Barbara Blackman

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Australian artists' model and muse, writer, essayist, librettist, letter writer and patron of the Arts. Having suffered with poor eyesight throughout her youth, she was diagnosed in 1950 with optic atrophy. Her vision declined rapidly until she became completely blind. By 1952 she had married the artist Charles Blackman, and after moving from Brisbane to Melbourne, was involved in the modernist art movement which emerged there. She co-founded the Contemporary Arts Society in Melbourne - which promoted the work of artists like Arthur Boyd and Sidney Nolan. After 27 years of marriage, the Blackmans divorced in 1978, largely because of his alcoholism. They had three children: Auguste, Christabel and Barnaby. In later life, Barbara married Frenchman Marcel Veldhoven. They spent twelve years together, living in Indooroopilly, a suburb of Brisbane. In 2004, Blackman pledged $1 million to music in Australia. Her books include, Glass after Glass : Autobiographical Reflections (Penguin Books/Viking, 1997) and All My Januaries: Pleasures of Life and Other Essays (University of Queensland Press, 2016). Link to Wikipedia biography