Title

Blue Parrots, by Murray Griffin.

Author

Bunbury, Alisa .

Source

[Not applicable]

Publication date

1998

Type

About the work

Language

English

Country of context

Australia

Full text

Blue parrots.

Blue parrots was evidently ordered one of Griffin’s more accomplished prints in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Exhibited for the first time in 1958, the National Gallery of Victoria purchased an impression. In response to this, Griffin donated two of the blocks used for the print to the Gallery (45.1/5, 45.2/5). Only a few years later, the print was selected by Daniel Thomas for inclusion in the Australian Print Survey 1963/64, the first survey of Australian printmaking. The attraction of this print is less obvious today, and the birds appear stilted and awkwardly posed against the rough, abstracted hatching of the branches. Griffin accurately captured the plumage of the Northern Rosella, although the realism did not follow through to the anatomy and the birds have noticeably small heads. One of John Gould’s well known images is of Northern Rosellas, to which this print bears a likeness.

© Alisa Bunbury, 1998.