BMA Arts
Canberra’s Basil Hall has been running workshops and teaching since he graduated in Printmaking from the ANU in 1986. Now In 2024, he has curated a new exhibition at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre in which
he draws from his vast boxes of Printer’s Proofs and mementoes.
With prints by Mandy Martin, Jorg Schmeisser, Paul Peisley, George Gittoes, Raymond Arnold, Garry Shead, Pamela Challis, Bob Russell, GW Bot, Chris Denton, Dianne Fogwell, Julie Bradley, Sylvia and Tony Convey and many, many more (!) we thought we’d have a with Basil about it!
Tell us about the benefits, joys, and other aspects of prints…
Occasionally I have have made my own work and exhibited, but my main focus to date has been on running various printmaking workshops and businesses, teaching and printing editions for others.
What’s your Arts origin story?
When I was at Art School in the early ‘80s, Head Lecturer Jorg Schmeisser employed some of us to assist with his editions, as did Theo Tremblay, the Lithography lecturer.
I ended up printing on and off for Jorg for nearly 25 years, and working with Theo at Studio One for a few years too.
With these guys, and the amazing Mandy Martin and Toni Robertson as mentors and guides, I was on my way as a collaborating printer.
Dianne Fogwell and Meg Buchanan then gave me my start at Studio One in 1985, and a couple of years after their partnership broke up, I found myself Co-Director at Studio One with Marion Hambly.
Tell us about this exhibition:
The exhibition has come about because I have a pretty healthy collection of Printer’s Proofs and memorabilia from those ten years at the studio.
I have tried to bulk out the gaps in the show by borrowing back a few pieces, but a large number of the important artists, printers, workshop and class attendees and resident artists had something in my collection and are represented by a small piece they made at the time.
Many have gone on to great things, and a good many have sadly passed away now.
This exhibition isn’t about my art, although I have two pieces in there that I made after a year in the UK. They poke fun at the strange land we found ourselves in after I left art school.
Influences?
I am most influenced by events that affect me personally or political events which arouse a response. In recent years I have done more of the latter: posters, t-shirts, and prints about refugees, Adani, and esteemed political leaders.
Of what are you proudest so far?
I have had a long career working with Indigenous artists since leaving Studio One in 1996. I was based in Darwin for 16 years and since returning to Canberra in 2012, I have continued to travel up north to run workshops and then edition for literally hundreds of First Nations artists from over 50 communities in NT, WA and SA, primarily.
Plans for the future?
I am hoping to continue my collaborations with artists on a more individual basis from my studio in Ainslie, as well as write a book on my northern printmaking adventures over the last 35 years.
Following the Tuggeranong Arts exhibition, my wife, Pam, and I are travelling to Virginia for the launch of the first of several exhibitions of my work with First Nations artists and a symposium and panel discussions in Charlottesville.
In 2023, I donated my entire Basil Hall Editions archive of Workshop Proofs – over 1300 prints from the years 2002-2022 – to the Kluge-Ruhe Collection at the University of Virginia, USA. The Kluge-Ruhe has the largest collection of Australian Indigenous art outside Australia, and this gift will form the nucleus of a Works on Paper collection for use of student and staff research and future touring exhibitions.
PRINTS FROM STUDIO ONE, 1987 – 1996: FROM THE COLLECTION OF BASIL HALL is on at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre from 2 February – 28 March. There’s also an afternoon tea with Basil on Saturday 24 February, 2-3pm! To reserve your spot head to The Tuggeranong Arts website.