SUNDAY 8 – SUNDAY 22 DECEMBER 2024

Feature exhibition of drawings, small sculptures + limited edition prints by Charles Blackman from the Blackman Family Collections.

Included are some of Blackman’s iconic images such as the striking, coloured lithographs “Alice’s Shoe” and “The Presentation”; delightful original line and ink drawings on themes such as Country Breakfast, Le Jardin des Plantes, Schoolgirl and Cat, Angel with Flowers and TS Eliot’s Cats. Plus, rare, limited edition, bronze, powder coloured, small sculptural maquettes, featuring cats, figures at windows, and dancing couples adapted by Blackman from his 1969 3D cardboard cut outs now in the collection of Heide Museum of Modern Art. Curated by Christabel Blackman and Susan McCulloch (Free event)

OPENING MORNING SUNDAY DECEMBER 8 | 11am – noon

Christabel Blackman and Tracee Hutchison: In Conversation

In conversation, book signing and exhibition opening with artist, fine art conservator and author Christabel Blackman and award-winning journalist Tracee Hutchison. Christabel and Tracee will be discussing Christabel’s new book Charles & Barbara Blackman: a decade of art and love.

Highly acclaimed, Blackman’s book is not only a moving exploration of the deep love her parents shared – as evidenced by their letters – but an eloquent, perceptive and empathetic insight into the Melbourne art scene from the 1950s. Written from an insiders perspective, the book details the lives, interrelationships and extended circles of those who were to become some of Australia’s most revered artists, as they were just embarking on their careers.

Whistlewood (home of Everywhen Art) and its owners, art critic and author Alan McCulloch and actress and writer Ellen McCulloch, were part of this world – their work, lives and shared interests intertwining with those of the Blackmans and scores of other artists, writers and other creatives over many decades. Many of these artists, including the Blackmans, visited Whistlewood during these years. Such visits are now recorded in both Christabel’s book and Rodney James’ book on Alan McCulloch, Letters to a Critic.