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for Lionel Arthur Lindsay (1874 - 1961)
Lionel Arthur Lindsay (1874 - 1961)
writer of his time he was the chief protagonist for the cause of the
Australian black - and- white school and of the painting of 'the Middle
Period'. Trustee of the Art Gallery of N.S.W., 1918 - 29, and 1934 - 49.
Brother of Percy, Norman, Daryl and Ruby Lindsay,
STUDIES : Melbourne,N.G.V.School.He started his working life at the age of
15 as pupil - assistant at the Melbourne Observatory, 1889 - 92. On
leaving the Observatory he worked as a freelance artist and journalist
and contributed black - and - white drawings to the Sydney Bulletin
and othe rmagazines. He made the first of several visits to Spain in
1902 and learned to speak Spanish fluently. An inveterate traveller
and talker, he wrote for the Sydney Evening News, 1903 - 26, and
travelled in Europe, North Africa and India. By 1927 the basis of his
reputation was established and he had become widely known for his
watercolours and etchings, and particularly for his woodcuts of
Australian animals and birds. An exhbn of his work, held at
Colnaghi's, London, in 1927, yielded £2,500 in sales. A keen admirer'
of the work of Charles Keene, Adolf Menzel and Daniel Vierge, his
writings on black - and - white art came to mean in Australia what the
writings of Joseph Pennell meant in England and America. As an art
critic he was often inconsistent but his views were always expressed
energetically, and, when he felt strongly on a particular subject, with
great vehemence. When art critic, briefly, for the Melbourne Herald,
1935, he launched a spirited attack on the teaching methods at the
Melbourne National Gallery School, which he called 'the school of
smudge'. He gave strong critical support to the Melbourne modern
painters exhibiting in the 1935 exhbn of the Twenty Melbourne
Painters. Also, as a trusteeoftheArtGalleryofN.S.W.,hewarmly
supportedtheawardofthe1943ArchibaldPrizetoWilliamDobeJI.
Ontheotherhand,theviewsexpressedinhispolemicalpamphlet,
AddledArt(1943),showedhimasabitterantagonistoftheSchoolof Parisandeverythingwhichtheterm'modernart'connoted,andhis
ownpaintinganddrawing,whichwasrigidlyconventionalandoften
colourless,supportedthisattitude.Hemademanygiftsofetchings
anddrawingstopubliccollections.HisgifttoToowoomba,Qld,
resultedinthefoundationoftheLionelLindsayGalleryandLibrary,
Toowoomba,1959.AWARDS:N.S.W.SocietyofArtists'medal,1937;
knighthoodconferred1941.REP:Acompletesetofhiswoodcutsisin
theprintcollectionsoftheBritishMuseum;allStateandmany
regionalgalleries.(LionelLindsay,AConsiderationoftheWorkof
ErnestMoffitt,AtlasPress,Melbourne,1899;ConradMartens:The
ManandhisArt,Angus&Robertson,Sydney,1943;articlesinA .
A.,Mar.1928,Aug.1937;LionelLindsay:EtchingsinSpain,Ure
Smith,Sydney,1949.Forewordsandtexttomanyofthecollected
worksofNormanLindsay'spen-drawings.)
Person TypeIndividual
