Geoff La Gerche Grandma Lum Loy, ‘a true Territorian’

Lim Lee See (c1884–1980), known as Granny Lum Loy – the matriarch of Darwin’s Chinese community – was a pioneering market gardener. It is not known when she was born (probably between 1884 and 1891) but she emigrated to Australia from Guangdong, China as a child. In this portrait, her weathered skin and arresting presence embody her abiding resilience; she survived two world wars, the deaths of her husband and only daughter, and the destruction of her gardens by Cyclone Tracy in 1974.

Geoff La Gerche was dubbed an ‘eyeball realist’ for his super-scaled portraits. Following formal studies in Melbourne, he departed for London in 1967. At the Royal College of Art, his teacher, American pop artist Jim Dine, had a profound effect on his work. Returning to Australia, La Gerche utilised air-brushed acrylics to achieve precise renderings of light and shade in his early hyper-real works. In 1979, he took up an artist residency in Darwin, which is where he produced this portrait.

Now in the collection of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory with the title ‘A true Territorian’: Portrait of Grandma Lum Loy, this was one of two works by La Gerche in the 1979 Archibald – the second a portrait of Yolŋu elder Wesley Lanhupuy. He was also a finalist in the 1979 Wynne and Sulman Prizes.