Constance Stokes: Difference between revisions

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In 1953, at the request of Prime Minister [[Robert Menzies]] and the [[British Arts Council]], an exhibition of the works of twelve Australian artists was assembled. It was shown in London, five regional British cities, and at the [[Venice Biennale]]. Of the twelve artists selected for inclusion, only two were from Victoria, the rest being from New South Wales; Stokes was one of the Victorians.{{sfn|Summers|2009|p=138}}<ref name=abroad>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18378019 |title=Australian art display abroad |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=11 April 1953 |accessdate=8 October 2012 |page=1 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Her three works, including ''Woman Drying Her Hair'',{{sfn|Summers|2009|p=138}} hung alongside those of Australia's most prominent mid-twentieth-century artists, including [[Arthur Boyd]], Russell Drysdale, [[William Dobell]], [[Sidney Nolan]], [[Lloyd Rees]], [[Donald Friend]] and [[Frank Hinder]].<ref name=abroad/> Despite these prominent painters being selected for inclusion, when the exhibition appeared in London, Stokes' ''[[Girl in Red Tights]]'' drew critical attention and acclaim. Admired by the director of the [[National Gallery]] Sir [[Philip Hendy]], the work was proclaimed by the art critic at ''[[The Times]]'' as the "best picture in London that week".{{sfn|Summers|November 2009|p=2}} Some artists in Sydney were not so impressed. A meeting of the Royal Art Society of New South Wales urged Prime Minister Menzies to intervene, members describing the paintings as "the worst ever gathered in one place".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18372484 |title=Outcry Over Art For London|newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=21 April 1953 |accessdate=30 September 2012 |page=4 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> However, the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board member who announced the exhibition considered that it would represent the most substantial promotion Australian art would have experienced to that time.<ref name=abroad/> The following year, Joseph Burke, Professor of Fine Arts at the [[University of Melbourne]], praised Stokes' painting, making particular reference to her work that had so entranced viewers at the 1953 exhibition. "Constance Stokes", he wrote, was a painter who "announced the pursuit of the classical ideal as [her] aim. [Her] ''Girl in Red Tights'', with its Venetian richness of colouring, ably sustains the monumental harmony of the classical tradition."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18407780 |title=Art in Australia |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=4 February 1954 |accessdate=30 September 2012 |page=10 Supplement: Royal Tour Supplement |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>▼

Religious subjects appear regularly in Stokes' paintings; one such work, ''The Baptism'', is in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. Despite her recurring attention to such subjects, however, the artist entered the [[Blake Prize for Religious Art]] only once, in 1953. Esmond George, critic at [[Adelaide]] newspaper ''The Mail'', admired the (unidentified) work as having "strong art interest".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article57777282 |title=The week in art |last=George|first=Esmond|newspaper=[[Sunday Mail (Adelaide)|The Mail]] |location=Adelaide |date=23 May 1953 |accessdate=19 November 2012 |page=16 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Stokes' interest in the Prize was not so strong as to prompt her to enter again. She told an interviewer that "abstract painting took over".{{sfn|Summers|2009|pp=170–171}}▼

Eric Stokes died unexpectedly in 1962, an experience which left Constance bereft; a long-time friend said that she never really recovered.{{sfn|Summers|2009|pp=171–173}} Faced with a substantial mortgage to service, Stokes returned to work: painting. Two years later, she opened her first one-woman show in over thirty years. It comprised 43 works, with the 27 paintings priced dearly, at upwards of 150 [[guineas]]. The exhibition was a success both financially and critically: Stokes earned over 4000 guineas, and the exhibition attracted praise from art historian and critic [[Bernard William Smith]].{{sfn|Summers|2009|pp=174–175}} Throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, she painted and held shows; this later phase of her work was based on a stronger, if lighter, colour palette and reflected the influence of the art of [[Henri Matisse]], whom Stokes admired.{{sfn|McCulloch|2006|p=911}}<ref name="NGV1993">{{cite book|last=Clark|first=Jane|title=Constance Stokes 1906–1991 |type=exhibition catalogue|publisher=National Gallery of Victoria|location=Melbourne|year=1993}}</ref> There was also a change in her subject matter, from "classically conceived" still lifes, groups of figures and nudes, to more decorative themes.{{sfn|McCulloch|2006|p=911}} Stokes' works continued to be well received,{{sfn|Summers|2009|p=164}} having been included in the 1975 exhibition ''Australian women artists'' at the University of Melbourne, and the Regional Galleries Association of Victoria's 1977 touring exhibition ''The heroic years of Australian painting, 1940–1965''.{{sfn|McCulloch|2006|p=911}} Stokes' last painting was ''Alice Tumbling Down the Rabbit Hole'', painted around 1989; she died in Melbourne in 1991.{{sfn|McCulloch|2006|p=911}}▼

[[Category:Australian women painters]]▼