No Singing in Gum Trees: The honest life of Max Martin
Hardback biography by Jeremy Hill, with essays by Ronald Millar, Wakefield Press, 2023 Jeremy Hill, an Irish collector and dealer and ex-pilot, has single-handedly raised the profile of this little known Australian artist. For over 20 years he has researched Martin, interviewed family members in England and Australia, and is responsible for the State Library of Victoria acquiring three major paintings. One is PORTRAIT OF ARCHBISHOP MANNIX 1953 and is currently touring Australia in the popular exhibition Archie 100A Century of the Archibald Prize. Another from the State Library collection and also exhibited in the Archibald Prize is PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST, 1963 is featured on the cover this biography
Introduction to Max Martin
"Enjoying the warmth of the early English summer of 1922 was a little known Australian artist whose painting was hanging on the line at the Royal Academy Exhibition in London. Deemed by the art critics to be the picture of the year, Portrait Group was seen to be ‘the most astonishing thing in the Academy’.1 Lavish again in their praise in 1924, the critics proclaimed Melbourne-born Max Martin’s latest painting ‘that strangely mysterious and remarkably painted work Witchcraft which stood out as a fine contribution to contemporary art’. A young man from the working-class suburb of Fitzroy was on the cusp of a brilliant career and was the talk of the Academy’s salons. Far from his humble origins, he now stood shoulder to shoulder with the leading figures of London’s art world." No Singing in Gum Trees, page 6
Item #6892
Price: $55.00