Virginia Cuppaidge
{{Short description|Australian artist (born 1943)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Use Australian English|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Virginia Cuppaidge
| image =
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1943}}
| birth_place = Brisbane, Queensland
| nationality = Australian
| awards = Guggenheim fellowship
| style = Abstract expressionism
| website = {{URL|virginiacuppaidge.com}}
}}
Virginia Cuppaidge (born 1943) is an Australian contemporary abstract expressionist painter. She lived and worked in New York for almost five decades, before returning to live permanently in Australia. Since 1965, Cuppaidge has held more than thirty-three exhibitions in Australia, USA and Canada.{{Cite web|title=VIRGINIA CUPPAIDGE|url=https://www.nicholasthompsongallery.com.au/artists/virginia-cuppaidge/|access-date=2020-08-02|website=Nicholas Thompson Gallery|language=en-US}}
Biography
Born in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1943, Cuppaidge was the middle child of Russell and Judy Cuppaidge. Her father's portrait, painted by Jon Molvig, was shortlisted for the 1959 Archibald Prize.{{Cite web|title=Archibald Prize Archibald 1959 finalist: Russell Cuppaidge, Esq by Jon Molvig|url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/1959/17583/|access-date=2020-08-02|website=www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au}} Cuppaidge moved to Sydney and earned a Master of Fine Art degree from the Mary White School of Art.{{Cite web|last=Downer|first=Stella|date=2007|title=Virginia Cuppaidge b. 1943|url=https://www.daao.org.au/bio/virginia-cuppaidge/biography/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=29 June 2020|website=Design and Art Australia Online}} She lived in New York from 1968 until returning to Australia in 2017 and settled in Newcastle, New South Wales.{{Cite web|last=Stowell|first=Jill|date=2019-05-16|title=The nature of Abstraction|url=https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/story/6125593/classy-homage-to-a-national-treasure/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=29 June 2020|website=Newcastle Herald}}
Early career
Influenced from a young age by her mother, a botanical painter with an interest in textiles,{{Cite web|title=Vol. 17 No. 37 (17 September 1955)|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1423166618|access-date=2020-08-11|website=Trove|language=en}} Cuppaidge dabbled with textiles in the 1960s but soon became interested in painting.{{Cite web|title=Vol. 096 No. 4899 (30 Mar 1974)|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1379942659|access-date=2020-08-11|website=Trove|language=en}} She studied in Sydney with Desiderius Orban, Stanislaus Rapotec, Marea Gazzard, John Olsen and Robert Klippel before moving to New York in 1969. Arriving in New York, she called the only contact she had, Australian sculptor Clement Meadmore. They became a couple that year, and Meadmore found Cuppaidge a studio where she began to work on her large-scale geometric abstractions.{{Cite web|last=Nicholls|first=Lisa|date=2016-05-31|title=Into the Unknown|url=https://issuu.com/nationalgalleryofaustralia/docs/artonview_86|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=29 June 2020|website=Artonview|publisher=National Gallery of Australia}}
Artistic Development
Cuppaidge's first solo show was in 1973 at A. M. Sachs Gallery in New York. Her work impressed the New York art critic Clement Greenberg, who commented on Cuppaidge's "sophisticated maturity". In 1974 Cuppaidge returned to Australia with a body of work which was exhibited at Gallery A in Sydney. The Bulletin referred to her work as 'handsome, no compromise works' in a horizontal format and the arts writer was impressed with Cuppaidge's 'boldness of conception'.{{Cite web|title=Vol. 096 No. 4901 (13 Apr 1974)|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1336594078|access-date=2020-08-11|website=Trove|language=en}}
Cuppaidge was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1976. Cuppaidge did not entirely remove herself from her Australian roots, successfully applying for an Australia Council grant to assist with studio costs in New York.{{Cite web|title=1980/1981, PP no. 57 of 1982|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1940368818|access-date=2020-08-11|website=Trove|language=en}}
During her years living in New York, Cuppaidge exhibits regularly in both the United States and Australia.{{Cite web|last=Borlase|first=Nancy|date=1974-04-06|title=The delicate but tough touch|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1336593644/view?sectionId=nla.obj-1503179642&partId=nla.obj-1336896790#page/n43/mode/1up|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=29 June 2020|website=TROVE}} In 1993 she exhibited with fellow ex-patriate Australian artist Judith Cotton at the Wagner Gallery in Hong Kong.{{Cite news|date=1994-02-20|title=Arts & Entertainment Australian artist's career boosted by recent success|pages=20|work=Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article134303432|access-date=2020-08-11}}
Her work is held by the National Gallery of Australia; Art Gallery of New South Wales; Australian Consulate General, New York; Jazz Museum in Harlem, New York; Australian Embassies; Chase Manhattan Bank, New York City; Neuberger Museum, NY; Whitney Communications, New York City; Westpac Bank, New York City.
Georffrey de Groen interviewed Cuppaidge for his Oral History Collection at the National Library of Australia in 1976.{{Cite web|last=de Groen|first=Georffrey|date=1976|title=Trove|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/230738935|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-08-12|website=trove.nla.gov.au|language=en}}
References
External links
E-gallery of art works:
- [https://www.nicholasthompsongallery.com.au/artists/virginia-cuppaidge/ Nicholas Thompson Gallery]
- [https://nag.org.au/Exhibitions/Current/Archives/2019/VIRGINIA-CUPPAIDGE-The-nature-of-abstraction Newcastle Art Gallery]
Oral History at National Library of Australia
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Category:20th-century Australian women artists
Category:Artists from Brisbane
Category:Abstract expressionist artists