View source for Ola Cohn

{{Short description|Australian artist, sculptor (1892–1964)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Use Australian English|date=May 2011}}
{{Infobox artist
| name             = Ola Cohn
| image            = Argus - Ola Cohn.jpg
| image_size        = 230px
| caption          = [http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/permalink/f/1cl35st/SLV_VOYAGER3481303 Pictures Collection], [[State Library Victoria]]
| birth_name       = Carola Cohn
| birth_date       = 25 April 1892
| birth_place      = [[Bendigo, Victoria]], [[Australia]]
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|df=y|1964|12|23|1892|4|25}}
| death_place      = [[Cowes, Victoria]], Australia
| nationality      =
| field            = [[Sculpture]]
| training         = [[Swinburne Technical College]], [[Royal College of Art]] in London under Ernest Cole and [[Henry Moore]]
| movement         = Modernist
| works            = ''Fairies' Tree'', ''Head of a Virgin'', ''Abraham'', statue in Adelaide Pioneer Women's Garden
| patrons          =
| awards           = Crouch Prize (1952), MBE
| website          =
}}
'''Ola Cohn''' (born '''Carola Cohn'''; 25 April 1892 – 23 December 1964) was an Australian artist, author and philanthropist best known for her work in [[sculpture]] in a [[modernist]] style, and famous for her ''Fairies Tree'' in the [[Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne]].<ref name="daao">Deborah Edwards, Dictionary of Australian Artists online, ''[http://www.daao.org.au/main/read/1760 Ola Cohn]'', Accessed 29 June 2009</ref><ref name="awr">Australian Women's Register - ''[http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE0323b.htm Cohn, Carola (Ola) (1892–1964)]'' Accessed 29 June 2009</ref><ref name="adb">Ken Scarlett, ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' [http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080064b.htm Cohn, Carola (Ola) (1892–1964)].</ref>
==Early life==
Cohn was born in [[Bendigo]], Victoria.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.portrait.gov.au/people/ola-cohn-1892|title=Ola Cohn OBE, National Portrait Gallery|website=www.portrait.gov.au|access-date=6 November 2019}}</ref> She went to school at Girton College in Bendigo and then studied drawing and sculpture at the [[Bendigo School of Mines]]. She continued her studies in Melbourne at [[Swinburne Technical College]] and then at the [[Royal College of Art]] in London.<ref name="awr" /> On her return to Melbourne in 1930 she established a studio at [[Grosvenor Chambers]] (9 [[Collins Street, Melbourne|Collins Street]], Melbourne, subsequently occupied by [[Georges Mora|Georges]] and [[Mirka Mora]]), later moving to Gipps Street, East Melbourne.<ref name="adb" />
[[Image:Fitzroy Gardens Fairy tree.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Fairies Tree in the Fitzroy Gardens]]
==Works==
Cohn's works in bronze, stone and wood are held in many state and regional galleries. Important works include:
* the Fairies' Tree in the [[Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne]] which she sculpted between 1931 and 1934 and donated to the children of Melbourne and
* the statue for the [[Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden (Adelaide)|Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden]] in Adelaide, South Australia, carved in limestone in 1940–1941.
The Fairies Tree work also inspired her writing and publication of ''The Fairies' Tree'' (1932), ''More about the Fairies' Tree'' (1933) and ''Castles in the Air'' (1936). Her book ''Mostly Cats'' was published in 1964.<ref name="daao" /> In 2014 her autobiography was published; ''A Way with the Fairies: The Lost Story of Sculptor Ola Cohn''.<ref>{{Citation | author1=Cohn, Ola | editor=Lemon, Barbara | others=Strugnell, Robert (issuing body.) | title=A way with the fairies : the lost story of sculptor Ola Cohn : an autobiography | year=2014 | publication-date=2014 | publisher=Melbourne, Australia R W Strugnell | isbn=978-0-9873052-2-0 }}</ref>
==Career and influence==
She was president of the [[Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors]] from 1948 to 1964,<ref name="adb" /> a founding member of the [[Australian Sculptors Society]]<ref name="asv">Association of Sculptors of Victoria - [http://www.sculptorsvictoria.asn.au/ola_cohn_centre.php Ola Cohn Centre for the Arts], Accessed 29 June 2009.</ref> and an active member of the [[Victorian Artists' Society]], the [[Victorian Sculptors' Society]] and Melbourne Contemporary Artists.
Through her membership of artists' and sculptors' societies, Cohn gave lectures and demonstrations to make sculpture more accessible to the public. Private instruction in sculpture was given from her studio in East Melbourne, which became an important centre for artists. During the Second World War, she gave recreational sculpture lessons for soldiers.<ref name="daao" />
Cohn travelled through Europe and Iceland from 1949 to 1951. In 1952, she won the Crouch Prize at Ballarat for her woodcarving, "Abraham". This was the first time that the prize had been awarded to a sculpture.<ref name="daao" />
Her studio home in Gipps Street, East Melbourne, was bequeathed to the Council of Adult Education (since renamed the [[Centre for Adult Education]]) and is now known as the Ola Cohn Memorial Centre.
In 2002, the Centre for Adult Education considered selling Cohn's studio to raise money for new buildings. A public campaign at the time motivated the Victorian state government to intercede and fund the restoration of the Ola Cohn Memorial Centre<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://emhs.org.au/history/buildings/east_melbourne_gipps_street_043_ola_cohn_centre|title=East Melbourne, Gipps Street 043, Ola Cohn Centre &#124; East Melbourne Historical Society|website=emhs.org.au}}</ref><ref>[https://www.onmydoorstep.com.au/heritage-listing/12499/ola-cohn-house "Ola Cohn House"].</ref> Her studio at Gipps Street is still under the control of the CAE and is heritage listed.<ref name="asv" />
== Honours and awards ==
On 1 January 1965, shortly after her death, Cohn was appointed a [[Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire]] for her work in the service of art, especially sculpture. In 2007, she was added to the [[Victorian Honour Roll of Women]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://herplacemuseum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2007-HonourRoll-boolet-1.pdf|title=Victorian Honour Roll of Women 2007}}</ref><ref name="adb" />
==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Fairies Tree detail 01.jpg
File:Fairies Tree detail 02.jpg
File:Fairies Tree detail 03.jpg
File:Fairies Tree detail 06.jpg
File:Fairies Tree detail 04.jpg
File:Fairies Tree detail 05.jpg
File:Fairies Tree detail 07.jpg
File:Fairies Tree detail 08.jpg
</gallery>
==References==
{{reflist}}
ABC Radio - Hindsight, Broadcast 28 September 2008, ''[http://www.abc.net.au/rn/hindsight/stories/2008/2373097.htm The Word in the Stone: sculptor Ola Cohn]''
== External links ==
* [http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/permalink/f/1cl35st/SLV_VOYAGER1634103 Papers of Ola Cohn], 1912–1964, ''State Library Victoria''
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[[Category:1892 births]]
[[Category:1964 deaths]]
[[Category:Artists from Melbourne]]
[[Category:20th-century Australian sculptors]]
[[Category:People from Bendigo]]
[[Category:Australian people of Danish descent]]
[[Category:20th-century Australian women sculptors]]