Barbara Blackman ( Patterson; born 22 December 1928) is an Australian writer, poet, librettist, broadcaster, model and patron of the arts. In 2004, she donated $1 million to a number of Australian music organisations, including Pro Musica, the

Australian Chamber Orchestra The Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) was founded by cellist John Painter in 1975.Verghis, Sharon"Bach with more bite pays off" ''Sydney Morning Herald'', 2 September 2005. Richard Tognetti was appointed Lead Violin in 1989 and subsequently appo ...

, the Australian National University's School of Music and the Stopera Chamber Opera Company. In 2006, she was awarded the Australian Contemporary Music Award for Patronage. Barbara Blackman was married for 27 years to renowned Australian artist

Charles Blackman Charles Raymond Blackman (12 August 1928 – 20 August 2018) was an Australian painter, noted for the ''Schoolgirl, Avonsleigh'' and ''Alice in Wonderland'' series of the 1950s. He was a member of the Antipodeans, a group of Melbourne painter ...

Biography

Early life

Blackman Patterson was born in

Brisbane, Queensland Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

on 22 December 1928 with her twin sister, Coralie Hilda, who died 16 days later. Three years later her father, W.H. (Harry) Patterson, died and her mother, Gertrude Olson Patterson, was able to support them both by working as an accountant. She attended

Brisbane State High School , motto_translation = Knowledge is Power , city = South Brisbane , state = Queensland , country = Australia , coordinates = , type = Public, selective, co-educational, secondary, ...

where she developed what was to be a lifelong love of music. She also developed an early interest in writing, and was a member, with Pamela Crawford,

Judith Wright Judith Arundell Wright (31 May 191525 June 2000) was an Australian poet, environmentalist and campaigner for Aboriginal land rights. She was a recipient of the Christopher Brennan Award. Biography Judith Wright was born in Armidale, New Sou ...

and

Thea Astley Thea Beatrice May Astley (25 August 1925 – 17 August 2004) was an Australian novelist and short story writer. She was a prolific writer who was published for over 40 years from 1958. At the time of her death, she had won more Miles Franklin ...

, of the Barjai group of writers in Brisbane. She had poor eyesight from an early age and, at 22, was diagnosed with

optic atrophy Optic neuropathy is damage to the optic nerve from any cause. The optic nerve is a bundle of millions of fibers in the retina that sends visual signals to the brain. Damage and death of these nerve cells, or neurons, leads to characteristic featu ...

. Her vision deteriorated rapidly and she became completely blind. Blackman became an artist's model who was in high demand by many leading modernist artists in Australia such as

Clifton Pugh Clifton Ernest Pugh AO, (17 December 1924 – 14 October 1990) was an Australian artist and three-time winner of Australia's Archibald Prize. One of Australia's most renowned and successful painters, Pugh was strongly influenced by German Expr ...

and Fred Williams, and appears in many of

's, works, including his ''Alice In Wonderland'' series of paintings.

Work and interests

Blackman has lived a self-described unconventional life according to her autobiography. In a documentary film about her, ''Seeing From Within'', released in 2017, Blackman states, "I could not have lived a conventional life, as I could not have picked up the rules". She has exhibited a wide range of intellectual interests and abilities. For example, she wrote the libretto for

Peter Sculthorpe Peter Joshua Sculthorpe (29 April 1929 – 8 August 2014) was an Australian composer. Much of his music resulted from an interest in the music of countries neighboring Australia as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of Aborigin ...

's ''Eliza Surviva'' (an opera that was never completed because of difficulties between him and his collaborator,

Patrick White Patrick Victor Martindale White (28 May 1912 – 30 September 1990) was a British-born Australian writer who published 12 novels, three short-story collections, and eight plays, from 1935 to 1987. White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, ...

)., an autobiography, and a humorous book of verse. Blackman's work is highly valued, as evidenced in the collection of correspondence between Blackman and her friend, the poet Judith Wright, published in 2007, and in the list of numerous resources written by her and about her that has been collected in the ''Australian Women's Register''. Nevertheless, Blackman has maintained a humble attitude about her intellectual pursuits, saying, "I go with the angels and they know more than we do," she says. "I told them what I wanted and they showed me the way."

Marriage and children

She married the Australian artist

in 1952 and they lived in Melbourne, supported by her income as an artist's model and from the blind pension and his earnings as a kitchen hand, most of which went to pay for costs associated with maintaining Charles' studio. They divorced in 1978 after Charles' alcoholism had escalated over their marriage of nearly 30 years, which she described as "one of the great marriages, which lasted as long as possible, and a bit longer". Blackman had three children (Auguste and Christabel, both of whom became artists, and Barnaby) by Charles. She later married Marcel Veldhoven and moved with him to a retreat on the South Coast of NSW. When this relationship ended she moved to Canberra.

Recognition

In 2012, Blackman was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) with the citation "for distinguished service to the arts and to the community, as a supporter of artistic performance, through philanthropic contributions, and as an advocate for people who are blind and partially sighted."

Published works

* ''Certain Chairs'', published by

Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim and then acquire ...

* ''Barbara and Charles Blackman Talk About Food'' (Taylor, John), published by Rigby, a division of

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults. The company is based in the Financial Dist ...

*''Glass after Glass : Autobiographical Reflections'',

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.University of Queensland Press Established in 1948, University of Queensland Press (UQP) is an Australian publishing house. Founded as a traditional university press, UQP has since branched into publishing books for general readers in the areas of fiction, non-fiction, poetr ...

, 2016, * ''Portrait of a Friendship: The Letters of Barbara Blackman and Judith Wright'' (Bryony Cosgrove), published by The Miegunyah Press, a division of

Melbourne University Press Melbourne University Publishing (MUP) is the book publishing arm of the University of Melbourne. History MUP was founded in 1922 as Melbourne University Press to sell text books and stationery to students, and soon began publishing books itself. ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blackman, Barbare 1928 births Living people Australian memoirists 20th-century Australian philanthropists Australian blind people Officers of the Order of Australia 21st-century Australian philanthropists