Noel Counihan

(Australia 04 Oct 1913–05 Jul 1986)

Title

In the waiting room

Year

1943

Media category

Painting

Materials used

oil on hardboard

Dimensions

62.0 x 43.5cm board; 77.5 x 59.2 x 5.0cm frame

Signature & date

Signed l.l. corner, black oil "COUNIHAN". Signed and dated c. verso, black oil ".../ ... NOEL COUNIHAN/ .../ 1943/ ...".

Credit

Purchased 1980

Accession number

137.1980

Copyright

Location

Not on display

Further information

Although he personally never experienced poverty during the Depression, Counihan lived for a year on the dole when he was twenty and depicted the life of the unemployed in an exhibition of drawings held in 1934. Co-founder of the Workers Art Club with Jack Maughan and Nutter Buzzacott, he joined the Young Communist League in 1931, and joined forces with Yosl Bergner and Vic O’Connor in forming the social realist faction of the Contemporary Art Society in 1942, fired by communist ideology and concerned with social injustice and the condition of man. In 1946 he exhibited with O’Connor and Bergner in Three Realist Artists at Myers Gallery.

'In the waiting room' 1943, painted when Counihan was recuperating from tuberculosis, reveals an affinity with the German artist Kathe Kollwitz as well as other European artists, including Honoré Daumier, Francisco Goya and Ernst Barlach.

Australian Art Department, AGNSW, 2001

Bibliography (12)

John Slater (England) (Author), Through artists' eyes: Australian suburbs and their cities 1919-1945, Melbourne, 2004, xiii, 151 (colour illus.), 153. illus.no. 127

Barry Pearce (Australia) (Author), Australian art: in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Domain, 2000, 164, 168, 169 (colour illus.), 300.

Journal of the Medical Defence Union 1994, 1994, cover (illus.).

'Noel Counihan: A painter of class' by Peter Ward, pg. 24-28., The Weekend Australian magazine 16 Oct 1993-17 Oct 1993, 16 Oct 1993-17 Oct 1993, 27 (colour illus.).

Annabel Davie (Editor), Art Gallery of New South Wales Handbook, Domain, 1988, 24.

Barrett Reid (b.1926, d.1995) (Author), Bernard Smith (Australia, b.1916, d.2011) (Author), Janine Burke (Australia, b.1952) (Author), Charles Merewether (Australia; Scotland) (Author), Christine Dixon (Author), Max Harris (Australia, b.1921, d.1995) (Author), Angry Penguins and Realist Painting in Melbourne in the 1940s, London, 1988, 173. cat.no. 163

Janet McKenzie (Australia) (Author), Noel Counihan, Kenthurst, 1986, 12 (illus.), 13.

Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874) (Author), Three years on: a selection of acquisitions 1978-1981, Sydney, 1981, 5 (colour illus.), 6, 11. cat.no. 11

'Australian art market goes in to hard labour' by Terry Ingram, pg. 44, 47., The Australian financial review 21 Nov 1980, 21 Nov 1980, 44 (illus.), 47.

Max Dimmack (Author), Noel Counihan, Melbourne, 1974, (colour illus.). plate no. 75a

Noel Counihan (Australia, b.1913, d.1986) (Author), Noel Counihan: paintings drawings prints 1943 to 1973, Melbourne, 1973, 7. cat.no. 2, Collection: Dr and Mrs I.C. McDonald

Sydney Ure Smith (Australia, b.1887, d.1949) (Editor), Present day art in Australia, Sydney, 1949, 31 (illus.).

Exhibition history (5)

Contemporary Art Society Sixth Annual Exhibition (1944), Vickery's Galleries, 26 Jun 1944–14 Jul 1944.

Three years on: Acquisitions 1978-81, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 15 Oct 1981–01 Dec 1981.

Aspects of Australian Figurative Painting 1942-1962: Dreams, Fears and Desires (The 5th Biennale of Sydney), S.H. Ervin Gallery, 11 Apr 1984–17 Jun 1984.

Angry Penguins and Realist Painting in Melbourne in the 1940s, Hayward Gallery, 19 May 1988–14 Aug 1988.

Angry Penguins and Realist Painting in Melbourne in the 1940s, Tate Liverpool, 05 Oct 1988–27 Nov 1988.