A Monumental Career
Daphne Mayo in her Sydney studio, 1941, with her panel Carrying euro Arunta Tribe for the east doors of the Public Library of New South Wales | Photographer unknown | Image courtesy: Daphne Mayo Papers, UQFL119, Fryer Library, The University of Queensland
Daphne Mayo: Let There Be Sculpture | 4 November 2011 − 15 January 2012 | QAG | Free admission
This exhibition honours the life and work of one of Queensland’s most significant artists. Daphne Mayo (1895–1982) was Australia’s leading woman sculptor of the mid twentieth century, and also a passionate advocate for the visual arts, who succeeded in creating cultural opportunities for her fellow Queenslanders. Both aspects of her career are explored in this exhibition.
A woman of courage and commitment, Daphne Mayo resolved early on to become a sculptor. In 1911, she enrolled at Brisbane’s Central Technical College, studying under R Godfrey Rivers and LJ Harvey. Upon graduation in 1914, she was awarded Queensland’s first publicly-subscribed travelling art scholarship, enabling her to continue her studies at London’s Royal Academy of Arts. In 1923, she received the gold medal for sculpture – the Academy’s highest honour – which earned her a scholarship to Italy.
In 1925, Mayo returned to Brisbane in triumph. At the time, the city was experiencing a building boom and there were pleas to keep ‘our girl sculptress... constantly employed’. She was soon to create some of Brisbane’s grandest monuments, including the City Hall tympanum. In 1937, after a decade of great productivity, she travelled overseas to observe recent developments in art and, in 1940, she moved to Sydney.
As this exhibition shows, Mayo’s work was diverse in style, subject matter and medium, ranging from portrait busts to architectural ornaments; official commissions to creative, modernist experiments; and included ceramics, paintings, drawings and woodcarvings, as well as sculptures.
Though her work was varied, Daphne Mayo always maintained her commitment to craftsmanship and, even while experimenting with Modernism, never lost her interest in figurative sculpture. She regarded the human body as ‘a superlative piece of sculpture’ and her constant inspiration, defining ‘the mastery of human anatomy in simplified beautiful forms’ as her lifelong goal.
