POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

'Masked apple' sculpture from George and Joyce Gittoes Yellow House Puppet Theatre collection

Object No. 2009/68/1-20

The Yellow House, was one of Australia's most colourful contributions to the hippy / psychedelic era of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It opened to the public on April's Fools Day 1970. The Powerhouse Museum holds a reconstructed Yellow House puppet theatre, along with an original puppet storage chest, photographs, artworks and other material relating to the puppet theatre created for the Yellow House between 1969-1970. Together, these puppets and artworks were used and seen on a daily basis in the Yellow House Puppet Theatre, Stone Room and other areas of this artist residence, gallery and live performance space during its heyday from 1970 through to 1971. The Magritte-inspired surrealist ceramics were used as props while the artworks hung on the outer walls of the Theatre. The puppet plays were written and/or presented by George Gittoes. They include both ancient works based on classical Greek and Persian mythology and contemporary plays (eg Eugène Ionesco), and a suite of puppet plays on the story of the wives of great artists eg Mondrian's [wife], Picasso's wife Olga Khokhlova with son Paolo, and Albert Tucker's wife Joy Hester, who like Gittoes' girlfriend had tragically committed suicide. Importantly, the puppet plays reflect Gittoes emerging interest in tragedy and conflict and his deep-rooted interest in Greek and Persian mythology. Today George Gittoes is a leading and international award-winning Australian artist and documentary filmmaker. He was the first artist to win the prestigious Sydney Peace Prize in 2015 for 'exposing injustice for over 45 years as a humanist artist, activist and filmmaker, for his courage to witness and confront violence in the war zones of the world, for enlisting the arts to subdue aggression and for enlivening the creative spirit to promote tolerance, respect and peace with justice'. (1) Anne-Marie Van de Ven, Curator 2008, updated 2019. (1)Sydney Peace Prize Citation (Accessed 9/10/2019). http://sydneypeacefoundation.org.au/peace-prize-recipients/2015-george-gittoes-am/