Ola Cohn b. 1892 Bendigo, Vic.

Also known as Carola Cohn
  • Artist (Sculptor)
Sculptor born in Bendigo, Victoria. Cohn was committed to making sculpture accessible.
Talk | Version history | Updated Oct. 19, 2011 | Created Jan. 1, 1995
Name
Ola Cohn
Also known as Carola Cohn
Birth date
25 April 1892
Birth place
Bendigo, Vic.
Death date
23 December 1964
Death place
None
Gender
Female
Roles
  • Artist (Sculptor)
Residence
  • 1949- 1951 Iceland
  • 1949- 1951 Europe
  • 1930- 1949 Collins Street, Melbourne, Vic.
  • Europe
  • c.1926- c.1929 London, England, UK
  • 1920- 1926 Melbourne, Vic.
  • c.25 April 1892- c.1920 Bendigo, Vic.
Active Period
  • 1904- 1964
Languages
  • English
Training
  • London School of Arts and Crafts, London, England, UK
  • c.1926- c.1929 Royal College of Art, London, England, UK
  • 1920- 1925 Swinburne Technical College, Melbourne, Vic.
  • 1910- 1919 Bendigo School of Mines, Bendigo, Vic.
  • 1904 Bendigo School of Mines, Bendigo, Vic.
Is Indigenous
No
Initial Record Data Source
  • Heritage: The National Women's Art Book

sculptor, was born in Bendigo on 25 April 1892, one of five children of Julius Cohn, a brewer, and Sarah Helen, née Snowball. She studied drawing, then modelling at the Bendigo School of Mines (1904 and 1910-19). Following her father’s death, the family moved to Melbourne and Ola continued her modelling studies at Swinburne Technical College (1920-25) under J.R. Tranthim-Fryer. She was a member of the Victorian Artists’ Society from 1921 and began a lifetime association with the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors (MSWPS) in 1922, being its president from 1950 until she died.

With her sister Franziska, Ola went to London in 1926 and enrolled at the Royal College of Art; her teachers included Ernest Cole and Henry Moore. She received her diploma in 1929 and was awarded a scholarship. She also studied at the London School of Arts and Crafts and travelled extensively in Europe. During this period she produced sculptures in a wide range of mediums: wood, stone, plaster, bronze and clay.

Cohn returned to Melbourne in 1930 and opened a studio in Collins Street. An exhibition of her overseas work at Melbourne in March 1931 established her as one of the most important modernist sculptors in Australia. Predictably, her simple massive forms attracted as much condemnation as praise, but she maintained a pragmatic attitude to conservative critics: 'Having spent my life studying sculpture, it seems ludicrous to be upset by the opinions of those who have not’.

Stone-carving, learnt at the Royal College of Art, became increasingly important to her. Her first public commissions (1938) were for a memorial fountain in Bendigo and two (controversial) six-foot sandstone figures representing Science and Humanity for the porch of the Royal Hobart Hospital (Tas.). Her most important public sculpture was a monumental figure commemorating the pioneer women of South Australia (1940-41). The simplified organic forms of these early works have the vitality, directness and architectural simplicity of the most significant European figurative-modernist work.

Undoubtedly Cohn’s most popular work is The Fairies’ Tree she carved in Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne (1931-34). She also published three children books: The Fairies’ Tree (1932), More about the Fairies’ Tree (1932) and Castles in the Air (1936). Later she wrote Mostly Cats (1964) and an unpublished autobiography, 'Me in the Making’ (c.1950, SLV).

Cohn was committed to making sculpture accessible. She gave lectures, demonstrations and private instruction and was a part-time lecturer at the Melbourne Kindergarten Training College (1940-54). During World War II she conducted recreational sculpture lessons for soldiers. After moving to East Melbourne in 1937, she made her studio a centre for artists. She encouraged younger women artists and provided a permanent home for MSWPS at her studio, which she bequeathed to the Council of Adult Education (now the Ola Cohn Memorial Centre).

