Awakening : Four Lives in Art

An enthralling book http://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/awakenings-four-lives-in-art-by-eileen-chanin-and-steven-miller/ This latest wonderful book by Eileen Chanin and Steven Miller is fascinating, enthralling and inspirational. At times it makes one filled with envy at their extraordinary journeys, at other times deeply sympathetic at the poor treatment and lack of respect that they received. AWAKENINGS: FOUR LIVES IN ART principally examines the lives and careers of the four women from the post Federation era to the turbulence of World War 11. This is a small to medium sized book, lavishly illustrated with both black and white and colour photos, has a brief index and a well researched bibliography. My only quibble is with the rather rushed and abrupt Epilogue that wraps up the final stages of each of the subject’s lives. Having come to know so much about these four women I would have appreciated more detail. In the prime of their lives all four women chose not to call Australia home. Louise Dyer lived mostly in Paris, Dora Ohlfsen mainly in Rome, Clarice Zander in London and Mary Cecil Allen in New York. The work is divided into four chapters–The Artist (Ohlfsen) , The Patron ( Dyer) , The Publicist, ( Zander) and The Educator (Allen). The women were unrelated, apart from the fact that they were born in Australia, were each involved with the arts, and all four choose to live and work abroad. With the possible exception of Ohlfsen, who is sometimes referred to in stories of the history of Australian sculpture, these women have largely been forgotten about and considered relatively unimportant and peripheral figures on the arts scene. Dora Ohlfsen led an extraordinary and enigmatic life. The majority of her work has been lost or obscurely buried, a typical example of the fate of a woman artist. After studying music in Berlin, she suffered a nervous breakdown and eventually met her lifelong partner, the Russian aristocrat Elena von Kügelgen. With Elena, Dora experienced the ‘Silver Age’ of Russian culture, and she was exposed to theosophy, the work of the Symbolists, and most importantly, was introduced to sculpture, specifically the art of the medallion. They first moved to St Petersburg, where Ohlfsen took up sculpture, struggling against the ideas that sculpture was hard and dirty and not for women, and after six years the couple moved again and settled in Rome. Ohlfsen was very much a pacifist yet ironically spent much of her life working on art with war-related themes, including her best known Australian work, her Anzac medal, which we are informed was the first commemorative work of art paying homage to the ANZACS. In Italy she became caught up with the Mussolini cult- he posed for her on several occasions- and with his help she became the only expatriate sculptor in Italy to be commissioned to design a national war memorial. Ohlfsen returned to Australia in 1912 after a 20-year break, during which time the country had almost doubled in population, become a Federation, enfranchised women, and brought in the aged pension. As well, the cultural transformation that had taken place since she left was immense with the building of the Art Gallery of New South Wales underway, Universities in Tasmania , Queensland and Western Australia, and the founding of symphony orchestras and conservatoriums. Her return was for family reasons, but the timing was serendipitous. The Art Gallery of New South Wales was in the middle of commissioning the bronze friezes to adorn the blank recesses intended to illustrate the six epochs of art (eg Ancient Greek). Ohlfsen sent her portfolio to the trustees and was commissioned to complete a full-sized plaster model to be cast in bronze for the panel immediately above the door, and two roundels. She was hoping as well that her work would be included among the commissions for sculptures in the new federal capital, Canberra. Sadly, her entry for sculptural decorations for the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne was not chosen. In 1914 she returned to Rome to work on the commission, but with the outbreak of war, she endured increasing difficulty in obtaining reasonable quotes for the casting and began to find fault with the commission. For part of the War she worked as a volunteer nurse. In September 1919, with much annoyance and frustration at the Sydney trustees’ interference and financial constraints, Ohlfsen was gravely disappointed to learn that her commission was cancelled. Ohlfsen ‘s life was essentially a tragic one, where she received little recognition at home. Not one of her major projects saw the light of day, and other works which were sent to Australia were discarded. At the age of 71, in 1948, Dora Ohlfsen and her Russian Countess were found dead in a gas-filled studio in Rome. Not much of her work is extant, though there are some paper trails. If you venture to the Art Gallery of NSW you can see The Awakening of Australian Art (1907), a detail from which is on the cover of the book, and other bronze work, among which is Ceres (1910). Louise Dyer is perhaps most famous for forming the music record and publishing label identified with her name, Les Éditions de L’Oiseau-Lyre ,( Lyrebird) which has played a key role in establishing the foundations of the modern early music revival. Examples include the publishing of works by Couperin and the spectacular Montpellier Codex We discover the life of a woman passionately devoted to music, a woman who was born and married into money and used it to follow her passion. Her music label became the first to simultaneously release printed music and recordings. In 1905 Dyer enrolled at the Melbourne Conservatorium to study with Leipzig-trained Eduard Scharf, and then gained her licentiate in piano from London’s Trinity College. Dyer returned to Europe for several visits, most importantly to visit the Glasgow Athenaeum, where she delved into its library of early printed music and manuscripts of medieval liturgical works– an event which would have a great impact on her future career. In 1912 she married James Dyer, who shared her love of music, and, unable to have children, Louise pitched herself wholeheartedly into fundraising projects, especially for music, becoming the key promoter of the renewal of British classical music including works by Vaughan Williams, Holst and Delius, among others, building on French Impressionism and English folk music. She was also heavily involved in the Alliance Francaise and The British Musical Society among other organisations and at one point was Lady Mayoress of Melbourne. She also supported poets such as John Shaw Neilson. Clarice Zander seemed to begin with apparently every opportunity– a high-quality education and art courses at the new Eastern Suburbs Technical and Art School in Hawthorn, where she honed the skills to gain considerable success as a freelance illustrator. At about this time she met her husband Charles. They were only married for four months before he left for Europe. Charles returned from the war broken and damaged but determined to make his way on his own terms, and dragged Clarice to a soldier settlement block in Mildura. They built a modest house and began the hard, back breaking work of digging out the mallee roots to grow sultana crops. Charles turned to drink and went slowly mad, leaving Clarice with his power of attorney and a small child. She returned home to her mother’s house and became the main breadwinner for four generations of women. With post-war reconstruction underway, and modernism emerging, Clarice bobbed her hair and strode out into the world to make a life for herself and her daughter. She held several jobs at once, but most important were the five years she managed the New Gallery, in which most of Melbourne’s leading artists were shareholders. During this time she met Bill Dyson and in 1930, after Charles’ death, followed him to London, where she became manager of a Bond Street gallery, which was to become the Redfern Gallery, where her art world connections expanded, and to which she introduced Australian artists like Loudon Sainthill, Sidney Nolan and Donald Friend. Eventually she became the influential curator and publicist for the Royal Academy. She was also responsible for Australia’s first important exhibition of contemporary British art and accompanied it to Australia in 1933, where it garnered a major amount of press coverage. This book is a vibrant examination of these four women’s struggle for recognition during a time of great social turmoil between the wars. It also examines the unwillingness of Australia to accept Modernism. An enthralling read. AWAKENINGS: FOUR LIVES IN ART by Eileen Chanin and Steven Miller has been published this year by Wakefield Press. ISBN: 9781743053652. Recommended Price- $39.95. Review copy courtesy of Wakefield Press.