Best known as a landscape painter, Ernest Buckmaster also made many
portraits, including this highly finished yet sensitive painting of
Wulli Wulli tenor and activist Harold Blair AO (1924–1976). Born at
Cherbourg Aboriginal Reserve in Queensland, Blair began his career
singing at local concerts while working on the cane fields. In March
1945 he sang on a radio talent quest, Australia’s Amateur Hour,
gaining a record number of votes, and within months he was accepted by
the Melbourne (Melba) Conservatorium of Music. He then studied at the
Juilliard School in New York, performing in a benefit concert at the New
York Town Hall in early 1951. Back in Australia, he appeared as a guest
artist for the ABC’s three-year Jubilee Tour of Australia and later
taught at the Melba Conservatorium. Increasingly focused on First
Nations rights, he served on the Aborigines’ Welfare Board in Victoria
in the late 1950s, and was involved in the Aborigines Advancement
League, the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres
Strait Islanders and the Commonwealth Aboriginal Arts Board. In 1973,
he won praise for his performance in Dalgerie, the first ever opera staged at the Sydney Opera House.
Purchased 2010
© Estate of Ernest Buckmaster
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