A People’s Press - Noel Counihan

A prolific painter and draughtsman, Noel Counihan sustained a lifelong printmaking practice, which included works produced for collaborative print portfolios and for political and cultural journals and posters. This exhibition looks at Counihan’s collective approach to printmaking, an aspect of his practice that was informed by his personal politics and involvement with several cultural cooperatives which produced the print portfolio Eureka 1854–1954, to commemorate the centenary of the miners’ revolt at the Eureka Stockade. This left-wing Melbourne collective was sympathetic to the unionist sentiments of the Ballarat miners, whose uprising 170 years ago will be commemorated this year.

Image Credit: Noel Counihan, Here peace begins 1950, from the portfolio War or Peace 1950, linocut; edition 68/300, Colin Holden Charitable Trust, © Michael Counihan