The Provocative Works of Australian artist Barbara Hanrahan

PART ONE from the Editorial Staff, Part TWO by Melinda Rackham The artworks of Barbara Janice Hanrahan thirty years after her death her art remains progressive, uncompromising and provocative.

Today we're sharing the artworks of Barbara Janice Hanrahan thirty years after her death. A progressive, uncompromising and provocative artist, one hundred and eight of her works on paper were on display this past winter at Flinders University Museum of Art in an exhibition, Bee-stung lips: Barbara Hanrahan works on paper 1960-1991. Now the exhibition is travelling throughout Southern Australian regional centres with Country Arts SA through 2022 and 2023. The exhibition includes woodcuts, linocuts, screenprints, lithographs, etchings and drypoint, as well as rarely-seen drawings, paintings and collages.

Barbara Hanrahan, Dog of darkness, 1978, hand-coloured etching with plate-tone, colour inks on paper, 35.5 x 25.3 cm, Private collection, Adelaide. © the Estate of the artist, courtesy Susan Sideris 2020

This exhibition considers several overarching themes that emerge from her oeuvre: sex, beauty and the stage; domestic comforts and anxieties; becoming plant, becoming animal; and celestial bodies and the afterlife.  Here, mystical and earthly realms collide with concepts of time and mortality.  Hanrahan connects sexuality and desire with dreaming and spirituality, and links the farthest star to the humblest garden bee to make works that speak of the fragility of human existence. [Flinders University Museum of Art]

Barbara Janice Hanrahan (1939 – 1991) lived between her birthplace Adelaide, London, and Melbourne producing more than 400 works on paper and publishing 15 books. Her partner helped to facilitate this exhibition. You can visit the museum's exhibition page here to watch an interview with him, Jo Steele.

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Barbara Hanrahan, Fat folk fade faster, 1985, etching, yellow and black ink on paper, 50.8 x 35.5 cm, Private collection, Adelaide, © the Estate of the artist, courtesy Susan Sideris 2020

Barbara Hanrahan, Flying mother, 1976, screenprint, colour inks on paper, 59 x 48 cm, Private collection, Adelaide, © the Estate of the artist, courtesy Susan Sideris 2020