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Mother-son duo capture Cossack painters’ life in film

“THE WOLF in Australian Art – the life and art of Danila Vassilieff” is a 42-minute film about the Russian/Australian Cossack painter, Vassilieff.

Painter Danila Vassilieff
Painter Danila Vassilieff

Made last year by long-time former NGA staffer Felicity St John Moore and her film festival producer son Richard, it will be screened at the James O. Fairfax Theatre, NGA, and this Sunday July 23

“It’s sort of a family piece,” Richard Moore says,  “it’s been Felicity’s all-consuming passion for the last 40 years and part of her attempt to earn him a deserved place in the pantheon of Australian art.”  Brother Tim Moore, he says, designed the exhibition of Vassilieff’s work where they shot some of the film and NYC based sister Lisa Moore, played the majority of the music.

Danila Vassilieff, (1897-1958) was, he says, a major Australian artist and personality who was also Russian, “a bold Cossack, from south Russia, a defender of the Czar.”

Here in Australia  in the 1940s  when individualism was ‘in the air’ he liberated a group of younger painters— Nolan, Boyd, Tucker, Hester, Perceval and Blackman— to paint their own original visions and his  own emotional state drove the reality of his art and linked it to Russian folk art.

This, Richard believes, is the first time Vassilieff’s story has been told on film. A Shostakovich soundtrack, blended with a Russian acapella choir and a ‘treasure-trove’ of archival material add atmosphere and colour to the adventures as he travels from St Petersburg to London, Sydney, Melbourne, Warrandyte and Mildura, where he ended up.

Commissioned by Felicity St John Moore and based on her book “Vassilieff and his Art”, this documentary has been produced and directed by Richard,    former head of Brisbane Film Festival Melbourne International Film Festival and of ABC TV Arts, whose  independent documentary films include “Art from the Heart?” , “Charles Blackman: Dreams and Shadows”  and  “Butoh: Piercing the Mask.” This production is the second collaboration between the mother – son duo.

“THE WOLF in Australian Art – the life and art of Danila Vassilieff”, at the James O. Fairfax Theatre, NGA, this Saturday July 23 at 2pm. Richard Moore will introduce the film, which will be followed by a Q and A. Free but bookings essential to tickets.nga.gov.au

 

 

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Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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