This Dahl & Geoffrey Collings archival collection relates to a previous Dahl Collings (1910-1988) and Geoffrey Collings (1905-2000) design archive acquired by the Powerhouse Museum when Geoffrey Collings was still alive in 1991.
The second archive contains documents - official and personal - relevant to an understanding of the Collings' multi-disciplinary approach to design. It includes objects, documents and other material relating to their life, photography, documentary film-making, art and design practice and provides a detailed insight into the life and work of these pioneering multi-disciplinary 20th century Australian artists, designers, photographers and film--makers .
It also documents and provides insight into their relationships with a number of leading international and Australian designers including their Bauhaus friends and colleages Sibyl and Laszlo Moholy Nagy and Juliet and Gyorgy Kepes (1906 Hungary - 2001 USA), and Australian artists, writers, designers and other creatives, including Alistair Morrison, Russell Drysdale, Gordon and Mary Andrews, George Johnston and others.
The collection includes personal correspondence, handmade cards, photographs, publications, original designs and selected objects which includes photographs and abstract paintings by Dahl and Geoffrey Collings, an abstract painting by Gordon Andrews, a collaged self-portrait by Alistair Morrison.

Anne-Marie Van de Ven, Curator 2007

Dahl Collings (1909-1988)
Commercial artist, illustrator, designer (graphic, textiles, costume), photographer, documentary film-maker and painter.
Biography prepared by Anne-Marie Van de Ven, Curator, updated October 2012

Dulcie May Wilmott was born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1909 to Mabel and Josiah Percival Willmott, a school teacher. From about 1926 to 1932, Dahl studied at East Sydney Technical College under Rayner Hoff and attended painting classes at the J.S. Watkins Studio Art School. Her career began at Anthony Horderns and Sons in 1928, providing illustrations for the house magazine 'Horderian Monthly' and the firm's catalogues; she also did freelance work for other Sydney department stores, Farmer and Company, and David Jones, and designed covers for 'The Home' magazine published by Sydney Ure Smith.

In 1933 Dulcie Wilmott married Geoffrey Collings (1905-2000); they had two daughters, Donna (b.1937) and the artist Silver Collings (b.1940). She and Geoffrey worked collaboratively for most of their lives, co-signing the majority of their work 'Dahl and Geoffrey Collings'; the name Dahl having been coined by Geoffrey as a term of endearment. One of their first works signed jointly was a 1934 cover design for 'The Home' magazine.

The Collingses travelled to London via Spain in 1935 taking many photographs and making their first documentary film in the medieval town of Alquezar in the Catalonian region of Spain. In London, Dahl worked as a freelance designer until László Moholy Nagy offered her a job in his studio working on the Simpon's Piccadilly project in 1936. There she gained first-hand experience of European modernism and of Moholy Nagy�s and Gyorgy Kepes's approach to design which she and Geoffrey embraced wholeheartedly. Dahl remained life long friends with Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and his wife Sibyl, and Gyorgy Kepes and his English girlfriend, Juliet Appleby. While living in England, Dahl and Geoffrey Collings travelled to France and into Europe. Their first child Donna was born in London in 1937. With Alistair Morrison, Dahl and Geoffrey organised the 'Three Australians' exhibition at the Lund Humphreys Gallery in 1938 to show their British work with an introductory catalogue essay by E. McKnight-Kauffer.

They returned to Sydney in December 1938 via Martinique, stopping in Tahiti for three months to make their second documentary film 'Tiare Tahiti' about life in contemporary Polynesia. In 1938, they returned to Sydney and attempted to introduce modern design to Australia; Dahl being one of the very first Australian women to begin the slow process of introducing modern art and design principles to Australian industry. The Collingses mounted their 'Exhibition of Modern Industrial Art and Documentary Photography' at David Jones Art Gallery in 1939 and, with Richard Haughton James, established a commercial and industrial design studio, The Design Centre.

Dahl exhibited with the Contemporary Art Society and the Australian Commercial and Industrial Artists' Association, winning (with Geoffrey) four ACIAA awards in 1940, the year their second child Silver was born in Sydney. She also painted murals for the Accountants Club, Kings Cross restaurants and a kindergarten in the Blue Mountains in the early 1940s. It was around that time, that Dahl and Geoffrey Collings collaborated with Alistair Morrison, Douglas Annand and Elaine Haxton to produce the 'Temple of Beauty' display for 'Woman' magazine at the Royal Easter Show. During WWII, Dahl Collings worked as a fashion artist and designer on 'Woman' magazine where Geoffrey had been Art Director, while Geoffrey joined the Camouflage Unit of the Department of Homeland Security. She also continued to work freelance, designing covers for Sydney Ure SmithÂ?s new journal, 'Australia National Journal' and producing designs for Elizabeth Arden, David Jones, Qantas, the Orient Line and 'Woman' magazine.

