The work of a famous Australian artist is to go on show at an exhibition in Melbourne this month.
Bea Maddock’s work is to be displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria in St Kilda Road, Melbourne and already the simplicity of her composition is being used in postcard printing to draw public interest.
Maddock is one of Australia’s finest printmakers, and although the themes of her work may appear simplistic, the execution of her ideas is not. ‘Terra Spiritus . . . with a Darker Shade of Pale’, a drawing started in 1992 and completed in 1998, is made up of 52 panels and details the coastline of Tasmania. Each of the places on the coastline is labelled with an English and indigenous name. To colour the drawing, Maddock mined her own ochre.
Many of Maddock’s works were destroyed in the Victorian Ash Wednesday bushfires of 1983 but she did not let this disaster finish her career. She returned to her native state of Tasmania to devote her life to producing more art.
Twenty of Maddock’s drawings for Terra Spiritus will be displayed in the exhibition. There will also be some of the artist’s Antarctic drawings, the colours of which contrast with the red ochre works. Maddock spent some time in Antarctica in 1987 and it was on the return voyage that the shoreline of Tasmania inspired her to create what is, perhaps, her most famous piece. The exhibition will be on display from February 14 to July 21.
