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Australian artist Sir Lionel Lindsay once invoked ‘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, 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.’

This exhibition distils Lindsay’s life, work and legacy through the metaphor of alchemy, and considers alchemy’s commercial afterlife in the 20th century.

Exhibition on display 22 February – 18 May 2025.

Image: 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