McCLINTOCK, HERBERT (1906-1985)

"Woodcutter" (1947)
oil on board
59 x 39cm
signed upper left
*exhibited at Studio Of Realist Art, Sydney, 1947
*private collection, Darling Point
 
McClintock was a pioneering Australian Surrealist & Social Realist. At the age of 13 Herbert was apprenticed to a process engraver. He later worked for a signwriter who encouraged his artistic talents. From 1922 he attended evening classes at the National Gallery of Victoria’s drawing school, where he was taught by Bernard Hall, George Bell and William McInnes. In 1927 McClintock moved to Sydney to take up work as a commercial artist with the Sydney Morning Herald. He returned to Melbourne in 1929, resumed his studies at the National Gallery and established friendships with the socialist artists Roy Dalgarno, Noel Counihan and his future brother-in-law Nutter Buzacott. He also joined the Communist Party of Australia and began drawing political cartoons for left-wing newspapers. He began using the name Max Ebert (his nickname Mac and ’erbert). Influenced by European trends, Ebert experimented with surrealism, becoming a pioneer of the art movement in Australia. Approximate Portrait in a Drawing Room (1938-39), now in the NGA, is his earliest surrealist work. Considered one of Perth’s most radical painters–certainly its most iconoclastic–Ebert relished the notoriety of his position. During World War II, exempted from active service on medical grounds, he was employed by the Allied Works Council in Sydney, first in an iron foundry, later in a camouflage unit. In 1943 he was appointed an official war artist working alongside Sir William Dobell with the Civil Constructional Corps. He became a founding member of the Studio of Realist Artists in Sydney (1945), with whom he held frequent group exhibitions. His work is represented in numerous important collections including the AGNSW, NGA & NGV.