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Intelligentsia: Louis Kahan's portraits of writers
22 Jan 2009 to 19 Apr 2009
Guest Curator: Vivien Gaston, honorary fellow, School of Culture and Communication
Combining an artist of European origins with Australian writers, the exhibition demonstrated the role of the portrait painter in cultural exchange. Kahan’s portraits have a prominent place in Meanjin, often occupying a full page. His lively and seemingly spontaneous portraits of contributors are positioned next to the text, bringing the speaking voice and its ideas to life. His portraits contribute to the mythic stature of his subjects and the resonance of their ideas.
Kahan’s talent for rendering a likeness was combined with a special interest in depicting creative intelligence at work. The verve and concision of his drawing technique is highly effective in this task. Instead of a static record of facial features, his pen and ink lines fly and coalesce around nodal points in the face, such as the brow and the mouth, correlating with the high velocity synthesis of free and disparate thoughts at work in the mind within.
The exhibition presented portraits of literary luminaries and outstanding Australian poets such as AD Hope, Dame Mary Gilmore, Francis Webb, Vincent Buckley and Kenneth Slessor. Major historians of diverse opinions such as Manning Clark and Geoffrey Blainey are represented in some of Kahan’s most memorable images. The depth and range of intellectual strengths provided by these portraits is outstanding and exemplary for any journal, be it local or international.
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