“Etched in the Sun: London” is Basil Hall Editions’ latest exhibition. The exhibition, which opened in Canberra in 2008, (seen here) has been updated with exciting new prints. Work which is no longer available for sale has been removed and the most recent prints from Maringka Baker, Keith Stevens and Tjampawa Stevens from Nyapari and Kumanjayi Cherel from Fitzroy Crossing have been added.
An interesting collaboration between Cherel and Mandy Martin is also part of the London show. Each artist painted the same landscape (in triptych format) on three 50 x 50cm plates whilst out at “Painted Rocks” on Fossil Downs Station in 2007-8. The printing of these has unfortunately only been completed after Kumanjayi’s passing, but his son Bobby has signed them on the old man’s behalf.
The London exhibition, attended by Basil and his wife Marj, opened on May 21 at Rebecca Hossack’s Conway St Gallery on a lovely warm evening. The exhibition has been well-received and Basil spent a good deal of time showing collectors around the works over the succeeding days.
Jamie Boyd had an opening on the ground floor of the Conway St venue the following night, giving our show extra exposure upstairs. It was opened by the Australian High Commissioner, John Dauth. In the crowd on the two nights were expatriate Australians Clive James, Barry Humphries, Germaine Greer, Rolf Harris and Kylie Minogue (OK, I made that bit up), Australian artist Christopher Croft, with whom Basil has collaborated in the past, Lissant Bolton, Curator of Oceania Collections at the British Museum, numerous collectors and Hossack regulars and one of Basil’s former printers at BHE, Matt Ablitt. Curator of Modern Prints at the Bristish Museum, Stephen Coppel gave his apologies, as he was overseas, but Basil met with him a few days later to view recent acquisitions of Indigenous art at the BM.
The exhibition will hang until June 20, giving all the expatriate Australians plenty of time to see it!
