Australian Dictionary of Biography

Kenneth Rowell, c.1990

Photograph by Victoria Rowell

Kenneth Leslie Rowell (1920–1999), artist and stage designer, was born on 29 June 1920 at Northcote, Melbourne, eldest of three sons of Melbourne-born parents Edward Leslie Rowell, butcher, and his wife Vera Margaret, née Holmes. Kenneth attended Northcote (Helen Street) State School and in 1933 commenced study at Collingwood Technical School. He won a scholarship at the end of his first year but did not take it up as his father had died suddenly in May. To help support his widowed mother and brothers, he found work as a window dresser in the furniture store Ackman’s Ltd at Collingwood. Demonstrating a particular flair in this job, he treated the window displays as a type of stage and produced daring arrangements that drew attention. By 1939 he was head window dresser of the Foy Ackmans’ store in Flinders Street.

Rowell had been exposed to the theatre from a young age: his uncles John and William Rowell were artists and stage designers, and two aunts, Martha and Florence, had been dancers. He attended the theatre in his spare time and devoured books and articles on the subject. Inspired by the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, which toured Australia in 1936 and 1937, he aspired to a career in stage design. He was particularly struck by the décors produced by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Léon Bakst, Mikhail Larionov, and Giorgio de Chirico. With no formal courses in stage design available to him, he gained experience in amateur productions. In November 1936 he produced his first scenic design, a backcloth painted on brown paper, for the Brighton Musical Comedy Company’s production of The Arcadians, in which he also performed. He continued to appear on stage at the Little Theatre in South Yarra in 1938 and 1939, and performed with the Borovansky Academy of Russian Ballet, where he attended dance classes from 1940.

In World War II, Rowell served part time with the 15th Field Ambulance from February 1941, but was discharged in December when he took up a reserved position at the Maribyrnong Explosives Factory. From September 1942 he continued his war work as a trainee toolmaker at G. & E. Rodd Pty Ltd, St Kilda. He also enrolled part time (1942–44) in a general art course at the Melbourne Technical College, studying under his uncle John Rowell. Continuing to train himself in the craft of theatre design, he produced designs on paper for imaginary projects. A selection of these works and some of his early paintings were exhibited in 1945 at his first solo exhibition, ‘Designs for Ballet,’ held at Georges Gallery, Melbourne.

Rowell continued to produce sets and costumes for amateur and semi-professional theatrical productions. His first commission for a fully professional company was Winter Night (1948), a new ballet produced by the Ballet Rambert during its tour of Australia. In the same year he was able to present his folio to Sir Laurence Olivier, who was touring with the Old Vic Theatre Company. Olivier encouraged Rowell to seek further experience overseas and in July 1950 he was awarded a British Council scholarship. He sailed for London in October and was attached to the Slade School of Fine Art for twelve months.

Immersing himself in galleries and theatre, Rowell soon established himself as a stage designer and artist in Britain. He designed costumes for (Sir) John Gielgud’s production of Macbeth (1952) at Stratford-upon-Avon, but thereafter he typically designed both sets and costumes. In 1953 he designed productions for Walter Gore Ballet, Saddler’s Wells Theatre Ballet, and Ballet Rambert, as well as for Hamlet, starring Richard Burton and Claire Bloom, for the Old Vic Theatre Company. He presented a successful exhibition of theatre designs and paintings at the Roland, Browse, and Delbanco gallery in London in 1955.

After seeing an exhibition of American abstract expressionist art at the Tate Gallery in 1959, Rowell moved away from the Neo-Romantic and Surrealist styles to abstract interpretations in both his paintings and stage design. In the early 1960s he concentrated on painting, regularly exhibiting his work, often alongside Australian artists residing in London, including Arthur Boyd, Charles Blackman, (Sir) Sidney Nolan, and John Perceval. He lectured in theatre design at the Maidstone College of Art (1964–65) and the Central School of Art and Design, London (1969), and wrote a textbook, Stage Design (1968).

Rowell had married Diana Ruth Eleanor Arnold, a fashion model, on 27 November 1959 at the register office in Kensington, London. The couple divorced in 1968. On 3 September 1971 he married Victoria Elizabeth Beresford, a textile artist and costume designer, at the Chelsea register office. They had two sons, Edward and Joshua. Victoria collaborated with Kenneth on his productions as design associate and costume painter.

During the three decades Rowell lived and worked in Britain, he continued to design for productions and exhibit his artwork in Australia. In 1956 he was invited to design The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni for the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust. He returned in 1960 at the invitation of the Borovansky Ballet’s new artistic director, Peggy van Praagh, to design Coppélia. Rowell continued to work with van Praagh when she headed the newly formed Australian Ballet, beginning with Giselle in 1965. A highlight was his set and costume design for The Sleeping Beauty (1973), co-produced by van Praagh and (Sir) Robert Helpmann for the Australian Ballet’s first performance in the Sydney Opera House. At the time, Rowell described this as ‘one of the most complex but exciting’ projects of his career, its ‘strong chromatic colours’ deriving from ‘all I’ve learnt as a painter’ (Rowell 1973). He also designed many productions for both the Australian Opera and the Victoria State Opera, especially after he returned to live permanently in Melbourne in 1982.

A gentle and humorous man with enormous determination, Rowell was a perfectionist who was able to sustain long periods of focused concentration. His friend Frank Tait described him as ‘a quiet but exuberant character, given to sharp and penetrating comments’ (Thomson 1978, 44). Appointed AM in 1991, he received the Australian Opera trophy after what was to be his final production, Aida, in 1995. A retrospective exhibition titled Double Act: The Art of Kenneth Rowell was held at the Opera Centre in South Melbourne in October 1998. Survived by his wife and their two sons, Rowell died on 29 January 1999 at St Kilda and was cremated. His paintings and stage designs are held in public collections in Australia, including the National Gallery of Victoria and the National Gallery of Australia, and in London at the Victoria and Albert Museum and Tate Gallery. His stage design archive, held by the National Library of Australia, was the subject of an exhibition in 2022.