CLIFTON PUGH AT DUNMOOCHIN: A romance with the Primordial and Edenic with Debbie Robinson

Join Debbie Robinson as she introduces the Australian modernist artist Clifton Pugh (1924-1990), his studio-home, and collection of modem art and Indigenous artefacts, and discusses the ways in which the exterior and interior decoration of his home represent an extension of his art and ideal self.

Pugh's handmade mud-brick home at Dunmoochin, the bohemian artists' cooperative on the outskirts of Melbourne, was part of an alternative lifestyle movement that emphasised the intrinsic worth of the Australian environment. Dunmoochin became a sanctuary for native flora and fauna and moreover, emblematic of philosophical sentiments concerning the interrelation of art, life and the natural world.

DEBBIE ROBINSON is a PhD candidate in art history at the University of Melbourne. Her thesis examines Australian modernist artist Clifton Pugh's engagement with Aboriginal art and culture and its influence on his art and environmental attitudes. Previously she completed a Master of Art Curatorship and has worked on several collections at the La Trobe University Museum of Art and the Montsalvat Arts Centre. She was the recipient of the 2009 Cultural Connotations Art Curatorship Award and the 2017 Miegunyah Fund Student Project Award at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne.

image: Geoff Hawkshaw (1932- ), Portrait of Clifton Pugh, Melbourne, July '65, 1965, photograph, National Library of Australia Image supplied