Master wood engraver Sir Lionel Lindsay’s Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery exhibition delves into ‘Alc…
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An exhibition highlighting the exquisite skill of master wood engraver Sir Lionel Lindsay will be on display at Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery from Saturday, February 22 to Sunday, May 18, 2025.
The exhibition, Alchemy: Works by Sir Lionel Lindsay, distils the artist’s life, work and legacy through the lens of what Sir Lionel called ‘the strange alchemy of Fate’.
Alchemy means, among other things, transforming base elements into gold.
Born in 1874 at Creswick, a small Australian gold-mining town in Victoria, young Lionel explored old mineshafts and tailings.
In the early 1900s, Lindsay gained national attention for his etching practice which, as printmaker James McNeill Whistler rejoiced, involved converting ‘copper into gold’ (money).
Between the World Wars, Lindsay earned an international reputation as a master wood engraver.
He turned basic things – wood, ink, paper, everyday subjects – to luminous effect.
For one reviewer, ‘Lindsay, by an alchemy of his own, plucks light from the air and plants it on paper’.
After his death in 1961, Lindsay’s brother Daryl wrote, ‘His studio was like a 16th century Alchemist’s den’.
The exhibition’s Twilight Tour starts at 5.30pm on Thursday, March 20, 2025.
During the Twilight Tour, Bolton Library Services Officer Jayson Althofer will reveal some rarely seen objects once kept in Lindsay’s den.
Please RSVP by Tuesday, March 18 directly to the Gallery on (07) 4688 6652 or [email protected]
For more information, please see: Twilight Tour | Alchemy: Works by Sir Lionel Lindsay
Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery at 531 Ruthven Street, Toowoomba, is open Wednesday to Sunday 10.30am – 3.30pm. Entry is free.
Images: 1. Lionel LINDSAY / Lionel Lindsay ex libris 1933 / wood engraving / 9 x 8 cm / Toowoomba City Collection – Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery 1297 / © National Library of Australia (Top)
2. UNKNOWN PHOTOGRAPHER / Portrait of Lionel Lindsay n.d. / sepia photograph / 30.0 x 22.5 cm / Lionel Lindsay Gallery and Library Collection 458 (below)
3. Lionel LINDSAY / The edge of the world 1907 / cancelled copper etching plate / 14.3 x 11.8cm / Lionel Lindsay Gallery and Library Collection 468 / © National Library of Australia (bottom)