Dahl was costume and set designer for the Ealing Studios films, 'The Overlanders' (1946) and 'Eureka Stockade' (1949). Her paintings of Charters Towers were published in the final issue of London's 'Lilliput' magazine in 1950. She designed posters for the Orient Line and later, fabrics for the SS Oronsay ocean liner.

In 1950 the family moved to New York. Dahl became a design consultant to the Australian Trade Commission, in charge of the Australian Display Centre in the Rockefeller Center, while Geoffrey was Pictures Editor for the United Nations. There she also undertook some freelance work, such as drawings for 'Harper's Bazaar'.

Back at Sydney in 1953, the Collingses moved into their newly built house in Castlecrag, designed by the architects Baldwinson and Booth. They established the Collings Production film company and many of the films they produced and directed won international awards. 'Dreaming', a film produced for Qantas about Aboriginal art, won one of the five special diplomas (the top award) at the 1964 Venice Biennale Festival of Art Films; their Opera House film, 'Job No.1112' was awarded a silver medal at the 1975 Festival of Architectural Films in Madrid; and the series of documentary films they made for Qantas on Australian artists Sidney Nolan, Russell Drysdale and William Dobell in the 1960s were also well received.

In 1970, Dahl and Geoffrey Collings moved to Killcare Heights on the New South Wales Central Coast. From 1971 Dahl devoted herself full time to painting. She had solo shows at the Bonython Gallery (1976) and Holdsworth Gallery in Sydney (1977) and at the City of Hamilton Art Gallery in Victoria (1982). Dahl died in 1988. Geoffrey died in 2000.

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Geoffrey Franklin Collings 1905-2000
Biography prepared by Helena Lucey, Curatorial Intern with Anne-Marie Van de Ven Curator, October 2012

20th century commercial artist, graphic designer, filmmaker and photographer. Born in Hamilton, Queensland on 10 November 1905, the second son of Ernest Ewart Collings, General Store Keeper and Grace Lee Collings (nee Chalk).

Geoffrey studied art at the Brisbane Technical College, from 1919 until 1922, before taking his first job with N Orr's Advertising Agency, Brisbane's first agency. He then worked for the engraving firm SA Best, learning the printing technique of process engraving. Following the death of his mother in 1924, Geoffrey Collings left Brisbane and travelled north, working as a Jackaroo on remote cattle stations in North Queensland and the Northern Territory. He returned to Brisbane in 1927, spending the next three years working as a freelance commercial artist and graphic designer.

In 1930 Geoffrey travelled to London where he gained employment with the book distributers WH Smith and Sons and became Assistant Studio Manager of Typography and Graphics because of the printing experience he had acquired in Brisbane. Geoffrey took night classes in drawing and painting at St Martins School of Art and etching at the London Central School of Art and Design, where he met many fellow Australians including William Dobell and Nell Wilson. At this time Geoffrey developed an interested in photography and purchased a press camera 'to record what I was going to experience'. In 1933 he returned to Australia via Spain.

On returning to Australia, Geoffrey settled in Sydney and set up Collings Studio, as a designer to industry. While looking for a studio assistant he met his future wife, a graphic designer named Dulcie May Wilmot, whom he nicknamed Dahl. On 15 December 1933 they were married in Sydney and began a lifelong working collaboration, co-signing their work 'Dahl and Geoffrey Collings'.

In 1935 Geoffrey returned to London with Dahl, taking a position as the Art Director at American advertising agency Erwin Wasey. Through Dahl's work he met Professor Laszlo Maholy Nagy and Gyorgy Kepes from the Bauhaus. The Bauhaus principle of form follows function appealed to Geoffrey, particularly because of his Fabian Socialist upbringing. Maholy Nagy's all-inclusive eye was especially enlightening for Collings; he recalls being impressed by his Â?complete desire to get at the truth, the core of everything 'IÂ?ve seen him stop in a new building and touch the carborundum spots that stopped people slipping on elevator steps. The seeing blind had walked over them'.

