FILM AUSTRALIA COLLECTION

Title Details

Tom Bass - Out Takes

Tom Bass was one of Australia's leading sculptors, having created many of the country's most significant public works.
Series : Australian Biography Series 10 | Year : 2005 | Total Duration : 26 Minutes | Producer : Rod Freedman
Director : Rod Freedman |
Tape 1 - Interview with Tom Bass, born in Lithgow 1916, describing his early childhood, his family relationships and his father's job as a baker. Bass talks about his family's financial struggle, moving to Griffith and the primitive housing conditions. Bass discusses moving to Erskineville, Sydney in 1921 and attending Erskineville Public School. Bass recalls moving to Gundagai where he first discovered he was an artist and joined the choir in the Anglican Church.
Access No. 138390 | 39 mins 7 secs | 2000s | Australia | © NFSA | Colour |
Tape 2 - Interview with Tom Bass describing how his father worked in the bake house, meeting the town artist Rusconi who later made Dog on a Tucker Box and how watching the local Blacksmith influenced his philosophy of totemic sculpture. Bass talks about his school life and of his family moving to Marrickville, Sydney. Bass describes leaving the Anglican church, working at various jobs, attending art school and living in Elizabeth Bay.
Access No. 138391 | 40 mins 46 secs | 2000s | Australia | © NFSA | Colour |
Tape 3 - Interview with Tom Bass talking about when he began to carve, the birth of his younger brother and feelings of abandonment. Bass describes life after his parent's separation and his move to Elizabeth Bay, having to sell carved bookends to make a living. Bass talks about joining the Pecky's (?) club, the bohemian lifestyle of Kings Cross and moving to the Rocks. Bass then describes travelling with his swag to Stroud, working on a dairy farm, travelling to Wellington by foot and working in a shearing shed.
Access No. 138392 | 40 mins 36 secs | 2000s | Australia | © NFSA | Colour |
Tape 4 - Interview with Tom Bass talking about his experiences shearing sheep, spending three years travelling around Australia, hitching rides, jumping trains and meeting drovers and bagmen. Bass describes working at the glassworks in Brisbane, his first girlfriend and returning to Sydney to work as a housepainter. Bass talks about working as an artist's model, posing for Norman Lindsay, attending Sydney Technical College, being taught how to draw by Rubbo and meeting his future wife Lenore.
Access No. 138393 | 40 mins 39 secs | 2000s | Australia | © NFSA | Colour |
Tape 5 - Various photographs of Tom Bass's family, childhood, career and public sculptures.
Access No. 138394 | 13 mins 6 secs | 2000s | © NFSA | Colour |
Tape 6 - Interview with Tom Bass describing his weekend trips to the Art Gallery of NSW as a teenager living in Dulwich Hill, moving to Minto with Lenore and being conscripted for the army in 1941. Bass talks about being drafted into the Army Records Office, exhibiting a stone carving at the first contemporary Art Society, getting married to Lenore and conceiving their first child three years later. Bass describes being paid to go to the National Art School to study Sculpture as part of the post war reconstruction training scheme in 1945.
Access No. 138395 | 40 mins 51 secs | 2000s | Australia | © NFSA | Colour |
Tape 7 - Interview with Tom Bass talking about the educational opportunities offered at the National Art School, announcing he would never have an exhibition in a gallery space, leaving NAS and finding employment. Bass describes his philosophy of totemic sculpture, teaching part-time at NAS and his first private commissions. Bass talks about meeting his wife Lenore at Rubbo's Art School, their intentions to get married and focus on their artistic careers, the birth of their first child Timothy and the difficulties they faced as first time parents.
Access No. 138396 | 40 mins 59 secs | 2000s | Australia | © NFSA | Colour |
Tape 8 - Interview with Tom Bass talking about the major public commissions he received from Sydney University, University of New South Wales, Melbourne University and various Catholic churches. Bass describes the acquisition, conceptual approach and execution of each of these public sculpture commissions.
Access No. 138397 | 40 mins 48 secs | 2000s | Australia | © NFSA | Colour |
