Text only. Original contained images.
Written Assignment (1500 words) October 2009
Essay: Rosalie Gascoigne
(1917-1999)
The impact of Post Modernism as it was reflected in the practise of
Rosalie Gascoigne.
It is my suggestion that Rosalie Gascoigne’s success was in part due to the social and cultural changes taking place in the time in which she lived.
Her first exhibition was held in the Macquarie Galleries in Canberra in 1974. At this time it was becoming recognised that women should be paid the same wages as men if doing the same work. I believe that the social and cultural changes taking place in Australia at that time helped to allow Gascoigne to be recognised for her art.
Not only were women being recognised for equal work to men, it was also being recognised that women had had their education and career opportunities interrupted by the production and care of their children. In the Fifties women were expected to leave work once they had married. This was the case for Rosalie Gascoigne who married an astronomer and moved to Mt Stromlo, outside Canberra, leaving behind her native New Zealand.
Although Gascoigne did not have an education specifically in art, she did have a University education and taught for a short time before her marriage.
While Gascoigne lacked a formal education in art, she did have an informal introduction to the contemporary art scene through the friendship of the Director of the new Australian National Gallery (now the National Gallery of Australia), James (Jim) Mollinson. Mollinson took Gascoigne to tour around the stored art works and discussed them with her. Another influence was artist and teacher, Michael Taylor. It was Taylor who introduced Gascoigne to Sydney by including her in The Artists Choice exhibition at Gallery A in 1975.
Initially supported financially by her husband and further encouraged by her eldest son, Gascoigne had the freedom to pursue her art once the children had grown and left home. This was a freedom not available to a woman of her education and standing in the community, in past decades.
Her early works reflect her training in the Sogetsu style of Ikebana flower arrangement recognised by the Japanese as an art form. The construction of both plant and found objects gave Gascoigne the trained eye and skills of assemblage. This training helped her to consider new ways of putting together her sculptures.
While she was busy raising her family the art world was also changing in reflection of the social changes taking place.
Modernism was becoming Post-Modernism. Architects took the lead, criticising Modern architecture as being too formal and austere, they moved to more eclectic materials and styles with greater playfulness. An example of this would be Frank Gehry’s ‘Venice Beach House’ (1986).
This change in aesthetics was seen earlier in the emergence in the 1960’s of Pop art and then Conceptualism.
Soft Sculptures by artists such as Claes Oldenburg seen here in his Ice Bag brought about the use of new materials.
Works by Joseph Kosuth such as his Clock (one and five) (1965) questioned why we consider a photograph but not the object itself to be art. He also challenged the idea that art is beautiful and/or functionless.
3 Clock (one and five) 1965 Joseph Kosuth
The work of Joseph Cornell also prepared the viewing audience to appreciate the assemblages of Rosalie Gascoigne. While Gascoigne did one or two similar works early in her career, she was apparently unaware of the similarity of her work to Cornell’s until it was pointed out by others with traditional art training.
4 Bottled Glass 1974 - Rosalie Gascoigne
5 Pharmacy 1950 Joseph Cornell
For Gascoigne it was a case of solving a problem of presentation more than making a statement. Unlike Cornell’s Pharmacy, her work, Bottled Glass, does not have a backing on the box thus allowing light to pass through the bottles and the fragments of coloured glass which they hold.
It was this individualised presentation of found objects that Gascoigne took to greater and greater heights.
Living in a time when the local dump was just that and not a Waste Centre for recycling, also allowed Gascoigne to make her art in ways that would be very difficult for any artist now.
She became an adept scavenger and travelled to various dumps around the Canberra area. She also went to commercial yards when they were replacing their wooden crates. Sometimes she would find things along the side of the road such as beer cans. These she liked due to their weathering by the sun which gave them a more subdued colour.
Some of her earliest work used farm objects which were soldered together by her husband. When she felt that she was becoming influenced by his approach, she went looking for other ways to form her works so that they were freestanding. It was this which led to her use of boxes along with the find of discarded bee boxes.
6 Untitled - early 1970's - Rosalie Gascoigne
7 Dolly Boxes (detail) c.1976 Rosalie Gascoigne
There were other finds which were pivotal to the works produced. One was the discarded fairground dolls such as those used in Dolly Boxes 1976 another was the discarded paraphernalia of a travelling boxing troupe and yet another was the yellow and black fluoro road signs.
Both the fairground and the boxing troupe discards are all objects that represented the changing times. The kewpie dolls were no longer sought after by little girls attending the fair at the local agricultural show and the boxing troupes that travelled the country towns were also going out of vogue.
Even the road signs are unlikely now, to be found left behind at a roadside repair site. They are now made of metal and it is more likely that they would be returned for sale to a scrap metal merchant.
Gascoigne extended her skills far beyond those learnt while making Ikebana. With the purchase of a band saw and jig saw she learnt to cut her finds to produce her most renowned works.
8 Beaten Track 1992 Rosalie Gascoigne
Works such as Beaten Track 1992 and High Density 1992 are both made from sawn soft drink crates. By clever manipulation of the cut pieces differing views and emotions are relayed to the viewer.
10 Installation - Biennale Sydney 2002 Rosalie Gascoigne
At a retrospective of her work at the Sydney Biennale in 2002 the brilliance of her works was available for all to see and experience.
Like all good artists Gascoigne built on the experience of those who had gone before and yet through her own expression brought a whole new approach.
This approach was only able to be used and recognised as art due to the Post Modernist era in which she worked.
References:
• Books:
o Little,Stephen,2004, Isms Understanding Art, ,A&C Black Publishers, London
o Vici MacDonald (1998) Rosalie Gascoigne, edited by Steve Bush, Regaro, Sydney
o Gellatly, Kelly, 2008, Rosalie Gascoigne, National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne Vic
• Websites:
o http://www.artmonthly.org.au/artnotes.asp?aID=5&issueNumber=216
o http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Venice_Beach_House.html
o http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/gascoigne_education/images/RG_Introduction.pdf
o http://nga.gov.au/softsculpture/essay.cfm
o http://www.askart.com/AskART/artist.aspx?artist=30122
o http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/15/Rosalie_Gascoigne/1157/41841/
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