Victor George O'Connor (21 December 1918 – 8 September 2010) was an Australian artist and an exponent of the principles of

social realist Social realism is the term used for work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers and filmmakers that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structure ...

art. From the time of the Great Depression in the 1930s his work embodied social and political comment on the conditions of working-class people and the structures of society that caused their suffering.

Ancestry and family

Victor George O'Connor was born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, on 21 December 1918, to Bertie Edward O'Connor (1882–1951) and Ada Alice (née Clear) (1879–1953).'Citizen Military Forces Personnel Dossiers, 1939-1947: Series: B884', ''National Archives of Australia'', Ancestry.com, accessed 9 Jul 2018
Military Forces Personnel Dossiers
He and his siblings represented the third generation of his family to have been born in Australia. In the early decades of the 19th century his mother's ancestors had moved to Australia from

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

and neighboring

County Armagh County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and ha ...

in Ireland and from

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

in England. During the same period, his father's forebears came from Dublin in Ireland and London in England (as can be seen from the birth, marriage and death records in state and national Public Record Offices and also accessible via commercial genealogy organizations such as ''Ancestry.com'', ''FindMyPast'' and ''FamilySearch''). His parents married on 20 Dec 1905, in

Tarraville Tarraville is a town in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, located near the mouth of the Tarra River and southeast of Melbourne. History Tarraville was established as a village in 1841, when the land was selected as part of the Reeve's Specia ...

, Victoria, a once-flourishing country town, approximately 200 kilometres south east of Melbourne, which had been an important hub during the

Victorian gold rush The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. It led to a period of extreme prosperity for the Australian colony, and an influx of population growth and financial capita ...

. The newly-weds did not remain in Tarraville - by the time of the birth of their first child, in 1906, they had relocated to the city. Vic (as he was usually known) was the fourth of their five children. He was born in 1918 in Preston, a northern suburb of Melbourne. As in other countries, the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

caused severe, prolonged poverty in Australia in the late 1920s and 1930s. Vic O'Connor's father was already incapacitated by illness, and the general economic failure of the Depression deprived them of the income generated by their stall in the

Queen Victoria Market The Queen Victoria Market (also known colloquially as Vic Market or Queen Vic) is a major landmark in the central business district (CBD) of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Covering over , it is the largest open air market in the Southern Hemi ...

. They moved to the countryside and survived by living the most simple life. As described by McDonnell "This era had a significant and life long effect on O’Connor who observed the hard work, the comradeship and the poverty".‘Vic O'Connor, 1918-2010’, ''Bridget McDonnell Gallery'', accessed 11 July 2018
Bridget McDonnell Gallery
His first wife was Ailsa Margaret Donaldson (1921–1980), an Australia painter and sculptor. They were married from 1942 to 1966, and had a son and a daughter. His second wife was Vera Lilian Brown (née Stanley) (1919–2004), with whom he had a daughter. They were married from c. 1966 to 2004.

Education and career

O'Connor's schooling took place at Lilydale Primary School and then at

Melbourne High School Melbourne High School is a government-funded single-sex academically selective secondary day school for boys, located in the Melbourne suburb of South Yarra, Victoria, Australia. Established in 1905, the school caters for boys from Year 9 t ...

which he left in 1935 (Melbourne High School Old Boys' Association, 2018, personal communication, 12 July). From 1939 to 1945, he served with the

Australian Army Reserve The Australian Army Reserve is a collective name given to the reserve units of the Australian Army. Since the Federation of Australia in 1901, the reserve military force has been known by many names, including the Citizens Forces, the Citizen ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. For several terms in 1939 he took Saturday afternoon art classes at the George Bell School, in Melbourne, but was mostly self-taught as an artist. However, the close associations formed there with other artists were enduring. Eagle and Minchin describe the atmosphere and character of Bell's school at the time:

George Bell's contribution to art in Melbourne has been more often recognised than described. He taught more than 1000 students between 1923 and 1966. The first student to emerge as a prominent artist was Eric Thake. With
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 ...
from 1932–1936, then alone until 1939, he had a school in Bourke Street from which came the important painters of the 1940s,
Russell Drysdale Sir George Russell Drysdale (7 February 1912 – 29 June 1981), also known as Tass Drysdale, was an Australian artist. He won the prestigious Wynne Prize for ''Sofala'' in 1947, and represented Australia at the Venice Biennale in 1954. He was i ...
,
Sali Herman Sali Herman (12 February 1898 – 3 April 1993) was a Swiss-born Australian artist, one of Australia's Official War Artists for the Second World War. Life and career Herman arrived in Melbourne in 1937 and enlisted in the Australian Army in ...
and
Peter Purves Smith Peter Purves Smith (26 March 191223 July 1949), born Charles Roderick Purves Smith, was an Australian painter. Born in Melbourne, Purves Smith studied at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London and under progressive art teacher George Bell ...
. The "untrained" moderns Albert Tucker, Vic O'Connor and Adrian Lawlor came to him too. The studio was the focus of conscious modernism. In and out went
Sam Atyeo Samuel Laurence Atyeo (6 January 1910 – 26 May 1990) was an Australian painter, designer and diplomat. Atyeo was active in Melbourne's modernist movement in the 1930s and was associated with the Heide circle. He later had a diplomatic career ...
,
Ian Fairweather Ian Fairweather (29 September 189120 May 1974) was a Scottish painter resident in Australia for much of his life. He combined western and Asian influences in his work. Life Ian Fairweather was born in Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire, Scotland in ...
, Jock Frater,
Isabel May Tweddle Isabel May (Diana) Tweddle (1875–1945), was an Australian painter. She was a member of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors and the Twenty Melbourne Painters Society Inc. Biography Tweddle was born Isabel May Hunter on 26 ...
, Mary Cecil Allen,
Moya Dyring Moya Dyring (10 February 1909 – 4 January 1967) was an Australian artist. She was one of the first women artists to embrace Modernism and exhibit cubist paintings in Melbourne. For several years she was a member of the modern art community ...
and Basil Burdett, even John Reed for a while. Over the tea table they prepared strategies against the conservative forces - Menzies, MacDonald, Meldrum. The stylistic enemy was tonal realism. Bell taught 'form', 'distortion', 'expression', and he stressed that art had to arise from imagination. (Eagle and Minchin, 1981)

