From the 1950s, Charles Blackman began experimenting with a different kind of composition. Rather than a single image, he split the field into vignettes or “window thoughts”. These smaller images would relate to one another, serving as postcards from the artist to the viewer. 

This intimate aspect carries through to ‘Alice’s House’, an original screenprint that places Lewis Carroll’s classic under new light. The story’s drama hangs in twelve fragments, some sweet others fraught. There’s Alice’s face, cropped to her eye’s imperceptible expression; an empty glove, draped on a table’s edge; and perhaps most strange of all, the rabbit’s silhouette, silently occupying a window. A childhood fairytale takes on the cadence of an opera. 

Blackman’s interest in Alice in Wonderland, like much of his oeuvre, is based in emotion. He recognised a commonality between his former wife Barbara Blackman’s blindness and Alice’s tumble through Wonderland. Indeed, there is something disorientating about ‘Alice’s House’ - its sense of scale ballooning and contracting, and Alice’s upside-down face in the final segment. As always, Blackman is adroit in the language of feeling.  

Blackman stands among Australia’s most beloved and collectable artists. With a career as distinct as it is diverse, his work is acclaimed for its deep understanding of the human condition. His experimentation with vignettes helped him win the Helena Rubinstein Art Prize, a moment that irrevocably changed the Blackmans' lives. 

For collectors of prints, Blackman and his Alice in Wonderland adventures, this large collectible work will awe.

 

Charles BLACKMAN (1928 - 2018)
'Alice's House ' 1987
screenprint on paper
Edition of 80
Image Size: 98 x 68 cm
Dimensions: 132 x 101 x 4 cm
Signed: signed CHARLES BLACKMAN and editioned AP in margin
Comes with Letter of Provenance
Availability: in stock
Condition: Very Good : Describes a work of art’s image As New, but may show some small signs of surrounding wear. There are no tears to paper margin or disruption to paint surface. Image is in Fine condition.
© Charles Blackman / Copyright Agency 2021