Untitled (Waterside worker pulling cart behind him)
Maker
Clem Millward
(Australian, born 1929)
Date1958
Object number00018804
NameDrawing
MediumPen and ink on paper; white ink highlights and black wash on blue paper.
DimensionsSheet: 330 x 205 mm
Mount: 605 x 435 mm
Overall: 605 x 435 mm, 0.03 kg
Mount: 605 x 435 mm
Overall: 605 x 435 mm, 0.03 kg
ClassificationsArt
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionUntitled (waterside worker pulling cart behind him) drawing by Clem Millward.
Image depicts a wharf worker wearing low set hat, pulling a cart behind him.HistoryThis work by Clem Millward reflects his experience working on the waterfront. Millward had studied painting in Australia and overseas, and worked casual shifts as a wharfie, enabling him time to pursue his art. Millward sketched wharfies in the union canteen during meal breaks and slack periods at work, producing paintings from those sketches afterwards. These men, often anonymous, represent the character and culture of the wharf workers environment at the time.
Millward was also active in the Waterside Workers Federation Art Group, and together with Nan Hortin and Vi Collins, presented art classes for waterside workers' children on Saturday mornings from 1956.
Maritime unions in the mid-twentieth century fostered cultural and educational groups within their ranks. The Waterside Worker's Federation - with a communist-based philosophy - saw a broad role for trade unions in society. Waterside workers lived as well as worked together and were also receptive to the union filling some of the roles of a local social club.