Vic O'CONNOR

Australian 1918–2010

For many Australians who grew up during the Depression in the years between the wars, unemployment, poverty and social inequality were a fact of life. Motivated by this shared experience, empathy for their fellow man and a strong social consciousness, a group of artists known as the Social Realists emerged during the 1930s. Including James Wigley, Vic O’Connor, Yosl Bergner and Noel Counihan, the group produced powerful socially motivated art that expressed ‘a splendid tide of criticism, of passionate resentment and indignation at enforced poverty and social injustice’.1

James Wigley’s earliest drawings depicted the hunger marches he witnessed during the 1930s, although he is best known for his empathetic images of Aborigines, which began following his first visit to the Northern Territory

In 1944, in the company of his friend and anthropologist, Roland Berndt. Drawn some years earlier, Salvation Army meeting (Musical evening), 1937, documents another aspect of contemporary life, adopting a mannered style in its humorous depiction of army members in rousing chorus, the elongation of the figures and exaggerated facial expressions emphasising their piety.

1 Noel Counihan, quoted in A. Sayers, Drawing in Australia, Melbourne, 1989, p. 198.

Kirsty M. Grant

With the rise of fascism in Europe and the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the subsequent influx of European immigrants to Australia offered these socially aware artists a graphic vision of social isolation and cultural dislocation. In this study for his sombre painting Refugees, 1941, Vic O’Connor depicts a newly arrived migrant family walking through a city street. Carrying all their worldly possessions in bags and knapsacks, the figures stay close together, moving slowly with eyes downcast, symbolising both the physical and emotional struggle of their momentous journey.

Kirsty M. Grant