Born in Sydney, 1928     Charles Blackman studied at the East Sydney Technical College, 1943-46. He worked as an artist for the Sydney Sun for five years before going to Melbourne in 1952 where he made his reputation and exhibited with the re-formed Contemporary Art Society.   A prolific worker, he had already shown great promise when he gained prominence through a press controversy caused by the reproduction of his drawing The Swimmer, in the Melbourne Herald.   Official recognition eluded him until he was awarded the Rowney prize for drawing in 1959, swiftly followed by a successful exhibition at the Johnson Gallery, and simultaneously the award of the Helena Rubenstein Scholarship in 1960. The latter was to prove a remarkable year since he also won the Dyeson Endowment Award and the Crouch Prize. Blackman spent quite some time in London and his work was included in the Whitechapel Open Exhibition in 1961 and Tate Gallery exhibitions of Australian Art 1962/3. Blackman has since had exhibitions at every major international art centre.     By 1977, Blackman's status amongst Australian contemporary painters was such that an OBE was conferred on him 'for services to art'. In 1993 the Naional Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, staged the first major retrospective of Blackman's work, 'Schoolgirls and Angels' which toured to Brisbane, Sydney and Perth.
	C o l l e c t i o n s Australian National Gallery, Canberra and all Australian State and many provincial galleries; many major international Galleries and university collections and in private collections both in Australia and overseas.   P u b l i c a t i o n s Charles Blackman - Monograph Ray Mathew. Georgian House, Melbourne, 1965 London's Blackman Ray Mathew. Art & Australia, Vol 3, no 4 March. 1966 Focus on Charles Blackman Thomas Shapcott. Qld Uni Press, Brisbane. 1967 The Antipodean Affair Barbara Blackman. Art & Australia, Vol 5 (4), Mar. 1968 Charles Blackman: The Lost Domain Nadine Amadio. AH and AW Reed, Sydney. 1980
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