Being and Nothingness

The importance of Bea Maddock has long been recognized, and her work has been the subject of survey exhibitions in 1968, 1970, 1980 and 1982. It is timely now to bring together Maddock's work from 1960 to the present. The works selected represent her career — from studies at the Slade School, London, to current work in Launceston, Tasmania.

Two essays and Bea Maddock's own journal extracts will be published in the accompanying catalogue, which emphasizes the major themes in her work. Roger Butler, Curator of Australian Prints at the Australian National Gallery, will address Maddock's work in his essay 'But There Was Time to Return', while Anne Kirker from the Queensland Art Gallery will develop the notion of 'Charting Territory' — a journey through the important stages of the artist's creative development.

During the 1960s Maddock was recognized primarily as an innovative printmaker who challenged easy decorative formulas with imagery that stressed the private and personal in the context of a fragmented and increasingly dislocated century. The subjects of her early expressionistic woodcuts included an anonymous figure pacing an empty street, disjointed words and phrases, and images based on the legend of Icarus, All were metaphors for the artist's own identity.

Maddock returned to painting in the late 1970s, producing word-images and works that also incorporated collage and photographic elements. The artist has undertaken major commissions for the High Court of Australia, Parliament House, ANZ Bicentenary Commission, Jack Manton for the Queensland Art Gallery, and Hugh Williamson for the National Gallery of Victoria. In 1991 she was honoured with the award of Member of the Order of Australia.

The Australian National Gallery is delighted to have the opportunity to collaborate with the Queensland Art Gallery in touring this exhibition, which is part of an extensive program developed by the Australian National Gallery to give all Australians access to their national collection.

Because not all Australians are able to travel to the Gallery in Canberra, each year thousands of works of art leave the national capital — either on loan to other institutions, or on tour to a variety of other venues as part of the Gallery's travelling exhibition program.