Blavatsky and Australian Art

The Sydney Morning Herald for April 30, 2011, has a long review of the exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Art, Love and Life: Ethel Carrick and E. Phillips Fox, on the two Australian artists.

The Foxes were a successful partnership, both as husband and wife and as two artists working in complementary styles. Emanuel Phillips Fox (1865-1915) was academically trained and naturally cautious in his version of impressionism. Seven years his junior, Ethel Carrick (1872-1952) was a more adventurous painter. Each had much to offer the other. The tragedy is that their marriage lasted a mere 10 tears before Fox - a chain smoker - died of cancer at the age of 50.

The reviewer notes “Carrick’s burgeoning interest in Theosophy - Madame Blavatsky's fizzy cocktail of ersatz ancient wisdoms that enjoyed a remarkable vogue among artists at the time. Mondrian and Kandinsky were fellow believers, so Carrick was in good company.” The rest of the review can be read here. The exhibition, which runs until August 7, “offers unprecedented access to more than 100 paintings, works on paper and ephemera exploring the artists’ lives, subjects and milieu, drawn from major institutions and private collections across Australia.”

Ethel Carrick
Arabs bargaining c.1911. Painting oil on canvas