Art community mourns

AUSTRALIA’S art community has united in tribute to prize-winning artist Charles Blackman, who has died peacefully in Sydney aged 90.

The Art Gallery of NSW described Blackman as “one of the most celebrated Australian figurative artists of the 20th century”. Blackman was best remembered for his haunting Schoolgirls paintings depicting girls and women lost in daydreams, which was inspired by his own horror over the murder of a young girl in Melbourne, and then for his Alice in Wonderland series.