Editing Joy Hester (section)

==Biography==

=== Early life ===
Hester was born on the 21 August 1920 and raised in [[Elwood, Victoria|Elwood]] to middle-class parents Louise and Robert Hester. Robert died from a heart attack when Hester was twelve.<ref name="Macgill 79–93">{{Cite journal|last=Macgill|first=Belinda|date=January 2000|title=Joy Hester: a subjective approach|journal=Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art|volume=1|issue=1|pages=79–93|doi=10.1080/14434318.2000.11432655|s2cid=184855099|issn=1443-4318}}</ref> Hester studied art from an early age and was a student at [[St Michael's Grammar School]] from 1933 to 1937.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.daao.org.au/bio/joy-hester/personal_details/? |title=Joy Hester b. 1920 Elsternwick, Melbourne, Vic. |work=Design and Art Australia Online |access-date=2014-09-15 }}</ref> At 17, Hester enrolled in Commercial Art at Brighton Technical School for one year before leaving to attend the [[National Gallery School]] in Melbourne.<ref name="AuDB" /> Her curriculum was based in traditional media and practice, however Hester took the opportunity to break free from formal restraints.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book|title=Joy Hester and Friends|author=Hart, Deborah|date=2001|publisher=National Gallery of Australia|isbn=0642541655|location=Canberra|oclc=49763040}}</ref> In 1938 Hester won the Gallery School's Drawing Head from Life prize.<ref name=":03"/> Taking up classes at both the Design school, and Painting and Life school gave her early recognition.<ref name=":02" /> Her work during this time, though bound by tradition, was concerned with shadow and tonal shading, the relationships between dark and light.<ref name=":02" />

===Heide period===
In 1938 Hester met fellow artist [[Albert Tucker (artist)|Albert Tucker]] and began living with him intermittently in [[East Melbourne, Victoria|East Melbourne]].<ref name=":03">{{Cite book|title=Dear Sun : the letters of Joy Hester and Sunday Reed|author=Hester, Joy|date=1995|publisher=William Heinemann Australia|others=Reed, Sunday, 1905–1981., Burke, Janine, 1952–|isbn=0855616512|location=Port Melbourne, Victoris|oclc=34338334}}</ref> During the same year Hester became a founding member of the [[Contemporary Art Society (Australia)|Contemporary Art Society]] (CAS), exhibiting with them annually.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-634371|title=Hester, Joy (1920–1960) – People and organisations|website=Trove|access-date=2019-10-15}}</ref> Hester met Melbourne-based art patron [[Sunday Reed]] in 1939 at the ''Herald Exhibition'', which brought British and French artworks to Australia for the first time.<ref name=":03" /> The two became friends, with Reed nurturing Hester's artistic talent.<ref name=":03" /> Spending much of her time at [[Heide Museum of Modern Art|Heide]] with Sunday and her husband [[John Reed (art patron)|John Reed]], Hester became a member of the [[Heide Circle]].<ref name=":1"/> She was a contemporary of [[Sidney Nolan]], [[Arthur Boyd]], [[Charles Blackman]], [[John Perceval]], [[Yosl Bergner]] and [[Danila Vassilieff]] during this period.<ref name=":1" /> The Heide Circle worked as an extension of the Angry Penguins magazine.<ref name="artgallery.nsw.gov.au">{{Cite web|url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/hester-joy/|title=Joy Hester :: The Collection :: Art Gallery NSW|website=www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au|access-date=2019-10-16}}</ref> Hester was the only woman to be featured in the Angry Penguins publication.<ref name="AuDB" />

One of her most significant works from this time was ''Nude Study, (''c. 1939–41).<ref name=":02"/> It was her first use of bold, fluid black line work, which is what she is known for today.<ref name=":02"/>

During the early 40s, Hester began depicting the ambience of daily life, via ink drawings of street scenes and factory workers.<ref name=":02"/> She was influenced by artist [[Ailsa O'Connor]], who had similar concerns in her work.<ref name=":02"/> Hester was also drawn to the work of Vassilieff for his philosophical views about how art and life could not be separated.<ref name=":02"/>

By the mid 40s, Hester relinquished her interest in [[oil painting]] to concentrate solely on [[Watercolor painting|watercolor]] and inks.<ref name=":1" /> Her focus shifted towards the motif of the human face, specifically the expression in the eyes.<ref name=":04"/> Using minimal and assertive ink strokes, she rendered her figures with emotional intensity.<ref name=":1" /> ''A Frightened Woman'' (1945) served as a seminal point in establishing Hester's style and media moving forward. Her works aimed to capture the psychological horror of [[World War II]].<ref name=":02"/>

Hester and Tucker married 1941.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8170711|title=Family Notices.|date=2 May 1941|newspaper=[[The Argus (Melbourne)|The Argus]]|access-date=15 September 2014|publisher=National Library of Australia|location=Melbourne|page=4}}</ref> Five years later Hester gave birth to a son, Sweeney Reed (1944–1979).<ref name=":03" /> In 1947, when Sweeney was three, Hester was diagnosed with terminal Hodgkin's lymphoma.<ref name=":03" /> Believing she had only 2 years to live, she decided to move to Sydney to live with Melbourne artist [[Gray Smith]], and gave her son into the care of John and Sunday Reed, who subsequently adopted him.<ref name="AuDB" /> Illness impacted heavily on Hester's work and left an indelible mark, loading it with emotional content.<ref name=":02"/> During this period Hester produced the drawings that became part of her notable ''Face'', ''Sleep'' and ''Love'' series.<ref name="AuDB" /> These works were exhibited alongside Hester's poetry in 1950 at her first solo show at the Melbourne Bookclub Gallery.

===Later life===
Hester had two subsequent solo exhibitions in 1955 and 1956<ref name=":02"/> but struggled to sell her art.<ref name=":04">{{Cite journal|last=Mimmocchi|first=Denise|date=2004|title=The Art of Joy Hester: "In Defence of Unwritten History"|journal=Woman's Art Journal|volume=25|issue=2|pages=16–20|doi=10.2307/3566512|issn=0270-7993|jstor=3566512}}</ref> She typically worked on a small scale in black ink and wash, however, Australian modernism favoured large oil paintings,<ref name=":04" /> like those of Nolan.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2056097,00.html|title=Love and Pain Neglected for decades, Joy Hester's art explores human emotions with an unflinching eye|last=Fitzgerald|first=Michael|date=2001-09-10|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|access-date=2019-10-16}}</ref> Hester's work failed to garner the same recognition her male peers received, dismissed by critics as "angst-ridden".<ref name="Macgill 79–93"/>

''The Lovers'' series (1956–58) were indicative of her maturing and expressive style. She also published poetry and used her drawings to illustrate her words.<ref name=":04" />

Joy and Smith had two children, a son, Peregrine, in 1951, and a daughter, Fern, in 1954.<ref name=":04" /> The couple married in 1959.<ref name="artgallery.nsw.gov.au"/> After a period of [[Remission (medicine)|remission]] Hester suffered a relapse of Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1956 and died on 4 December 1960, aged 40.<ref name="AuDB" /> Hester was laid to rest at the [[Box Hill Cemetery]] in an unmarked grave, at her behest.<ref name=":1"/>