John Brack once painted his children. Now his adult daughter tells her story of life with the famous artist

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
ABC Listen, podcasts, radio, news, music, and more.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:09)
Hi there, I'm Sam Hawley, host of ABC News Daily. Our podcast covers one big news story each weekday in just 15 minutes. From history-changing world news to cost of living concerns at home. Expert guests and ABC journalists explain what matters most. We cover breaking news and the big challenges of our time.
Follow the ABC News Daily podcast on ABC Listen.

**Natasha Mitchell** (0:37)
Parents certainly shape who we are, who we turn out to be in profound ways. But what happens when your parent is famous and a hugely famous artist at that? That's today on Big Ideas.

**Clara Brack** (0:54)
People have a sense when one of your parents is a famous person, somehow you lose your identity and you become a conduit to that person. Did you watch your parents' painting? That sort of thing.
And so I wanted to say something about my experience of being a child of two artists.

**Natasha Mitchell** (1:16)
Hi, Natasha Mitchell, joining you for ABC Radio National's live event show.
Clara Brack is the eldest daughter of not one, but two artists. Her father was one of Australia's most famous painters, John Brack, who died back in 1999 Her mother, the painter Helen Maudsley. And growing up with them is an experience she details in her deeply personal book, which has the subtitle on Not Pleasing Your Mother. It took her 20 years to write and Clara joins us today at the Williamstown Literary Festival in Bayside, Melbourne, on the lands of the Yalukit Willum people. And she's talking to the award-winning arts critic and journalist, formerly with The Age newspaper and author of the book Whiteley on Trial, Gabriella Coslovich, who I'll hand over to now to set the scene.

**Gabriella Coslovich** (2:10)
Thank you very much. Can everyone hear me as well? Great. So as you've heard, Clara is the daughter of two major Australian artists, John Brack, who I'm sure most of you will know very well. And you will know him probably foremost for his painting, Collins Street, 5pm, which is a celebrated painting, Australian painting, and it shows office workers, grim-faced office workers marching up Collins Street at 5pm, as the title suggests. And that was purchased by the National Gallery of Victoria a year after it was made, in 1956
And it's one of their most prized works. And so too is his work, The Bar. That's another famed work by John Brack. It was painted a year earlier, in 1954, and it shows that some of those men who were marching up Collins Street made a quick little sneaky, sneaky visit to the pub for the 6 o'clock, the 6 o'clock swill, as it was called in those days. And what that was, was until 1966, 6 p.m. closing time was enforced at Melbourne pubs.
John has no fewer than 113 works in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, and many more in state galleries and regional galleries across Australia. He's a very celebrated artist. Clara's mother, Helen Maudsley, is not as well known.
Her works are more cryptic, they're far less, let's say, accessible. They are like labyrinths of signs and symbols, and they also have a rather unusual palette. She liked mauves and greens and blues and pinks, and she didn't achieve the fame that her husband did. Not the same recognition, although I think that is coming now. And she hated being asked what her paintings meant. And she made this overtly clear in one of her paintings that has a very long title, and part of the title is What's the Code? There is no code. This is rubbish, and you're getting away with it. And you're not getting away with it, rather. Helen was nothing if not direct. She had and has a sharp wit. She's still alive. She's 99 years old. And I had the great pleasure of interviewing her several times for The Age newspaper. And now it's my great pleasure to continue the conversation with Helen's daughter, Clara Brack, who has written a magnificent debut book, The Secret Landscapes, about growing up with these two intense, disciplined, talented, and flawed human beings as we all are. She is the oldest of Helen and John's four children, the oldest of four daughters, and of course John painted all of them and gave them very unsentimental titles, first daughter, second daughter, third daughter, fourth daughter.
Although later in life, when they were in their 30s, he did their portraits again and actually gave them their names, Clara, Vicky, Frieda, and Charlotte. Now, for those who haven't read the book, I won't give too much away, other than to say that it merges fiction and nonfiction. It's absolutely grounded in reality, in truth. And it strays from the truth only in that Clara imagines conversations between each of her parents and with a therapist. And this device works remarkably well and it gives the book a reflective tone that is almost philosophical at times as well. But there's also a lot of dark humour. And I think that comes particularly through the voice of Helen, who is so funny and so sharp and unconventional. So Clara, in a way, becomes a ventriloquist for her parents as she comes to terms with their lives and the effects of their devotion, their utter commitment to art on her own life. So not only is this a double biography and a memoir, it's also a book of Australian art history and social history, and it gives us a deep insight, an intimate insight, into the inspirations for the paintings of Helen and John.