Christine Abrahams

Christine Abrahams was a gallery director and major supporter of contemporary Australian art in Melbourne since the 1970s.

Life

Artist Lenton Parr said of Christine that she valued art "as a gift to the spirit and a source of pleasure and enlightenment."[1] She was Manager of Powell Street Gallery between 1976 and 1980 (the lessees were Melbourne solicitor Harry Curtis and a Caulfield doctor, David Rosenthal), and a Co-Director of Axiom Gallery from 1980 to 1982.

Christine Abrahams Gallery

Christine founded the eponymous Christine Abrahams Gallery on 12 February 1983 at 27 Gipps Street Richmond, an inner, once-industrial, suburb of Melbourne, in the same precinct as an increasing number of other commercial galleries, including the long-running Pinacotheca Gallery.

The building was converted in 1980 from a clothing factory by the architect of Abrahams' own 1982 Brighton residence,[2] Daryl Jackson, who preserved the industrial aesthetic of exposed trusses, bare concrete floors and steel roller-door. Jackson himself exhibited at the gallery in April 1984, showing drawings and models for a 'more humane' neo-industrial style.[3][4]

Christine Abrahams Gallery showed a broad spectrum of visual arts by contemporary artists, architects, sculptors, potters, photographers, jewellers, and furniture makers. It was operated after Christine's death in 1994 by her son Guy Abrahams, who had been co-director since 1987.

The gallery closed after 25 years in November 2008.

Influence

Christine initiated the influential Australian Contemporary Art Fair (now Melbourne Art Fair)[5] and was a member of its organising committee in 1988, 1990 and 1992.

She was on the board of the Fifth Australian Sculpture Triennial (1993) and was a member of the Visual Art Export Group of the Australia Council and the Craft Council of Victoria.

References

  1. ↑ Parr, Lenton (October 1994). "Obituary". Art Monthly Australia. p. 40.
  2. ↑ Greenwood, Helen, 'The Hide-Art', Plenty, vol. 5, November/January 1990 pp.42-44 (Abrahams House, Brighton, photographs by Ashley Evans).
  3. ↑ Murdoch, Anna (1984) 'Dealing with other people's truths'. In The Age Thursday April 5, 1984, p.14
  4. ↑ Holloway, Memory (1984) 'Stimulating architecture'. In The Age, Wednesday March 28 1984, p.14.
  5. ↑ "Established galleries featured at art fair". Australian Jewish News. 9 September 2008.
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