Untitled (Two figures) 1977

oil pastel on paper

2021.60

Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by

Irwin Hirsh

in memory of Etta and Emmanuel Hirsh, 2021

About the artist and their work: b. Germany, 1928; d. Australia 2012

Born in Melbourne in 1945, artist Anne Hall studied painting at RMIT (1960-63). After graduating Hall set up her studio and immersed herself in the emerging art scene of Melbourne. Her first solo exhibition was held at South Yarra Gallery in 1968. Hall first met John Perceval in 1967 and the two immediately struck up a friendship. Whilst establishing her career, Hall became part of the wider circle of Antipodean artists in Melbourne. Exhibitions followed at Sydney’s Holdsworth Gallery in 1970, the Bonython Art Gallery, Adelaide in 1971 and again in that same year at South Yarra Gallery, which were well received with critical attention. In 1972 she married John Perceval and became his partner, collaborator and carer. Perceval suffered from alcoholism and schizophrenia and was admitted to hospital for mental health in 1977. Hall would later be acknowledged for her support of Perceval in this difficult time and has also been acknowledged as his artistic collaborator on several of his significant paintings from this period. In 1975 a retrospective of Hall’s work was mounted at Avant Galleries, Melbourne.

Hall’s divorce from Perceval was finalized in 1982 and she continued in the studio with renewed energy, producing paintings, drawings and ceramics in the loose figurative tradition. She exhibited at Powell Street Gallery in 1981, with exhibitions becoming less frequent in the 1980s and 1990s. There is less information about Hall in recent times. Hall participated in the major exhibition The National Women’s Art Exhibition which toured Australia in 1995. Leonard Joel Melbourne hosted a major auction from her studio in 2016.