WOOLLEY, FRANCES (1930-2014)

“Farm Boy” (c.1950)
Oil on board
42 x 40cm
Signed on verso
*private collection, Sydney
 
Woolley is a forgotten, award-winning Australian Modernist. She studied fine art at the Perth Technical College under esteemed Western Australian artist, Ivor Hunt. She furthered her studies at the National Art Gallery School in Melbourne under respected Modernist, Murray Griffin. In 1953, Woolley won the important National Art Gallery Travelling Scholarship with her Renoir-inspired "Figure Group", and subsequently moved to London to study at the renowned Slade School, after marrying David Woolley of the Victorian Symphony Orchestra. Initially taking after her Impressionist inspirations, in London she was exposed to the new, exciting abstract art movement, driven by St Ives' School artists such as Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Roger Hilton and Peter Lanyon. This led to Woolley exhibiting her first abstract works in London, becoming one of Australia's earliest exponents of abstraction. This impressive Modernist figure study was most likely produced under Murray Griffin at the National Art School on Melbourne, off the back of the success of Mid Century artists such as Sir William Dobell, and his association with The Sydney Charm School. It was completed just prior to Woolley (then Ferrier) travelling to Europe to further her artistic training; a time where her art transitioned from Modernism to Abstraction.