BLACKMAN, Charles (1928-2018)
'Skipping Games,' c.1954.
Signed lower right.
Additional painting verso of young girl.
Tempera & Enamel on Board
55x85.5cm

PROVENANCE:
Private collection, Sydney.

OTHER NOTES:
In the early 1950s Charles Blackman explored the subject matter of schoolgirls and their shattering psychological world. They were a vehicle for him to express the deepest sentiments of his own childhood anguish: abandonment, fear, isolation and vulnerability. He saw how the innocence and playfulness of children juxtaposed with the unknown menace of evil created tension in a polarity that he could reinforce with his contrasting monochromatic hues.

The neon Skipping Girl Vinegar sign in Victoria Street, Abbotsford, that he regularly saw from the tram window was an inspiration introduced into his Schoolgirls series in 1954 when he began painting local Melbourne facades with their billboards. These girls are almost like abstractions, connected by the rope, in a game - yet they are facing opposite ways which plays with the tension of the scene.

Charles mostly painted straight onto cardboard using alternate sides, as art materials were scarce and costly. He made his own tempera paints from eggs supplied by Sunday Reed and used commercial tins of enamel paint:

"I'd paint the fronts and the back, and if they had sides I'd have painted the sides."

On the reverse a single large figure of a girl is painted, with a dark background that emphasises her isolation. It is typical of this era. Charles whitewashed over the face, probably to state that the right side was the one of the playing figures. This was common, and could possibly have been done with a white transparent road paint; underneath a face can be perceived. The signature is just his last name, which was common at this time. It may have originally been done with a home made tempera and is therefore reinforced by him again.


Christabel Blackman

ref. Christabel Blackman, 'A decade of art and love,' pub. Thames & Hudson, 2024 (related works illus. pp.128-129)


Estimate $40,000-70,000