Victor O'Connor
Encyclopedia
Victor George O'Connor is an Australia
n artist
. He is a Social Realist painter of genre and landscapes.
O'Connor graduated in law from University of Melbourne
and served with the Army during World War Two. After discharge he studied art at the George Bell School
, Melbourne for a time but his art is mostly self-taught.
He is the former vice-president of the Contemporary Art Society of Victoria and studied and painted extensively in UK and Europe 1973 - 1947.
His obituary in The Age http://www.theage.com.au/national/obituaries/realist-movement-painter-who-was-struck-by-harsh-truths-20101024-16z7i.html
He obituary reads as follows:
VIC O'Connor, who made important contributions to art in Australia over a 70-year period, notably with the realist movement from the late 1940s, has died at an aged-care home in Fitzroy. He was 91.
His legacy lives on in his paintings, drawings and prints, with his work represented in the Australian National Gallery as well as in state and regional galleries.
In the early 1940s, Professor Bernard Smith wrote of O'Connor's painting: What struck me first was the lyrical element in his paintings and the sense of compassion that breathed through all of it.
This remained an apt description of his work throughout his productive life.
O'Connor was born in Preston to Ada (née Clear) and Bertie, the fourth of his parents' five children. After his father became very ill, his mother started a small slipper factory behind the house to support the family.
She also painted pictures at night to sell. He worked after school with his parents selling slippers from a stall at the Queen Victoria Market, and images of the market and the inner suburbs impressed themselves upon him.
His mother lost the factory during the Depression, and O'Connor moved with his parents to a shack in Mount Evelyn, where they grew vegetables and kept a cow.
He attended school in Lilydale.
He started to draw, paint and create wood cuts at Mount Evelyn, as well as reading widely. Later, he completed his schooling at Melbourne High School.
O'Connor then worked for his brother, a solicitor, and studied law at Melbourne University; art was restricted to late evenings and weekends.
In 1939, he briefly attended George Bell's art classes. He joined the newly formed Contemporary Art Society and entered two pictures in its first exhibition. He was soon also involved in the politics both of the art world and the wider stage.
In the Contemporary Art Society exhibition of 1941 he shared first prize with Donald Friend.
At this time he met Noel Counihan and Yosl Bergner and they become close friends. Through the former he became friends with Judah Waten, Alan Marshall and other writers and artists who frequented the Swanston Family Hotel.
He also joined the Communist Party and became close to Melbourne's Jewish community.
In late 1941, aged 23, O'Connor completed his law degree and went into the army. In January 1942, he married Ailsa Donaldson, whom he had met at George Bell's art classes. They later had two children.
O'Connor remained active in art and art politics, exhibiting in the 1942 Anti-Fascist Exhibition, writing articles about fascism and art, and challenging the Angry Penguin group.
In 1946, O'Connor, Bergner and Counihan held their first major exhibition, Three Realist Artists, which attracted considerable notice and approval.
Also, in partnership with Waten, he started Dolphin Publications, a venture to publish Australian writing.
While working as a solicitor, O'Connor continued painting and exhibited in one-man shows as well as group shows with other realist artists though the 1950s - the Cold War years when realism was not fashionable in the art world.
In the 1960s, O'Connor and his second wife, artist Vera Stanley, moved to Sydney, where they lived for about 20 years. He became a full-time artist, with frequent exhibitions of his work, including at the Australian Galleries and the Victorian Artists Society.
In a 1972 review, Patrick McCaughey decried the neglect of so distinguished an artist as Vic O'Connor, and noted his feeling for people and places is absorbed into an art where the pith of observation resists sentiment without passing up sympathy. In 1973 and '74, O'Connor, Vera and their daughter Sue lived in Polperro, Cornwall, and in Scotland and then travelled in Europe.
In 1983, he and Vera bought Woodside in Dromana, his home for the next 27 years. O'Connor, then aged 64, continued painting prolifically. In the late 1980s he rented a studio in Greeves Street, Fitzroy, and again painted Melbourne's inner suburbs. In 1990 he had his first of many exhibitions at Bridget McDonnell's Gallery.
O'Connor wrote in 1983: Immediate surroundings and the problems and injustices of society have continued to provide the main source of my paintings. Paintings of vagrants, the fate of the elderly, recurring anti-war themes, subjects drawn from literature comprise the bulk of my output. Within this framework I have remained a realistic painter of mood and place, partly outside the mainstream of Australian art.
His many interests ranged from literature to archaeology to racehorses. As well, he was an engaging raconteur with sharp and humorous observations on the foibles of humanity.
After Vera's death in 2004 and living at Dromana on his own, O'Connor continued to be full of ideas about images he wanted to paint and draw, but with arthritis in his hands and worsening eyesight they remained unrealised. In July this year he moved to Sumner House in Fitzroy. He is survived by his children, Sean, Megan and Sue, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
. He is a Social Realist painter of genre and landscapes.
O'Connor graduated in law from University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
and served with the Army during World War Two. After discharge he studied art at the George Bell School
George Bell (painter)
George Frederick Henry Bell was an Australian painter.He was born in Kew, Victoria, the son of George Bell, a public servant, and educated at Kew High School. He studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School from 1895-1903...
, Melbourne for a time but his art is mostly self-taught.
He is the former vice-president of the Contemporary Art Society of Victoria and studied and painted extensively in UK and Europe 1973 - 1947.