Tape 9 - Interview with Tom Bass talking about the major commission he received from the Catholic church in Yass and how his wife Lenore was commissioned to paint the interior panel of saints. Bass describes how he and his family became Catholic converts and of their commitment to the Catholic faith for ten years. Bass discusses the logo he designed for St. Vincent de Paul and the reasons for leaving the Catholic faith.
Access No. 138398 | 40 mins 37 secs | 2000s | Australia | © NFSA | Colour |
Tape 10 - Interview with Tom Bass talking about his travels to the main art centres of Europe with his wife. Bass describes his travels to America and the commission he received to design a Coat of Arms for the Australian Chancellory in 1969, Washington. Bass talks about the major changes happening in his life, the breakdown of his marriage, his loss of faith in Catholicism and his realisation that his role as an artist was no longer important in contemporary society.
Access No. 138399 | 40 mins 3 secs | 2000s | Australia | © NFSA | Colour |
Tape 11 - Interview with Tom Bass talking about the public commissions he did for the National Capital Development in Canberra called Ethos, the National Library and the AGC building. Bass describes the acquisition, conceptual meaning and execution of each of these commissions. Bass talks about the different approaches taken for private clients like McWilliams, the major changes that occurred in his career that inspired his Abstract period and what lead him to opening an independent Sculpture School.
Access No. 138400 | 40 mins 54 secs | 2000s | Australia | © NFSA | Colour |
Tape 12 - Interview with Tom Bass talking about establishing his Sculpture School in Broadway, his educational beliefs and his individual teaching style. Bass talks about the technical process of casting he used called electrolytic deposition of copper. Bass describes the breakdown of his marriage, building a house in Minto and his second marriage in 1983 to Margo.
Access No. 138401 | 19 mins 30 secs | 2000s | Australia | © NFSA | Colour |
Tape 13 - Interview with Tom Bass talking about his second marriage to Margo, the birth of their son and his second chance at fatherhood. Bass describes ramifications of divorce from his first marriage and the relationship he has with his children. Bass talks about becoming contented with his role as an artist and pursuing his spirituality through a new age organisation called Self Transformations. Bass talks about a public sculpture commission he did for children in Melbourne called The Genie.
Access No. 138402 | 40 mins 41 secs | 2000s | Australia | © NFSA | Colour |
Tape 14 - Interview with Tom Bass talking about his only exhibition at David Jones gallery and offering an art work to the Art Gallery of New South Wales collection that was rejected. Bass describes his relationship to the established art world and within the Sculpture Society. Bass talks about being publicly accused of being a commercial business rather than an artist by Robert Klippel and the libel action he took against the Sydney Morning Herald. Bass describes the conceptual and technical processes involved in a sculpture commission.
Access No. 138403 | 40 mins 34 secs | 2000s | Australia | © NFSA | Colour |
Tape 15 - Interview with Tom Bass talking about the relationship he had with the Black Doctor in Gundagai who discovered Tom's artistic talents, his marriage to Margo and his ideals on marriage. Bass describes his relationship with the Bishop of Yass, Guilford Young and the controversial sculpture commission he made for St. Mary's Cathedral in Hobart. Bass talks about his religious body of work being an expression of his own spirituality and a sculpture commission of Edmund Rice he received from the Christian Brother's School.
Access No. 138404 | 40 mins 47 secs | 2000s | Australia | © NFSA | Colour |
Tape 16 - Interview with Tom Bass describing how he lost the tip of his finger and why he decided to leave the Catholic church. Bass talks about his hopes for the continuation of his Sculpture school, his thoughts on death and his hopes to reconcile his relationship with his ex-wife Lenore. Bass talks about the commission for the P&O company and the controversial court case that followed. He defines what a Marquette is and of writing his published prayers. Includes overlay of Bass' studio and sculpture.
Access No. 138405 | 30 mins 25 secs | 2000s | Australia | © NFSA | Colour |