During this time he was also exposed to the ideas of the British Documentary film movement, after coming into contact with John Grierson. Documentary film provided Geoffrey with a means to show life as it really was; in a 1992 interview he revealed that he 'Â? always hoped I would make the world a happier more peaceful place through my work'. The European influence would change the direction of his work completely, encouraging him to work collaboratively with other artists and designers and to work across various mediums and disciplines.

During a trip to Spain between 1935 and 1936 he made his first documentary film with his wife Dahl, Alquezar was a film about agrarian life in an isolated medieval Spanish village situated high in the Spanish Pyrenees. It was completed just before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Geoffrey's passport shows that he left Spain with his wife on 10 June 1936, only five weeks before the outbreak of the Civil War on 17 July 1936. The film was widely distributed in England by the anti-Franco group, the International Brigade to recruit support for the anti-Franco campaign.

Whilst living in London, Geoffrey and Dahl made trips to Europe with their still and film cameras in hand, visiting Spain, France, Italy and Switzerland. In 1937 his first daughter Donna Collings was born. Encouraged by his friend Gyorgy Kepes, he sent a selection of photographs to Eva Besnyö�s exhibition Foto 37 held in Amsterdam at the Stedelijk Museum in 1937, however the catalogue appears to indicate that his photographs were not chosen. Shortly before departing for Australia in 1938, he held a small exhibition Three Australians, of photography and commercial art at the Lund Humphries Gallery in London with his wife Dahl and friend Alistair Morrison.

On his way home he stopped in Tahiti, where he and Dahl made their second film 'Tiare Tahiti', which was never finished. After his arrival in Australia in November 1938 he established the Design Centre in Sydney with his wife Dahl and fellow artist and designer Richard Haughton James. Inspired by the Bauhaus principle of reintegrating art and design, Collings aim was to introduce Australia to European trends in art and design and to establish a commercial art firm that functioned through mutual support and collaboration. In 1939 Geoffrey and Dahl exhibited a large selection of photography and commercial art from their time in Europe at the David Jones Art Gallery, Sydney titled 'An Exhibition of Modern and Industrial Art and Documentary Photos'.

In 1940 his second daughter Silver Collings was born. During the same year Collings was appointed Art Director at 'Woman' magazine but WWII forced him to the abandon the job to join the Department of Defence Camouflage Unit. While stationed in North Queensland he made a series of paintings and gouaches which he exhibited in his first solo exhibition in 1943 at the Macquarie Galleries, Sydney.

The early 1940's saw Collings lobby the Australian Government to establish a National Film Board. In 1941 he published the booklet 'The Use of Film in Wartime'; he believed that public service films could be used to reassure and invigorate a nervous public who were suffering under strict WWII austerity measures. He produced his first commissioned film 'Airstrip' in 1944 for the Allied Works Council. In 1945 Collings seized the opportunity to develop his skills as a film maker by taking the job as assistant director to Harry Watts on the Ealing Studios film 'The Overlanders', a drama about the scorched-earth policy of WWII. In 1945 the Australian National Film Board was established and Collings worked there as a director and producer from 1946 to 1949. There he made a number of films, including 'Watch over Japan', (1947) and 'Whither Japan', (1947) which recorded Australia's contribution to the reconstruction of Japan after its defeat in WWII.

Geoffrey and his family moved to New York in 1950 when he was appointed Picture Editor at the United Nations. In 1954 he returned to Australia and founded Collings Productions Pty Ltd with his wife Dahl. He then spent five months in Korea with the UN and the Korean Reconstruction Agency making 'The Long Journey', (1954). Like the Japan films, this film documented the Allied Forces role in KoreaÂ?s post war reconstruction.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s he went on to write, produce and direct 42 films for firms such as Qantas, Shell and CSR. Many of these won national and international awards, including 'The Dreaming' (1963) and 'Pattern of life' (1964) which both won Special Diplomas at the Venice Biennale Festival of Art Films, 1964.

Geoffrey and Dahl Collings retired and moved to a home designed by Peter Storey, in Killcare Heights, NSW in 1970. While Dahl painted, Geoffrey made assemblage paintings and sculptures. In 1992 Geoffrey and Dahl CollingsÂ? work was included in the 'Pioneers of Design' exhibition at the Ivan Doherty Gallery, Sydney. Geoffrey Collings died in 2000.

