Dorrit Black

(1891-1951)

Music, 1927-28

Footnotes

PROVENANCE
The estate of the artist, Adelaide
Ruth Goble, the artist's niece
thence by descent
Private collection, New South Wales

EXHIBITED
First Exhibition of British Lino-cuts, Redfern Gallery, London, 1929, cat. 49 (another example)
A Group of Seven, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 1930, cat. 6 (another example)
Work by Members of the Arts and Crafts Society of Victoria, Town Hall, Melbourne, 1931 (another example)
Exhibition of Oils, Watercolours and Lino Cuts by Dorrit Black, Royal South Australian Society of Arts, Adelaide, 1938, cat. 31 (another example)
Print, Drawing and Watercolour, Contemporary Art Society of Australia, 1952, cat. 14 (another example)
Dorrit Black 1891 - 1951 Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, then touring, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Newcastle Region Art Gallery, New South Wales, The Ewing and George Paton Galleries, University of Melbourne, 1975-76, cat. 50 (another example)
Art Deco and works from the period, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, 16 June – 14 July 1980 (another example)
Project 39 - Women's Imprint, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1 – 31 October 1982 (another example)
Claude Flight and his Followers: The colour Linocut Movement between the Wars, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 18 April - 12 July 1992, cat. 17 (another example)
Modernism 1900-1950: prints and drawings from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 23 July – 25 September 1994 (another example)
Review: Works by Women from the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 8 March – 4 June 1995 (another example)
Art Deco: from Sydney Cinemas and Pubs to Skyscrapers, Museum of Sydney, Sydney, 12 June – 5 September 1999 (another example)
Dorrit Black Collection, Josef Lebovic Gallery, Sydney, 1999, cat. 1 (another example)
Modern Australia Women: Paintings and Prints 1925-1945, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 24 November 2000 - 25 February 2001; then touring to the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, the S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney and the Art Gallery Ballarat, Victoria
The Story of Australian Printmaking, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2007 (another example)
Australian Collection Focus: Colour, Rhythm, Design - wood & lino cuts of the 20s & 30s, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 12 March – 11 July 2010 (another example)
Professor Sadler, Japan and Australian modernism, University Art Gallery, University of Sydney, Sydney, 3 April – 24 July 2011 (another example)
Dorrit Black 1891 - 1951, Royal South Australian Society of Arts, Adelaide, 2011 (another example)
Sydney Moderns, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 6 July – 7 October 2013 (another example)
Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 14 June - 7 September 2014 (another example)
Modern impressions; Australian prints from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2 September 2016 – January 2017 (another example)

LITERATURE
Sun, 'Art & linoleum cut out pictures with umbrella ribs', Sydney, 16 March 1930, p. 8, (illus., another example)
Roger Butler and Chris Deutscher, A Survey of Australian Relief Prints 1900/1950, Armadale, 1978, p. 92 (illus., another example)
Ian North, The Art of Dorrit Black, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, and Macmillan, South Melbourne, 1979,pl. 5, pp. 27, 131 (illus., another example)
Anna Waldmann, Project 39 - Women's Imprint, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1982, no pagination
Deborah Edwards, Daphne Wallace, Margo Neale, Victoria Lynn and Sandra Byron, Review: Works by Women from the Permanent collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1995, no pagination
Stephen Coppel, Linocuts of the Machine Age: Claude Flight and the Grosvenor School, Scolar Press, Adlershot, 1995, pp. 66, 152 (illus., another example). pl. 31, cat. DB I
Helen Topliss, Modernism and Feminism, Australian Women Artists 1900-1940, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1996, p. 142 (illus., another example)
Jane Hylton, Modern Australian Women: Paintings & Prints 1925-1945, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2000, p. 25 (illus., another example)
Roger Butler, Printed Images by Australian Artists 1885-1955, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2007, p. 205 (illus., another example)
Helen Campbell, Colour, Rhythm, Design: Wood & Lino cuts of the 20s & 30s, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2010, pp. 2, 16 (illus., another example)
Deborah Edwards and Denise Mimmocchi, Look, Art Gallery Society NSW, Sydney, June 2013, p. 24 (illus., another example)
Denise Mimmocchi, Sydney Moderns: Art for a New World, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2013, pp. 79, 178 (illus., another example), 310, 320
Susannah Smith, Look, Art Gallery Society of NSW, Sydney, August 2013, p. 14
Sasha Grishin, Australian art: a history, The Miegunyah Press, 2014, p. 232, pl. 23.4 (illus., another example)
Tracey Lock-Weir, Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2014, pp. 8-9 (illus., another example), 148, 149 (illus., another example), 154 (illus., another example), 199 (illus., another example)

RELATED WORK
Other examples from this edition are held in the collections of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Of this composition and her relationship with her teacher, Claude Flight, Tracey Lock notes: 'One of Black's best known linocuts, Music, 1927-28, clearly shows her deliberate adherence to Flight's principle that art should reflect the energy of the modern age. Rhythmic lines, repetition of definite colours and multiple perspectives combine to represent movement. Inspired by an evening at the Dominion Artists Club in London, Black has depicted naked ochre-toned figures leaping across a vibrantly coloured abstract background, which pulsates like the sounds of jazz. The flat forms and lively colours constitute a distinct break away from Black's more restricted oil painting palette and are in keeping with Flight's methods of printing with a 'key block', a single block often in a darker colour that outlines the main elements of the picture. The rising and falling black lines in Music have a compositional rhythm similar to Flight's own prints such as Swingboats, 1921, and Spring, 1926. Music also reveals Black's interest in the School of Paris, and perhaps Matisse's masterpiece, Dance, 1910.' 1

1. Tracey Lock-Weir, Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2014, p. 148