Susan Dorothea White

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Susan Dorothea White (born 10 August 1941) is an Australian artist and author. She is a narrative artist and her work concerns the natural world and human situation, increasingly incorporating satire and irony to convey her concern for human rights and equality. She is the author of Draw Like da Vinci (2006).

Education and early career

Born in

Royal South Australian Society of Arts, as "an able landscape impression".[4]

White was a regular prize-winner in the annual Broken Hill exhibitions from 1959 to 1962.[5] With other artists such as Florence May Harding, Pro Hart, and Sam Byrne (painter), White was a foundation member of the Willyama Art Society and participated in its Broken Hill and Adelaide exhibitions in 1961 and 1962. Her portrait of Mr. H.L.C. Cotton, father of the Australian senator Bob Cotton, was described as "strongly painted...outstanding".[5]

In July 1960, White moved to Sydney to continue full-time studies at the Julian Ashton Art School under its principal teacher Henry Gibbons.[6] She also attended evening classes at the National Art School, in sculpture under Lyndon Dadswell and in drawing. White held her first solo exhibition in 1962 at age 20 at the Technical College in Broken Hill; this exhibition comprised 60 works and included oil and watercolour paintings, drawings, lithographs, and etchings.[7] Praising the quality of her work, Harding wrote: "Bowing to no popular ism or formula except hard work, practice and observation, Susan White turned to our countryside with the fresh vision and vigor of youth. In her pictures it is all there – the red clay, erosion, bramble wattles bursting in bloom, the 'little creeks', big gums, struggling roots, wispy foliage, dry white grass, the silver sheen of the saltbush, dark rocky outcrops... Miss White's exhibition...is a must for all Broken Hill art lovers".[5] In 1963, Sydney critic Daniel Thomas described her landscape painting as "good in its curious Victorian way".[8]

Painting

White's earliest paintings are mostly oils on composition board and watercolours. In the 1970s she changed from oils to the use of acrylics on wood panel. She developed skill in a painting technique "that produces nuance in colour and subtle gradations in tones. The basis of the method is the application of successive washes of acrylic colour to the wood with light sanding of the surface between each wash."[9] The New York critic Andrew Margolis described White's more recent paintings as exploring "the most intimate experiences of her life, as well as more topical subjects, in meticulously limned acrylic paintings on wood panels. Her ability to examine unflinchingly such personal milestones as her surgery for a benign brain tumor with a dazed self-portrait in a vertiginously askew hospital setting results in some of the most emotionally jarring narrative imagery in recent art".[10] Some of White's acrylic paintings incorporate collage.

White's large tableau

Volkshochschule and in other centres in Germany with media commenting "...in this portrayal Jesus is a woman, an Australian aboriginal. Her 'female disciples' are sitting to her right and left: women from all corners of the world..."[13] and "...the image generates intense discussion".[14] An American doctoral dissertation[15] and a 1999 journal article analyse The First Supper as "a subversive postmodern ironic reading of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper".[16]

White's 2012 painting The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Freeman references Rembrandt's The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp by setting it in a contemporary university laboratory with each of the onlookers rendered as an anatomical prosection and skeleton. The painting was first exhibited in a 'circuito off' curated group show Sapere Aude during the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013.[17]

Sculpture

White studied sculpture at the South Australian School of Art; subsequently she learned from Lyndon Dadswell at the National Art School in Sydney. She works in sandstone, marble, wood carving, bronze, and mixed-media assemblage. Her sculpture Companion for Brancusi's 'Young Man' (see External links) was carved from Queensland maple in response to the sculpture Torso of a Young Man by Constantin Brâncuși, also carved in maple.

White's mixed-media assemblages incorporate fabrics with the carving of rare

Huon pine salvaged from Tasmania.[10] Following her solo show in New York in 1998, the Hechinger Collection acquired White's mixed media assemblage It Cuts Both Ways, which was then displayed in a long-term exhibition at the National Building Museum.[18]

White exhibited bronzes in Geneva (1997) and Nice (2000), and mixed media assemblages in the Florence Biennale in 2001 and in a curated fringe exhibition during the Venice Biennale in 2013. In 2005 the Buhl Collection (New York) commissioned a large bronze sculpture Stretching the Imagination. White won first prize in the inside section of HarbourSculpture 2017 (Sydney) with her work To Cut Both Ways, a sculpture of chrome-plated bronze and scissors, which explores the theme that one's actions can have an equal effect on another, similar to the sculpture It Cuts Both Ways (above).[19]

Printmaking and drawing

As a

printmaker, White has produced etchings, lithographs, woodcuts, and linocuts since 1960. She prints her own work, with many early graphic works being pulled by hand using a wooden wringer.[20] For example, the 1986 lithograph The Front Verandah, which comments on the Chernobyl disaster, incorporates plates for 15 colours. In its collection, the National Gallery of Australia holds 27 of the artist's prints produced between 1960 and 1996.[1] A catalogue of White's prints is published in The Printworld Directory.[21]

White is a skilled draughtswoman and drawing is the foundation of her art.

