Spotlight on the Art Collection – printmaking At Newington, the Visual Arts department teaches across media utilising numerous techniques and tools. Printmaking is a cornerstone of the create small vignettes that evoke a sense of In Banks, Which one is Mine? (2013), based curriculum and forms an integral part nostalgia and familiarity for the audience.’ on the first golfing poster ever produced – of the Art Collection. Rich in history and L.F. Abbott’s well-knownThe Blackheath tradition, the techniques used today are Alongside student works, the Art Collection Golfer (1790) – we quickly recognise the strikingly similar to those invented in Sumer, hosts a number of works by established faces of both Captain Cook and Joseph China and Europe before the Common artists. Rew Hanks is a renowned Banks wearing the expressions by which Era. In contemporary usage, the history printmaker known for the humour he we have learned to identify ‘great men’. of this medium can be used to impart inserts into what are largely historical gravitas, humour, subversion or irony into scenes based around British colonialism in The artist imposes Cook’s face (familiar from contemporary themes and ideas. Australia. By favouring the linocut technique Nathaniel Dance’s 1775 portrait) onto the to parody traditional themes, the works use golfer and the equally recognisable image The printmaking techniques taught at the audience’s preconceived understanding of Banks’ face (from Joshua Reynolds’ Newington – relief lino reduction printing, of history, tradition and documentation 1773 portrait) onto his manservant. Golf intaglio (dry point etching), monoprint and to impart social commentary relevant to is generally perceived as a respectable photographic silk screening – are also contemporary thinking. sport, which Hanks uses to comment on featured in the collection. For his 2022 the barbaric (and illegal) practice of killing HSC assessment, current Year 12 student Surfing the Bombora (2013) focuses its animals for sport. Surfing the Bombora and Abrahim Ali used lino reduction printing to critical gaze on macho surfing culture, Banks, Which one is Mine? are gifts to the produce his major work, Concordia. depicting an uptight, graceless Captain Cook Art Collection from Tony Bosman (ON 1972). accompanied by a cane toad. Bombora is Recently accessioned into the permanent an Indigenous term, thought to originate in Prized by artists and audiences for having an collection, Abrahim said of his work: ‘I the Dharug language spoken in the greater expressive nature, accessible themes and am aiming to capture the vernacular Sydney region, for large sea waves breaking intrinsic links to history, prints are beloved of my environment, the suburb of over a submerged reef or sand bar – a within the cannon of art history. The work of Concord, as observed on my afternoon dangerous break to surf, inspiring admiration Rew Hanks is currently on display on level 2 walks. In suburbia, the domestic, urban and colloquially known as a ‘bommie’. Other of Founders, and Abrahim Ali’s prints have and industrial worlds are inextricably details emerge, waiting to be discovered: been acquired following their inclusion in the intertwined, and stand as a symbol for Brett Whiteley’s famous matchstick Concordia exhibition Future Ready and will the preservation of a specific way of sculptures in the background, Ned Kelly be exhibited soon. life while paying homage to the fading mingling on the veranda and Cook wearing industrial landscape. I chose notable and the unfinished waistcoat his wife had been Mrs Tracy Knox recognisable symbols of suburban life to making for him at the time of his death. Art Collection Manager Images clockwise from left: Abrahim Ali with an in-progress version of his major work, Concordia; Banks, Which one is Mine?by Rew Hanks; Surfing the Bombora by Rew Hanks; Abrahim Ali’s work on display at Concordia. 20 | Service | News Spring 2022 | Stanmore 7–12