Artworks & artists

Artworks associated with the ocean baths fall into two types, namely art at the baths and art about the baths.

Some artists have strong associations with particular ocean pools, while others have explored the variety of the ocean pools. Photography rather than painting or literary fiction has best responded to and captured the beauty of the ocean baths.

Artworks at or near the ocean baths includes:
- Oceanids statues, Fairy Bower pool, Manly,
- Statue of Mina Wylie at Wylies Baths, Coogee,
- Community mosaic, North Bondi Children's Pool (Mermaid Pool),
- Mural at the Beverley Whitfield Pool, Shellharbour,
- Map of the world, once a feature of the Canoe Pool at Newcastle, and
- Wrapped Coast, Little Bay, One Million Square Feet, Sydney. (For a few weeks in 1969, the cliffs of Little Bay opposite the rock pool at Sydney's Prince Henry Hospital were wrapped and transformed into a work of art.)

Photographers associated with ocean baths along the NSW coast include:
- Patrick Van Daele,  NSW harbour and ocean pools,
- Ian Lever,  pools in Sydney's eastern suburbs,
- Steve Back,  Sydney harbour and ocean pools,
- Max Dupain, the Newport baths,
- Matt Hoyle, pools in Sydney's eastern suburbs,
- William Yang,  pools in Sydney's eastern suburbs,
- Mark Spencer, Wylies Baths, Coogee,
- Peter Elliston, Wylies Baths, Coogee, and
- Frank Hurley, Sydney and South Coast pools.

Painters associated with ocean baths along the NSW coast include:
- John Earle, Newcastle and Sydney ocean baths,
- Rod Bathgate,  Newcastle's Bogey Hole,
- Ian Swift, Sydney ocean baths,
- Jeffrey Smart,  Wylies Baths, Coogee,
- Peter Kingston,  Wylies Baths, Coogee, and
- Alfred Coffey,  Austinmer.

Sculptors associated with ocean baths along the NSW coast include:
- Helen Leete,  Fairy Bower, Manly, and
- Eileen Slarke,  Wylies Baths, Coogee.

Ocean baths seen on film and TV include:
- Palm Beach pool on TV's Home and Away,
- Newcastle Ocean Baths in the film Bootmen, and
- Mahon Pool, Maroubra  in the film Walking on Water.

Further Information

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