{{Short description|Australian sculptor (1895–1982)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}} {{Use Australian English|date=July 2012}} {{Infobox person | name = Daphne Mayo | image = Portrait of Daphne Mayo.jpg | caption = | birth_name = Lilian Daphne Mayo | birth_date = {{Birth date|1895|10|01|df=yes}} | birth_place = Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | death_date = {{Death date and age|1982|07|31|1895|10|01|df=yes}} | death_place = Brisbane, Queensland, Australia<ref>Judith M. McKay, '[https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mayo-lilian-daphne-14954 Mayo, Lilian Daphne (1895–1982)]', Australian Dictionary of Biography</ref> | body_discovered = | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} --> | citizenship = | other_names = | known_for = Public sculptures | education = | alma_mater = | employer = | occupation = | years_active = | height = | title = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | opponents = | boards = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = Lila Mary<br />William McArthur Mayo | relations = | callsign = | awards = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }} '''Lilian Daphne Mayo''' {{Post-nominals|post-noms=MBE}} (1 October 1895 – 31 July 1982) was an Australian artist, most prominently known for her work in sculpture, particularly the tympanum of Brisbane City Hall and the Women's War Memorial in ANZAC Square.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.artmuseum.uq.edu.au/daphne-mayo-lecture|title=Daphne Mayo Lecture - UQ Art Museum - The University of Queensland, Australia|website=artmuseum.uq.edu.au|language=en|access-date=2017-02-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180621061811/http://www.artmuseum.uq.edu.au/daphne-mayo-lecture|archive-date=21 June 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>
== Personal life ==
thumb|Mayo (seated front and centre), Wattle Day celebrations, Brisbane, 1914
Born in Balmain, Sydney, in 1895, Mayo was educated in Brisbane at St Margaret's Anglican Girls School and received a Diploma in Art Craftsmanship from the Brisbane Central Technical College in 1913. At the college she was strongly influenced by L. J. Harvey, who initiated her interest in modelling.<ref name="look">{{cite book |title=Looking up looking back at old Brisbane |last=Readshaw |first=Grahame |author2=Ronald Wood |year=1987 |publisher=Boolarong Publications |location=Bowen Hills, Queensland |isbn=0-86439-032-7 |pages=11}}</ref> She further developed her skills in this medium when she was presented with an opportunity to go to London in 1919 through an art scholarship provided by Queensland Wattle League.<ref name="ldm" /> There she took a position as an assistant sculptor before her acceptance into the sculpture school of the Royal Academy.<ref name="womqld" />
== Prominent works ==
Despite her small frame, Mayo produced many physically demanding works which were carved in situ.<ref name="look" /> On her return to Brisbane in 1925, she created a number of local works including:
thumb|Brisbane City Hall tympanum
* The Brisbane City Hall tympanum (1927–30). The tympanum represents a relief of early settlement entitled "The progress of civilisation in the State of Queensland". This sculpture has been considered one of the most important Brisbane sculpture commissions ever awarded.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}} In 1953, Mayo described the artwork as a depiction of white colonialist supremacy: "Of course the figures show the retreat of the Aborigine. Isn't it true? As a civilisation, they simply couldn't stand up to ours."<ref>{{cite news |date=13 September 1953 |title='It's True,' Says Sculptor Mayo |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article98282064 |accessdate=27 June 2023 |newspaper=Sunday Mail |location=Queensland, Australia |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Many Indigenous leaders have criticised the sculptures and have called for their removal.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Rangiah |first=Lillian |date=4 October 2022 |title=Brisbane City Council won't change 'outdated' sculptures despite calls from First Nations leaders for their removal |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-04/qld-city-hall-outdated-sculptures-indigenous-calls-for-removal/101496010 |access-date=2023-06-27 |work=ABC News |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |language=en-AU}}</ref> * The Queensland Women's War Memorial (1929–32) located in Brisbane's Anzac Square is a sandstone relief of a military procession. The first war memorial depicting servicewomen, this piece highlights the important contribution made by women to the tradition of war memorials.<ref name="womqld">[http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/publications/p00813aa.pdf Women and the arts - Queensland women contributions to the Heritage Register]{{Dead link|date=July 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name="uqff">{{cite journal|last1=McKay|first1=Judith|title=A women's tribute to war|journal=Fryer Folios|date=August 2014|volume=9|issue=1|pages=7–9|url=https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:341125/ff9_1_2014.pdf|access-date=3 December 2014}}</ref> The Brisbane Women's Club conceived the idea of the Queensland Women's War Memorial in 1929 at the outset of the Depression. A campaign was launched to raise a thousand pounds for the memorial but as insufficient funds were raised the original concept of a panel cast in bronze and a cascading fountain was changed to a carved stone panel and water fountain.<ref name="uqff" />
[[File:Major General Sir William Glasgow (8282239487).jpg|thumb|Statue of Major General Sir William Glasgow]]