Geoffrey is represented in a number of Australian collections including the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney, The National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

References:
Jenny Allen, (1 January 2008), Australian Visions. The Films of Dahl and Geoffrey Collings, (ERAS Journal ISSN 1445-5218), Type: website http://arts.monash.edu.au/publications/eras/edition-4/allen.php
Dahl and Geoffrey Collings Design Archive, (Place: Sydney, NSW: Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (Powerhouse Museum))
Crombie, Isobel, (1989), 'A documentary impulse: Australian photographer Geoffrey Collings', (Place: Art Bulletin of Victoria, Volume 29)
Caban, Geoffrey, (1983), A Fine Line: A History of Australian Commercial Art, (Place: Sydney, NSW)
Author, (April-May 1982), 'A House Full of Memories', Vogue LIVING, (Place: Australia)
Warrick, (2 October 1992), 'Man of Movies', Daily News (Place: NSW)

The Collings archival collection relating to the life and work of Dahl Collings (1910-1988) and Geoffrey Collings (1905-2000) provides an insight into two multi-disciplined Australian designers.
The collection includes personal correspondence, handmade cards, photographs, publications, original designs and selected objects which includes paintings by Dahl Collings and a collage by Alistair Morrison.
It contains documents - official and personal, relevant to the Collings' design work, photography, documentary film-making and exhibitions.
The collection was gifted to the Powerhouse Museum by daughters Donna and Silver Collings following the death of their father.

Dahl (1909-1988) and Geoffrey Collings (1905-2000)

Dahl (Dulcie May) Collings née Willmott (1909-1988) was born on 26 December 1909 in the Adelaide, South Australia suburb of Mile End to Mabel and Josiah Percival Willmott. Her father was a school teacher who at the time was Senior Assistant in the Preparatory School at the School of Mines and Industries. The following year the family moved to Sydney after her father was appointed to the staff of Barker College in Hornsby. Later J P Willmott took a position with Sydney Boys High School and ended his teaching career as Principal of Albury High School.

At 17 years of age Dulcie Willmott went to East Sydney Technical College where she studied drawing, painting and sculpture for six years under Rayner Hoff (twice winning the annual drawing scholarship). She also studied painting for two years in the studio of James Samuel Watkins. Her first job was with the department store Anthony Hordern and Sons where she provided illustrations for the firmÂ?s catalogues as well as for the house magazine Â?Hordernian MonthlyÂ?. She also did freelance work for the department stores Farmer and Company and David Jones and also designed covers for Â?HomeÂ? magazine.

During 1933 Dulcie Willmott met Geoffrey Collings, a fellow artist and graphic designer, who had recently returned to Australia after living for some years in England. He coined the name Dahl as a term of endearment for Dulcie and this became the name she was known as both personally and professionally. Dahl and Geoffrey Collings were married at the District Registrar's Office, Waverley, New South Wales, on 15 December 1933. At the time of his marriage he styled himself as Â?Designer to Trade and IndustryÂ? and on his wedding certificate was described as a 'Commercial DesignerÂ? of Burundah Hall, McMahon's Point. Dahl Collings was described as a 'Commercial ArtistÂ? of 423 Old South Head Road, North Bondi.
Thereafter she and her husband were to work collaboratively for most of their lives, co signing the majority of their work 'Dahl and Geoffrey CollingsÂ?. One of their first works which was signed jointly was a 1934 cover design for Â?HomeÂ?.

