Quick Facts
Biography
Norma Redpath OBE (20 November 1928 – 12 January 2013) was a prominent Australian painter and sculptor.
Life and work
Norma Redpath studied from 1942 to 1948 (with a long break due to illness) painting at the Swinburne Technical College and from 1949 to 1951 sculpture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, both in Melbourne. The last course was primarily a tutorial, to study modern sculpture was not available. During the fifties, she traveled to Europe and studied in Italy from 1956 to 1958 at the Universita per Stranieri in Perugia and she lived in Rome . Her love for Italy and Italian art would not release her. In 1958 she returned to Australia, but in 1962 she won a scholarship from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan, where she would later settle. She traveled frequently back and forth between Italy and Australia. From 1974 to 1985 she lived and worked alternately in her Milanese studio and Melbourne.
Already as a student, she was invited as a member of the Victorian Sculptors' Society (VSS), who exhibited her bronzes and was Vice President until termination of its membership. In 1953 she was with Inge King, Julius Kane and Clifford Last and was founding member of the 'Group of Four' and in 1961 she joined the artists grouping 'Centre Five' (among others Inge King, Julius Kane, Clifford Last, Lenton Parr, Vincas Jomantas and Teisutis Zikaras ), who broke with the VSS and organised private exhibitions.
In 1970 Norma Redpath was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to contemporary sculpture.
Works (selected)
- Bronze Reliefs (1964), formally at BP Building Crib Point, Victoria -Australia now at McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park. image and details
- Treasury Fountain – a two-piece bronze fountain in a rectangular granite pond – (1965–1969), Treasury Building in – (1965–1969), Treasury Building in Canberra (ACT)
- Victoria Coats of Arms – a bronze relief- (1968), Arts Centre of Victoria in Melbourne
- Sculpture Column (1969–1972), Reserve Bank of Australia in Brisbane
- Facade Relief (1970–1972), Victoria College of Pharmacy in Melbourne
- Sydney Rubbo Memorial Capital (1970–1973), University of Melbourne
- Higuchi Sculpture (1971–1972), Manning Building at the Monash University in Melbourne (unveiled by Dr. Takeru Higuchi) details in pdf document page 6
- Extended Column (1972–1975), Canberra School of Music in Canberra
- Paesaggio Cariatide (1980–1985), State Bank of Victoria in Melbourne
- Landscape Caryatide (1980–1985), McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park in Langwarrin, Victoria