Vera Blackburn was born in Sydney, Australia in 1911, studying at the University of Sydney, Adelaide Perry Art School and under Thea Proctor, an important proponent of linocuts in Australia. In 1937 she moved to London to study at the Westminster School of Art, remaining in England for the rest of her life. Family life and the impact of the Second World World War meant that she ceased working as an artist until the late 1980s, when she took up printmaking again.
Printmaker Vera Blackburn was born in Sydney, Australia on 27 April 1911, the daughter of artistically minded parents who encouraged her artistic pursuits. Blackburn grew up in the family home at Potts Point, where paintings by Thea Proctor, Elioth Gruner and J.J. Hilder hung on the walls. She always wished to become an artist, although not necessarily a printmaker, finding the etchings her parents owned by Norman and Lionel Lindsay 'boring’ (Design & Art Australia database). In 1927 she visited Europe with her parents and, back in Australia, she enrolled at the University of Sydney, graduating in Classics in 1932. She also took private art classes from renowned artist Thea Proctor in 1931, learning how to make linocuts. A prominent figure in Sydney art circles, Proctor had studied in England and was crucial in introducing modernist design to Australia. She recommended that Blackburn study full-time at the newly-established Adelaide Perry Art School, where she could hone her technical skills in linocut.
Blackburn remained in Adelaide from 1933 until leaving for England with her father in 1937. In London, she enrolled at the Westminster School of Art for two years, training in sculpture under Eric Schilsky; she also studied with John Howard, Mark Gertler, Blair Hughes-Stanton and Bernard Meninsky. She became friends with a number of expatriate Australian artists, among them Jean Bellette, Eric Wilson, John Passmore and William Dobell. In 1939 she married a scientist, Philip Malcolm Game (the son of a Governor of New South Wales) and never returned permanently to Australia. The Second World War and family life interrupted her career as an artist and, apart from occasional sketching, she did not carry out significative work for many decades.
Blackburn took up printmaking again in the late 1980s, when she produced a number of linocuts, among them The Deer (1986, National Gallery of Australia). She never exhibited in England and, although she was included in a number of group shows in Australia, her only solo exhibition was held at the Deutsher Galleries, Victoria in 1979. Vera Blackburn died on 14 August 1991 in Kent, England. Her work is not currently represented in UK public collections.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Vera Blackburn]
Publications related to [Vera Blackburn] in the Ben Uri Library