Cirrus@Austlit

'Among the first decisions a biographer must face is where to start the narrative of their subject’s life and how to deal with chronology. Anne-Louise Willoughby chose to begin her biography of Australian artist Nora Heysen with a discussion of Transport driver, one of Heysen’s most celebrated paintings produced during Heysen’s stint as a war artist. Willoughby’s decision was sensible. It enabled her to stress from the outset that art was at the centre of Heysen’s life, and to signal some of her fundamental concerns. The aircraftwoman Heysen depicted is ‘a professional … strong, authoritative’, all of which applies to the artist herself. Willoughby’s biography celebrates Heysen’s considerable achievements, but it was also conceived as part of a larger project of restitution that redresses ‘the historical biases that have shadowed women’s contributions, in particular to Australian art’. The book adds to a slowly growing corpus of biographies of women artists; Jo Oliver’s Jessie Traill: A Biography, published in February 2020, is the most recent. In addition, it relates to institutional initiatives such as the National Gallery of Australia’s Know My Name exhibition (2020–21), which showcased the work of Australian women artists.' (Introduction)

'At 2:06 pm on 10 December 1919, Keith and Ross Smith, along with the air mechanics James Bennett and Wally Shiers, spied the coast of Australia, the end point of a long flight from England that had begun almost 28 days prior. A common experience for many a weary traveller today, the first sight of the coastline solidifying into view on the horizon was for these 4 men both a triumph and a relief. Landing their Vickers Vimy twin-engine bomber in Darwin less than an hour later, they were met by the administrator of the Northern Territory and the mayor of Darwin, and swarmed by an enthusiastic crowd, excited to meet the men who had just completed the first-ever flight from England to Australia. When they had left England, not quite a month ago, they had been one crew among 6 to enter the ‘great air race’ sponsored by the government of the Commonwealth of Australia; today they were the winners of the £10,000 prize, and had ensured their place in history as the first men to fly from England to Australia. Of their competitors, only one other team would arrive safely in Darwin, and 4 men were killed, 2 only moments after taking off from Hounslow to begin their journey.' (Introduction)

'Most historians’ memoirs bear the mark of their authors’ calling. They relate their own lives with an unusual precision, giving full details of antecedents, for example, and are attentive to chronology and context. Historians use this scaffolding to make sense of their lived experience, so that a disciplinary understanding of the past directs and supplements memory. In looking back on their lives, moreover, they are concerned to explain how it was that they found their vocation. This can involve the identification of formative influences, teachers, interests and opportunities that shaped their careers. It can also impart a teleological cast, the life following a predetermined path.' (Introduction)

'Alec O’Halloran’s The Master from Marnpi has my mind jumping in many directions. It is a beautiful volume, a biography of the Pintupi man Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri, self-produced, with extensive visual images. It is not published through a scholarly press, but it is an exemplary work of scholarship, of sourcing and citation, and it will not only be a fundamental piece of work for those interested in Indigenous Australian art but also, in my view, for many others with curiosity and interest in Indigenous life and history.' (Introduction)

'The late twentieth century witnessed significant transformations in the social lives and political statuses of gay men and lesbians. From the late 1960s, the international gay and lesbian liberation movements propelled discussions about sex and sexuality into the public arena as individuals demonstrated against discriminatory legislation and police harassment, and declared pride in their sexualities. It was during this period that 21-year-old Dennis Altman—who had recently left Hobart for New York as a ‘shy and naïve graduate student’ (p. 3)—became an ‘accidental activist’ by writing about the burgeoning gay liberation movement.' (Introduction)