* The Sir William Glasgow Memorial (1961–64);<ref name="look" /> this naturalistic bronze figure statue was added to the Queensland Heritage Register in 2004.<ref>{{cite QHR|19561|Sir William Glasgow Memorial|602439}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=McKay|first=Judith|title=A sculptor's legacy|url=http://www.qldheritage.org.au/assets/files/time-and-place/time-and-place-26.pdf|work=Time and Place|publisher=Queensland Heritage Council|access-date=15 June 2013|date=Summer 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130420115345/http://www.qldheritage.org.au/assets/files/time-and-place/time-and-place-26.pdf|archive-date=20 April 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> * Tympanum at Holy Spirit Church, New Farm<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.holyspiritparish.com.au/about/|title=About Us|publisher=Holy Spirit Church, New Farm|access-date=3 June 2017}}</ref>
== Public service == Mayo was Vice-President of the Royal Queensland Art Society from 1927 to 1930 and was made a life member.<ref>Bradbury, Keith & Cooke, Glenn R. “Thorns & Petals, 100 years of the Royal Queensland Art Society” (1988) p. 205-207 {{ISBN|0-7316-3596-5}}</ref> thumb|Les Dwyer (1937). Foundation members of the Australian Academy of Art, Canberra, 19 Jun 1937. Back row, left to right: McInnes, Heysen, Croll, Harold Herbert, Rowell. Front row, left to right: D. Mayo, Norman Carter, Ure Smith, Menzies, Hoff, Eldershaw. Daphne Mayo Collection, University of Queensland In 1937, Mayo became an invited foundation member of, and exhibited with, Robert Menzies' anti-modernist organisation the Australian Academy of Art.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-323428163 |title=Australian Academy of Art First Exhibition, April 8th-29th, Sydney : Catalogue |publisher=Australian Academy of Art |year=1938 |edition=1st |location=Sydney |language=en |access-date=2022-11-02}}</ref> She lobbied successfully on numerous occasions for funding for the fledgling Queensland Art Gallery, established with painter colleague Vida Lahey an art reference library at the University of Queensland in 1936, was a trustee of the Queensland Art Gallery (1960–67) and left her private papers to the University of Queensland's Fryer Library.<ref name="lect">[http://www.uq.edu.au/events/event_view.php?event_id=2545 Professor Roger Benjamin `Juan Davila: from Convulsive Decoration to the Salon] Lecture</ref>
For campaigning vigorously for the arts in Queensland during this time she was awarded the Society of Artists' medal in 1938 and MBE in 1959.<ref name="ldm">[https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20071105021500/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/78644/20071105-1315/www.200australianwomen.com/names/163.html Daphne Mayo 1895 - 1982 sculptor]{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, 200 Australian Women</ref>
== Legacy ==
'''The Daphne Mayo Visiting Professorship in Visual Culture''' The School of English, Media Studies and Art History at The University of Queensland established the annual Daphne Mayo Visiting Professorship in Visual Culture, featuring each year, a major world figure to visit Brisbane to speak about the latest trends, influences, and theories in their area of visual culture, and to give public lectures and take master classes with postgraduate students at The University of Queensland.
'''The Annual Daphne Mayo Lecture''' is presented by the University Art Museum and the School of English, Media Studies and Art History, in association with the Alumni Association of the University of Queensland Inc and is dedicated to a leading Australian advocate of the visual arts.<ref name="lect" /> There is also an artists society named after her, the '''Friends of Daphne Mayo'''.
'''The University of Queensland Fryer Library''' holds the Daphne Mayo manuscript collection, comprising correspondence, newspaper clippings, art exhibition catalogues, tools, art works, photographs, notebooks, diaries.<ref>{{cite web|title=The University of Queensland Fryer Library, Daphne Mayo collection UQFL119 |url=http://library.uq.edu.au/record=b1979281 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20141203020814/http://library.uq.edu.au/record=b1979281 |url-status=dead |archive-date=3 December 2014 |access-date=3 December 2014 }}</ref><ref name="significant_woman">{{cite web|title=A Significant Woman of Her Time: The Daphne Mayo Collection|url=http://www.library.uq.edu.au/fryer/mayo/index.html|archive-url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20140909213100/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/148364/20140910-0731/www.library.uq.edu.au/fryer/mayo/index.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=9 September 2014|website=The University of Queensland, Fryer Library|access-date=3 December 2014}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>
== See also ==
== References == {{reflist}} * {{Cite news |date=2022-10-03 |title=Brisbane Council won't change controversial sculptures despite First Nations' calls for their removal |language=en-AU |work=ABC News |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-04/qld-city-hall-outdated-sculptures-indigenous-calls-for-removal/101496010 |access-date=2023-04-09}}
== External links == {{Sister project auto}}
* Judith M. McKay, '[https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mayo-lilian-daphne-14954 Mayo, Lilian Daphne (1895–1982)]', Australian Dictionary of Biography * [http://www.daao.org.au/main/read/4328 Daphne Mayo - Dictionary of Australian Artists] * {{cite web |url=http://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/biogs/WLE0448b.htm |title=Visual Arts |work=The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia |access-date=7 August 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140513014052/https://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/biogs/WLE0448b.htm |archive-date=13 May 2014}}
{{portalbar|Australia}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayo, Daphne}} Category:1895 births Category:1982 deaths Category:20th-century Australian sculptors Category:20th-century Australian women artists Category:Artists from Sydney Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire Category:People educated at St Margaret's Anglican Girls' School