Frank Hinder aggregated collection of papers, pictorial material and cassette tapes, ca.1745-1992

fonds

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Nonmusical Sound Recordings

1037223

Henry Francis Critchley (Frank) Hinder was born in 1906 at 'Carleton' the home of his parents Dr Henry Vincent Critchley Hinder and Enid Marguerite Pockley, in Summer Hill, Sydney. He was educated at Newington College and Sydney Church of England Grammar School (Shore). On leaving school he studied at the Royal Art School under Datillo Rubbo.

His father died in 1913. His mother remarried in 1916 and in 1920 the family moved to Gordon, During 1924 and 1925 he toured Britain and Europe with the Young Australia League.
On his return he enrolled at the East Sydney Technical College with the idea of becoming a commercial artist.

In 1927 he left for the United States to continue his studies at the Chicago Art Institute. From there he moved to the School of Fine and Applied Art Institute. Here he was introduced to 'dynamic symmetry' (the organic-geometric ordering of space) which would have a profound influence on his artistic development.

In 1930 he met and married Margel harris, a gifted sculptress. Together they formed an artistic partnership that was to prove instrumental in creating awareness of modern art in Australia. From 1931 to 1934 Hinder taught at the Child-Walker School of Fine Arts in Boston as instructor in costume design and pen and ink drawing. During this period he was also the co-founder and instructor at an experimental art colony in New Hampshire. In 1933 he held his first one man exhibition in Boston.

The Hinders arrived in Australia in 1934 and joined a group of artists interested in modernism and abstract art. Among this group were Grace Crowley and Rah Fizelle. In 1937 Hinder held a one-man show at the Grosvenor Galleries., Sydney. Two years later he helped organise 'Exhibition I', the first exhibition devoted solely to abstract art in Australia. It included works by Ralph Balson, Grace Crowley, Rah Fizelle, Gerald Lewers and the Hinders. Until 1939 Hinder continued to work as a commercial artist and also managed the Grosvenor Galleries with Margel during 1938.

On the outbreak of World War he became an instructor and research officer in camouflage. After the war he returned to commercial art and also became a highly retrospected teacher at the National Art School, Sydney. From 1958 to 1964 he was head of the Art Department at Sydney Teachers' College. In 1952 he won the Blake Prize for religious art and in 1956 he was elected president of the Contemporary Art Society (NSW Branch). From 1974 to 1978 he was a trustee of the Art Gallery of NSW. In 1979 he was made a member of the Order of Australia for services to art. The Hinders were honoured by joint retrospective exhibitions at the Newcastle City Art Gallery in 1973 and the Art Gallery of NSW in 1980.

Frank Hinder's work included not only painting but also theatre design, lithography and luminal kinetics. He is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, the state galleries of NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia and various provincial galleries. He died in 1992 survived by Margel and their daughter Enid Hawkins.

Collection 01
Frank Hinder papers relating to the Pockley family, 1837-1972
Presented by Frank Hinder in 1970, 1972 & 1975

Collection 02
Frank Hinder papers, 1884-1992
Presented by Margel Hinder in 1993

Collection 03
Frank Hinder - pictorial and manuscript collection, ca. 1745-1992
Presented by Margel Hinder in 1994

Collection 04
Frank Hinder papers and pictorial material, ca. 1890-1992
Presented by Enid Hawkins in 1995

Collection 05
Frank Hinder further papers and pictorial material, 1904-1984
Presented by Enid Hawkins in 2012