Mary Cecil Allen (2 September 18937 April 1962
[) was an Australian artist, writer and lecturer. She lived most of her adult life in America, where she was known as Cecil Allen. Allen initially painted landscapes and portraits in her early career, but changed to modernist styles including ]cubism
Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
from the 1930s. In 1927 Allen lectured at New York City venues including the Metropolitan Museum
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and other institutions. She was sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation. Allen wrote two books of art criticism, ''The Mirror of the Passing World'' (1928) and ''Painters of the Modern Mind'' (1929), based on her lectures.
In 1930 Allen curated the first exhibition of Australian art in New York, "First Contemporary All-Australian Art Exhibition", at the Roerich Museum. During her lectures and talks in Australia, she helped introduce the ideas of modernism to Melbourne women and artists. After living in New York, from 1949 Allen lived in Provincetown at its art colony
An art colony, also known as an artists' colony, can be defined two ways. Its most liberal description refers to the organic congregation of artists in towns, villages and rural areas, often drawn by areas of natural beauty, the prior existence o ...
. Her cubist style painting, "Sea, studio: Winter", was presented in that year. She died in 1962, at the colony, from "sinus arrest, cause unknown" (see sinoatrial arrest
Sinoatrial arrest is a medical condition wherein the sinoatrial node of the heart transiently ceases to generate the electrical impulses that normally stimulate the myocardial tissues to contract and thus the heart to beat. It is defined as lasti ...
).
Early life and training
Allen was the daughter of Harry Brookes Allen
Sir Harry Brookes Allen (13 June 1854 – 28 March 1926) was a noted Australian pathologist.
Education
Harry Brookes Allen was born at Geelong, Victoria, the son of Thomas Watts Allen. He was educated at Flinders School, Geelong, and in 1869 ...
(1854–1926), a pathologist and medical administrator, and Ada Rosalie Elizabeth, née Mason (1862–1933), a community worker. She and her sisters, Edith Margaret and Beatrice (Biddy), spent their childhood living in a staff house at the University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...
where their father was an anatomy professor and the Dean of Medicine. Her father was knighted in 1914.[ Allen qualified to study a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne, but decided to study under Fred McCubbin at the ]National Gallery of Victoria Art School
The National Gallery of Victoria Art School, associated with the National Gallery of Victoria, was a private fine arts college founded in 1867 and was Australia's leading art school of 50 years.
It is also referred to as the 'National Gallery ...
instead, entering the faculty of arts in 1910. From 1912 to 1913 Allen studied at the Slade School of Fine Art
The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...
when she and her family moved to England. She returned to NGV Art School during 1913–17.
Early work: 1920s
Allen was a member of Australian Art Association
The Australian Art Association was founded in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1912 by Edward Officer (inaugural president)
John Mather, Frederick McCubbin, Max Meldrum and Walter Withers.Judy Blyth, Mather, John (1848? - 1916), ''Australian Dictionary ...
, the Victorian Artists' Society
The Victorian Artists Society, which can trace its establishment to 1856 in Melbourne, promotes artistic education, art classes and gallery hire exhibition in Australia. It was formed in March 1888 when the Victorian Academy of Arts (previously Vi ...
and the Twenty Melbourne Painters
Twenty Melbourne Painters Society is an Australian arts organisation that was established in 1918. The group split from the Victorian Artists Society to follow the Australian Tonalist Max Meldrum. Membership is restricted to 20 and is upon invitat ...
during the 1920s and her exhibitions of landscapes and portrait paintings were well received by the Melbourne art world. She was also a member of society, being friends with Ivy Brookes
Ivy Deakin Brookes (14 July 1883 – 27 December 1970) was an Australian community worker and activist. She held leadership positions across a wide range of organisations in Victoria. She served as president of the National Council of Women of Aus ...
(daughter of Alfred Deakin
Alfred Deakin (3 August 1856 – 7 October 1919) was an Australian politician who served as the second Prime Minister of Australia. He was a leader of the movement for Federation, which occurred in 1901. During his three terms as prime ministe ...
) and having Dame Nellie Melba and University Vice-Chancellor Sir John Grice
Sir John Grice (6 October 1850 – 27 February 1935) was an Australian businessman, company director and University of Melbourne vice-chancellor.
Biography
Grice was born in Selly Oak, fourth son of Richard Grice, a Selly Oak merchant. He was ed ...
open some of her exhibitions. Two of Allen's portraits were finalists in the Archibald Prize
The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, J. F. Archib ...
in 1921 and a further two were finalists in 1925. During early September 1921 Allen exhibited a set of fifty-four oil paintings at the Fine Art Society's Gallery in Melbourne. In 1925 Allen became the first female art critic for '' The Sun''. She studied under Max Meldrum, a tonal impressionist whose students, Arnold Shore
Arnold Joseph Victor Shore (5 May 1897, Windsor, – 22 May 1963, Melbourne) was an Australian painter, teacher and critic.
