McGILCHRIST, ERICA (1926-2014)

"Small Talk" (1960)
oil on board
81.5 x 91cm
signed lower right
*Estate of Janet Pilley (Horovitz)
 
McGilchrist was a prominent, award-winning Australian Post-War Painter, Dancer, Activist & founder of the Women's Art Register. She undertook art classes from the age of 10 at SA School of Arts and Crafts, continuing to study there part-time until 1946. From 1945–46 she studied at the Adelaide Teachers College and obtained an Art Teacher’s Certificate. From 1946 onwards she taught art in Adelaide and Melbourne. Prior to her artistic career McGilchrist was a dancer with Les Ballets Contemporains in Adelaide. In 1951 she held her first solo art exhibition at Melbourne’s Book Club Gallery, and from the following year to 1955 studied art part-time at Melbourne Technical College. She was an instructor for the first art therapy group for patients at the Kew Hospital in Melbourne. From 1960–61, after being awarded a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service and a grant from the Art Gallery of NSW’s Dyason Bequest, she pursued postgraduate work at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, Germany. Her time in Germany significantly influenced her practice and moved her to create a large body of work which demonstrated her intense experience in post-Holocaust German society. McGilchrist held over 30 solo exhibitions, including large retrospective exhibitions, and has been part of over 100 group exhibitions. Her work has been exhibited in Australia, Germany and London. She co-founded the Women’s Art Register in Melbourne, working as its voluntary coordinator from 1978–1986. In 1992 she was awarded theOrder of Australia Medal for her ‘many contributions to the Women’s Rights Movement and visual culture in Australia’. Her work is held in private and public collections around Australia and overseas including the AGNSW, NGV, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art and Heide Museum of Modern Art.