THEY emerge from archival boxes, their brilliance barely dimmed by time. Vivid reds butt up against acidic yellows and crisp, abstract lines give way to elaborate pastoral scenes. Precious remnants now, the textiles of Michael O'Connell are the physical legacy of a quixotic tale that unfolded in a patch of bayside Melbourne almost 90 years ago.
Liberated from their protective casings, these glorious folds of silk, linen and rayon have been gathered together from archives and attics in Australia and England, awaiting this moment when the man dubbed ''the lost modernist'' can be found anew.
O'Connell was a British soldier who fought on the Western Front in World War I before he arrived in Australia in 1920. During his 17 years here, he became a pioneering textile artist and champion of the burgeoning modernist movement.
Living - literally and metaphorically - on Melbourne's margins amid the gums and tea trees of Beaumaris, he established a rough camp made of little more than a tent and some scraps of furniture, and spent his days painting and growing flowers to sell. When a health inspector condemned the camp as a hazard in 1923, O'Connell was faced with what would be a life-changing decision: return to England with little to show for his time abroad or stay and build a home.
During the next two years, his innovation driven by a lack of money, O'Connell crafted a striking house and studio from handmade concrete blocks, dispensing with the architectural flourishes and traditional building materials of the time. The building of ''Barbizon'' was a defining period in which his skills as a craftsman and designer emerged.
Professor of architectural history and director of RMIT Design Archives Harriet Edquist says the Barbizon project was central to O'Connell's creative development.
''He got the feel of using his hands, of craft,'' she says. ''Before that he was mucking around. He was a watercolourist but he wasn't going to make his mark there.''
Edquist began researching O'Connell's ''wild and woolly'' life three years ago and next week releases her book on his work, The Lost Modernist. A related exhibition opens at Bendigo Art Gallery today. Co-curated by Edquist and the gallery's senior curator of collections and research, Tansy Curtin, the exhibition includes the length of linen that set Edquist ''off on this road'' in search of the O'Connell story.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/lost-modernist-is-found-anew-20111125-1ny4i.html#ixzz1f3lA4uN5
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