A further loss to Australian art was the death of Charles Blackman (1928-2018) on August 20th. Mirka and Georges Mora had hosted his first exhibition in their living room in 1953 and launched his career. Charles was born in Sydney one of four siblings. He left school at age 13 and worked initially as an illustrator on the Sydney Sun newspaper while attending night classes at East Sydney Technical College.
Charles had a tumultuous love life; he married writer Barbara Patterson, in 1951 and together they had three children; Auguste, Christabel and Barnaby, before they divorced in 1978. In 1979 he married Genevieve de Couvreur with whom he had two children, Beatrice and Felicien before they divorced in 1987. In 1989 he married Victoria Bower, with whom he had a son, Axiom.
Charles Blackmans work is darkly abstract and surreal, he is best known for his series of 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'School Girls'. 'Alice in wonderland' became a theme after Barbara his first wife's sight began to deteriorate, they would listen to a talking book version of the story and Charles would then paint illustrations of the text he had heard. He painted approximately forty three paintings of this subject during his wife's first pregnancy. He had never had books as a child and had never heard the story or seen any illustrations for it.
"I was absolutely thrilled to bits with it, it seemed to sum up for me at that particular moment my feelings towards surrealism, and that anything could happen ... The world is a very magical and possible place for all one's dreams and feelings." Charles Blackman
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