KSS eKourier October 2022

FEATURE

A WORK OF ART ON OUR DOORSTEP

Paul Beadle - Mural sculpture – ‘Farmer, brewer, drayman, publican’, British Breweries, Petersham

If you have driven to or past KSS Petersham you may have noticed something special. When we mention KSS Petersham most of us talk about the view from the roof. Did you know that there is a famous work of art on the front of the building?

KSS Petersham started out life as a brewery. It has been used as a self storage facility since 1984. It features a 1954 frieze by sculptor Paul Beadle: ‘Farmer, Brewer, Drayman, Publican’, celebrating the process of beer production. The four concrete pre-cast sculptures were fabricated by the renowned New Zealand modernist sculptor and medallist Paul Beadle. Paul Beadle (1917-1992), sculptor, was born in England and studied at the Cambridge Art School and the Central School of Arts and Crafts during the 1930s. He arrived in Australia in 1944 and became known for his ‘bronzetti’ satirising history, literature and politics. He taught at the NAS for four years before becoming

head of the Newcastle Art School in 1952; later he was principal of the South Australian School of Art for two years. Beadle made the 11-metre high eagle and sphere surmounting the Australian-American Memorial at Canberra’s Russell Offices, which was completed at a cost of 100,000 pounds (much of it raised by public subscription) in early 1954. In 1961 he moved to Auckland to take up the position of Chair of Fine Arts at the University’s Elam school. In 1969 he exhibited at the Bonython Galleries in Sydney as well as in Adelaide and Auckland; up to the mid-seventies he showed at Australian Galleries in Melbourne. The sculptures themselves were constructed in 1953 at the Newcastle Technical College and were installed

on the building which was, at the time, occupied by British Breweries Limited. This is why the subject matter of the sculptures reflects the four trades central to the brewing and distribu - tion of beer, the Farmer, the Brewer, the Drayman and the Publican. The sculptures are particularly fine works with a high level of detail which is not often achieved in cast concrete. It was also an innovative use of the early high-strength cement Celerite which had only previously been used in industry. This innovation in materials and artistic and aesthetic quality earned Beadle finalist status in the Sulman prize for mural projects in 1953.

Weather and time have not treated the four sculptures kindly and they had

deteriorated to the point that they may have been

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10 Kennards Kourier Oct 2022