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The deserted town hall | |||
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The deserted town hall is a perfect example of Drysdale's ability to blend reality and imagination to create a strange, personal imagery. Drysdale has transplanted the Albury Town Hall from the main street of Albury, where it was flanked by other prominent buildings, to stand next to a water tank in a barren landscape. The bizarre combination of Victorian architecture with dead trees, stumps and a rugged terrain produces an unsettling effect. Drysdale reinforces the disquieting atmosphere by referring in his title to the town hall - the centre of administration - as deserted, an effect reinforced by the empty window frames. The idea that war turned society upside down, creating a lack of order and discipline, was shared by many at the time. The deserted town hall was owned by fellow artist Elaine Haxton (born 1909). Haxton was a close friend of the Drysdale family and a frequent visitor to their homes in Albury and Sydney.1 In 1943, Haxton painted a mural at the Drysdales' home in Vaucluse and a portrait of Lynne and Tim Drysdale.2
1 Elaine Haxton painted The merry-go-round (1942), oil on board, 50.0 x 60.0 cm, private collection, at Albury.
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© 1999 ABC and NGV