Following in the footsteps of his eldest brother, Alfred Edward O'Connor, Vic O'Connor was accepted by Melbourne University to study law. He was successful and was awarded a Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB 1940 Law) as confirmed by the university (Alumni Administration Officer, Advancement Office, The University of Melbourne, 2018, personal communication, 12 July). After graduating, he practiced as a solicitor until the late 1950s.Taylor, J and O'Connor S 2010, 'Obituaries: Victor George O'Connor, Painter 21.12.1918 - 8.9.2010', ''The Age'', 25 Oct 2010, accessed 11 Jul 2018
The Age Obituaries
1939-Victor-Geoprge-O'Connor-Army

During World War 2 (1939-1945) O'Connor enlisted in the Army Citizen Military Forces, rising to the rank of Sergeant; his younger brother, Norman Andrew, and his sister's husband, Sidney Henry William Mounsey, fought overseas.Australian Government, National Archives of Australia, 2017, Series B2455, ''Record Search'', viewed 3 Oct 2018, http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/search/index.aspx. O'Connor's photograph appears in his military dossier on page 2, in National Australian Archives, World War 2 collection. He was, at the same time, drawing, painting and exhibiting his work. In 1941, his talent was officially recognized by his peers - he was awarded first prize by the

Contemporary Art Society The Contemporary Art Society (CAS) is an independent charity that champions the collecting of outstanding contemporary art and craft for UK museum collections. Since its founding in 1910 the organisation has donated over 10,000 works to museums ...

, sharing the prize with Donald Friend. As Bernard Smith stated: "Tucker ... Counihan and O'Connor erethe three major contributors of the exhibition". In 1946, O'Connor, Bergner and Counihan held their first major exhibition, ''Three Realist Artists'', 16–25 July 1946, at the Myer Art Gallery in Melbourne which attracted considerable notice and approval. During an interview with John Elder in 1998 O'Connor summed up their direction at the time: "The mainstream were painting yellow circles and black squares and we were painting the passing parade." By the mid-1950s O'Connor was also gaining recognition as a landscape painter. ''The Age'' art critic praised his scenes for their "poetic warmth and feeling", and noted that they were "richly coloured ... and glow with an inner light". In 1960 O'Connor was one of several Australian realist artists who, led by Noel Counihan, exhibited in Russia. At that time, he decided to cease law practice and devote himself entirely to art; moving from Melbourne to Sydney. From 1973 to 1974 he and his family travelled extensively in England, Scotland and Europe, where he painted and exhibited. It was in 1983 that he finally returned permanently to Victoria, settling in the seaside suburb of Dromana. He continued to paint well into old age, until prevented by arthritis and failing eyesight. In September 2010 he was buried beside his wife Vera, in Dromana Cemetery, Arthur's Seat, Victoria.

Awards

* CAS (Melbourne) Prize shared with

Donald Friend Donald Stuart Leslie Friend (6 February 1915 – 16 August 1989) was an Australian artist and diarist who lived much of his life overseas. He has been the subject of controversy since the posthumous publication of diaries in which he wrote of sex ...

1941

Represented

As at July 2018, the ''Australian Art Sales Directory'' ‘Victor George (Vic) O'Connor', ''Australian Art Sales Directory'', John Furphy Pty. Ltd., Melbourne, Australia, accessed 18 Jul 2018
AASD
/ref> lists the Australian museums holding works by Vic O'Connor as follows:
Art Gallery of New South Wales
(5 works)
Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne University
(3 works)
Geelong Gallery, Victoria
(6 works)
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT
(80 works)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
(7 works) In addition the biography of Vic O'Connor on the web site of the Bridget O'Donnell Gallery records other holdings in: * State galleries in Brisbane, Hobart and Perth; * Victorian regional galleries at Benalla, Bendigo, Mornington and Warrnambool; * South Australian regional gallery at Mt Gambier; * Queensland University collection.

References

Bibliography

Further reading: * Bernard Smith, ''Australian Painting 1788 - 1970'', Oxford University Press 1974 * Allan McCulloch, ''Encyclopedia of Australian Art'', Hutchinson 1977 * Jean Campbell, ''Australian Watercolour Painters 1780 - 1980'', Rigby 1982 * Max Germaine, ''Artists and Galleries of Australia'', Boolarong 1984 {{DEFAULTSORT:Oconnor, Victor Australian painters Social realist artists Melbourne High School alumni Melbourne Law School alumni Artists from Melbourne 1918 births 2010 deaths