The artist Mandy Martin, who spent much of her career in Canberra, has died. She passed away in palliative care on Saturday.
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"On Friday night the family raised a glass with her to celebrate a life extremely well lived. She left us peacefully the next morning," her son, the Canberra-based artist Alexander Boynes, said.
Mandy Martin was born in Adelaide in 1952, studying at the art school there. She moved to the Australian National University and gained worldwide prominence as an artist.
She had numerous exhibitions in Australia, Mexico and the US as well as in France, Germany, Japan, Taiwan and Italy. Her works are in many collections, including the National Gallery of Australia. Her work is in the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.
Her first major exhibition was at the Solander Gallery in Canberra in 1980. The Canberra Times art critic, Sasha Grishin, praised her use of 'thick, well-worked painterly and textured masses" and thought Martin creatively realised 'her own sense of social imagery'.
One of her paintings - Red Ochre Cove - was commissioned for the main committee room in the new Parliament House. It is three metres high and twelve metres wide.
From 1973, she became a lecturer at the School of Art at the ANU in Canberra. Her twin passions were art and the environment, according to her son. From 2008 to 2018, she was a professor at the ANU's Fenner School of Environment and Society.
"Mandy was exceptionally brave and fought hard over the last four years. She kept her sense of humour until the end and we could not be more proud. In true Mandy Martin spirit, she chose exactly when and how she wanted to leave, just as she lived her life. We would like to thank everyone who has shown their love and support over the recent years."
She moved from Canberra to the central west of New South Wales and became increasingly engaged with the plight of the environment, both as an artist and as a campaigner.
"I have painted well over 200 works in the Central West, so the 20 chosen for this exhibition reflect those 20 years in a landscape which has slowly opened up to me", she said as an exhibition of her work toured Australia in 2016.
"However, I have a deep unease about the landscape we live in. I see it becoming marginal as climate change accelerates. The issues of water I have addressed in many environmental art projects are tantamount."
She is survived by a son, a daughter and a step-daughter, and three grandchildren.
Steve Evans
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
