The acrobats, c.1928 – 29
Dorrit Black
colour linocut on paper
25.0 x 18.0 cm (image)
28.0 x 22.5 cm (sheet)
signed with initials lower right: D.B
inscribed with title and numbered in margin upper centre: The Acrobats
Estate of the artist, Adelaide
Thence by descent
Helen Finlayson (née Black), Adelaide, 1951 [the artist's sister]
Margaret Michelmore (née Finlayson), Adelaide, a gift from the above
Estate of the above, Adelaide
First Exhibition of British Lino–cuts, Redfern Gallery, London, 4 – 27 July 1929, cat. 36 (another example)
Paintings by Dorrit Black, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 1930, cat. 25 (another example)
The Drawing, Print and Watercolour Exhibition, Contemporary Art Society of Australia, Melbourne, opened 2 December 1952, cat. 22 (another example)
Acquisitions 1967, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 6 March – 1 April 1968 (another example)
Hand and Eye – a survey of artists' materials and techniques, Art Gallery of New South Wales touring exhibition, various venues, 1970 (another example)
Claude Flight and his Followers: The Colour Linocut Movement between the Wars, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 18 April – 12 July 1992, then touring to: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington and Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tamaki, Auckland, 1992 – 1993, cat. 18 (another example)
A Century of Australian Woman Artists, Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne, 4 June – 3 July 1993, cat. 106 (another example, illus. in exhibition catalogue, p. 27)
Modernism 1900 – 1950, prints and drawings from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 23 July – 25 September 1994 (another example)
Review: works by women from the permanent collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 8 Match – 4 June 1995 (another example)
The Dorrit Black Collection, Josef Lebovic Gallery, Sydney, 17 April – 29 May 1999, cat. 2 (another example)
Art Deco: from Sydney cinemas and pubs to skyscrapers, Museum of Sydney, Sydney, 12 June – 5 September 1999 (another example)
Step Right Up, Albury Regional Gallery, Albury, 10 October 2008 – 4 January 2009 (another example)
Australian Collection Focus: Colour Rhythm, Design – wood and linocuts of the 20s and 30s, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 12 March – 11 July 2010 (another example)
Dorrit Black 1891 – 1951, Royal South Australian Society of Arts, Adelaide, 24 April – 15 May 2011, cat. 10 (another example)
Sydney Moderns: Art for a New World, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 6 July – 7 October 2013 (another example)
Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 14 June – 7 September 2014 (label attached verso)
Dangerously Modern: Australian women artists in Europe 1890 – 1940, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 24 May – 7 September 2025, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 11 October 2025 – 1 February 2026 (another example)
The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 11 September 1930, p. 7
North, I., The Art of Dorrit Black, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, and Macmillan, South Melbourne, 1979, cat. L.2, pl. 8, pp. 22, 23 (illus., another example), 25, 131
Coppel, S., Linocuts of the Machine Age: Claude Flight and the Grosvenor School, Scolar Press, Aldershot, England, in association with the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1995, cat. DB2, pl. 30, pp. 42 (illus., another example), 152 (illus., another example)
Sheridan, S., Along the Faultlines, Sydney, 1995, back cover (illus., another example)
Butler, R., Printed images by Australian Artists 1885 – 1955, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2007, p. 205 (illus., another example)
Edwards, D. & Campbell, C., Colour, rhythm, design: wood and lino cuts of the 20s and 30s, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2010, pp. 2, 23 (illus., another example)
Edwards, D., and Mimmocchi, D. (eds.), Sydney Moderns: Art for a New World, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2013, pp. 178 (illus., another example), 310
Lock, T., Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2014, pp. 143 (illus.), 151 (illus.), 152, 200 (illus.)
Grishin, S., Australian Art: A History, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2015, p. 232 (another example)
Freak, E., (ed.) et. al., Dangerously Modern: Australian women artists in Europe 1890 – 1940, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide and Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2025, p. 246 (illus., another example)