Deborah Klein’s visual language is distinct. Through it, she explores feminism and women’s histories, shining light on those absent from history in often unexpected ways. In her ‘Pirate Jenny’ suite, Klein reimagines the somewhat unlikable character Jenny from Bertolt Brecht’s critique of capitalism, ‘The Threepenny Opera’. Rather than London’s underbelly, however, this Jenny roams Melbourne’s suburb of St Kilda, where Klein grew up.

There is something seductively ambiguous about Give Me Your Poor Your Maladjusted. Indecisive, a man stands in the doorway of Jenny’s room. Hints of his troubled history are in his garb, his service metals and playfully in the design of the dividing screen. Within these symbols of alienation and oppression, Jenny lies exhausted.

For Klein, the Pirate Jenny series represents a cornerstone in her practice. Under the guidance of Euan Heng, these works encouraged a variety of narratives: personal, literary, socio-political and feminist. The first major step in a fruitful career, ‘Pirate Jenny With A Customer’ announced Klein as an enthralling new voice. A folio of series is represented at the National Library of Australia, Canberra.

Represented in other public collections including National Gallery of Victoria, Klein has won the Grand Prize, Silk Cut Award for Linocut Printmaking. In 2008 the survey show ‘Deborah Klein: Out of the Past 1995 - 2007’ toured to Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum, the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Warrnambool Art Gallery and Deakin University Art Gallery, Victoria. For collectors of prints, and contemporary and feminist art, this work is a thrilling find.

Deborah KLEIN (1951 - )
'Give Me Your Poor Your Maladjusted' 1988
linocut on paper, printed on Nishi Nouchi paper
Image Size: 46 x 63 cm
Dimensions: 53 x 75 cm
Signed: Editioned, titled, signed 'Deborah Klein' and dated in lower margin.
Comes with Letter of Provenance

Condition is Excellent.

(C) The Artist or Assignee