Dobell’s Cows
“When World War II broke out. Bill [Dobell] served first as a camouflage labourer, later as an artist recording the work of the Civil Construction Corps,, which built airfields and other defence projects. As a camouflagist, he was one of a group of several, later famous, artists who had been ordered to make papier- mache cows and move them around the base in the hope of fooling Japanese pilots. (said Bill, “I think the authorities underestimated the eyesight of Japanese airmen”.) For almost a year he shared a hut with fellow-artist Joshua Smith.”
Extract from Unforgettable “Sir Bill” Dobell, Dr Edward McMahon, first proof
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“Some bizarre defence schemes were thought up at that time. One was to detail a number of artists then in uniform, among them William Dobell, to paint papier mâché cows, which were subsequently moved about various airfields in an attempt to make the enemy think runways were pastures or paddocks. Dobell and his associates also had to transform a huge factory into what apeared to be a market garden.”
Extract from Over-Sexed, Over-Paid & Over Here: Americans in Australia 1941–1945, John Hammond Moore, University of Queensland Press, 1981, p. 30
John Kelly: Cow Depot (IV), oil on canvas, 1994
John Russel Taylor re show in Piccadilly Gallery
Catalogues
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John Kelly: The Incident, oil on Canvas, 1993
John Kelly: Half painted Cow on Trestles, oil on canvas, 1994
John Kelly "Holy Cow" Documentary
John Kelly: Aerial View 1995 Oil on canvas
John Kelly: Three Men and Two Cows, oil on plywood
Installation of John Kelly's '3 Cows in a Pile'
Two Men Lifting a Cow, oil on canvas, 1995
L’Australie à Paris, Marie France, July 1998
Article in The Australian, 24-25 August 2002
The Age, 24 April 2003
John Kelly: 'Form and Function (painted bronze)', private collection, Australia
John Kelly sculpture, Sotheby's Australia, 2018
John Kelly painting, juxtaposed with Sidney Nolan painting, Sotheby's Australia, 2018
John Kelly painting, juxtaposed with Sidney Nolan painting, Sotheby's Australia, 2018
John Kelly sculpture in front of Sidney Nolan's Ram in a Tree, from John Kelly: Sculptures show at Sotheby's Australia, Melbourne, 2018
Sotheby's with Man Lifting Cow maquette
