Elizabeth Durack facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Elizabeth Durack
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Durack in 1961
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| Born | July 6, 1915 Perth, Western Australia
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| Died | May 25, 2000 (aged 84) Perth, Western Australia
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| Known for | Painting |
Elizabeth Durack Clancy CMG, OBE (6 July 1915 – 25 May 2000) was a Western Australian artist and writer.
Contents
Early life
Born in the Perth suburb of Claremont on 6 July 1915, she was a daughter of Kimberley pioneer, Michael Patrick Durack (1865–1950) and his wife, Bessie Johnstone Durack. She was the younger sister of writer and historian Dame Mary Durack (1913–1994). The sisters were educated at the Loreto Convent in Perth, and also on the Kimberley cattle stations, Argyle Downs and Ivanhoe. It was there that they established unique and enduring relationships with the Mirriuwong-Gajerrong people of the Ord River region. In 1936–37 the sisters travelled to Europe where Elizabeth studied at the Chelsea Polytechnic, London.
Art
Her work was notable for the way it combined and reflected both western and aboriginal perceptions of the world. Based for much of her life in remote parts of north and central Western Australia, far from the metropolitan centres of mainstream artistic activity, Durack received stimulus and inspiration from sources quite different from those of her contemporaries, e.g. William Dobell, Arthur Boyd, Albert Tucker, et al. Separated by both geography and gender, her talent emerged "... original, versatile and persistent, a xerophytic adaptation, almost, to a particularly harsh environment".
From August 1946 when she held her first exhibition in Perth, to July 2000 when an exhibition planned by the artist was held posthumously in London, Elizabeth Durack held 65 solo exhibitions and participated in many group shows. Over that time her art evolved from simple line drawings, through part-abstract metaphorical works, to the transcendent masterworks of her last creative phase.
Durack's work included a number of dyeline prints, hand coloured in watercolour, depicting life on a Kimberley cattle station (Ivanhoe and Lissadell pastoral stations). Aboriginal women and children feature in these pictures, four of which can be seen at the National Museum of Australia.
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Illustrations
Some of Elizabeth Durack's earliest published illustrations are of aboriginal life in Western Australia, for example her illustrations for the 1935 book "All-About: The Story of a Black Community on Argyle Station, Kimberley". "Elizabeth Durack is credited with illustrating the book Who rides the river? by JK Ewers, released in 1956. Illustrations were provided by Durack for a new edition of Australian Legendary Tales in 1953, Aboriginal tales edited and selected by Henrietta Drake-Brockman from those collected and translated by K. Langloh Parker. This edition was chosen by the Children's Book Council of Australia as "Book of the Year" for 1954.
She and her sister also made a comic strip, Nungalla and Jungalla in 1942-1943.
Honours and awards
In recognition of services to art and literature, Elizabeth Durack was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1966 and in 1982, a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG). In 1994 and 1996 Murdoch University and the University of Western Australia conferred upon her Honorary Doctorates of Letters.
Legacy
The estate of Elizabeth Durack contains original material from the 1920s on through all decades up until the year 2000. The material consists principally of artworks, manuscripts, poetry and letters. During her lifetime Durack held many successful exhibitions but resisted selling certain key works that remain with the estate.
Since her death, executors have arranged exhibitions as follows:
- The Art of Eddie Burrup presented by the Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London in July 2000;
- Prelude — Early works by Elizabeth Durack 1947–50, a Travelling Exhibition, presented by Art on the Move, the National Exhibitions Touring Structure for Western Australia, in 2002–3
- an auction presented by McKenzies Auctioneers, Perth, May 2006;
- a sale of miscellaneous printed and original material, presented by Robert Muir Old and Rare Books, Perth, July 2006;
- paintings from the series, Battle Cries (1978) and Bett-Bett's wonderful lonely palace ... (1985) presented by Greenhill Galleries, Perth, May 2007
- With outstretched arms ... Kimberley Sisters of St John of God with children, patients and friends in postwar Broome, Derby and Beagle Bay presented by Forty7ED at the Lingiari Foundation Centre, Broome Western Australia, July 2007.
Durack was interviewed and featured on numerous radio and TV shows including 60 Minutes.
In 2016, a volume of selected writings reflecting her art and life was published, edited by Perpetua Durack Clancy.
See also
- Mary Durack
- Michael Durack
