{{Short description|Australian painter}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2017}} {{Infobox person | name = Carl Plate | image = Carl Plate 1959.jpg | caption=Carl Plate in 1959 | alt = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1909|12|19}} | birth_place = Perth, Western Australia | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1977|05|15|1909|12|19}} | death_place = Woronora, New South Wales, Australia | education = Central School of Arts and Crafts, St Martins School of Art | other_names = | occupation = | years_active = | known_for = Lyrical abstraction, Collage | notable_works = Graph Segments No 1 }}
'''Carl Olaf Plate''' (19 December 1909<ref name="Aus Dictonary of Biography">{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lewers-hettie-margaret-margo-11402|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography|last=Crayford|first=Michael|publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|location=Canberra|chapter=Lewers, Hettie Margaret (Margo) (1908–1978)}}</ref> – 15 May 1977) was a prominent Australian modernist painter and collage artist.
==Biography== Born in Perth, Western Australia, Plate was the son of German born artist and writer Adolph Gustav Plate and the younger brother of artist Margo Lewers.<ref name="Aus Dictonary of Biography" />
While working in advertising, he studied part-time at the East Sydney Technical College during 1930–34. In 1935 Plate travelled to Europe via Cuba, Mexico and the USA.<ref>Waterlow, Nick. [http://damienmintongallery.blogspot.com.au/2010/07/nick-waterlow-on-carl-plate.html Nick Waterlow on Carl Plate]. From ''Curating the COFA Collection'', University of NSW, 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-7334-2814-2}}. At Damien Minton Gallery website</ref> Between 1935–40 he studied at Central School of Arts and Crafts under Bernard Meninsky and at St Martins School of Art under Vivian Pitchforth where he was influenced by Pitchforth’s ideas on ‘holistic composition’.<ref>Interview by Richard Haese, Woronora, 29/6/74, State Library of Victoria</ref><ref name="Encyclopedia of aus art">McCulloch, Alan. ''Encyclopedia of Australian Art'', Hutchinson, 1968</ref> Through his friend Arthur Wheen, he began to mix with leading English artists and writers such as Roland Penrose, Herbert Read and T. S. Eliot. The 1936 London International Surrealist Exhibition stimulated his interest in collage.<ref>Plate, Cassi. 'Carl Plate: Within and Without', in ''Carl Plate Collage 1938 – 1976'', Hazelhurst Regional Art Gallery & Arts Centre, 2009, p.12 {{ISBN|9781921437090}}</ref> While living in London he also travelled extensively in Europe, including Scandinavia and the USSR.
Returning from France in 1940, he re-established the Notanda Gallery in Rowe Street Sydney, as a contemporary art gallery<ref>{{Cite book|title=Cubism and Australian art|last=Lesley.|first=Harding|date=2009|publisher=Melbourne University Publishing|others=Cramer, Sue.|isbn=9780522856736|location=Carlton, Vic.|oclc=428974492}}</ref> and later book and print shop focussing on Modernism. Between 1940 and 1943 Plate curated many exhibitions at the Notanda Gallery including ''England Today: Exhibition of Modern British Art'' featuring 64 works by 34 artists including Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Paul Nash, and Ben Nicholson; a Balinese art show, ''20th Century Masters'', a show of prints including Braque, Klee, Kokoschka, Odilon Redon, Dalí and ''Modern French Art'' which included works by Braque, Joan Miró and Picasso. Notanda Gallery also presented solo exhibitions by Plate and Desiderius Orban.<ref name="Carl Plate collage">Plate, Cassi (ed). ''Carl Plate Collage 1938 – 1976'', Hazelhurst Regional Art Gallery & Arts Centre, 2009 {{ISBN|9781921437090}}</ref><ref>''England Today: Exhibition of Modern British Art'', Notanda Gallery catalogue, Sydney 1940</ref><ref name="cubism & aus art">Harding, Lesley; Kramer, Sue. ''Cubism & Australian Art'', Heide Museum of Modern Art, 2009</ref> thumb|Carl Plate, 1961,''Graph Segments No. 1'', pva and mixed media on hardboard, 122 x 365 cm, National Gallery of Australia
In the 1940s and '50s, Plate was a prominent board member and exhibitor of the NSW Branch of the Contemporary Art Society (Australia).<ref>Donaldson A. D. S. 'The Visible Coming to the aid of the Non-Visible: the Collage of Carl Plate', in Cassi Plate (ed). ''Carl Plate Collage 1938 – 1976'', Hazelhurst Regional Art Gallery & Arts Centre, 2009 {{ISBN|9781921437090}}</ref><ref name="cubism & aus art" />
