Stephen Walker Gallery
Antarctica seen through the eyes of Tasmania’s most prominent public artist
Hobart – 24 July—Celebrated Tasmanian artist Stephen Walker, AM, will launch a new book this weekend.
Heading South is a collection of imagery reflecting on his long association with Antarctica. It features sketches, colour-pencil drawings and photographs, as well as explanatory text and historical notes.
“This book compliments the sculptures that are so widespread around Hobart, summarising Stephen’s commitment to the Southern realm,” says Professor Patrick Quilty in the book’s foreword.
“Stephen emphasises that he is not an historian but sees through his art the common threads linking Antarctic history.”
Heading South includes excerpts from a visual diary Stephen kept during his two trips to Antarctica in the 1980s.
“Naturally I have had to find my source of earlier periods from the work of others,” he explains, “In particular the work of pioneering photographers, who often worked under difficult circumstances.”
Both a portfolio and a memoir, the coffee-table book charts the inspirations for several major public sculptures.
For example, the sculptural scene Bernacchi Tribute (2002), popular with visitors to Hobart’s waterfront, is a depiction of Louis Bernacchi’s role as a photographer for the 1900 Borchgrevink expedition and his friendship with a favourite Huskie dog, ‘Joe’.
Stephen based this work on photographs, but also his own memory of walking (“perhaps unwisely alone”) from Casey base to the abandoned U.S. base of Wilkes decades earlier, an experience recorded in sketch-form.
Heading South has been published in a limited edition of 100 signed copies, which are available for purchase from the artist.
Stephen Walker has been a practising sculptor in Tasmania for over 60 years.
Born in Melbourne he studied as a painter and travelled to Europe as a young man. While living in England he trained with sculptor Henry Moore. He also worked in Czechoslovakia, on a UNESCO fellowship, and Italy on an Italian government scholarship.
Once back in Tasmania, he established his own sculpture foundry at Campania, where he still lives and works with his wife Elizabeth.
The French community in Hobart commissioned him to create Antipodean Voyage in 1972, a fountain in Huon pine for the Botanical Gardens to commemorate French exploration in Tasmania.
His next major commission on an Antarctic theme was the Antarctic Tableau for the Reserve Bank of Australia in 1984.
He was invited to undertake two Antarctic research trips in the 1980s. These experiences informed much of his work over subsequent decades.
Stephen Walker’s notable public commissions include Tidal Pools at Martin Place in Sydney and The Tank Stream Fountain at Circular Quay, as well as his many Tasmanian-based works.
Four of his sculptures are listed on the national Heritage Register and in 1984 he was awarded a Member in the Order of Australia.
Stephen will celebrate his 86th birthday on 28 July, on the occasion of the launch of Heading South.
Launch
Heading South, a new limited edition portfolio by Stephen Walker
2pm, Sunday 28 July 2013
Stephen Walker Galley,
30 Native Corners Road, Campania
Please RSVP by phoning 0419872319
Download Flyer:
HeadingSouth_Flyer_no_details.pdf
