Waiting
Artist
Clem Millward
(Australian, born 1929)
Datec 1955
Object number00018790
NamePainting
MediumOil paint, board
DimensionsOverall: 800 x 670 x 20 mm, 3.7 kg
Sight: 600 x 465 mm
Sight: 600 x 465 mm
ClassificationsArt
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionPainting titled 'Waiting' by Clem Millward.
This painting documents life on the waterfront in the 1950s. It was produced at a time when the Waterside Workers federation was home to a very active movement, including the WWF Art Group, the New Theatre and the WWF Film Unit.
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.
Significance"Waiting' was painted in the studio after observing men the previous night while waiting to start a midnight shift. Clem remembers that it had meanings for him of waiting for much more than a job start.'Sputnik' had recently been launched and there was a 'quarter to midnight' feeling about the atomic cold war.