Charles Blackman has been described as a transcriber of the childhood experience. Indeed, much of his most acclaimed work pivots around youth – schoolgirls and skipping girls roaming alleyways, and Alice tumbling through Wonderland. Always present alongside this innocence however, is a nascent threat, lapping at the shores like a long-cast shadow.

In ‘Street Games’, this entwinement of the naive and unknown amasses. In it, Blackman envisions children playing on a street, identical homes fanning across the background. Cut against this subject matter, is the heavy use of black. The effect calls forth a sense of urban alienation and loneliness; dreams, reality and the subconscious spin together in the depths of suburbia. As Australian poet Thomas Shapcott mused;

"[Blackman’s work] is a journey through strangely intense but various territory… often dark with submerged threat and danger, but these are part of the forces which the innocent, the voyager, must encounter if the journey is to be made."

Blackman is an icon of Australian art. His work is distinct yet universal, speaking to the fears, desires and memories of its audience. An edition of ‘Street Games’ is represented at the National Gallery of Australia. For collectors of important Modern art, Blackman and screenprints, this is an impressive find.
 

Charles BLACKMAN (1928 - 2018)
'Street Games' 1984
screenprint on paper
Edition of 20
Image Size: 20 x 24 cm
Dimensions: 33 x 38 cm
Signed: CHARLES BLACKMAN, numbered and titled in margin
Comes with Letter of Provenance

RELATED WORKS:
- An edition of this work is represented at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Accession no.: 2008.94.234.
- An edition of this work is also represented in the Larry Rawling print workshop archive of Australian screenprints 1959 - 2006, acquired 2008. Legacy ID: 174622.

Condition: Very Good: Describes a work of art’s image As New, but may show some small signs of surrounding wear. There are no tears to paper margin or disruption to paint surface. Image is in Fine condition.

© Charles Blackman / Copyright Agency 2023