Geoffrey Franklin Collings (1905-2000) was born in the Brisbane, Queensland, suburb of Hamilton on 10 November 1905 to Ernest Ewart Silver Collings, storekeeper, and Grace Ley Collings née Chalk. After primary school he studied art at Brisbane Technical College between 1919 and 1922. He then worked as a trainee commercial artist in Brisbane including a period at George N. Orr�s agency, which was the first advertising agency in that city. After the death of his mother in 1925 he left for the outback where he worked for a couple of years on properties in Queensland and the Northern Territory. In one document in the archive he described his work as �cattle, sheep, jackaroo, droving, drover�s cook, rouseabout, shearing, scrub cutting, well boring�. He returned to Brisbane in 1927 and freelanced as a commercial artist. In his spare time he participated in top level sport in Brisbane winning the high diving championship in 1928 and 1929 and playing as a centre in Brisbane Rugby League premiership with Past Grammars. In 1930 he left for London where he worked as Assistant Studio Manager (Typography and Graphics) for the book distributors W. H Smith and Sons. He also attended night classes in painting and drawing at St Martins School of Art and in etching at the Central School of Art and Design.
In 1935 Dahl and Geoffrey Collings travelled to London where they worked until 1938; Geoffrey as Art Director within the London office of the American advertising agency Erwin Wasey and Company and Dahl as a freelance graphic designer. During this time they lived in a small flat at 158 CliffordÂ?s Inn, Fetter Lane, just off Fleet Street. One of their closest friends during this time was the artist William Dobell.
In February 1936 Dahl Collings met Professor Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, formerly of the Bauhaus School in Berlin which had been forced to close by the Nazis in July 1933, when applying for a job with his Pallas Studio to assist with the interior design and presentation of SimpsonÂ?s Department Store in Piccadilly. She always described Moholy-Nagy as the greatest influence on her career but initially neither she nor Geoffery Collings grasped the significance of this first meeting. In Geoffrey CabanÂ?s book Â?A Fine Line Â? A History of Australian Commercial ArtÂ?, Dahl Collings reminisced that it was only through her friend, the Australian journalist Leicester Cotton, that she learnt of Moholy-NagyÂ?s reputation and that Cotton Â?couldnÂ?t believe my luckÂ?. Later she discovered that Moholy-Nagy had been impressed with her portfolio of work which showed Â?that I had used watercolour, fabrics and other materials in a way he hadnÂ?t seen before.Â? In CabanÂ?s book Dahl Collings also described her time with Moholy-Nagy as Â?absolutely stunningÂ? because of the creative possibilities he encouraged her to explore and the team environment which he had he established. During her time at Simpsons she worked on designing a wide range of objects for the store including the restaurant tablecloths, clothes, window displays and tobacco tin lids. Through Dahl Collings another Australian graphic designer Alistair Morrison was employed on the project and he also found it to be a rewarding experience as Â?Moholy-Nagy introduced him to the potentialities and subtleties of design.Â? Dahl and Geoffrey Collings quickly became friends with Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and his wife Sibyl (1903 Â? 1971) as well as with Gyorgy Kepes (1906 Â? 2001) and his English girlfriend, Juliet Appleby (1919Â?1999), an artist and illustrator who married Kepes in 1937. These friendships continued well after the Moholy-Nagys and KepesÂ? had left England to help establish the Â?New BauhausÂ? in Chicago, Illinois, in 1937 and the CollingsÂ? had returned to live in Australia at the end of 1938.
During this period they also became heavily influenced by the work of the British documentary film movement which was led by John Grierson. They attended workshops on documentary film making and through the group were exposed to the latest experimental films from Europe. They were both avid photographers and took a large number of photographs during their travels. In the medieval town of Alquezar in the Catalonian region of Spain the Collings made their first documentary film.

While living in England Dahl and Geoffrey Collings took the opportunity to travel across the Channel to France and then further into Europe. In 1937 Dahl and Geoffrey CollingsÂ? first child, Donna, was born in London.

With Alistair Morrison, Dahl and Geoffrey Collings organised the 'Three AustraliansÂ? exhibition at the Lund Humphreys Gallery from 22 June - 9 July 1938 to showcase their recent work. The exhibition was described as 'an Exhibition of Commercial Art and Photography'. The invitation to the exhibition featured an introduction by the celebrated graphic artist E McKnight Kauffer.
The contact with the Bauhaus designers in London inspired both Dahl and Geoffrey Collings to bring the Bauhaus principles back to Australia. They returned to Sydney in late 1938 after stopping in Tahiti for three months to make their second documentary film 'Tiare Tahiti' about life in contemporary Polynesia.

Once back in Sydney they established the Design Centre with Richard Haughton (Jimmy) James, in Phillip Street. The Design Centre specialised in industrial and commercial design. According to James, they considered themselves to be a new breed of modern designers, creating 'a new kind of useful art to suit our new ways of living'. In June 1939 they held an exhibition at the David Jones Galleries called 'An exhibition of Modern Industrial Art and Documentary Photos'. It showed many of the layouts, designs and photographs they had made while overseas. The following year Dahl and Geoffrey CollingÂ?s second child, Silver, was born in Sydney.