Plate had 28 solo exhibitions in his lifetime.<ref name="Carl Plate collage" /> and was the first Australian non-figurative artist to have solo exhibitions in London and New York, at the Leicester Galleries, 1959<ref name="Encyclopedia of aus art" /> and Knapik Gallery, 1962 which included his large scale painting ''Graph Segments No. 1.''<ref name="Encyclopedia of aus art" /><ref>Rawlins, Adrian. ''Overland'' No. 23, April 1962, Melbourne p.51</ref> He exhibited in numerous group exhibitions including ''Contemporary Australian Painting'' which toured the Pacific in 1956, ''Recent Australian Painting'' at the Whitechapel Gallery, ''Australian Contemporary Art'' at the São Paulo Biennial in 1961<ref name=horton69>Horton, Mervyn (ed). ''Present Day Australian Art'', Ure Smith, Sydney (1969)</ref> and ''Australian Painting'' Tate Gallery London, 1962. Plate was a member of the group calling themselves ''Sydney 9'', which included Robert Hughes, Robert Klippel, Clement Meadmore, John Olsen and Stanislav Rapotec, holding exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne to show that as well as the Antipodeans, the Sydney abstractionists were an important part of the Australian art scene.<ref name=horton69/>{{rp|11}} He was represented by the Hungry Horse Gallery and Bonython Gallery, Sydney and Galerie de France in Paris. In Paris he collaborated with Alekos Fassianos on a lithography series.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Monster & Colossus|last=Cassi|first=Plate|publisher=Australian Scholarly Publishing|year=2020|isbn=9781925984279|location=Melbourne}}</ref> In 1967 he won the Aubusson tapestry-Australian Wool Board Prize (dual), travelling to France to complete the tapestry design.<ref name="Carl Plate collage" /> thumb|Carl Plate, 1975, ''Rows'', collage
Plate lived and worked most of his life in the Sydney suburb of Woronora and lived and worked in France for extended periods. In 1945 he married painter Jocelyn Zander, daughter of curator Clarice Zander. He was a close friend of celebrated Greek writer Costas Taktsis.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Monster & Colossus|last=Cassi|first=Plate|publisher=Australian Scholarly Publishing|year=2020|isbn=9781925984279|location=Melbourne}}</ref> Taktsis's novel ''The Third Wedding Wreath'' (Το τρίτο στεφάνι) is dedicated to Carl and Jocelyn Plate. Plate died at Woronora in 1977.
In the same year the Art Gallery of New South Wales presented a retrospective of his work ''Project 22, Carl Plate 1909–1977''.<ref>[https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?exhibition_id=2579 Works shown in the exhibition "Project 22 - Carl Plate: 1909-1977 (1977)"], at Art Gallery of New South Wales. Accessed 10 September 2017</ref> His collage, paintings and sculpture are represented in many collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Newcastle Art Gallery, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Queensland Art Gallery, Reserve Bank of Australia, Artbank, Merz Collection USA, Cornell University Collection, Australian Embassy Washington and private collections in Argentina, Australia, France, New Zealand, Greece, UK and the USA.<ref name="Carl Plate collage" /><ref name="Encyclopedia of aus art" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Carl Plate}} *[https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?artist_id=plate-carl Carl Plate works in the Art Gallery of New South Wales Collection] *[https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/carl-plate/ ''Carl Plate: Works from the Collection'', Art Gallery of New South Wales, Nov 2006 – Jan 2007] *[https://www.carlplate.com/ Carl Plate official website] *[http://www.deutscherandhackett.com/auction/lot/graph-segments-no1-1961 Henry Mulholland, "Carl Plate: Graph Segments", Deutscher & Hackett, 2017] *[http://carlplate.blogspot.com.au/search/label/A.D.S.%20Donaldson A.D.S Donaldson, ''The Visible Coming to the Aid of the Non-Visible: The Collage of Carl Plate'', 2009] * [https://www.carlplate.com/single-post/2009/09/28/Nick-Waterlow-on-Carl-Plate/ Nick Waterlow on Carl Plate] *[https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/media_release/lurid-beauty-australian-surrealism-and-its-echoes/ Media Release ''Lurid Beauty: Australian Surrealism and its Echoes'', National Gallery of Victoria, 2015]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Plate, Carl}} Category:20th-century Australian male artists Category:1909 births Category:1977 deaths Category:Australian male painters Category:Australian collage artists Category:20th-century Australian painters Category:Australian modern painters