Vale Richard Harding

Dearest Richard Harding, I’m still trying to fathom a world without you in it - and failing miserably.

These photos (the most recent ones I could find) are from the blog post I published on Tuesday, 13 December 2016. The following text is an edited extract from the same post. 

On Friday evening, 9 December, the Australian Print Workshop held an artist party to thank the artists who contributed to its biennial fundraiser, IMPRESSIONS 2016.

Like many of the people I spoke to that night, Shane and I look forward to the event as a rare opportunity to catch up with old friends from whom we are increasingly separated by time (or rather, lack thereof) and distance.

Pictured top, L-R are: Richard Harding, Shane Jones, Lesley Duxbury and Catherine Pilgrim. Richard and Lesley are former colleagues from my teaching days in the Printmaking Department at RMIT University - and very happy days they were too. 

Pictured above, L-R: a slight regrouping, comprising myself, Richard, Lesley, Raymond Carter and Catherine. (Photo credit: Shane Jones).

Fortunately I’ve occasionally seen Richard since 2016, but not nearly often enough. Awhile back, we spoke about getting together for a coffee, but somehow never got around to it.

You will be sorely missed, Richard. My heart goes out to Tad, Lyn and all your family. 

London Retrospective 1: Picasso Printmaker

Directly following are selected highlights of the recent exhibition PICASSO PRINTMAKER at the British Museum. (Apologies for the lack of individual captions, which will be added shortly). 

This was one of several stunning exhibitions that very happily coincided with my recent three-week trip to London. Owing to technical issues, I was unable to report on any of them directly from London. Instead, over the next few weeks, I will intermittently publish a series of retrospective posts on London gallery and museum visits, including special exhibitions, in the order in which I saw them.

PICASSO PRINTMAKER ran from 24 November 2024 - 30 March 2025.

FIREBRAND acquired by the State Library of Queensland

This just in from our sister blog, Moth Woman Press:

Firebrand, 2017, my one-of-a-kind concertina book, has just been acquired for the permanent collection of the State Library of Queensland, together with selected MWP zines. For further information, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

Pictured above: Firebrand, 2017, unique artist book, pigmented drawing ink and acrylic paint on Khadi paper, cloth cover with debossed text, 15.5 x 16.5 cm (closed). Collection: State Library of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD.

Looking to the future

The closing day of CODA, at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne on Saturday, February 8 couldn’t have ended on a happier note. 

Pictured above, L-R: Spring Growth and Acanthus, both 2024, acrylic on canvas panel, 30.5 x 30.5 cm.

CODA also featured works by Helen McInnis, Peter Brook, Robert Colvin, Nicholas Elliott and Warren Nichols. 

A big thank you to Stephen for having us. 

CODA and WAYS OF BEING, my solo exhibition that immediately preceded it, marked the first stage of a new beginning. 

Now to move on to the next phase with an open mind, a stout heart, a free spirit, and as little baggage as possible, remembering always the importance of play and experimentation, of trusting in the process and myself. It will require stepping back for awhile and working in my own good time, free from the constraints of external deadlines. I’m excited (and not a little nervous) to see where it will take me.

Photo credit for top image: Shane Jones.

CODA - Last Day

 

All good things, as they say, must come to an end, and so it is with CODA, Stephen McLaughlan Gallery’s opening exhibition for 2025.

Please join the artists for closing drinks on Saturday February 8 from 2-4 pm. We’d love to see you there.

Image on invitation: A book by its cover l, 2024, acrylic on canvas board, 10.5 x 10.5 cm. Like the majority of my works in the exhibition, the face decoration draws elements from the work of British Arts and Crafts designer, artisan and educator, May Morris, in this instance, a book cover, c. 1888-91, she designed and hand-embroidered for the book Love is Enough, 1873, by her father, William Morris.

CODA was curated by Stephen McLaughlan. Pictured below are my works that were selected for the exhibition.

Above, L-R: Spring Growth, 2024, Acanthus, 2024, and Climber ll, 2024, all acrylic on canvas board, 30.5 x 30.5 cm.

Above, L-R: Secret Garden, 2024, Orange Tree ll , 2024, and Tender Grapes ll, 2024, all acrylic on canvas board, 30.5 x 30.5 cm.

Above, L-R: Hand Embroidery, 2024, Climber l, 2024, and A book by its cover l, 2024, all acrylic on canvas board, 10.5 x 10.5 cm. 

Above, L-R: Sunflower and Other, both 2024, linocuts, 15 x 20 cm, ed. 40.

More Magritte

Part of me is still back in Sydney at the MAGRITTE retrospective at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, so with your kind indulgence, here are some more Magrittes. 

The artist’s singular persona has even infiltrated the gallery’s cloakroom.

MAGRITTE runs to February 9, and  if it’s geographically possible, you should run to see it.

MAGRITTE

My partner Shane Jones and I have just returned from a two-day trip to Sydney to see MAGRITTE at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, a superbly curated exhibition comprising over one hundred of Belgian-born Surrealist artist René Magritte’s finest works, the majority of which have never before been seen in Australia. 

Magritte has long been one of our favourite artists, and his works have had a profound influence on my own work. A case in point is his painting The Eternally Obvious, 1930, oil on five canvas panels (pictured above), the point of departure for my multi-panelled, close to life-sized work The Daughter of Time, 1997, linocuts on interfacing with hand stitching (pictured below). 

There is much more besides to admire and inspire in this stunning exhibition.

René Magritte was a lifelong fan of crime fiction, including the series of Fantômas novels created in 1911 by French writers Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre. I’ve never read the novels, but the silent film version of Fantômas, directed by the great Louis Feuillad, first released during 1913-14 as a five-part serial, is one of my all-time favourite films. It was a delightfully unexpected surprise to encounter Magritte’s The Flame Rekindled, 1943 (pictured below), which is based loosely on the cover illustration of the first Fantômas novel. A variation of the same image was used as the poster for Feuillad’s film. 

Not for a moment did I dream I’d ever see The Eternally Obvious or The Flame Rekindled in the flesh, let alone over one hundred of Magritte’s finest works in a single venue. A selection of them is directly below.

Shane and I may have bid another fond farewell to Sydney and the Potts Point area we’ve come to love (top image), but our memories of the superlative MAGRITTE exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales will stay with us forever.

MAGRITTE concludes on February 9. It’s up there with the finest and most impressively mounted exhibitions I’ve ever seen.