Biography
Shore was the youngest of seven children of John Shore, a coachsmith, and his wife Harriett Sarah, née McDon ...
and Jock Frater, had been experimenting with modernism
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
. At this point, Allen was not yet a fan of modernism — she criticised Shore's work in ''The Sun'' and said that post-impressionists "create nothing but monsters–they invent the abnormal" during one of her lectures. In 1926 she was employed by the National Gallery of Victoria as an art guide and lecturer — the first woman to hold this position.[
In 1926, Florence Gillies, an American tourist, visited Melbourne and invited Allen to be her guide through European galleries, mostly in Paris. Following this, in 1927, Allen lectured at New York City venues] including the Metropolitan Museum
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and other institutions. She ran a series of lectures at the Readers Roundtable of the People's Institute, held at the New York Public Library, where newly created adult classes were taking place and were sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation. From that time, Allen generally lived and worked in New York.[ According to Marion Scott " llenwas able to increase one's ability to comprehend visually what had previously been puzzling... She did this by using words with great economy, words which were so lucid that they created no barrier between one's eyes and the work of Art."][
]
Modernism: 1930s
Following her work and travels in Europe and America, Allen converted to modernism. She wrote two books, ''The Mirror of the Passing World'' (1928) and ''Painters of the Modern Mind'' (1929) based on her lectures and in the latter book, stated "that art should convey ideas, rather than mimic visual reality".[
In 1930 Allen organised the first exhibition of Australian artists in New York, "First Contemporary All-Australian Art Exhibition",] at the Nicholas Roerich Museum
The Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York City is dedicated to the works of Nicholas Roerich, a Russian-born artist whose work focused on nature scenes from the Himalayas. The museum is located in a brownstone at 319 West 107th Street on Manhattan's ...
, opening in February 1931. Besides her own work, featured artists included Norman Lindsay
Norman Alfred William Lindsay (22 February 1879 – 21 November 1969) was an Australian artist, etcher, sculptor, writer, art critic, novelist, cartoonist and amateur boxer. One of the most prolific and popular Australian artists of his genera ...
, Thea Proctor
Thea may refer to:
* Thea (name), a given name
* Ancient Greek term for goddess, including an alternative spelling of Theia
* ''Thea'', the former name of the tea plant genus, now included in ''Camellia''
* Thea, a village in the municipal unit Mes ...
, George Bell George Bell may refer to:
Law and politics
* George Joseph Bell (1770–1843), Scottish jurist and legal author
* George Alexander Bell (1856–1927), Canadian pioneer and Saskatchewan politician
* George Bell (Canadian politician) (1869–1940) ...
and Dora Toovey:[ and one hundred paintings were shown. The cover of the exhibition catalogue had the Commonwealth coat of arms and a notice of patronage by Prime Minister James Scullin. ]Herbert Brookes
Herbert Robinson Brookes (20 December 1867 – 1 December 1963) was an Australian businessman, philanthropist, and political activist. He inherited substantial holdings from his father, and served as president of the Victorian Chamber of Manufac ...
, husband of Allen's friend Ivy, had been the Commissioner General for Australia in the United States from 1929–1930 and had approved the official stamp on the exhibition catalogue, adding the newly elected prime minister's name as his representative in New York.
The exhibition attracted large attendances and interest, and then Allen lectured on the works during its tour. ''La Revue Moderne'', a French modern art journal, profiled her in 1931. ''The New York Times'' called her work in the Australian Art exhibition "arrestingly modern" — this was in contrast to the conservative works of other Australian artists.[ In a later interview with '' The Advertiser'', on 17 June 1936, Allen mentioned all the art work exhibited had non-Australian scenery and had titles such as "Landscape in Spain" and "Bosky Dells in Surrey".][ She elaborated, "If I had come upon as much as a single kangaroo I would have hailed it with delight".]
Allen returned to Melbourne in 1935, for eleven months. She spoke with many women's groups whilst in Australia, such as National Council of Women of Victoria and Australian Federation of University Women
Australian Graduate Women (AGW), founded in 1922, is the national organisation for Graduate Women in Australia. Previously known as the Australian Federation of University Women until 2009 and the Australian Federation of Graduate Women until Ap ...
. Receptions were hosted for her by the Victoria League Club, the Arts and Crafts Society of Victoria, the International Club and the Melbourne Society of Women Painters.[ At the party hosted for her in October 1935 at the Athenaeum Gallery by the Melbourne Society of Women Painters, she spoke of the differences between female painters in New York and Australia, "In New York there is a big gallery specially for women, which has solved a great difficulty."] She noted that the history of female painters was sparse: "We must look to the future because women in art have no past."