During the 1940s Dahl Collings continued her freelance work, designing covers for Sydney Ure SmithÂ?s new journal Â?AustraliaÂ?, and producing designs for Elizabeth Arden, David Jones, Qantas, the Orient Line and Â?WomanÂ? magazine. She and Geoffrey Collings exhibited with the Contemporary Art Society and the Australian Commercial and Industrial ArtistsÂ? Association (ACIAA), winning (with Geoffrey) four ACIAA awards in 1940. She also painted murals for the Accountants Club, Kings Cross restaurants and a kindergarten in the Blue Mountains.
In the early years of World War II Geoffrey Collings was appointed Art Director at 'Woman' magazine. One of his projects during this time involved collaborating with Dahl Collings, Alistair Morrison, Douglas Annand and Elaine Haxton to produce Â?WomanÂ? magazineÂ?s 'Temple of BeautyÂ? display at the Royal Easter Show. In 1942 like a number of fellow artists he joined the Department of Home Security as a camouflage officer and was stationed in north Queensland. During 1943 he held an exhibition of drawings and gouaches relating to his war experiences at the Macquarie Galleries in Sydney. It was also during this time that his involvement in film making increased. He made a film for the Allied Works Council entitled 'Air Strip' (1944) about the work of the Civil Construction Corps. He also produced booklets on film making such as 'The use of film in wartime'. During the war years Dahl Collings worked as a fashion artist and designer on Â?WomanÂ? magazine.

In 1945 Geoffrey Collings was hired as the Assistant Director on the film 'The Overlanders', directed by Harry Watt for BritainÂ?s Ealing Studios; Dahl Collings designed the costumes and sets for the film. Dahl Collings also worked as the costume designer for another Ealing film, 'Eureka Stockade' made in 1948. From 1946 to 1949 Geoffrey Collings was a director and senior producer for the Commonwealth Film Unit within the Department of Information. Apart from Australian topics, Geoffrey Collings also produced and directed two films, Â?Watch Over JapanÂ? (1947) and Â?Whither JapanÂ? (1947), which looked at Australia's role as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in rebuilding Japan.

In 1950 Dahl and Geoffrey Collings and family moved to New York. Geoffrey Collings worked as the Pictures Editor for the United Nations. During this time he directed and produced six humanitarian films that looked at the role of the United Nations. In New York Dahl worked as a design consultant for the Australian Trade Commission designing displays for the Australian Display Centre in the Rockefeller Centre. She also did some freelance work, such as drawings for Â?Harper's BazaarÂ?.

The family returned to Sydney in 1953 and moved into a newly built house in Castlecrag, designed by the architects Baldwinson and Booth. Back in Australia Dahl and Geoffrey Collings created an independent film production company which initially was called the Film and Television Centre but which later become known as Collings Productions Pty Ltd. In the 1950s Geoffrey Collings also worked freelance for the United Nations on films in Korea, Indonesia and Australia. Throughout its history Collings Productions produced over 40 documentary films including some for Qantas, CSR, and Shell. Many of the Collings films were selected for screening at International Film Festivals, and at least two films received international awards: Â?DreamingÂ?, a film produced for Qantas about Aboriginal art, won one of the five special diplomas (the top award) at the 1964 Venice Biennale Festival of Art Films, while a film about the Sydney Opera House film, Â?Job No. 1112Â?, was awarded a silver medal at the 1975 Festival of Architectural Films in Madrid. In addition, a series of documentary films the company made for Qantas on Australian artists Sidney Nolan, Russell Drysdale and William Dobell were also well received.

Upon retiring in 1970, Dahl and Geoffrey Collings moved to Killcare Heights on the New South Wales Central Coast. Here Dahl Collings devoted herself full time to painting while Geoffrey constructed assemblages from objects found on the local beaches. Dahl had solo shows at the Bonython Gallery (1976) and Holdsworth Gallery (1977) in Sydney and at the City of Hamilton Art Gallery in Hamilton, Victoria (1982).

Dahl Collings died in 1988 and Geoffrey Collings in 2000.

Biographical summary prepared by Paul Wilson, Manager, Archives with Anne-Marie Van de Ven, Curator, October 2012

Archive, art, design and photography, collection of Dahl and Geoffrey Collings, various materials, Australia, Pacific region, Europe, Asia, United States of America, 1920-2000

An archive containing:
1. Biographical material (including correspondence, exhibition invitations, personal folders, diaries, passports etc.)
2. Artwork, designs, sketches and sketch books
3. Photographs: photographic prints, negative film, colour slides, colour prints etc
4. Publications, newspaper, magazine clippings and material which include, relate to or feature designs by other prominent artists and individuals who were friends with, colleagues or associates of Dahl and Geoffrey Collings - including Europeans Herbert Bayer, Gyorgy Kepes, Laszlo Moholy Nagy and Australians Alistair Morrison, Hal Missingham, Russell Drysdale and Gordon Andrews.
5. Collection of related objects, including paintings.

Made: 1920 - 2000

2007/30/1

1920 - 2000