J. Christie Wright plans South Australian School of Arts, Crafts before his brilliance lost in World War I
South Australia School of Arts and Crafts stall with goods for sale in the exhibition building, on North Terrace, Adelaide, as part of the Wonderland Fair in 1916 – the year the school principal J. Christie Wright left to fight in World War I. Money raised at the fair was donated to the South Australian soldiers' repatriation fund.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia
Scottish-born sculptor J. Christie Wright, killed in France during World War I, after being appointed principal of the South Australian School of Art in 1916 to replace H.P. Gill, was a major loss for the state.
Wright had been educated in Aberdeen at Robert Gordon's (Technical) College and Grays School of Art (1907-11), where he studied painting and sculpture and won the £50 Byrne scholarship. An exceptional student in skills extending to lithography and engraving, Wright won Scottish national diploma in sculpture He studied modelling and architecture at the Royal College of Art in London.
Wright emigrated to Australia in 1912 and was appointed first art lecturer in art at Sydney University’s teachers college. He created a large model of Sydney's new zoo and made reliefs for the Daily Telegraph (later Trust) building façade. His statue Perpetuity for the Perpetual Trustee Company won the 1915 Wynne Prize.
Wright was appointed to lead South Australia’s School of Art (previously School of Design) in February 1916, at 26, and began reorganising it as the South Australia School and Arts and Crafts. By April 1916, he'd enlisted for World War I service.
In Wright's absence, C. J. Pavia handled administration and geometrical drawing and Fred C. Britton took all other subjects. London-born Britton studied painting at Brook Green School of Art, Slade School of Fine Art and Hammersmith School of Arts and Crafts. In 1908, he was official artist for Flinders Petrie’s archaeological expedition to Egypt and moved to Adelaide around 1910. He joined the South Australian school of art under Wright and followed Wright in enlisting 1918 and served as an official World War I artist. He returned to Adelaide and worked for publishers Tyrrell's and in 1921 was appointed by Edith Napier Birks as founding painting master of the School of Fine Arts in North Adelaide. In 1927, he moved to Sydney.
C. J. Pavia, son of the South Australian headmasters' association president 1906–08, was educated at Thomas Caterer’s Semaphore Collegiate School. He conducted drawing classes at the Port Adelaide branch of the school of design 1902-10 and acted as drawing master at St Peter’s College. He was assistant master of the South Australian School of Arts and Crafts from around 1910 and for three years around the end of World War I was acting principal. He was passed over as full-time principal in 1920 when Laurence Hotham Howie, also South Australian-born, returned from war service in 1920. Howie led the school until 1944.
