Skip to main content
Skip to footer Skip to Acknowledgement of Country
National Gallery of Australia
What's On Art & Artists Visit
Login
  1. Home
  2. About Us
  3. Obituaries
  4. Rosemary Madigan

Rosemary Madigan

1926–2019

Photograph of woman in artist's studio

Rosemary Madigan at her studio at her Yass home, 2010


Photograph of torso sculpture made of sandstone

Rosemary Madigan, Torso, 1948, Purchased 1976.

One of Australia’s foremost sculptors, Rosemary Madigan had a profound feeling for her chosen materials, marrying them eloquently with the forms she chose to portray. Working until the age of 92, she produced an extraordinary body of carved wood and stone sculptures, as well as delicate drawings and vibrant collages.

The youngest of five children, Madigan was born in 1926 in Glenelg in South Australia. Growing up in the countryside in the foothills of Adelaide gave her a lifelong feel for the environment. Her father, Cecil Madigan, was a renowned geologist and she noted that her decision to become a sculptor at a very young age could have been informed by his interest in rocks and natural formations.

As well as crossing the Simpson Desert, her father travelled with Douglas Mawson to Antarctica. Rosemary recalled photographs by Frank Hurley of icebergs, carved and shaped by the wind, on the walls of the family home and a polar bear rug with its head intact, on which she reclined, read and dreamt. ‘It fired a child’s imagination. Why would you want to be a painter when the physicality of such an object was in your midst?’

In 1940 Madigan moved from Adelaide to Sydney where she attended East Sydney Technical College. It was during her time studying under Lyndon Dadswell (1947–48), in the company of remarkable students, Oliffe Richmond and Robert Klippel, that she consolidated her direction as a sculptor with a preference for carving.

Her time in Sydney had been punctuated by a stint at the South Australian School of Art (1944–46). In 1950 Madigan was awarded the prestigious NSW Travelling Scholarship and moved to London where she studied at the John Cass art school and familiarised herself with post-war British sculpture.

By this time, she had married Jack Giles and with two baby daughters in tow they travelled in a van (converted by Jack into a caravan) around Europe visiting galleries, cathedrals and other architectural sites.

Photograph of wooden carved sculpture

Rosemary Madigan, Eingana, 1968, Purchased 1980.

Madigan’s interest in mystical and spiritual traditions expressed in art was informed by Romanesque and Gothic Sculpture, as well as Buddhist and Hindu art and philosophies. Her passion for Indian sculpture also came to the fore in the course of a month in this country.

Madigan’s deep interest in a humanist tradition, in cross-cultural dialogues, in a mystical dimension, and in the sensuality and containment of the human form, all played out in her work over the years.

Indeed prior to her travels, in 1948, the same year as her graduation, she created the Torso, carved from sandstone, now in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia; a work of breathtaking delicacy and simplicity of form.

As she said in an interview with James Gleeson in 1979, ‘I didn’t deal with the arms or legs or head. I was not thinking of realism at all but of the basic articulation’. By contrast, Torso 1954 in the Art Gallery of NSW collection, has a distinctive sensuality and vitality that seems to emerge from the suppleness of rich Jarrah wood.

On her return to Adelaide in 1953, Madigan continued to sculpt, teach, and raise her growing family. Her daughters, Mnemosyne, Celia and Alice recall the bohemian atmosphere in their home with a vibrant social life, ‘including a wide circle of musicians, anthroposophists and sculptors’, and how their mother encouraged their independence, ‘allowing a blissful creative freedom in a natural environment’.  In 1964 Madigan conceived and designed a major commission, St Mark, for the Downer fountain at St Mark’s College, North Adelaide. Her Yellow Christ (1968) now in the Art Gallery of South Australia and prominently on display in their galleries, is simultaneously powerful and tender.

Another impressive work from the period, Eingana (1968), a sinuous bas-relief intricately carved from limewood, now in the National Gallery of Australia’s collection, coalesced European and Aboriginal Australian religious and spiritual iconographies, resonating with the interest of alternative approaches to religion in the 1960s and 1970s more broadly.

When Madigan’s marriage to Giles ended in 1973, she returned to Sydney. She reconnected with Klippel, and an enduring and fulfilling partnership developed that lasted until his death. Her daughter Alice Giles recalls that her mother’s relationship with Klippel, who greatly supported and encouraged her mother’s work, saw the commencement of ‘countless long evenings over dinner talking about art’ and represented a time when Rosemary started to actively connect with the art world and exhibit regularly. Her sandstone Torso (1986) won the Wynne prize.

