Carl Plate Art for Sale and Sold Prices

Painter

Carl Plate (1909-1977) was an prominent Australian modernist painter and collage artist born in Perth, Western Australia. He was the son of German born artist and writer Adolph Gustav Plate and the younger brother of artist Margo Lewers.[1]

While working in advertising, he studied part-time at the East Sydney Technical College, Sydney 1930-34. In 1935 Plate travelled to Europe via Cuba, Mexico and the USA. [2] Between 1935-40 he studied at Central School of Arts and Crafts under Bernard Meninsky and at St Martins School of Art under Vivian Pitchforth where he was influenced by Pitchforth’s ideas on ‘holistic composition’.[3] [4]While living in London he travelled extensively in Europe including Scandinavia and the USSR.

Returning from France in 1940, he established the Notanda Gallery in Rowe Street Sydney, as a contemporary art gallery,[5]and later book and print shop focussing on Modernism. Between 1940 and 1943 Plate curated many exhibitions at the Notanda Gallery including England Today: Exhibition of Modern British Art featuring 64 works by 34 artists including Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Paul Nash and Ben Nicholson, 20th Century Masters, a show of prints including Braque, Klee, Kokoschka, Redon, Dali and Modern French Art which included works by Braque, Miro and Picasso.[6][7][8]

In the 1940s and 50s Plate was a prominent board member and exhibitor of the NSW Branch of the Contemporary Art Society (Australia).[9][10]

Plate had 28 solo exhibitions in his lifetime.[11] He was the first Australian non-figurative artist to have solo exhibitions in London and New York, at the Leicester Galleries, 1959[12] and Knapik Gallery, 1962. [13][14]. He exhibited in numerous group exhibitions including Contemporary Australian Painting which toured the Pacific in 1956, Recent Australian Painting at the Whitechapel Gallery and Australian Contemporary Art at the São Paulo Biennial in 1961.[15] In 1967 he won the Aubusson Tapestry-Australian Wool Board Prize (dual), travelling to France to complete the tapestry design.[16]

Plate lived and worked most of his life in the Sydney suburb of Woronora. He also lived and worked in France for extended periods. He died at Woronora in 1977.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales presented a retrospective of his work Project 22, Carl Plate 1909-1977 in 1977. His collages and paintings are represented in many collections including the Australian National Gallery, Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Queensland Art Gallery, Reserve Bank of Australia, Artbank, Merz Collection USA, Cornell University Collection, Australian Embassy Washington and private collections in Argentina, Australia, France, New Zealand, Greece, UK and the USA.[17][