied with André Lhote, one of the early exponents of Cubism, whose teaching was, in her words, ‘from the standpoint of design, which is the basis of all modern work … He judges the work from standards of rhythm, balance, proportion and line, and applies these standards to its three properties – form, tone and colour’.1 The final element of Black’s education came from Albert Gleizes, whose example incorporated rhythmic movement into radically stylised compositions, offering ‘a bridge from cubism to pure abstraction: from the static to the dynamic’.2 Still Life (Dahlias), c.1929 – 30 features a familiar table-top arrangement of elements – books, a tablecloth (itself bearing a strikingly modern geometric design), and a vase of flowers – and the lower half of a framed picture is visible hanging on the wall behind. But while the subject is traditional, its treatment is far from it, as Black compresses pictorial space and merges some forms with others (the uppermost book and wall for example), introducing multiple fragmented viewpoints into the image. Visible brushstrokes lend the work a painterly energy and the bold colours of Black’s palette – from the royal blue of the draped cloth to the burgundy and yellow of the dahlias – draw the eye around the picture, highlighting the geometry that underpins its composition. This work was exhibited in 1930 alongside one of Black’s best known paintings, The Bridge, 1930 (Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide), in her first solo presentation at Macquarie Galleries, Sydney. Confounding one critic with its display of ‘ultra-modern methods’3, the exhibition bewildered another with its interpretation of subject matter ‘in geometrical terms’ and radical ‘adventures in forms’.4 A label on the back of the small wood panel suggests that Still Life (Dahlias) was included in one of the New English Art Club’s annual exhibitions, however her diary, which records extended travels in Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada in 1934 – 35, notes on 6 November 1934 that, ‘Today I have been to the New English Art Club, which repeatedly does not include either of my pictures’.5 It was at this time that Black did however receive significant recognition for her work when the Victoria and Albert Museum purchased an impression of the linocut, The Pot Plant, 1933, for its permanent collection.6 1. Dorrit Black quoted in Lock-Weir, T., Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2014, p. 36 2. ibid., p. 56. See Harding, L., ‘L’Esprit Nouveau 1913-1929’ in Harding, L. and Cramer, S., Cubism and Australian Art, exhibition catalogue, The Miegunyah Press & Heide Museum of Modern Art, Carlton, 2009, pp. 36 – 47 3. Simpson, C., ‘Geometry and Queer Colour’, Daily Guardian, 14 September 1930 quoted in North, I., The Art of Dorrit Black, Macmillan, Melbourne, 1979, p. 53 4. ‘Art Exhibition – Miss Dorrit Black’s Pictures’, Sydney Morning Herald, 11 September 1930 quoted in ibid. 5. Black, D., Travel Diaries, 1934-35, ‘England, Scotland, North America 6 October 1934 - 4 October 1935’ , p. 25, Art Gallery of South Australia Research Library, Dorrit Black papers. It is possible that the label was issued by the New English Art Club to identify works submitted for consideration. I am grateful to Tracey Lock-Weir, Curator of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, for her assistance confirming this point. 6. Lock-Weir, op . cit., pp. 78 – 79 KIRSTY GRANT
DORRIT BLACK, (1891 – 1951), BUSH WIND MILL, 1927 – 28, colour linocut SIGNED: numbered below image DIMENSIONS: 26.0 x 23.0 cm PROVENANCE: possibly: Theodore Bruce, Adelaide, 15 June 1986, lot 96 (as ‘Watertank and Windmill’) Ken and Joan Plomley Collection of Modernist Art, Melbourne EXHIBITED: Dorrit Black, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 10 – 20 September 1930, cat. 24 (another example, as ‘Bush Wind Mill’) Drawing, Print and Watercolour, Contemporary Arts Society, Adelaide, 1952, cat. 29 (another example) Claude Flight and His Followers: The Linocut Movement between the Wars, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 18 April – 12 July 1992 and touring, cat. 21 (another example, as ‘Bush Wind Mill, c.1930’) Modern Australian Women: Paintings and prints 1925 – 1945, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 24 November 2000 – 25 February 2001, and touring (another example) Dorrit Black, Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 14 June – 7 September 2014 (another example, as ‘The Windmill’) LITERATURE: ‘Miss Dorrit Black’s Pictures’, Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 11 September 1930, p. 7 (as ‘Bush Windmill’) ‘Tribute to Artist’, The Advertiser, Adelaide, 2 December 1952, p. 9 ‘Unusual Sculpture for National Gallery’, The Advertiser, Adelaide, 24 December 1952, p. 5 North, I., The Art of Dorrit Black, Art Gallery of South Australia and Macmillan, Adelaide, 1979, cat L.11, p. 131 (as ‘Bush Wind Mill, c.1930’) Coppel, S., Linocuts of the Machine Age: Claude Flight and the Grosvenor School, Scolar Press, Aldershot, England, in association with the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1995, cat. DB11, pp. 154 –155 (illus., another example, as ‘Bush Wind Mill, c.1930’) Hylton, J., Modern Australian Women: Paintings and prints 1925 – 1945, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2000, pp. 57 (illus.), 58, 121 (another example, as ‘Bush Windmill, c.1930’) Lock-Weir, T., Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2014, pp. 160, 162 (illus.), 199 (illus., another example) RELATED WORK: Another example of this print is held in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
DORRIT BLACK (1891-1951) Orchestra Pit, Theatre Royal c.1935 colour linocut on thin cream wove paper, unumbered monogrammed in plate lower right 22.5 x 18cm PROVENANCE: Gifted to the artist's niece Thence by descent Private collection, Melbourne EXHIBITIONS: Print, Drawing and Watercolour, Contemporary Art Society of Australia, 1952, cat. 24 LITERATURE: Lock-Weir, T., Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, p. 203 (illus.) OTHER NOTES: The artist did not include this work on her list of linocuts. Only a few unnumbered colour proofs are known to exist.
DORRIT BLACK (1891-1951) The Big Serpentine c.1920 oil on canvas on board inscribed verso: The Big Serpentine / Dorrit Black / 8 guineas' 44.5 x 36.5cm PROVENANCE: The Collection of Mr. Cameron Sparks Private collection, Melbourne OTHER NOTES: RELATED WORK: "The Almond Tree" Lock-Weir, T., Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, p. 25 (illus.)
DORRIT BLACK (1891-1951) The Big Serpentine c.1920 oil on canvas on board inscribed verso: The Big Serpentine / Dorrit Black / 8 guineas' 44.5 x 36.5cm PROVENANCE: The Collection of Mr. Cameron Sparks Private collection, Melbourne OTHER NOTES: RELATED WORK: "The Almond Tree" Lock-Weir, T., Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, p. 25 (illus.)
DORRIT BLACK (1891-1951) Wisteria, Wentworth House 1930-31 colour linocut on thin laid paper, ed. 10/50 printed from four blocks signed lower right: Dorrit Black titled and editioned lower left 22.5 x 32cm PROVENANCE: Gifted to the artist's niece Thence by descent Private collection, Melbourne LITERATURE: Lock-Weir, T., Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, p. 155 (illus.) OTHER NOTES: This work was inspired by the flowering vine that covered the front of Vaucluse House in Sydney. The former home of early colonial politician, William Charles Wentworth, it opened to the public in 1920 and became a popular tourist attraction.
DORRIT BLACK 1891-1951 (Summer Landscape) oil on canvas signed 'Dorrit Black' lower left 33 x 41 cm frame: original, maker unknown PROVENANCE Miss Dorrit Black, Adelaide Private Collection, Perth, by descent from the above
