ROSALIE GASCOIGNE

ARTISTROSALIE GASCOIGNE 1917-1999 Born-Auckland

BA in arts – taught English in high schools

1943 moved to Canberra to marry astronomer Lived near Mt Stromlo Observatory

1962 took Ikebana classes (flower arranging) (translates to awareness of nature) (Sogetsu emphasizing line and form with colour coming after)

Never went to art school – never learnt to paint or draw

1982 – chose to represent Australia In 40th Venice Biennale First exhibition age 57

collector

Worked on her dining room table until 1983

ARTWORKassemblages

Tools – hacksaw, hammer, screwdriver, band saw etc

Method of working involves living with her assemblages, gradually observing them and changing them until she feels they are right

Leaves everything outside -weathered materials

Works for three hours at a time

Does the work herself (helpers are for finished works)

Work constructed from found materials- things other people discard

Yellow represents New Zealand’s yellow acacia tree’s golden flower

Text – use of letter forms and titles – English teacher & poetry, imagery – play with words

Emotional response, memories, intuitions – observations of the physical elements of area

Materials – sheets of corrugated iron, soft drink crates, sections of blistering masonite

Minimal intervention – selection & creation mutually dependent

repetition

serial production

use of grid

Critical review: “Gascoigne ..one of the finest of Australian artists using objects trouves and saw her ‘box’ arrangements of highway detritus, postcards and discards as Dadaist with intent”1970

Sydney Biennale 2002

Birdsong 1999

Honey Bees, 1992

WORLDAustralian landscape

barenessspaceskies

Great Southern Highlands

1960- started to rummage from official dumps – Bungendore – found abandoned sideshow –dolls gallery birds inspired many box works-Victorian & Edwardian bric-a-brac

Collector Dump = first retro –reflective road sign

Captain Flats, an old mining own 65km south of Canberra

crops

topography

brittle vegetation

vista of landscape

changes – daily/seasonal

metropolisGrass fest, 1999

All that jazz White city, 1993

Forty acre block

Painted wood, metal and collage, 1977

Inland sea, 1986

AUDIENCERole of the Art Critic: Her works are as good as memory and illustrations suggest. Many have become iconic in any overview of the last three decades of Australian art, and yet when seen again their strength invites us to find something new, valid and unexpected in both the formalist rigour of their assemblage and arrangement and in the poetic suggestiveness and mobility of surface, recalling the transcendental nuance of Rothko's work and offering a validation of non-representational intellectualism as a fundamental value in art.Juliette Piers; Artlink 2009

Role of the Art Historian: Gascoigne’s works celebrate the beauty of Australia’s natural landscape by interpreting it through different everyday objects…. Weathered timber, rusted metal, and faded and peeling paint are hallmarks of Gascoigne’s distinct visual style. Her sculptural forms reflect a past history or remnant from times gone by; the aged and deteriorated state of her materials suggesting a life already lived. Drew Bickford—Education and Public Programs Officer, Gallery A, Sydney

General members of the public

How has the audience changed over timeand brought different meaning to the artworks, the artist and interpretations of the world?