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y separately published work icon Painted Woman single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1989... 1989 Painted Woman
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'To know is enough. To know we killed her together. I willed it, he took the blame, but we did it together. One day he'll look me full in the face and he'll sat it. He'll say: You know why it happened. Yes, I'll say, I know. The air will be noise enough, we won't need more words, but he'll say a few because I am a child. We did it because I know the secret. I am the secret.

'If Leaning Towards Infinity explored the relationship between mothers and daughters and the pursuit of mathematics, Painted Woman gives us the tight and tangled knot binding a father and daughter, and the pursuit of art. Death and art, violence and love, possession and yearning; this is the story of the emergence of a woman artist, because of and despite all.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Exhibitions

Notes

  • Dedication: For my daughter.
  • Epigraph: Violence is the heart and soul of the sacred. - Rene Girard.
  • Epigraph: You move into a painted world where nothing is locked by line and everything exists in a boundless state of transformation and becoming. - Peter Fuller.
  • Epigraph: Cruelty emerges nakedly in works of art as soon as their spell begins to lose its hold. Every work of art is a desecration of silence, wishing it were possible to restore that silence. - Theodore Adorno.
  • Adapted by the author for the 1991 stage play Painted Woman.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Hawthorn, Camberwell - Kew area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Hudson Publishing , 1989 .
      image of person or book cover 6797392103051457606.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 174p.
      ISBN: 0949873233
    • North Sydney, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Allen and Unwin , 1990 .
      image of person or book cover 5923760256913897509.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 175p.
      ISBN: 0044422792 (pbk.)
    • Milsons Point, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Vintage Australia , 1999 .
      image of person or book cover 5464051306093075258.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 213p.
      ISBN: 0091841550
    • c
      Australia,
      c
      :
      Wutheringink ,
      2014 .
      image of person or book cover 6340548921531320054.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 146p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 12 March 2014.
      ISBN: 9780987393258
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Untapped , 2021 .
      image of person or book cover 4369256043806258711.png
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 1v.p.
      ISBN: 9781922730947
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Brio Books ; Untapped , 2022 .
      image of person or book cover 2491561961311144986.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 200p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Publlished 30 August 2022.
      ISBN: 9781761282003
Alternative title: Ici et a Jamais : roman
Language: French
    • Paris,
      c
      France,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Phébus ,
      2008 .
      image of person or book cover 8568066620230873757.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 285p.
      ISBN: 9782752902849

Other Formats

  • Also large print.

Works about this Work

Emerging from Entrapment : Sue Woolfe’s Modern Gothic Painted Woman Bridget Haylock , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue Website Series , no. 42 2017;

'In this article, I examine the Gothic generic, narrative and conceptual strategies Sue Woolfe uses to describe creative emergence from the effects of intergenerational trauma and the impact on modalities of subjectivity in Painted Woman (1990), a tale of incest and disavowed artistry. The deployment of the Gothic subverts expectations of power relations, engenders the development of new paradigmatic writing forms, and shows the presence/lack of agency from within the traumatic space. Woolfe reframes embodied experience through experimentation with assumptions around signifying practices, generates radical language through which to testify to trauma and suggest that from abjective experience, empowerment and transformation are not only possible, but also essential.'  (Publication abstract)

The Puzzle of the Muse Sue Woolfe , 2013 single work prose
— Appears in: TEXT : Journal of Writing and Writing Courses , October vol. 17 no. 2 2013;
Sue Woolfe Pradeep Trikha (interviewer), 2007 single work interview
— Appears in: Delphic Intimations : Dialogues with Australian Writers and Critics 2007; (p. 148-153)
The Image in Text Lars Ahlström , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 16 no. 2 2002; (p. 169-170)
Ahlstrom examines the interplay between paintings and the writing of David Brookes and Sue Woolfe.
Murdering the Muse : Creativity and Violence in Sue Woolfe's Painted Woman Sue Kossew , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: CRNLE Journal 2001; (p. 32-41)
Kossew follows the novel's account of the emergence of a young woman artist from her father's physical and psychological control and her finding of her own artistic voice. She explores the social acceptance of violence as a legitimate expression of a man's passion, and the link between physical violence and artistic creation.
Paperbacks Penelope Nelson , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 15-16 December 1990; (p. rev 7)

— Review of Ancestors Robyn Davidson , 1989 single work novel ; Painted Woman Sue Woolfe , 1989 single work novel
[Review] Charades, Flawless, The Mountain, Painted Woman, My Father's Moon Nicolette Stasko , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: The Phoenix Review , Spring/Summer no. 6 1990; (p. 116-119)

— Review of My Father's Moon Elizabeth Jolley , 1989 single work novel ; Painted Woman Sue Woolfe , 1989 single work novel ; Charades Janette Turner Hospital , 1988 single work novel ; The Mountain Kate Llewellyn , 1989 selected work correspondence ; Flawless Jade Barbara Hanrahan , 1989 single work novel
Paperbacks Simon Hughes , 1991 single work review
— Appears in: The Sunday Herald (Sunday Review) , 27 January 1991; (p. 17)

— Review of Blessed City : The Letters of Gwen Harwood to Thomas Riddell, January to September 1943 Gwen Harwood , 1990 selected work correspondence ; Painted Woman Sue Woolfe , 1989 single work novel ; Seven Poor Men of Sydney Christina Stead , 1934 single work novel
Painted Woman She May Be, But Never Fallen Thomas Keneally , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 23 September 1989; (p. 82)

— Review of Living Alone Peter Shrubb , 1989 single work novel ; Painted Woman Sue Woolfe , 1989 single work novel
Telling the Truth Stephanie Dowrick , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Society , August 1989; (p. 43-45)

— Review of Heartland Angelika Fremd , 1992 single work novel ; Painted Woman Sue Woolfe , 1989 single work novel
The Image in Text Lars Ahlström , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 16 no. 2 2002; (p. 169-170)
Ahlstrom examines the interplay between paintings and the writing of David Brookes and Sue Woolfe.
Sue Woolfe Pradeep Trikha (interviewer), 2007 single work interview
— Appears in: Delphic Intimations : Dialogues with Australian Writers and Critics 2007; (p. 148-153)
The Life of Art: Sue Woolfe on Art and Representation Elizabeth Pedersen (interviewer), 1999 single work interview
— Appears in: Southerly , Spring-Summer vol. 59 no. 3-4 1999; (p. 172-179)
Sue Woolfe : "Painted Woman" Sue Woolfe , Kate Grenville , 1993 single work criticism interview
— Appears in: Making Stories : How Ten Australian Novels Were Written 1993; (p. 252-281)
Coincidence in a White Frock 1996 single work biography
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 17 August 1996; (p. 10s)
Last amended 16 May 2024 15:51:13
Subjects:
  • Bush,
  • Sydney, New South Wales,
  • Blue Mountains, Sydney, New South Wales,
  • Urban,
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