Charles Blackman sawing a painting, c.1975

Gelatin silver print photograph (copy print), 165 x 215 mm (sheet); verso in pencil ‘Essay ill. 10’; unmounted; fine condition.

Literature:

‘Artist makes a sawn-off political protest’, The Australian, Sydney, 22 November 1975, p.1 (illustrated)

Felicity St John Moore, Charles Blackman: Schoolgirls and angels. A retrospective exhibition of paintings and drawings by Charles Blackman, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1993, p.13 (illustrated) with caption ‘‘I love my country. Party policies are chopping it in half’.

Note: The photograph shows Blackman sawing the painting Nude on a couch in half ‘in protest at his name being used for political purposes.’

Provenance:

The estate of the late Barbara Blackman

The library of the late Felicity St. John Moore (1933-2025), art historian, curator and authority on the celebrated Australian artist Charles Blackman (1928-2018).