Unveiling Christian Waller - Lecture @Glaas Inc

florencestglass
Nov 1, 2023
2 min read

Updated: Aug 20

Annual William Montgomery Lecture 2023.

Christian Waller was an exceptional and enigmatic woman and artist. The paucity of documentary records of her life and work has been an impediment to appreciating her work and understanding her as an artist. She was the only female professional stained glass artist in Australia from settlement to the 1970s, and the most original exponent in the country of leading trends in modernism and stained glass technique. Waller was a provincial girl whose unusual talent was recognised early and who trained at what was then the leading art school. Her work was sought after and she was consistently patronised, her considerable output being unable to keep pace with demand for her art. It is surprising that her oeuvre has been so overlooked for so long. It seems that she was, however, always overshadowed by her husband, the artist Napier Waller, in life and more so after her early death.

This presentation will attempt to examine the reasons for this, discuss her contribution and trace the journey that resulted in the catalogue raisonné of her work.

Dr Caroline Miley has had a lifetime interest in decorative arts, especially stained glass. She was Lecturer in Art History and Theory at the Victorian College of the Arts (University of Melbourne) and Curator of the College Collection. She consults for heritage architects and has published a number of pioneering books on the Arts and Crafts Movement in Australia and related subjects as well as social criticism and literary historical fiction.

8 November 2023 - 7:30 - 8:30pm

Melbourne Polytechnic Building K, Level 5, 36 St John St, Prahran, Victoria

Also via Zoom

https://www.christianwallerstainedglass.com/