The Heide Circle was a loose grouping of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n artists who lived and worked at "Heide", a former dairy farm on the

Yarra River The Yarra River or historically, the Yarra Yarra River, (Kulin languages: ''Berrern'', ''Birr-arrung'', ''Bay-ray-rung'', ''Birarang'', ''Birrarung'', and ''Wongete'') is a perennial river in south-central Victoria, Australia. The lower st ...

floodplain at

Bulleen Bulleen ( ) is an eastern suburb in Melbourne, Australia, 13 km north-east of the Melbourne central business district, located within the City of Manningham local government area. Bulleen recorded a population of 11,219 at the 2021 census. ...

, a suburb of

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, counting amongst their number many of Australia's best-known

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

painters.

History

Heide was purchased in 1934 by

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

and

Sunday Reed Sunday Reed (born Lelda Sunday Baillieu) (15 October 190515 December 1981) was an Australian patron of the arts. Along with her husband, Reed established what is now the Heide Museum of Modern Art. Personal life Reed was born on 15 October 1905 ...

, passionate supporters and collectors of Australian art and culture. Amongst other activities, John Reed published the modernist literary magazine ''

Angry Penguins ''Angry Penguins'' was an art and literary magazine established in 1940 by surrealist poet Max Harris. Originally based in Adelaide, the magazine moved to Melbourne in 1942 once Harris joined the Heide Circle, a group of modernist painters and w ...

'', which earned its place in Australia's cultural history with the notorious Ern Malley hoax in 1943. John Reed was a Tasmanian-born solicitor and graduate of Cambridge University in 1924, whose association with art and design began in Melbourne in the mid 1920s, when he shared a home with illustrator and furniture designer Fred Ward. Around him were a circle of highly innovative and creative young and wealthy Melburnians including his sister Cynthia Reed Nolan, psychiatrist Reg Ellery, musicians

Mansell Kirby Mansell is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Clint Mansell (born 1963), British musician and composer * Chris Mansell (born 1953), Australian poet * Christian Mansell (born 2005), Australian racing driver * Francis Mansell (15 ...

and

Bernard Heinze Sir Bernard Thomas Heinze, AC, FRCM (1 July 189410 June 1982) was an Australian conductor, academic, and Director of the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music. He conducted all the orchestras run by the ABC, most particularly the Melb ...

, curator Clarice Zander, artist

Will Dyson William Henry ('Will') Dyson (3 September 1880 – 21 January 1938) was an Australian illustrator, artist and political cartoonist who achieved international recognition. He initially worked as a freelance artist in Australia, developing a spec ...

and literary patrons

Nettie Palmer Janet Gertrude "Nettie" Palmer (née Higgins) (18 August 1885 – 19 October 1964) was an Australian poet, essayist and Australia's leading literary critic of her day. She corresponded with women writers and collated the ''Centenary Gift Book'' ...

and

Vance Palmer Edward Vivian "Vance" Palmer (28 August 1885 – 15 July 1959) was an Australian novelist, dramatist, essayist and critic. Early life Vance Palmer was born in Bundaberg, Queensland, on 28 August 1885 and attended the Ipswich Grammar School. Wi ...

, establishing a pattern that would extend into the years at Heide. A number of modernist artists came to live and work at various times between the 1930s and 1950s at Heide, and many of the most famous works of the period were painted there. Albert Tucker,

Sidney Nolan Sir Sidney Robert Nolan (22 April 191728 November 1992) was one of the leading Australian artists of the 20th century. Working in a wide variety of media, his oeuvre is among the most diverse and prolific in all of modern art. He is best known ...

Danila Vassilieff Danila Vassilieff (22 March 1958) was a Russian-born Australian painter and sculptor. He has been called the "father of Australian modernism". Life Danila Ivanovich Vassilieff (Данила Иванович Васильев) was born in 1897 ...

Gray Smith Gray Smith (13 February 1919 – 7 August 1990) was an Australian artist, poet and jeweller who was part of the Heide Circle. While best known as the famous Australian artist Joy Hester's spouse, his most productive artistic period came later ...

and

Joy Hester Joy St Clair Hester (21 August 1920 – 4 December 1960) was an Australian artist. She was a member of the Angry Penguins movement and the Heide Circle who played an integral role in the development of Australian Modernism. Hester is best known ...

, amongst others, all worked at Heide. Nolan painted his famous series of

Ned Kelly Edward Kelly (December 185411 November 1880) was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader, bank robber and convicted police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing armour of the Kelly gang, a suit of bulletproof ...

works in the living room there. The Heide Circle is well known for the intertwined personal and professional lives of the people involved. Sunday Reed conducted affairs with a number of them, with the knowledge of her husband. Sydney Nolan's second wife Cynthia was John Reed's younger sister. The marriage of former Heide associates caused a permanent break between Nolan and Sunday Reed. David Rainey's 2014 play ''The Ménage at Soria Moria'' is a fictitious performance piece exploring the relationship between the Reeds and Sidney Nolan – both the heady days at Heide during the 1940s, and the less well known degeneration over the next 35 years. The Heide Circle continued in their commitment to Figurative Modernism through the 1950s and 1960s, with several of the artists forming a group known as the

Antipodeans The Antipodeans were a collective of Australian modern artists, known for their advocacy of figurative art and opposition to abstract expressionism. The group, which included seven painters from Melbourne and art historian Bernard Smith, was ac ...

and taking a stand against the new abstract art. Heide is located very close to

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

, the area associated with a famous earlier Melbourne art movement, the

Heidelberg School The Heidelberg School was an Australian art movement of the late 19th century. It has been described as Australian impressionism. Melbourne art critic Sidney Dickinson coined the term in an 1891 review of works by Arthur Streeton and Walter ...

. The north-eastern fringes of Melbourne, particularly further out at

Eltham Eltham ( ) is a district of South London, southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is east-southeast of Charing Cross, and is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. The three ...

, retain a close association with the visual arts. The

Heide Museum of Modern Art The Heide Museum of Modern Art, also known as Heide, is an art museum in Bulleen, Victoria, Bulleen, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Established in 1981, the museum exhibits modern art, modern and contemporary a ...

is now an

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although ...

featuring most of the artists of the period, and actively supporting the development and promotion of contemporary art in Australia.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Heide Museum of Modern Art website

Australian painters

History

See also

References

External links