School of Medical Sciences).[22] She gives occasional lectures in Anatomy Art and has made many drawings from anatomical specimens, culminating in her large 2012 painting The Anatomy Lesson.[22]

Book

In 2005, White wrote and illustrated Draw Like da Vinci. With over 150 images, the book explains seven fundamental drawing principles used by Leonardo da Vinci, as well as his tools and techniques such as

about.com[25] and in Artists & Illustrators.[26]

Exhibitions

White began exhibiting in 1957 and held her first solo in 1962 (Broken Hill); significant solo shows include New York, Cologne, Amsterdam, Munich, Adelaide, Sydney. White has represented Australia in over 60 international biennales, triennales, etc. in US, Germany, Japan, Italy, Spain, Brazil, China, Hungary, Poland, Canada, Yugoslavia, US, and UK.

Sulman Prize in 1976 (The Cup of Tea[30]) and 1991/92 (The Seven Deadly Isms[31]), the Portia Geach Memorial Award (1977: Damian White - Author; 1978: Dr. Brian Freeman; 1980: Autobiography; 1982: Self Portrait with Children; 1992: The Inspired Lecturer; 1997: Me After Brain Surgery; 2003 Go Granny, Go), and the Blake Prize in 1978 (Noah's Rocket), 1982 (The Death of St. Francis of Australia), and in 1988-89 (The First Supper
).

References

  1. ^ a b http://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/catalogues/artist/7197/susan-dorothea-white.aspx?related=work National Gallery of Australia. Australian Prints, Drawings and Illustrated Books: WHITE, Susan Dorothea (Retrieved 12 December 2017).
  2. ^ https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cant-james-montgomery-12291 Cant, James Montgomery (1911–1982) (Retrieved 1 May 2023)
  3. ^
    ISBN 9781844034444
    .
  4. ^ Young, E. 'Sculpture Feature of Exhibition'. The Advertiser, 28 October 1959.
  5. ^ a b c May Harding: 'Successful art show by young B. Hill artist', The Barrier Miner, 28 Apr. 1962.
  6. ^ http://www.john-beeman.com/henry_gibbons.html Henry Gibbons (Retrieved 13 December 2017)
  7. ^ http://www.susandwhite.com.au/images/SDW_Solo_Broken_Hill_Apr_1962.pdf Exhibition of Paintings, Drawing and Prints by Susan White, 26 Apr. 1962 (Retrieved 1 May 2023)
  8. ^ Thomas, D. The week in art, The Sunday Telegraph, 3 March 1963, p.30.
  9. ^ a b Wernig, Anton. "Central theme is the human being" (translation), Galerie Arndt (Munich), July 1980.
  10. ^ a b Margolis, Andrew. 'White, Kahukiwa, & Hotz in lively shows at Montserrat', Gallery & Studio (New York), Nov/Dec. 1998, p.13.
  11. ^ a b 'Susan White - veelzijdig werk', Kunstbeeld (Amsterdam) October 1990, vol. 14 (10) p.62 (translation).
  12. ^ Allen, Christopher. 'Ludicrous Leonardo', The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 December 1988, p.10.
  13. ^ ' 'Jüngerinnen' beim Abendmahl', Der Weg (Cologne) March 1991, vol. 14, p.14 (translation).
  14. ^ Juliane Brumberg, 'Abendmahl aus weiblicher Perspektive', Sonntagsblatt (Munich), 2 December 2001, p.22 (translation).
  15. ProQuest 304101235
    .
  16. doi:10.1080/10570319909374653
    .
  17. ^ http://www.susandwhite.com.au/images/Sapere_Aude_Venice_55_Biennale_31_May_2013.pdf Sapere Aude, Circuito Off, 55. Biennale d'Arte di Venezia, May 2013 (Retrieved 2 May 2023)
  18. ^ http://amarillo.com/stories/041202/fea_tooltime.shtml Heavens, Alan J. 'Tool time sublime: Exhibit turns tools into creative jewels', The Philadelphia Inquirer, 29 March 2002 (Retrieved 12 December 2017).
  19. ^ https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/northern-district-times/harbour-sculpture-winners-announced-at-gala-opening-night-event/news-story/e2575f1727ea5feb7410203b6c7c634d Harbour Sculpture winners announced... (Retrieved 13 December 2017)
  20. ^ http://www.susandwhite.com.au/images/2010_Fyre_SDW_Catalogue.pdf Cheryl Hannah (ed). Susan Dorothea White - Celebrating 50 Years of White's Art in a Unique Survey of Her Prints 1960-2010, Braidwood: Fyre Gallery, 2010 (see p.4)
  21. ^ Smith, Selma (ed). The Printworld Directory, 11th ed, 2006, West Chester: Printworld, pp.1214–5.
  22. ^ a b "Drawing on Anatomy".
  23. ^ http://www.drawingonanatomy.com.au/galleryD/2005sexvitruvian_DOA.html Drawing on Anatomy website (Retrieved 13 December 2017)
  24. S2CID 11526674
    .
  25. ^ https://archive.today/20071219162729/http://painting.about.com/od/productreviews/gr/DrawDaVinci.htm Boddy-Evans, Marion. Draw Like da Vinci by Susan Dorothea White, reviewed August 2006 (Retrieved 12 December 2017)
  26. ^ Wood, Jacky. Mastering the essentials. Artists & Illustrators, June 2006, p.38.
  27. ^ McCulloch, Alan, McCulloch, Susan & McCulloch Childs, Emily (eds). The New McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art, 2006, Melbourne: Aus Art Editions, p. 1020.
  28. ^ "Nootambulla Gorge".
  29. ^ "Woman Oppressed".
  30. ^ "The Cup of Tea".
  31. ^ "The Seven Deadly Isms".

External links

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