Pat Hillcoat

Patricia 'Pat' Hillcoat (14 January 1935 – 26 October 2022) was an Australian feminist, artist, nurse, and a life member of the Women's Art Register

Quotes

From Pat Hillcoat

• My work is for my own pleasure and fulfilment. I like to give form to my emotional and visual responses and to explore themes which reflect my attitudes as a socially concious woman artist.
  • written by Pat Hillcoat for the Women's Art Movement exhibition planned for Banyule, Feb 1982 - copy available in the Pat Hillcoat folder at Women's Art Register archive at Richmond Library, Victoria, Australia

• When I've travelled I've been attracted by the human presences imprinted in inanimate objects and structures and I prefer the freedom and directness of watercolours to recall these associations. (discussing the merits of watercolour as an art medium)
  • written by Pat Hillcoat for the Women's Art Movement exhibition planned for Banyule, Feb 1982 - copy available in the Pat Hillcoat folder at Women's Art Register archive at Richmond Library, Victoria, Australia

• Both. I think it causes problems, but it's something we must work with, as the North American women did. They included everyone instead of being exclusive. They had so much energy, and they were going parallel to the women's movement. It's a very difficult time now in Australia. We don't want to identify with North America because Australian women have a very different experience. (reflecting on her experience living and working in North America versus Australia, and as a direct answer to the questions: How do you feel at the thought of having contact with women in a Women's Art Movement who are not feminists? Does that seem exciting, or do you see it as causing a lot of problems?)
  • Interview with Anne Hastie (possibly for the Women's Art Register Bulletin) - Nov 1981 - interview transcript available in the Women's Art Register archive at Richmond Library, Victoria, Australia

• Women are the consumers in society, but they are also the consumed. My purpose in the work (Down Under Among The Women) is to confirm more than to deny and if women are still portrayed as sex objects in art and society, my aim is to recreate them as sex subjects. I use sexual imagery in the context of the female body in an attempt to reveal the tragedy and comedy of women's lives.
  • The Herald article by Caroline Baum - Women as subjects, not objects - 15 Aug 1985

• There is not nearly enough change here, the men have not kept up with the women's movement. In America I found that male artists used feminist ideas in their work. I don't see that here at all. (Hillcoats' experience with the women's movement whilst living and working in North America versus Australia)
  • The Herald article by Caroline Baum - Women as subjects, not objects - 15 Aug 1985

• Women artists need to consider the basic attitudes underlying censorship of women's art work and how it reflects a deep-seated fear in the community. During the past 15 years feminist artists have worked to change patriarchal attitudes towards women. As well, feminist art historians and critics have re-instated many women artists lost in history and made their imagery visible again. The struggle to produce new imagery and to interpret and defend such statements and ideas has often been at considerable personal cost.
  • Censorship is a Feminist Issue by Pat Hillcoat - late 1980s (possibly for the Women's Art Register Bulletin) - copy available in the Pat Hillcoat folder at Women's Art Register archive at Richmond Library, Victoria, Australia

• For the past 20 years I have been deconstructing 'the nude' through drawing, painting and collage. Collage is a perfect medium for reappropriating and juxtaposing images from many sources and rearranging them as personal metaphors, analogies and ambiguities.
  • The Canberra Times article by Sonia Barron - Demeaning of women portrayed, p. 47 - 9 July 1994 - Archive

• At the time of my writing, 30 years ago, I felt the works of artists like Frida Kahlo and Dorothea Tanning were not sufficiently known or appreciated. The Bulletin provided a way of bringing these artists to the attention of a much wider audience. (about the importance of the Women's Art Register Bulletin and her own regular column ‘A Look At Books’ in it)
  • Interview by Caroline Phillips for the Women's Art Register Bulletin Issue 63 - Dec 2018
  • Re-print in Women's Art Register Bulletin Issue 72, Page 41 - Jul 2023