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19 June 2008

An Artist's Wife: Life with Carl Plate

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'I advise no girl to marry an artist who hasn't been an artist herself... otherwise you cannot credit the focus an artist has on his own work. You've got to accept this, otherwise there'll be nothing but confusion and resentment.'

Those are the words of Jocelyn Plate. Jocelyn was married to Carl Plate, one of Sydney's most important artists of the post-war period, until his death in 1977. She has plenty of wit and wisdom to share.

This is an unusual Verbatim. It tells the story of a man and his work from the perspective of three of the women closest to him; Carl Plate's wife Jocelyn and their daughters Cassie and Gina Plate. According to the Art Gallery of NSW's recent exhibition notes, his travels and studies as a young man in Europe, the UK and America gave him an appreciation of international modernism, and a cosmopolitan outlook on life and art that were to have a significant influence on art in Sydney at that time.

'Returning here in 1940, Plate established himself as an artist and advocate for modern art. His intuitive and expressive paintings and drawings were strongly founded in his interest in nature, landscape and organic forms, with a commitment to abstraction that avoided comparisons with identifiable subject matter or analytic interpretation. His work shows a remarkable affinity for harmonious form and composition, and particularly, lyrical colour.

'Carl Plate was also significant as an art dealer and taste-maker -- he ran the Notanda Gallery in Rowe Street, established by his sister, the sculptor Margo Lewers, as a centre for books, art and posters, unique to Sydney.'

However, that is only one way of describing Carl Plate.


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