Micky Allan
Micky Allan is an Australian photographer born in 1944.[1] She is an Australian artist whose work covers paintings, drawings, engraved glass overlays, installations and photography.
| Micky Allan | |
|---|---|
| Born |
1 April 1944 - Melbourne, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Education |
1967, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Melbourne University 1968, Diploma of Painting, National Gallery of Victoria Painting School 2014, Doctor of Philosophy, Painting, Australian National University of Arts |
| Known for | Contemporary Art |
| Notable work |
My trip 1976 Botany Bay Today 1980 - 2010 |
Background
Micky Allan was born in Melbourne, 1944. At the age of two, she and her and family lived in Japan, before moving back to Melbourne in 1950. Allan, attended the Melbourne Church of England Girls Grammar School, in South Yarra, where she received an American Field Service Scholarship allowing her to study in the U.S. Allan was heavily involved in painting as a teenager and attended a girls school in Kansas City in 1961. The school held Allan's first solo exhibition where she had her paintings on display in the national art contest.[2]
Shortly after returning from Kansas, Allan studied Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne under Joseph Burke in 1963. Pursuing her desire in painting, she also commenced a full-time Diploma of Painting course at the National Gallery of Victoria Painting School in 1965.[3] However given the lack of female artist role models to follow in the 1900s, she felt it was impossible to make a living off art. Allan began taking photographs in 1974 after joining a feminist collective in Melbourne, and was taught how to process photos by housemate Virginia Coventry.[4] She relocated to Sydney not long after in the late 1970s, focusing on her own individual work as opposed to working on collective projects.[2] Since then, Allan returned to painting as her primary medium in the early 1980s.[3]
Over the years, Allan has become an influential public speaker and has been invited to be a part of many discussions on the highly controversial topic of feminist politics during her time and present a number of speeches held at national galleries across Australia about art photography during the 1970s.[5] She also completed her studies in Doctor of Philosophy, Painting, at the Australian National University of Arts in 2014.
Work
Before taking up photography, Micky Allan practiced painting. She produced a series of hand-coloured work in the mid 1970s, among other Australian women artists.[6] This is a technique that was very popular in the 1900s, and early 2000s. Hand-colouring referred to the method of manually adding colour to a black-and-white photograph, through the materials and techniques of painting and use of dyes. The practice of applying materials is to infuse colours in photographs, extend the longevity of existing colours in images and personalise their work, in imbuing a uniqueness to their photograph as a mean of creative expression.[7]
Allan's first handcoloured works were a series of her friend Laurel in 1975. The following year she worked on a series titled "Babies" which in her photos she raised upon her concerns with life cycles. The photographs are portraits of babies with the face filling the frame and pencil colouring filling in small areas. The work was displayed in the National Gallery of Australia for viewing. Allan's fascination with the theme of age cycles continued in her work in the years ahead. In 1978, the series "Old Age" employed heavy use of
"The different social situations and pressures people have lived through are evident... in their faces."[6]
strokes bringing character and life into her work. Engaging the viewer, She captured close-up photographs of the elderly highlighting the physical ageing process which in society is regarded as unattractive. Allan's work raised humanist concerns in her era and since has had work displayed in many galleries across Australia.[6]
Photography
Micky Allan's career as a photographer includes commissioned projects around Australia. In 1974 she joined a feminist collective at Melbourne's experimental arts and theater space the Pram Factory.[4] She began working on sets, costumes and designing posters for the performances being held at the venue, where she then took photographs of the performances. Though it was not until her housemate Coventry who taught Allan how to take and print photographs later that year that she started to take photographs devotedly. From then on, Allan began to take photos for magazines and was beginning to emerge as a well-known female photographer. In 1974, The Pram Factory held her first show of black-and-white photographs.[2]
My Trip
The series "My Trip" undertook the documentation of Allan's 17-day road trip through rural Victoria, in 1975. In this publication she approaches people, recording their conversation and portraying them in their natural state through photography. Allan decided to travel alone, recording photographically what is seen and experienced after having finished a body of work in the darkroom and felt she needed to go on a holiday. Using her camera to arbitrate her interactions with strangers that she came across, many of the people she photographed were willing to have their photo taken.[8] The series lead onto become a documentation of how women were perceived when travelling alone during the years of second-wave feminism.[9]
