Daphne Mayo / Australia 1895–1982 / Olympian c.1946, cast after 1958 / Bronze / 94.5 x 31.5 x 23cm / Purchased 1979 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Surf Lifesaving Foundation and The Uniting Church in Australia Property Trust (Q.)

Daphne Mayo
Olympian c.1946–1958

On Display: QAG, Gallery 11

Daphne Mayo considered the human body as ‘a superlative piece of sculpture’, and Olympian c.1946 illustrates this view.

There are two variations of this work: one acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria’s Felton Bequest in 1949, and this later work which differs slightly in colour and in the placement of the head and limbs. The truncated form, evoking classical statuary, was favoured by French sculptors Aristide Maillol (1861−1944) and Charles Despiau (1874−1946), whom Mayo much admired.

There has been speculation linking Mayo’s casting of Olympian with the 1956 Olympic Games, held in Melbourne.

Born in Sydney, Daphne Mayo’s family moved to Brisbane when she was still a child. She studied art at Brisbane Technical College, where she was awarded the Wattle Day League Scholarship to study at the Royal Academy Schools in London. Mayo was the first woman to be admitted to the academy’s School of Sculpture for some years, and she achieved considerable success, winning a number of awards during her time there. On graduating in 1923, she was also awarded the school’s gold medal for sculpture, which earned her the Edward Stott Travelling Studentship prize of a trip to Italy.

On her return to Australia, Mayo received commissions to carve the tympanum over the portico of the Brisbane City Hall, and for war memorials in Anzac Square, Brisbane, and at The King’s School, Parramatta. With Vida Lahey, Mayo helped establish the Queensland Art Fund (1929) with the aim of acquiring major works for the Queensland Art Gallery’s Collection. She was awarded the medal of the Society of Artists and made a Member of the British Empire for services rendered to art.

Daphne Mayo was a great believer in making art publicly accessible, rejecting the idea that it could only be enjoyed by a cultural elite. In an interview in Brisbane’s Courier, dated 3 February 1933, she said: ‘Art is simply an integral part of everyone’s life. . .it enters every phase of daily life, in the dresses (they) wear, the cup (they) drink from, the rug on the floor. There is nothing in any home that is not some example of art, either good or bad’.