His obituary in The Age http://www.theage.com.au/national/obituaries/realist-movement-painter-who-was-struck-by-harsh-truths-20101024-16z7i.html
He obituary reads as follows:
VIC O'Connor, who made important contributions to art in Australia over a 70-year period, notably with the realist movement from the late 1940s, has died at an aged-care home in Fitzroy. He was 91.
His legacy lives on in his paintings, drawings and prints, with his work represented in the Australian National Gallery as well as in state and regional galleries.
In the early 1940s, Professor Bernard Smith wrote of O'Connor's painting: What struck me first was the lyrical element in his paintings and the sense of compassion that breathed through all of it.
This remained an apt description of his work throughout his productive life.
O'Connor was born in Preston to Ada (née Clear) and Bertie, the fourth of his parents' five children. After his father became very ill, his mother started a small slipper factory behind the house to support the family.
She also painted pictures at night to sell. He worked after school with his parents selling slippers from a stall at the Queen Victoria Market, and images of the market and the inner suburbs impressed themselves upon him.
His mother lost the factory during the Depression, and O'Connor moved with his parents to a shack in Mount Evelyn, where they grew vegetables and kept a cow.
He attended school in Lilydale.
He started to draw, paint and create wood cuts at Mount Evelyn, as well as reading widely. Later, he completed his schooling at Melbourne High School.
O'Connor then worked for his brother, a solicitor, and studied law at Melbourne University; art was restricted to late evenings and weekends.
In 1939, he briefly attended George Bell's art classes. He joined the newly formed Contemporary Art Society and entered two pictures in its first exhibition. He was soon also involved in the politics both of the art world and the wider stage.
In the Contemporary Art Society exhibition of 1941 he shared first prize with Donald Friend.
At this time he met Noel Counihan and Yosl Bergner and they become close friends. Through the former he became friends with Judah Waten, Alan Marshall and other writers and artists who frequented the Swanston Family Hotel.
He also joined the Communist Party and became close to Melbourne's Jewish community.
In late 1941, aged 23, O'Connor completed his law degree and went into the army. In January 1942, he married Ailsa Donaldson, whom he had met at George Bell's art classes. They later had two children.
O'Connor remained active in art and art politics, exhibiting in the 1942 Anti-Fascist Exhibition, writing articles about fascism and art, and challenging the Angry Penguin group.
In 1946, O'Connor, Bergner and Counihan held their first major exhibition, Three Realist Artists, which attracted considerable notice and approval.
Also, in partnership with Waten, he started Dolphin Publications, a venture to publish Australian writing.
While working as a solicitor, O'Connor continued painting and exhibited in one-man shows as well as group shows with other realist artists though the 1950s - the Cold War years when realism was not fashionable in the art world.
In the 1960s, O'Connor and his second wife, artist Vera Stanley, moved to Sydney, where they lived for about 20 years. He became a full-time artist, with frequent exhibitions of his work, including at the Australian Galleries and the Victorian Artists Society.
In a 1972 review, Patrick McCaughey decried the neglect of so distinguished an artist as Vic O'Connor, and noted his feeling for people and places is absorbed into an art where the pith of observation resists sentiment without passing up sympathy. In 1973 and '74, O'Connor, Vera and their daughter Sue lived in Polperro, Cornwall, and in Scotland and then travelled in Europe.
In 1983, he and Vera bought Woodside in Dromana, his home for the next 27 years. O'Connor, then aged 64, continued painting prolifically. In the late 1980s he rented a studio in Greeves Street, Fitzroy, and again painted Melbourne's inner suburbs. In 1990 he had his first of many exhibitions at Bridget McDonnell's Gallery.
O'Connor wrote in 1983: Immediate surroundings and the problems and injustices of society have continued to provide the main source of my paintings. Paintings of vagrants, the fate of the elderly, recurring anti-war themes, subjects drawn from literature comprise the bulk of my output. Within this framework I have remained a realistic painter of mood and place, partly outside the mainstream of Australian art.
His many interests ranged from literature to archaeology to racehorses. As well, he was an engaging raconteur with sharp and humorous observations on the foibles of humanity.
After Vera's death in 2004 and living at Dromana on his own, O'Connor continued to be full of ideas about images he wanted to paint and draw, but with arthritis in his hands and worsening eyesight they remained unrealised. In July this year he moved to Sumner House in Fitzroy. He is survived by his children, Sean, Megan and Sue, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Exhibitions
- CAS (Melbourne Show 1941
- Numerous one-man and group shows in Australia.
- His work has been included in exhibitions in London, Canada and USSR.
- Bloomfield Galleries, Sydney 1980
- Retrospective show 1939 - 1983, Gryphon Gallery, Melbourne 1983
Represented
- National Gallery of AustraliaNational Gallery of AustraliaThe National Gallery of Australia is the national art gallery of Australia, holding more than 120,000 works of art. It was established in 1967 by the Australian government as a national public art gallery.- Establishment :...
- National Gallery of VictoriaNational Gallery of VictoriaThe National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
- Art Gallery of New South WalesArt Gallery of New South WalesThe Art Gallery of New South Wales , located in The Domain in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, was established in 1897 and is the most important public gallery in Sydney and the fourth largest in Australia...
- Tasmanian Art Gallery
- Queensland Art GalleryQueensland Art GalleryThe Queensland Art Gallery is part of the Queensland Cultural Centre, and is located nearest to Brisbane River at South Bank...
- Regional galleries in Rockhampton, Benalla and Bendigo
- Private and institutional collections in Australia and overseas