Immortal Warrior by Norma Redpath
Story compiled from research by Lisa Conolly.
Figure 1. Immortal Warrior, sculpture by Norma Redpath. 182 Victoria Sq/ Tarntanyangga Adelaide.
This sculpture sits outside a cafe on the corner of Flinders St and Tarntanyangga, and was most likely the first abstract modernist sculpture on a public street in Adelaide. The sculpture is 3.28m tall and was bronze cast in Milan in 1963, but was installed later in Adelaide between 1968 and 1969.
It was purchased by the Reserve Bank of Australia to sit outside its new building, completed in 1966 – then the tallest building in Adelaide. The building is currently owned by a private company, EDIA Pty Ltd, and is listed on the Australian Heritage Database as an historic building.
Figure 2. The Reserve Bank, 1966 promotional brochure.
Nugget Coombs, Governor of the Reserve Bank from 1960-68, was a supporter of the arts and of women’s rights to work and equal pay for equal work. In addition to the Adelaide sculpture, he led the bank to purchase a Norma Redpath sculpture for the new Reserve Bank building in Brisbane (1968-71), and a Margel Hinder sculpture for the Reserve Bank building in Sydney in 1964.
Figure 3. Bust of Nugget Coombs, by Norma Redpath (1972).
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At around the same time (1964-69), the federal Treasury commissioned a Redpath sculpture which was a site-specific design for their central courtyard fountain in Canberra. Jane Eckett writes that Coombs was “an important and long-term supporter of Redpath’s”. Norma Redpath did a portrait bust of Coombs in 1972 and in that same year she was appointed the inaugural H.C. Coombs Creative Arts Fellow at Australian National University.
Figure 4: The Milan studio where the sculpture was cast in 1963
The Immortal Warrior was well travelled before landing in Adelaide in about 1968. After being cast in Milan in 1963 it came back to Australia and featured in a 1965 travelling exhibition of “Recent Australian Sculpture”. At the time of the exhibition opening at the NSW Art Gallery in April 1965, Redpath’s sculpture caught the attention of the press, being described as a “sombre giant”.
In 1966 it had won the Transfield Prize for Sculpture. The sculpture travelled to Expo67 in Montreal to sit outside the Australian pavilion for about 6 months from May to October, 1967.​​
Figure 5: Immortal Warrior by Normal Repath, at the International Expo, Montreal, outside the Australian Pavilion in 1967.
Figure 6: Norma Redpath, circa 1969
In a video directed by Tim Burstall in 1969, Norma describes the Immortal Warrior as a “a very rugged form – parts of it seem to have been torn, been through a battle. It's standing as if it’s facing up to something like a great wind force. The side of man that had always most engaged my imagination is to do with his epic qualities: strength, endurance, nobility”.
Figure 7: Sketch of Immortal Warrior, by Lisa Conolly,
Norma Redpath died in January 2013, aged 84. An obituary from Professor Kenneth Wach stated that, “Redpath was the only Australian-born female sculptor of her post-World War II generation to have developed aesthetic ideas and sculptural forms that made any sort of impact in Europe. She was the only Australian-born female sculptor of her generation to have developed self-initiated links with Italy. She was the only Australian-born female sculptor of her generation to have gained personal knowledge of the long Italian traditions of civic sculpture; this is unique in Australia's multicultural history. She was the only Australian-born female sculptor to have not only met the sculptors Alberto Giacometti and Henry Moore, but also, more importantly, to have bridged their aesthetic contributions and drawn out their sculptural concerns within an Australian context.”
References
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Jane Eckett, 'Norma Redpath Works from the Studio 1970s and 1980s, Catalogue Essay', (Charles Nodrum Gallery, 2018), Exhibition Catalogue.
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Jane Eckett, 'Man Sights an Object in Space: Norma Redpath’s Approach to Public Art', Art Monthly Australia,/May (2013b), 62-64.
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Robert Hughs, 'Robert Klippel', Art and Australia, 2/1 (1964), 18-29. See Page 18 for the quote that mentions Redpath.
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Margaret Jones, 'Sculpture by the Ton', The SUN HERALD, 25 April 1965.
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Norma Redpath, 'Ideas and Images, Theatres of the Mind, Preliminary Draft', (Sourced via Art Gallery of SA Library, 1985).
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Tim Rowse, Nugget Coombs, a Reforming Life (Cambridge University Press, 2002). From page 227 there is a discussion of Coombs support for change in legislation to allow women to work after marriage, and access to equal pay for equal work. On page 282 there is discussion of Coombs desire for his bank to be an “exemplar of elegant corporate modernism”, and the new reserve bank buildings and sculptures are signposted as part of this vision..
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Gordon Thomson, 'An Overall Study of the Work of Norma Redpath and in Particular the Years 1969 and 1970', (Sydney: Rudy Komon Gallery, 1970).
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C S Schumacher, 'The Reserve Bank Adelaide', Building and Architecture, 3 (1966), 25-36.
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Sculpture Australia 69 (Australian Commonwealth Film Unit, 1969), Tim Burstall (dir.). Norma Repath talks about the Immortal Warrior 13.28 minutes into the video.
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Kenneth Wach, 'Austrlian Sculptor Who Was Enamoured with Italy', The Age, January 23 2013.
Figures
Figure 1. Immortal Warrior, sculpture by Norma Redpath. 182 Victoria Sq/ Tarntanyangga Adelaide.
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Figure 2. This image is from a 1966 Reserve Bank Brochure. Sourced from University of South Australia, Architecture Museum. Photograph by Lisa Conolly from original document.
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Figure 3. Bust of Nugget Coombs, by Norma Redpath (1972). Image sourced from Charles Lodrum Gallery, (viewed 4/10/2025).
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Figure 4: This image of the Immortal Warrior sculpture at the Milan studio was sourced from the Archive of Women Artists and Research Exhibitions (AWARE web site), viewed 5/10/2025
Figure 5 . Photograph of Immortal Warrior Outside Montreal Expo, 1967, Sourced from - Photographs of Australian art and sculpture at the Australian pavilion at Expo 67, Montreal - Glossy black and white prints and negative strip prints - 25.5 x 20.5 cm; 5.5 x 5.5 cm. Reference AA1982/206, 14.
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Figure 6: This image of Norma Redpath is from a 1970 book about her work, authored by Gordon Thomson (referenced above). The photograph is uncredited in the publication.
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Figure 7. This is an original photograph of a sketch by Lisa Conolly. Sketched in markers in a 300gsm sketchbook. March 2025.
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