Home Australian Women
Biographical entry

Home | Browse | Search | Previous | Next
Be a Australian Women Supporter

Cohn, Carola (Ola) (1892 - 1964)

OBE, ARCA
Related EntriesArchival/Heritage ResourcesPublished Resources
sculptor and Author
Born: 25 April 1892  Bendigo, Victoria, Australia.  Died: 23 December 1964  Cowes, Victoria, Australia.

Educated at Girton College (Bendigo) Ola Cohn became an Associate of the Royal College of Art (London). Cohn carved the Fairies Tree for the children of Melbourne from 1931 to 1934. Also she created the statue for the Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden in Adelaide South Australia. Examples of Ola Cohn's work in bronze and freestone are in most state and provincial galleries. Cohn was awarded the Crouch Prize at Ballarat for her woodcarving Abraham in 1952. A year later, aged 61, she married Herbert John Green, the retired Victorian Government Printer. Ola Cohn was appointed a Member of the British Empire, for her services rendered in the service of art, especially sculpture on 1 January 1965. Her studio, 41 Gipps Street, East Melbourne - a former Cobb and Co. coach house and stables, and a collection of her works were bequeathed to the Council of Education (now the Ola Cohn Memorial Centre).


Career Highlights
Alternative Names:
  • Green, Ola (married name, 6 May 1953 - )

Chronology
1910 - 1919

Attended art classes at the Bendigo School of Mines

1920 - 1925

Studied at Swinburne Technical College, Melbourne

1921

Member of the Victorian Art Society

1922 - 1964

Member of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors

1926

Carved Head of a Virgin, now in the National Gallery of Victoria, which was considered very modern in Australia at the time

1926

Attended the Royal College of Art, London where her lecturers included Henry Moore for sculpture

1928

Awarded a Royal College of Art, London free studentship

1929

Became an associate of the Royal College of Art, London

1930

Established a studio at 9 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria

1931 - 1934

Carved The Fairies' Tree in the Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne

March 1931

Held an exhibition of her overseas work

1933

Taught art at Geelong Church of England Grammar School

1937

Moved to 41 Gipps Street, East Melbourne where she made her studio a centre for artists

1938

Produced two seven-foot (2.1m) sandstone figures, representing Science and Humanity, for the Royal Hobart Hospital, Tasmania

1939

Executed 19 panels for the Mutual Life and Citizens Building, Sydney New South Wales - 14 were designed by Murray Griffen

1940 - 1941

Carved the limestone Pioneer Woman memorial statue, Adelaide

1940 - 1954

Part-time lecturer in art at the Melbourne Kindergarten Teacher's College

1948

Won the Roman Catholic Diocesan Centenary Prize in Melbourne

1948 - 1964

President of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors

1949 - 1951

Travelled to Europe and Iceland

1952

Won the Crouch Prize - the first time it had been won by a sculptor - for a wood carving

6 May 1953

Married Herbert John Green, retired government printer

1 January 1964

Appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services rendered in the service of art, especially sculpture

 
Sources used to compile this entry: Scarlett, Ken, 'Cohn, Carola (1892 - 1964)', in Nairn, Bede and Serle, Geoffrey (eds), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria, 1981, pp. 59-60; Alexander, Joseph A (ed.), Who's who in Australia 1962, 17 edn, Colorgravure Publications, Melbourne, 1962, p. 187, Kerr, Joan (ed.), Heritage : the national women's art book, 500 works by 500 Australian women artists from colonial times to 1955, Craftsman House, Roseville East, NSW, 1995, p. 331 and http://members.ozemail.com.au/~scsiac/ accessed 2002-03-06.
 
Related Entries for Cohn, Carola (Ola)

Membership

Presided

Related Cultural Artefacts

Top of Page
Published Resources

Books

  • Cohn, Ola, More about the Fairies' Tree, O. Cohn, Melbourne, 1933, 39 pp. [ Details... ]
  • Cohn, Ola, Castles in the Air, East Melbourne, 1936, 48 pp. [ Details... ]
  • Cohn, Ola, Mostly Cats, Melbourne, 1964, 53 pp. [ Details... ]
  • Cohn, Ola; Davies, Norman (collaboration with); Wood, Marjorie (illustrations and decorations by) and King, Tom (music by), The Fairies' Tree, H. Tatlock Miller, Geelong [Vic.], 1932, 62 pp. [ Details... ]
  • Delander, Sonja and Buckingham, Rick (photography by), Ola Cohn's Fairies Tree, Mullaya, Canterbury, Vic., 1972, 28 pp. [ Details... ]

Book Sections

  • Scarlett, Ken, 'Cohn, Carola (1892 - 1964)', in Nairn, Bede and Serle, Geoffrey (eds), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria, 1981, pp. 59-60. [ Details... ]
  • Welch, Maureen and Kruger, Lois; Kearney, Verna (graphics and editing); Errington, Helen (poster artwork and production), 'Brushing the dust off', Equal Opportunity Resource Centre, Melbourne, [1990], p. 30. [ Details... ]

Catalogues

  • Cohn, Ola, Ola Cohn 1982-1964: Sculpture, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, Vic., <16> pp. [ Details... ]

Online Resources

See also

  • 'Women artists still call Ola Cohn Centre home', The Age, The Culture, 12 June 2002, p. 6. [ Details... ]
  • '$100,000 gift to help restore artists' centre', The Age, 10 June 2002, p. 4. [ Details... ]
  • 'Artists allowed to stay in sculptor's house', The Age, 04 June 2002, p. 7. [ Details... ]
  • Alexander, Joseph A (ed.), Who's who in Australia 1962, 17 edn, Colorgravure Publications, Melbourne, 1962, 960 pp. [ Details... ]
  • Backhouse, Megan, 'Ola Cohn's house and studio still in question', The Age, The Culture, 05 June 2002, p. 6. [ Details... ]
  • Kerr, Joan (ed.), Heritage : the national women's art book, 500 works by 500 Australian women artists from colonial times to 1955, Craftsman House, Roseville East, NSW, 1995, 483 pp. [ Details... ]
  • Ketchell, Misha, 'Melbourne painters prepare to fight', The Age, 13 May 2002, p. 5. [ Details... ]
  • McManus, Bridget, 'Carved magic at the bottom of the gardens', The City Weekly, no. 3, 2003, 2003, p. 7. [ Details... ]
  • Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors, The Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors, Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors, http://home.vicnet.net.au/~mswps/. [ Details... ]
  • Peers, Juliet, More Than Just Gumtress: A Personal, Social and Artistic History of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors, Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors, Melbourne, 1993, 308 pp. [ Details... ]
  • Radi, Heather (ed.), 200 Australian Women: A Redress Anthology, Women's Press, Sydney, [1988], 258 pp. (Also available at http://www.200australianwomen.com/) [ Details... ]

Google
Structure based on ISAAR(CPF) - click here for an explanation of the fields.Prepared by: Anne Heywood
Created: 6 March 2002
Modified: 15 June 2004

Published by National Foundation for Australian Women on Australian Women's Archives Project Web Site
Comments, questions, corrections and additions: awap@womenaustralia.info
Prepared by: Acknowledgements
Updated: 6 May 2008
http://womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE0323b.htm

[ Foundation Supporter - Commonwealth Office of the Status of Women ]
[ Top of page | Australian Women Home | Browse | Search ]