January-December 2010, vol. 1

publications receivedThe following publications have been recently purchased by, or donated to the Italian HistoricalSociety. The Society makes every attempt to acquire all current publications in the field of Italian-Australian history. These publications are available for consultation at the Library of the ItalianHistorical Society.art | music | filmby architects Roger Poole and AndrewRaftopoulos of Bates Smart Architecture.Geelong Art Gallery, Bruno Leti. Survey ArtistsBooks 1982 2003, Geelong: Geelong ArtGallery, 2003.Published by the Geelong Art Gallery toaccompany the 2003 travelling exhibition ofBruno Leti’s artists books (curated by BrianHubber), this catalogue photographicallydocuments some of the many exquisite artistsbooks produced by Leti in the period 1982 to2003. Included in the catalogue arebibliographical notes, a bibliography and aninsightful essay by Alan Loney, fellow producerof artists books, freelance writer and co-directorof The Holloway Press at the University ofAuckland, New Zealand.Hands and Heart, Stitches of Love, Melbourne:FILEF, 2008.This small booklet was produced tocomplement the exhibition of the Hands andHeart, Stitches of Love exhibition held at Co.As.It.in conjunction with the 2008 Melbourne ItalianFestival. It photographically documents some ofthe exhibition, which was a celebration ofwomen’s work of handmade trousseau ordowry Italian textiles from various regions ofItaly. The textiles exhibited were selected fromprivate collections, sourced by the Filef(Federazione italiana lavoratori emigrati efamiglie) Women’s Group.Edquist, Harriet; Palmer, Maudie (ed.), GeorgeBaldessin. Paradox & Persuasion, Collingwood:Australian Galleries Publishing, 2009.This major book on Baldessin’s art waspublished on the occasion of the thirty-firstanniversary of his death and to complement aretrospective of his work at TarraWarraMuseum of Art. Both the survey exhibition andthe book explore the unique relationships thatprevail throughout Baldessin’s oeuvre. HarrietEdquist offers the reader an appreciation ofBaldessin’s work and of the vibrant period of the1960s and 1970s in Melbourne, providing a newunderstanding of the inspiration that fuelled hisboundless invention and experimentation.Magistrates’ Court of Victoria, Bruno Leti. TheChildren’s Court Paintings, Melbourne,Melbourne: Magistrates’ Court of Victoria,2000.This catalogue of Bruno Leti’s large oil paintingson linen for the Children’s Court of Victoria waspublished on the occasion of the official openingof the building. The catalogue considers in detailboth the artistic and architectural requirementsof the structure. These are expressed throughan interesting introductory essay by Dr SashaGrishin, Reader in Art History at the AustralianNational University, Canberra, and followed byan explanation of the Courts’ structural designMcCaughey, Patrick, ‘The Graphic Work ofGeorge Baldessin,’ in Art & Australia, Vol. 7,No. 2, 1969, pp. 154-159.Written by well-known art historian, critic andwriter, Patrick McCaughey, this essay considersthe graphic work, including prints, etchings andaquatints, of George Baldessin. Born in SanBiagio di Callata in the Veneto in 1939, Baldessinmigrated to Melbourne at the age of 10 andenjoyed a successful artistic career until histragic death in 1978. McCaughey considersBaldessin’s graphic works as a “substantial bodyof work deserving of comment in its own right ...they represent a sustained attempt to maintaina pictorial figuration at a time when figurativepainting [was] steering an erratic course.”Art Quarterly, Art & Australia, Vol. 30, No. 4,1993, Émigré Issue.This issue of Art & Australia is conceived in thecontext of post-colonial recognition of theimportance of cultural relationships. Overeleven essays, the journal seeks to record thesignificant contribution of European émigrés toAustralian visual art and to examine the processof change.52 | IHSJ ITALIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL VOLUME 18 2010