General and personal correspondence, 1930s-1990

Component identifier:

Series 1

Content Summary:

A long series of letters exchanged between Noel and Pat Counihan and their many friends and associates in Australia and overseas. Most of the correspondence is original, with a smaller portion of photocopied letters filed in some folders.

Included in the list of prominent artists, writers and intellectuals whose correspondence is represented in this series are Alan Marshall, Herbert McClintock, Lloyd Rees, Bernard Smith, Jack and Meta Lindsay and Manning Clark. The work of John Brack, Frank Hardy, John Reed, Albert Tucker, Judah Waten, Fred Williams, Marshall and Rees are amongst the many topics discussed.

Also filed here are letters written in later life by one of Counihan's early girlfriends Zélie McLeod (née Pimlott). Located with the letters of George Luke are illustrations for Marshall's stories, caricatures and discussions of Marshall by Counihan and Luke, as well as material about Luke's sculptures. The folders concerning Jim Wigley contain cuttings, catalogues and examples of Wigley's book illustrations.

Other letters relating to Counihan's business activities are filed in Series 2, and to his family affairs in Series 3. The main sequence of correspondence conducted with Counihan's associates by his wife after 1986 is contained in Series 13.

Immediate source of acquisition:

In addition to the large body of papers amassed by Noel Counihan during his lifetime, his widow Pat continued to maintain records of exhibitions, books, correspondence and articles concerning her husband's art and career after his death in 1986. The resultant collection, which bears her numerous annotations, was extensively drawn upon by Bernard Smith for his biography Noel Counihan : artist and revolutionary (1993). Following publication of his study, Smith helped coordinate the transfer of the Counihan Papers to the Library, which were received in a single consignment in 1996.

Names:

Noel Counihan

Contents

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