Cohn travelled through Europe and Iceland in 1949-51. She continued to work until she died, her last public commission being for St Paul’s Anglican Church, Bendigo. In 1952 she won the acquisitive Crouch Prize at Ballarat for her woodcarving, Abraham – the first time that this had been awarded to a sculpture. In 1953 she married John Green, a retired government printer and longstanding friend. In 1964 Cohn was awarded the OBE; she died on 23 December.

Writers:
Edwards, Deborah
Date written:
1995
Last updated:
2011
associate of
John Robertson Tranthim-Fryer
1858
Artist (Draughtsman), Artist (Sculptor)
spouse of
John Green
1811
Artist, Artist (Printmaker)
associate of
Henry Moore
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
child of
Julius Cohn
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
child of
née Snowball Sarah Helen Cohn
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
associate of
Ernest Cole
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
sibling of
Franziska Cohn
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
associate of
Mary Packer Harris
1891
Artist, Artist (Printmaker), Artist (Textile Artist / Fashion Designer), Artist (Painter)
associate of
Annis Laeubli
1912
Artist (Sculptor)
associate of
Adelaide Miethke
1881
Artist (Industrial / Product Designer)
associate of
Janie Wilkinson Whyte
1869
Artist (Printmaker), Artist, Artist (Painter)
associate of
Arthur Thomas Woodward
1865
Artist (Painter)
associate of
Victorian Artists' Society
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
associate of
Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors (MSWPS)
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
associate of
Royal Hobart Hospital
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
associate of
Melbourne Kindergarten Training College
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
associate of
Council of Adult Education (now the Ola Cohn Memorial Centre)
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
(Six-foot sandstone figures representing Science and Humanity for the porch of the Royal Hobart Hospital)
Abraham
Date
1952
(Monumental figure commemorating the pioneer women of South Australia)
Date
1941
(Memorial fountain in Bendigo)
Date
1938
The Fairies' Tree
Date
1934
Collections
[Exhibition of Carola Cohn's overseas work]
March 1931
Exhibition (exhibited at)
Melbourne, Vic.
Recognitions
Awarded the OBE
1964
Award
Order of the British Empire.
Acquisitive Crouch Prize
1952
Award
1929 : Awarded a scholarship
1929
Award
1929 Royal College of Art
Citations:
  • Cohn, Carola, (c.1950), Me in the Making
  • Cohn, Carola, (1964), Mostly Cats
  • Cohn, Carola, (1936), Castles in the Air
  • Cohn, Carola, (1932), More about the Fairies' Tree
  • Cohn, Carola, (1932), The Fairies' Tree
  • Scarlett, Ken, (1981), Cohn, Carola (Ola) (1892 - 1964), (Place: Melbourne, Vic : Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 8, [Nairn, B.; and Serle, G. (eds)], Melbourne University Press, pp 59-60)
  • Scarlett, Ken, (1980), Australian Sculptors, (Place: West Melbourne, Vic.)
  • Peers, Juliet, (1993), More Than Just Gumtrees, (Place: Melbourne, Vic.)
  • Moore, William, (15 August 1932), The sculpture of Ola Cohn, (Place: Art in Australia)
  • Hutchison, Noel, (1840), Australian women sculptors 1840-1940, (Place: Melbourne, Vic : in Burke, Janine (ed.), Australian Women Artists: One Hundred Years 1840-1940, Ewing Gallery catalogue)
  • Hall, Doug, (1983), Ola Cohn 1892-1964, (Place: Bendigo, Vic : Bendigo Art Gallery catalogue)
  • Ambrus, Caroline, (1984), The Ladies' Picture Show, (Place: Sydney, NSW)
  • Edwards, Deborah, (1988), Ola Cohen, (Place: Sydney, NSW : in Radi, Heather (ed.), 200 Australian Women, [Entry adapted from])
See also:
  • PORTRAIT: Ola Cohn 1950s, ink sketch by Anne Graham made at a meeting of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors. Courtesy Anne Graham and Juliet Peers.