Lina BryansOAM (26 September 1909 – 30 September 2000), was an Australian
modernist painter.
Life
Lina Bryans was born in
Hamburg,
Germany, on 26 August 1909,[1] second daughter of wealthy prosperous Michaelis-Hallenstein family of industrialists, Australians Edward and Lina Hallenstein, who were then visiting Europe. The following year they settled in
Toorak,
Melbourne,
Victoria, and Lina grew up moving between Australia, England and France.[2] She used her knowledge of French to work as a translator. She married
Baynham Bryans in 1931 and they had a son, Edward (24 June 1932 – 23 March 2010), who made his name as a newsreader on ABC radio and
television. The marriage broke down and Lina moved to
South Yarra in 1936. She met
William (Jock) Frater[3] and decided with his help and encouragement to become a painter. She'd had no involvement with art before.[4][1]
Early works
A modernist, Bryans was associated with Frater's circle which included
Ada May Plante and
Isabel Hunter Tweddle. Her first works were painted early in 1937 and
Basil Burdett selected her Backyards, South Yarra in 1938 for the Herald Exhibition of Outstanding Pictures of 1937.[5] Her work was included in Burdett's article in Studio (1938) and in the exhibition, Art of Australia 1788-1941, shown at
MOMA (New York) in 1941.
The Pink Hotel
Bryans went to live in Darebin Bridge House, a converted coach-house at
Darebin, in the late 1930s, joining Ada May Plante. Bryans subsequently purchased it using her inheritance, painted and decorated it distinctively and named it "The Pink Hotel".[6] It became an artists' colony for Bryans, Plante, Frater,
Ambrose Hallen and
Ian Fairweather and other artists.
From 1945 she opened the doors to the Meanjin group:
Vance and
Nettie Palmer, Rosa and Dolia Ribush,
Jean Campbell,
Laurie Thomas and
Alan McCulloch. There they joined the moderates in the Contemporary Art Society (
Norman Macgeorge, Clive Stephen, Isobel Tweddle and
Rupert Bunny, Sybil Craig, Guelda Pyke, Elma Roach,
Ola Cohn and Madge Freeman and
George Bell). The liberal, conservative modernists in Melbourne were thus given an identity and a base,[7] attracting group of writers associated with the journal
Meanjin, in turn sparking an interest in journalism in Lina's son Edward.
Mid-career
In 1948 Bryans had her first solo exhibition. It included Nude (1945, NGV) and Portrait of
Nina Christesen (1947),[8] both painted at Darebin, which she sold later that year and moved to Harkaway, near
Berwick. She took a few lessons from
George Bell in 1948 and from
Mary Cockburn Mercer in 1951. In 1953 she went to America, then to France, where she studied for a few months at
La Grande Chaumière and visited Mercer in the south of France. Back at Melbourne, she once more became prominent in the city's artistic and cultural milieu.
Recognition
Landscape painting was always important to Bryans and throughout the 1960s and 1970s, it became more dramatic and abstract. In 1965 she visited Central Australia and painted modernist paintings of the Australian bush in heightened colour. She was awarded the 1966 Crouch Prize for Embedded Rock (1964, BFAG). Her major work Landscape Quartet from her second solo exhibition, held at Georges Gallery in 1966, was purchased by the
National Gallery of Victoria, which awarded her a retrospective in 1982, held at
Banyule Gallery in 1982, which subsequently toured regional galleries in Victoria.
Nevertheless, as Forwood notes (2001), her portraits 'best reveal her contribution to Australian art’, moreover, 'her seventy-three portraits of friends engaged in the world of art and letters form a pictorial biography of Bryans herself’.[9] Her well-known, jaunty portrait of Australian writer
Jean May Campbell,[10]The Babe is Wise, (named after Campbell's novel of the year before) was painted in 1940. It is held in the National Gallery of Victoria
collection.
Bryans was a member of the Independent Group. In 1991 she rejoined the
Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors, in which she had first enlisted in 1940 and quit in 1966. In the 1960s, as a guest exhibitor, she was one of the most important and professional artists associated with the Society, and critics consistently placed her works at the forefront of MSWPS group shows.[11] In 1966 one faction of the MSWPS was anxious to see the high-standing artist Lina Bryans elected president for her dynamic outlook.[12]
Bryans, Lina & Forwood, Gillian & Ian Potter Gallery (1995). The babe is wise : Lina Bryans and her portraits. The University of Melbourne Museum of Art, Parkville, Vic
Germaine, Max (1991), A Dictionary of Women Artists of Australia, Roseville East (NSW).
McCulloch, Alan & McCulloch, Susan (1994), The Encyclopedia of Australian Art, St Leonards (NSW).
Minchin, Jan (1982), Lina, National Gallery of Victoria catalogue, Melbourne.
Bryans, Lina & Phipps, Jennifer, 1944- & National Gallery of Victoria & Art Gallery of Ballarat & Geelong Art Gallery et al. (1982). Lina Bryans : a retrospective exhibition. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
^Forwood, Gillian (2000), 'Death of Lina Bryans: 1909-2000’, 11, Art Monthly.
^De Lacy, Gavin (1 May 2009), "Three neglected women writers of the 1930s: Jean Campbell, 'Capel Boake', and 'Georgia Rivers'", The La Trobe Journal (83), State Library of Victoria Foundation: 27(15),
ISSN1441-3760
^"The most arresting pictures come from Lina Bryans, who exhibits a strong portrait in blue entitled Listening to Berlioz..." Allen Warren, The Sun 24 October 1961
^Peers, Juliette; Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors (1993), More than just gumtrees : a personal, social and artistic history of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors, Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors in association with Dawn Revival Press,
ISBN978-0-646-16033-7
^"Lina Bryans". Australian Honours Search Facility, Dept of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
^Thomas, Daniel, 1931-; Radford, Ron, 1949-; Art Gallery of South Australia; Australian Bicentennial Authority; International Cultural Corporation of Australia; Great Australian Art Exhibition 1788-1988 (1988-1989) (1988), Creating Australia, 200 years of art 1788-1988, International Cultural Corporation of Australia [and] Art Gallery Board of South Australia,
ISBN978-0-642-13433-2{{
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^Hansen, David; Australian Bicentennial Authority (1988), The face of Australia : the land & the people, the past & the present (1st ed.), Child & Associates,
ISBN978-0-86777-181-7