HEIDE HO

Just back from Melb and some terrific blogs ahead.


To start we went to Heide, a Museum of Modern Art but historically an absolutely fascinating part of Australia's art and social history. Wandering the original house and gardens you just wonder at what the situation was like there when artists like Sidney Nolan and others (see extract below) were painting and living their bohemian life. To me, having visited Melb many times I can't imagine why we didn't visit earlier. A real must do when you're there. More details at heide.com.au

And .. the beginnings and setting where Nolan painted his "Ned Kelly" series of paintings.

Early history

The museum is situated on a site that was originally occupied by a dairy farm, the farm house was built in the 1880s-1890s. The Yarra River and surrounding hills east of Melbourne provided an ideal setting for many artists, writers, poets, etc, exemplified in the formation of the Heidelberg School at Heidelberg, Montsalvat in Eltham and various artist camps in locations such as Box Hill and Warrandyte. Thus, the area was frequented by artists since the mid-19th century.

In 1934, the farm was purchased by John and Sunday Reed, passionate supporters and collectors of Australian art and culture, and named after the nearby town of Heidelberg. The Reeds established one of the finest private libararies in Melbourne at Heide, containing many of the most important and lavish art magazines and journals from Europe and America. Access was open to all Heide visitors and provided much inspiration for visitng artists, writers, musicians and the Reeds' other creative friends.^[3] A loose grouping of Australian artists who became known as the "Heide Circle", began living and working at Heide, counting amongst their number many of Australia's best-known modernist painters.

A number of modernist artists came to live and work at various times through the 1930s, 40s and 50s at Heide, and as such it became the place where many of the most famous works of the period were painted. Albert Tucker, Sidney Nolan, Laurence Hope and Joy Hester, amongst others, all worked at Heide. Nolan painting 26 of his original 27 Ned Kelly works in the dining room of Heide I.^[4]

The Heide Circle continued in their primary commitment to Figurative Modernism through the 1950s and 60s, with several of the artists forming the Antipodeans Groupand taking a stand against the new abstract art. The Heide Circle became well known for the intertwined personal and professional lives of the people involved. Sunday Reed conducted affairs with a number of them, with the knowledge of her husband.

In 1964, the Reeds commissioned Victorian architect David McGlashan to design a new residence, initially intended to be "a gallery to be lived in". It is designed with simple L-shaped walls that interlink to form a sequence of internal and external 'rooms' in Mount gambier limestone, white terrazzo, treated pine and glass. The Reeds moved into Heide II in 1967 and it served as their residence for some time.

In the mid 1960s Heide's much loved kitchen garden was created by Sunday Reed in a bare cow paddock.