Botany Bay Today
The area that is now known as Botany Bay, is a place of vast contrast between the industrial and natural world. Allan's work in 1980, explored the juxtaposition of nature and the industrialisation, revealing the choices that society has made.[10] The black-and-white photographs consisted mainly views near the bay, with a selection of more general views of the area including hand-painted images of flowers. The body of this work, exhibited at the NGV in 1980 by curator Jennie Boddington, focused on the industrial devastation of the coastline, raising awareness of the impact it has on daily life.[11][12]
In 2010, Allan returned to Botany Bay with a partner, Steenus von Steensen. Returning to the area 30 years later, she found that not a lot had changed from her first visit in 1980, instead she found the area to appear more so dire and grim than it was before. Botany Bay 2010 is a follow up series from 1980, in that Allan captured photos though this time in colour with minimal touch of colour painting. In the year the work was produced, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre held the first exhibition of the series Botany Bay 2010. More recently the series has been displayed at national galleries across Australia, alongside Allan's new work.[12]−≥
Publications
Despite the lack of recognition given to women in the 1900s for their achievements. Allan, whose work was purchased by state and national galleries in the 1970s, was one of many prominent female artists to have revived interest in photography, alongside the works of Melanie le Guay, Carol Jerrems and Sue Ford, resulting in broad expansion in art photography in the late 1900s.[13] Bellow is a list of Allan's achievements throughout her career including selected solo-exhibitions:
Awards/Prizes/Residency
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Selected Solo Exhibitions
- 2013 Sea, ANU School of Arts Gallery, Canberra
- 2011 Spacious, Canberra Contemporary Art Space
- 2008 Inner Weather, Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney
- 2008 Sunlight and Shadow, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
- 2005 Quietly, Infinity in the Everyday, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
- 2003 Parallel Worlds, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
- 1994 Gardens, Watters Gallery, Sydney
- 1992 Further Travels, Watters Gallery, Sydney
- 1991 What is this Thing called Love? Deutscher Brunswick Street, Melbourne
- 1990 ACCA Experiments I: For Love of the Divine, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
- 1990 Harvest (with Aleks Danko), Watters Gallery, Sydney & Contemporary Art Centre, Adelaide
- 1988 Places in Space, City Gallery, Melbourne
- 1987 Micky Allan Perspective, 1975-1987, (curator: Jenepher Duncan), Monash University Gallery
- 1986 Recent Works, United Artists Gallery, Melbourne
- 1985 Travels without my Aunt, 200 Gertude Street, Melbourne and Watters Gallery, Sydney
- 1984 Old Age (Project Show), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- 1982 The Pavilion of Death, Dreams and Desire: The Family Room, Adelaide Festival of the Arts
- 1980 Botany Bay Today, NGV, Melbourne and Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney
- 1980 Travelogue, Watters Gallery, Sydney
- 1979 Landscapes and People on the Edges of Landscapes, Link Exhibitions, Art Gallery of South Australia
- 1978 Photography, Drawing and Poetry, A Live-in Show, Ewing and George Paton Galleries, University of Melbourne and Watters Gallery, Sydney
References
- ↑ Newton, Gael (1988). Shades of Light. Canberra: Australian National Gallery. p. 150. ISBN 0642081522.
- 1 2 3 "THE ACCA EXPERIMENTS: MICKY ALLAN - FOR LOVE OF THE DIVINE" (PDF). Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
- 1 2 "ALLAN Micky". Monash Gallery of Art. MGA. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
- 1 2 "Photography Meets Feminism". Art Blart. Shaune Lakin. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
- ↑ "Discussion l Micky Allan, Ponch Hawkesand Ruth Maddison on feminist politics and art photography l MGA". Melbourne Art Network. Melbourne Art Network. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- 1 2 3 French, edited by Blair (1999). Photo files : an Australian photography reader. Sydney: Power Publications and Australian Centre for Photography. pp. 31–32. ISBN 1864870532.
- ↑ "Colour My World". National Gallery of Australia. NGA. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
- ↑ "My Trip: Micky Allan". L'oeil de la Photographie. Alison Stieven-Taylor. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
- ↑ "My Trip: Micky Allan,Max Pam, Jon Rhodes". Art Gallery NSW. Art Gallery NSW. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- ↑ "Micky Allan". Langford120. Langfod120. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- ↑ Boddington, Jennie & National Gallery of Victoria (1980). Micky Allan : Botany Bay today : Jillian Gibb : One year's work. The Gallery, Melbourne
- 1 2 Hinkson, Melinda. "Micky Allan at CCAS (online)". Art Monthly Australia. Art Monthly Australia. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- ↑ Hall, Barbara; Mather, Jenni (1986). Australian women photographers : 1840-1960. Richmond, Vic., Australia: Greenhouse. p. 111. ISBN 0864360398.