Beatrice Louise "Bea" Maddock (13 September 1934 – 9 April 2016) was an Australian artist.

Biography

Born in

Hobart Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

, Bea Maddock studied art education at the

University of Tasmania The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is a public research university, primarily located in Tasmania, Australia. Founded in 1890, it is Australia's fourth oldest university. Christ College (University of Tasmania), Christ College, one of the unive ...

, Hobart and taught secondary school in her home city before travelling abroad to study at the

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Her teachers included

William Coldstream Sir William Menzies Coldstream, CBE (28 February 1908 – 18 February 1987) was an English realist painter and a long-standing art teacher. Biography Coldstream was born at Belford, Northumberland, in northern England, the second son of co ...

Ceri Richards Ceri Giraldus Richards (6 June 1903 – 9 November 1971) was a Welsh painter, print-maker and maker of reliefs. Biography Richards was born in 1903 in the village of Dunvant, near Swansea, the son of Thomas Coslett Richards and Sarah Ri ...

and Anthony Gross. Maddock visited

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, where she closely studied the work of the

German Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

s, who were a formative influence. She also stopped in

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

during the return trip by ship to Australia. Maddock returned to Australia to teach in

Launceston, Tasmania Launceston () is a city in the north of Tasmania, Australia, at the confluence of the North Esk River, North Esk and South Esk River, South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River, Tasmania, Tamar River (kanamaluka). As of 2021, the Launc ...

, before settling in the state of Victoria. She taught printmaking at the Victorian College of the Arts for several years from 1970 and returned to Tasmania as Head of the School of Art, Launceston in 1983–84. Maddock was a Creative Arts Fellow at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

in 1976. Maddock lived and worked at

Mount Macedon Mount Macedon ( ; or ) is a dormant volcano that is part of the Macedon Ranges of the Great Dividing Range, located in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands region of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The mountain has a ...

, Victoria until the

Ash Wednesday fires The Ash Wednesday bushfires, known in South Australia as Ash Wednesday II, were a series of bushfires that occurred in south-eastern Australia in 1983 on 16 February. Within twelve hours, more than 180 fires fanned by hot winds of up to caus ...

of 1983 forced her to flee. Her house, studio and a large archive of many decades' work were destroyed. She later returned to her native state of Tasmania. In 1987 Maddock participated in the 'Artists in Antarctica' program with Jan Senbergs and John Caldwell. While on that voyage, she badly fractured her leg on

Heard Island The Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands (HIMI) is an Australian external territory comprising a volcanic group of mostly barren Antarctic islands, about two-thirds of the way from Madagascar to Antarctica. The group's overall land ...

, which compromised her mobility for several years afterwards. She was appointed Member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

in the

1991 Australia Day Honours The 1991 Australia Day Honours are appointments to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by Australian citizens. The list was announced on 26 January 1991 by the Governor General of Australia, Bill Hayden. The Australia D ...

for "service to art and to art education".

Work

Maddock is best known as a printmaker, in which area she profoundly impacted contemporary practice in Australia, combining printing with

encaustic painting Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, is a form of painting that involves a heated wax medium to which colored pigments have been added. The molten mix is applied to a surface—usually prepared wood, though canvas and other mate ...

and

installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific art, site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior intervent ...

to explore the natural environment, Aboriginal Australia, and

Australian history The history of Australia is the history of the land and peoples which comprise the Commonwealth of Australia. The modern nation came into existence on 1 January 1901 as a federation of former British colonies. The human history of Australia, ...

. She won many prizes and is represented in the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

, all Australia State galleries, the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

in New York, and the USA's National Gallery in Washington. Maddock's most recent major work, 'Terra Spiritus... With a Darker Shade of Pale', is a 51 part inscribed etching of the entire coastline of Tasmania, each feature labelled with both the English and the Aboriginal Tasmanian topographic names. The pigments used to make the drawing are locally occurring Tasmanian ochres. Staff of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston, Tasmania are currently preparing a ''

catalogue raisonné A (or critical catalogue) is an annotated listing of the works of an artist or group of artists and can contain all works or a selection of works categorised by different parameters such as medium or period. A ''catalogue raisonné'' is normal ...

''. It will contain entries on 978 works produced by the artist between 1952 and 1983.

Selected individual exhibitions

* Ingles Building, Launceston, Tasmania: 1964 * Crossley Gallery, Melbourne: 1967, 1968, 1971 * Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania: 1970 * Gallery A, Sydney: 1974, 1978 * National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne: 1975 (''Three Printmakers''), 1980 * National Art Gallery of New Zealand, Wellington: 1982-3 (touring retrospective) * Stuart Gerstman Galleries, Melbourne: 1988 * Tasmania Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart: 1988 (''Antarctic Journey'', with John Caldwell and Jan Senbers), 1990 (''Australian Printmakers'', with Ray Arnold and Rod Ewins) * Australian National Gallery, Canberra: 1992-3 (''Being and Nothingness'', touring retrospective)

In collections

Her work is represented in the collections of the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited art mu ...

(92 works), the

, the

Art Gallery of South Australia The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as the National Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located in Adelaide. It is the most significant visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of ...

, the

, the National Gallery of Canada (2 works),

Te Papa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. Usually known as Te Papa (Māori language, Māori for 'Waka huia, the treasure box'), it opened in 1998 after the merging of the Nation ...

(10 works) and the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery at UWA.

References

Roger Butler & Anne Kirker (1991) ''Being and Nothingness: Bea Maddock, Work From Three Decades'', Australian National Gallery
(This work needs to be cited within the text)

External links

Images of 317 prints by Bea Maddock
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maddock, Bea 1934 births 2016 deaths 20th-century Australian women artists 20th-century Australian artists Australian printmakers Australian women painters Members of the Order of Australia Artists from Hobart Australian women printmakers

Biography

Work

Selected individual exhibitions

In collections

See also

References

Further reading

External links