Alan Warren

It is impossible to consider the development of Modern Art in Melbourne during the post-war period without taking into account the activities of Alan Warren (1919-1991). While Warren has been overlooked by recent art history, as an artist, a critic and an educator he came into contact with most contemporary artists working on the local art scene in 1946-66.

Born in 1919, Warren studied drawing and painting at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School during 1937-38. This was a period of considerable change at the school as Bernard Hall, who had run it for 44 years, had recently died. However, students still learnt to respect Velazquez's sober tonalities and Streelon's square brushstroke under the guidance of W. B. McInnes and Charles Wheeler. Warren perservered at the school, but he also had a keen interest in Modern art. Before long he had started attending lessons at the private art school run by the Modern painter George Bell in Bourke Street. It was here that Warren came into contact with Bell's most promising students, including Russell Drysdale, Sali Herman, Constance Stokes, Clive Stephen and Alan Sumner. This was a tempestuous time for Australian art, for moves were afoot to start an official Australian Academy of Art in order to resist the modern movement. In Melbourne, a number of leading Modernists - including Bell, Adrian Lawlor, Jock Frater and Arnold Shore - initiated the Contemporary Art Society in opposition to the Academy during July 1938. As both a student of Bell's, and a committed Modernist, Warren joined the C.A.S. and participated in its early activities.

read more about Alan Warren...