Bronwyn Oliver: Strange Things

This is the first and only monograph about Australian sculptor Bronwyn Oliver, released to coincide with The Sculpture of Bronwyn Oliver at the TarraWarra Museum of Art, curated by Julie Ewington.

Author Hannah Fink took on the significant task of writing the story of Bronwyn's life and work, with meticulous detail. She interviews all the key people in Bronwyn's life, and traces the journey from her time growing up in the country, to entering art school in Sydney and building a wildly successful, prolific and inspiring art practice.

"I wanted to write an old fashioned art book, one that tells the story of the artist’s life from beginning to end," says author Hannah Fink.

"But I also wanted to write about the creative process – how Bronwyn made things, why she made them. What drives someone to make art?"

"The most interesting artists are ones who invent their own mediums, like Robert Klippel and Rosalie Gascoigne – and Bronwyn," says Fink.

Born on a farm near Gum Flat in Northern New South Wales, Bronwyn grew up in country-town Inverell. After landing, by accident, in the sculpture class run by Brian O'Dwyer at Alexander Mackie College (later College of Fine Arts, UNSW), she began developing techniques and ideas that would see her work stand out. She later won a Travelling Art Scholarship to study sculpture at Chelsea Art School in London, returning to win numerous awards including the Moët & Chandon Fellowship.

While many of her contemporaries began making installation art, Oliver worked within the traditional discipline of sculpture. She was an intensely ambitious artist whose works seem to grapple almost effortlessly with the big questions of life. Her organic yet strangely human, and extremely beautiful sculptures are coveted by collectors and curators for their eloquent beauty.

"But Bronwyn’s aim was not to create beautiful things for their own sake," says Fink. "The beauty of her objects comes from the thinking behind them."

Oliver’s death in 2006 cast a shadow over her work and her personality. The woman that emerges from this book is intelligent, funny, modest, hard-working, and, in the words of Roslyn Oxley, "never boring".

"The most exciting artists are the ones who speak to us most directly, who teach us how to look at things differently," says Fink.

"There has not been the opportunity for the public to see a lot of Bronwyn’s work all at once. I hope that this book is the beginning of Bronwyn being seen as a great Australian artist – an artist whose works belong to all students of art, and to the wider public."

Kip Williams launching Bronwyn Oliver: Strange Things.

Extensively illustrated and beautifully designed, this book is a must for every art student, collector, school, gallery and the general reader.

Please note: This book has references to death and suicide.Help is available from Lifeline, call 13 11 14.