Blackheath resident Dr Gary Werskey has released a new book about one of the forgotten artists of Australia's impressionist movement.
Picturing a Nation: The Art & Life of A.H. Fullwood examines the history and work of A.H. Fullwood, Dr Werskey's great-great uncle by marriage, within the Australian Impressionism art scene. Fullwood was most well-known for his work in the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia, published in 1886.
The publication of Dr Werskey's book coincided with the opening of an exhibition in the National Library of Australia, A Nation Imagined: The Artists of the Picturesque Atlas, in which Fullwood is one of three featured artists.
The Australian impressionist art movement was full of landscape works depicting Australia's bushland, agriculture and towns, such as Fullwood's work in the Blue Mountains. Drawing inspiration from British impressionist art, Sydney's art scene set the tone in Australia for the next 30 years.
But the reason for the popularity of landscapes is something that Dr Werskey wants readers and visitors of the exhibit to consider.
"You're living in a settler society. These are people who have dispossessed the original inhabitants of their land. They have gone about absolutely messing up country and transforming it to a more European style agriculture," said Dr Werskey, who is also the co-founder and Chair of the Blackheath History Forum.
"This is what they're really proud of. 'Look what we've done. We've created so much wealth, we found all this gold, we've brought all these sheep here, we're doing extremely well.' Consequently, the landscapes that are being painted are celebrating this triumph."
"The main art emphasises, as its subject matter, whiteness, masculinity, and the land as transformed by settler colonial Australians."
This settler colonial art marked most of the 19th century version of photographs that Australians consumed in newspapers. Dr Werskey explains that this art was copied and etched into wood before being mass produced and printed for newspapers. Despite the widespread viewership of Fullwood's work, his name remains relatively unknown by the public today.
"The question is, why have we forgotten all this art?" Dr Werskey asked. "And why have we forgotten the artists who were so good at it? So that forms another part of our inquiry in the exhibition."
Dr Werskey is fascinated with the connection between Fullwood's work, as part of the broader impressionist movement, and the settler colonialism within modern Australian identity. He uses the national anthem as an example.
"Here we are, in 2021, singing as our national anthem, the most famous hymn to settler colonialism. Maybe it's no wonder that we so love Australian impressionist art, which itself is a depiction in landscape of all those sentiments."
Dr Werskey is collaborating his ideas and work with his co-curator Natalie Wilson at the National Library of Australia. The exhibition runs until July 11, 2021.