In 1992 a major survey of work by Madigan and Klippel was exhibited at Carrick Hill, South Australia. After Klippel’s death, Madigan moved to a property in Yass, NSW, near Canberra, where she relished the local countryside.

Unfailingly adventurous in spirit, she continued to work, often outside of mainstream practice. A focus exhibition of her work was held at the Art Gallery of NSW in 2011, which introduced her art to new audiences. Her Torso (1948) – its lithe, elegant form extracted from sandstone – is currently on display in Bodies of Art at the National Gallery of Australia beside the work of Robert Klippel, Harry Boyd (1946), also carved out of sandstone.

It is a poignant recollection of a special bond between the two artists. Andrew Klippel alerted Rosemary to this display and she was delighted to see her work in this context during a visit to the gallery in late 2018. It turned out to be her last public outing.

Rosemary Madigan died peacefully on 12 February 2019. A woman of great intelligence, courage and abundant creativity, she will be deeply missed but enduringly remembered and admired. She is survived by 3 daughters, 12 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren.

Deborah Hart, Head of Australian Art, National Gallery of Australia, February 2019

Listen to Rosemary Madigan talk about her practice with artist James Gleeson here.

Art & Artists


Featured

Creator Profile

Rosemary Madigan

1926-2019

Related


Robert Foster
1962–2016

Photograph of silver and blue teapot

Prominent designer and artist Robert Foster made an extraordinary contribution to contemporary design and silversmithing in Australia.

Inge King
1915–2016

Black and white photograph of female artist in front of large metal sculpture

Inge King made an extraordinary contribution to sculpture in her adopted country, Australia.

Klaus Moje
1936–2016

Photograph of red and black glass circular artwork

Klaus Moje was an artist of high international stature and a respected teacher and mentor for many younger artists working in glass in Australia.

Artist Interviews /  Audio

Rosemary Madigan Interview
James Gleeson Oral History Collection

Wooden sculpture.

Published 2015

James Gleeson interviews Rosemary Madigan, 1 January 1979.

45 minutes

James Mollison
Founding Gallery Director
1931–2020

Founding Gallery director James Mollison's bold leadership was a major force not only in the field of Australian art but internationally.

Elaine and James Wolfensohn
1937–2020
1933–2020

James and Elaine were passionate and committed advocates for children and education and understood the power of the arts to enhance learning.

Go back to start of main content
Go to top of page

Yuuma, Gurruburri

The National Gallery acknowledges the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, the Traditional Custodians of the Kamberri/Canberra region, and recognises their continuous connection to culture, community and Country.

  • National Gallery On Demand
  • Art & Artists
  • What's On
  • Visit
  • Membership
  • Donate
  • Jobs
  • About Us
Connect

+61 2 6240 6411
information@nga.gov.au
Get art in your inbox

Open every day

(except Christmas day)
10am – 5pm

Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country
Parkes Place East, Parkes ACT 2600

View Street Map
View Gallery Map


Contact us

National Gallery of Australia
Follow the National gallery of Australia on:
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Website Privacy Website Disclaimer Website Copyright
Opening Acknowledgment of Country

The National Gallery acknowledges the First Peoples of this land and recognises their continuous connection to culture, community and Country

Learn More
    • View All
    • Today
    • Exhibitions
    • On tour
    • Access Programs
    • All Programs
    • On Demand
    • About the Collection
    • Sculpture Garden
    • Kenneth E. Tyler Collection
    • Provenance
    • Conservation
    • Copyright
    • Search the Collection
    • Plan Your Visit
    • Accessibility
    • Tickets
    • Parking & Transport
    • Art Store
    • Dining
    • Visiting with Kids
    • Research Library & Archives
    • Browse Stories
    • Browse Videos
    • Podcasts
    • Audio Tours
    • Virtual Tours
    • The Annual
    • Publications
    • Learning Programs
    • For people with access needs
    • For Teachers & Students
    • For Young People
    • For Kids & Families
    • For Adults
    • For Your Community
    • Art Cases
    • Educator Programs
    • Get Involved
    • Membership
    • Voluntary Guides
    • Partnerships
    • Support
    • Donate
  • First Nations
  • Accessibility
  • Art Store
  • Media
  • Venue Hire
  • About Us
  • Contacts