Case Study Joy Hester
Joy Hester
Joy St Clair Hester, or Joy Hester, was born 12th August in 1920 in Elsternick, Melbourne. Hester was an Australian artist during a time period where the work she produced was exceptionally unappreciated. After dying of cancer at age 40 (4th December 1960) she has become acknowledged. Hester’s work particularly is largely made up of human faces. Hester’s “Girl” and “Cancelled Sketch of Pauline McCarthy” display the use of human faces and her artistic style.
Joy Hester’s father, Robert Ferdinand Hester, was a bank officer and her mother, Louise May nee Bracher, was a school teacher. She grew up in Melbourne during a dramatic and traumatic time period. She experienced times of war (World War II), the Great Depression, the introduction of Aboriginal rights in Australia (Stolen Generation) and the on-going gain of women’s right and feminism. During this time, change was brought about throughout Australia. The war meant that women became the source of help and had to take up jobs to support their family. Women were forced into different and new roles to keep everything going strong for when the men came back from war. This saw a rise in women’s rights and feminism (movements and ideologies aimed at establishing equal political, economical and social rights for women). This would have affected her artworks as she may have reflected on the struggle women went through during these tough periods. The Great Depression would have affected Hester’s childhood as would have become an influence on her arts works as she may have recalled events and based her subject’s (people in her artworks) emotions on the ones she felt in the times of depression and need.
During the 1940s, Hester painted many portraits of the human face and often dealt with raw emotion she saw on the faced of those she saw suffering in Germany during Hitler’s reign. During this time, Hester was closely associated with the Angry Penguins – a modernist literary and artistic movement that sought
Joy St Clair Hester, or Joy Hester, was born 12th August in 1920 in Elsternick, Melbourne. Hester was an Australian artist during a time period where the work she produced was exceptionally unappreciated. After dying of cancer at age 40 (4th December 1960) she has become acknowledged. Hester’s work particularly is largely made up of human faces. Hester’s “Girl” and “Cancelled Sketch of Pauline McCarthy” display the use of human faces and her artistic style.
Joy Hester’s father, Robert Ferdinand Hester, was a bank officer and her mother, Louise May nee Bracher, was a school teacher. She grew up in Melbourne during a dramatic and traumatic time period. She experienced times of war (World War II), the Great Depression, the introduction of Aboriginal rights in Australia (Stolen Generation) and the on-going gain of women’s right and feminism. During this time, change was brought about throughout Australia. The war meant that women became the source of help and had to take up jobs to support their family. Women were forced into different and new roles to keep everything going strong for when the men came back from war. This saw a rise in women’s rights and feminism (movements and ideologies aimed at establishing equal political, economical and social rights for women). This would have affected her artworks as she may have reflected on the struggle women went through during these tough periods. The Great Depression would have affected Hester’s childhood as would have become an influence on her arts works as she may have recalled events and based her subject’s (people in her artworks) emotions on the ones she felt in the times of depression and need.
During the 1940s, Hester painted many portraits of the human face and often dealt with raw emotion she saw on the faced of those she saw suffering in Germany during Hitler’s reign. During this time, Hester was closely associated with the Angry Penguins – a modernist literary and artistic movement that sought