The sword, the pen and the brush : Australian poetry and painting in the battle with tradition, 1923-1948

Abstract

A full understanding of the ways in which poetry and painting relate to each other can be grasped only by a keen knowledge of the circumstances which contributed to, and encouraged, their association. Such an approach is preferable in any discussion of interchange between the arts. But in analysing the multitude of relationships shared by Australian poetry and painting during the three decades following the end of World War One it is essential. Between 1923 and 1948, poems were written about paintings, friendships formed between poets and painters and techniques learned from the exchange which altered the character of local art and literature. To confine discussions of the era to say, pictorialism in poetry or literary allusions in painting is to gain a patchy, unsatisfactory view of an epoch which witnessed more instances of collaboration between poets and painters than any other period in Australia’s history.