Allen's paintings — including abstracted depictions of New York skyscrapers and subways[ — were exhibited at the Fine Art Society's Gallery between 20 and 31 August 1935.][ They "aroused a storm of protest", according to Frankie Derham, her friend, fellow artist and art educator;] "with only loyal friends buying pictures, which they later confessed they dare not hang at home".[ Despite the controversy — the distortion in the works was considered a lack of realism and "loss in skill" — the exhibition was a success, and conversation piece, drawing crowds until its closure.][
Allen introduced the American tradition of the weekend sketching school to students in Melbourne.][ She also lectured at the Bell-Shore School on the invitation of Arnold Shore, '' The Argus'' art critic, who had been a fellow student. She spoke about balance, colour harmony, equal attention to positive and negative space — "the air should be as positive as a cube of ice"][ — and encouraged a cubist approach, as it "is the only way in which to grasp the essential forms of nature."][ When analysing the function of the grotesque in modern art, Allen wrote in 1930, "All that is strange and incredible and non-existent is its subject matter. It takes what is not and what might be and creates with them and opposes this new imaginative world to the positive world of naturalism and science."]
Provincetown Art Colony: 1950s
From 1949 Allen lived and worked in Provincetown at its art colony
An art colony, also known as an artists' colony, can be defined two ways. Its most liberal description refers to the organic congregation of artists in towns, villages and rural areas, often drawn by areas of natural beauty, the prior existence o ...
. Her cubist style painting, "Sea, studio: Winter" was painted in that year at the colony. It was shown at Georges Gallery in Melbourne in following year. In June 1950 Allen travelled to Alice Springs
Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...
to "capture something of the strange character and beauty of central Australia for an exhibition when she returns next month to New York." From this trip she wrote "Notes on Central Australia" for '' Meanjin'', the Australian literary magazine, in Spring 1950.
Her final visit to Australia was from November 1959 to April 1960, to lecture and exhibit.[ '']The Age
''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
''s art critic wrote, " llens capabilities are most apparent when she is occupied with the rearrangement of planes and forms, and their disposition as a pictorial unity... This ability is illustrated by the near-abstract compositions ncluding'Sea, studio...' n which
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
the suggestion of space in design is admirable".[
]
Death and legacy
Mary Cecil Allen died on 7 April 1962, she was found dead in her chair by neighbours, due to "sinus arrest, cause unknown" (see sinoatrial arrest
Sinoatrial arrest is a medical condition wherein the sinoatrial node of the heart transiently ceases to generate the electrical impulses that normally stimulate the myocardial tissues to contract and thus the heart to beat. It is defined as lasti ...
).[ She was buried at the Provincetown Cemetery, according to Anglican rites.]
Eight of Allen's paintings are held by the National Gallery of Victoria. Her papers are held at the Archives of American Art
The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...
. ''Sacrifice'', a wax crayon work, was sold at Christie's
Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...
(London), in November 1991, for USD1,096. Her landscape, ''Sorento Hotel'', was sold at auction in May 2001, in Melbourne, for US$7,274.
In 1963 the Art Teachers Association of Victoria established the Mary Cecil Allen Memorial Lecture delivered annually, where an international speaker alternated with an Australian speaker over successive years. In July 1966 L. M. Haynes, professor of industrial arts at the University of Sydney delivered "Creativity in Art and Science" for that year's lecture.
Publications
*
*
*
*
Selected paintings
* ''In Fancy Dress'' (, 1918)
* ''In Fancy Dress'' (, 1918)
* ''Portrait'' (1921)[
* ''Portrait'' (1921)][
* ''Mrs R. D. Elliott'' (1925)][
* ''Miss Alice Guest'' (1925)][
* ''Sketch: Miss Audrey Stevenson as Circe'' (1930)]
* ''Reclining blue figure'' (1930s)
* ''Back gardens'' (1935)
* ''Nova Scotian fisherman'' (1935)
* ''Old mill stairs, Nantucket'' (1949)
* ''Sea, studio: Winter'' (1949)
* ''Manhattan' (1950s)
* ''Abstract Figure Composition'' (1959)
* ''Fisherman at the nets'' (1959)
* ''Eildon Weir, dusk'' (1960)
* ''Near Yan Yean Victoria'' (1960)
* ''Storm approaching Eildon Weir'' (1960)
* ''Sacrifice'' (undated)
* ''Seated girl with headband'' (undated)
* ''Sorento Hotel'' (undated)
* ''Wind walking'' (undated)
References
External links
"Portrait of Mary Cecil Allen" [picture]
at National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...
, photo taken in the 1920s.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Mary Cecil
1893 births
1962 deaths
Australian expatriates in the United States
Artists from Melbourne
Australian women painters
20th-century Australian painters
20th-century Australian women artists
Australian landscape painters
Australian portrait painters
Australian contemporary painters
Australian art critics
Australian women art critics
Australian art teachers
Australian art curators
Australian women curators
Archibald Prize finalists
19th-century Australian women
People from Parkville, Victoria
National Gallery of Victoria Art School alumni