The University of Queensland

1940-1960 - The Sydney Years

On returning to Australia from her second European visit in 1938-1939, via North America, Mayo established a studio in George Street, Sydney where she experimented with the Modernist Movement, small sculptural works, ceramics and portrait painting.

The European and London trip proved a major subsequent influence on her work and constituted a departure from her strong academic training. She became familiar with the works of French sculptors Charles Despiau and Aristide Maillol, and in London, the works of Eric Gill, Jacob Epstein and Barbara Hepworth among others.

A letter to Vida Lahey whilst in Paris reflects this change in attitude:

The thrill of Paris ... the Mecca of the artist,
where art is part of life, and not an unusual trimming for it ...^[14]

She recalls her impressions of modern art during her trip:

One may not understand some of this work. One may not even like it, but it does make you think. It produces a feeling of exhilaration. Modern work cannot be understood or appreciated by the old standards, and neither can it be appreciated by just a casual glance. ^[15]

Mayo came in contact with major Australian sculptors spearheading the Modernist Movement. These included Grace Crowley, Gerald Lewers, Frank and Margel Hinder, Rah Fizelle and Ralph Balson. She was also impressed with the recently arrived Slovak-born sculptor, Arthur Fleischmann.

The public commission initiated in 1940 by the Principal Librarian, W H Ifould, for the East Doors of the Public Library of New South Wales also brought Mayo to Sydney.

Ifould had very close control over the three sets of bronze doors, including the design. Arthur Fleischmann was the sculptor for the centre door; the sculptors for the west door were Ralph T Walker, J W Lenegan and Frank Lynch.

"Miss Michelangelo"

When the magnificent bronze doors of the new Sydney Public Library swing open on one of the finest mosaics in marble in the world, one set of doors will demonstrate the splendid work of an Australian woman sculptor, Daphne Mayo

... The ABC Weekly, 12 April 1941

East Doors, NSW State Library, 1940

Description: Pair of doors with eighteen bas relief rectangular panels, sixteen small and the bottom two of double size, depicting the life and activities of the Australian aborigines. The panels are set into framing mouldings of aboriginal design. The doors are cast in bronze, with a brown patina.
Dimensions: Each door - 267.5cm high 91cm wide
Notes: Anthropological descriptions on panels of Left Door :
Corroboree musician, Aluridja Tribe ; Carrying euro, Arunta Tribe ; Lubra with food bag ; Boomerang throwers ; Making fire, Central Australia ; Hunter with womera and spear, Desert Tribes ; On trek, Central Australia ; Climbing palm, Northern Territory ; Coroboree
Right Door: Grinding nardoo seed, Desert Tribes ; Hunting with waddy, Desert Tribes, On trek ; Netting fish, Arnhem Land ; Cleaning nardoo seed, Desert Tribes ; [illegible] ; Lubra with fish net, Stewart River ; Spearing fish, Arnhem Land ; Mallee hen dance.

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Bronze Entrance Doors, NSW State Library, 1940 [JMM no.102]
Image courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales

On completion of the doors, Mayo was free of commissions and began to experiment and enjoy creating small works. Some of these included Fat Man, Two Jolly Sailormen, Man in the Street, and Little Blackie. During this period she also experimented with ceramics and glazes. The influence of Charles Despiau and Aristide Maillol are clearly visible in Mayo's Olympian and Susannah.

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Fat Man, 1940, [JMM no.100] UQFL119_pic031

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Little Blackie, 1943
[JMM no.110] UQFL119_pic032

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The Olympian, 1946 [JMM no.137] UQFL119_pic035

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Woman, 1941 [JMM no.104] UQFL119_pic033

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Bust of Lloyd Rees [JMM no.126] UQFL119_pic034

Together with Lyndon Dadswell, 1908-1986 and Arthur Fleischmann, 1896-1990, Mayo exhibited in Three Sculptors: An exhibition of sculpture in David Jones' Art Gallery 18th July to 31st July 1946.

The exhibition received mixed responses, the most critical that of Paul Haefliger, art critic for the Sydney Morning Herald who claimed the exhibition:

... Shows how inadequate this most neglected of arts still remains here ... Even the best work of Daphne Mayo does not respond to the promptings of surface conventions ... Her more serious sculptures such as "Susannah" and "Torso of a Dancer" show little more than patient art school modelling ... ^[16]

While Tatlock Miller, art critic, wrote in the Sun:

Sculpture here is so rare that the visitor viewing this extraordinarily large collection is somewhat overwhelmed ...

He also argued in the same article:

In this sculpturally unconscious country, the sculptor's lot is not a happy one, and he, or she, must have a deal of courage to labour, produce and create in this stern and unrelenting medium.^[17]

Feeling alienated from her contemporaries, Mayo made a late withdrawl from the Exhibition of Sculpture in November 1949 which was to include seven sculptors: Tom Bass, Paul Beadle, Margel Hinder, Gerald Lawers, Lyndon Dadswell and the Queensland sculptor, Leonard Shillam. Mayo had achieved national recognition, particularly for her monumental commissions, but as McKay writes:

... but her modernist work was soon forgotten. It is tragic that the most creative interlude of her entire career should have ended in rejection and disillusion.^[18]

Confiding to her close friend Vida Lahey, Mayo hints at her feelings of depression and disappointment.

... What is difficult to combat is my sense of the futility of everything. Such a deep abysmal depression takes hold of me that I can't do anything! ^[19]

Under the tutelage of Roland Wakelin and E A Harvey, Mayo turned to painting portraits. The heavy demands of working with stone, clay and plaster over many years had clearly taken its toll.

Writing to her parents in January 1953, Mayo wrote of her joy in painting:

To have a few minutes of bliss with the paint brush each day ... ^[20]

Self Portrait, Daphne Mayo, [no date]
UQFL119_art001

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