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Joy HesterRemember Me

Joy Hester, Girl Holding Flowers 1956, brush and ink, watercolour, pastel on paper, 35.8 x 27.1 cm, Presented through The Art Foundation of Victoria from the Bequest of Violet Dulieu, Founder Benefactor 1997 © Joy Hester/Copyright Agency 2020

This major survey exhibition celebrates the powerful work of Joy Hester, a unique figure in twentieth-century Australian art.

Joy Hester produced some of the most distinctive and intriguing imagery to emerge in Australia during the 1940s and 1950s. Working almost exclusively with brush and ink, she focused on potent expressions of the human figure, using drawing as a vehicle to grasp life in all its complexity.

The exhibition traces the progression of Hester’s artistic interests, from her formative works responding to the oppressive climate of World War II to compelling psychological portraits and later intimate images of faces and lovers made not long before her untimely death in 1960. Hester was unafraid to explore subjects considered highly provocative during her lifetime: love, sex, birth, and death—themes that are threaded throughout the exhibition. Joy Hester: Remember Me brings together significant works from public and private collections including many drawings that have never before been on public display, offering new insight into the working methods and creative processes that Hester developed from the very start of her career.

When
28 November 2020 – 21 February 2021
Location
Heide Galleries
Curator/s
Kendrah Morgan

Take a tour of the Joy Hester: Remember Me with senior curator Kendrah Morgan.

Joy Hester, Untitled (From the Love series) 1949, brush and ink and pastel on paper, 31.6 x 25.2 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, purchased 1976 © Joy Hester/Copyright Agency 2019

Joy Hester, Untitled (From the Love series) 1949, brush and ink and pastel on paper, 31.6 x 25.2 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, purchased 1976 © Joy Hester/Copyright Agency 2019

Joy Hester, Girl 1957, brush and ink on paper, 49.9 x 75.5 cm, purchased 1972 © Joy Hester/Copyright Agency 2020

Joy Hester, Girl 1957, brush and ink on paper, 49.9 x 75.5 cm, purchased 1972 © Joy Hester/Copyright Agency 2020

Joy Hester, Fun Fair c.1946, ink and gouache on paper, 25.3 x 31.2 cm, Bequest of John and Sunday Reed 1982, Courtesy of the artist & Viscopy

Joy Hester, Fun Fair c.1946, ink and gouache on paper, 25.3 x 31.2 cm, Bequest of John and Sunday Reed 1982, Courtesy of the artist & Viscopy

Albert Tucker, Peace: Joy Hester Holding Sweeney 1945, gelatin silver photograph, 35.7 x 26.9 cm, Gift of Barbara Tucker 2001

Albert Tucker, Peace: Joy Hester Holding Sweeney 1945, gelatin silver photograph, 35.7 x 26.9 cm, Gift of Barbara Tucker 2001

Joy Hester, Face (with yellow background) c.1947, brush and ink and gouache on paper, 27.6 x 37.5 cm, Gift of Barrett Reid 1990 © Joy Hester/ Licensed by Viscopy

Joy Hester, Face (with yellow background) c.1947, brush and ink and gouache on paper, 27.6 x 37.5 cm, Gift of Barrett Reid 1990 © Joy Hester/ Licensed by Viscopy

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