1977

In 1977 Geelong Gallery acquired two works by British-born artist Weaver Hawkins, the same year of his passing. The works acquired were A dying tree and The bath. The bath depicts a woman bathing her baby, an exceptional example of Hawkins’ skill with line and colour. 

Hawkins was known for his work in monotypes, etching, woodcuts and linocuts, with his works depicting domestic scenes and figures, but also ‘ambitious, sometimes mural-sized, modernist allegories of morality for an age of atomic warfare and global over-population’.

Additionally in the late 1970s, the Australian Federal Government’s Cultural Gifts Program was established to encourage private collectors to donate significant works to public galleries.