Artonview 103 - Spring 2020

ARTONVIEW SPRING 2020 | 103 National Gallery of Australia Vincent van Gogh. Sunflowers (detail) 1888. © National Gallery, London

Government Partners

Principal Partner

Principal Donor

Major Partner

Organised by

KNOW MY NAME Karla Dickens | Vivienne Binns | Fiona Lowry | eX de Medici with Emily Kame Kngwarreye

ABSENCE MAKES THE ART GROW FONDER ARCHIBALD PRIZE

AUSTRALIA’S FAVOURITE PORTRAIT PRIZE 26 SEPTEMBER 2020 – 10 JANUARY 2021

CONTENTS

Page 10: DI$COUNT UNIVER$E

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DIRECTOR’S WORD

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EDITOR’S LETTER

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MEET THE MEMBERS

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STUDIO SPOTLIGHT XU ZHEN®.

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JOHN NIXON Musician and author Robert Forster pays tribute to his friend, the late installation artist and painter John Nixon.

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DI$COUNT UNIVER$E New York-based Australian fashion designers Cami James and Nadia Napreychikov discuss their WOMEN collection.

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BETTY MUFFLER Vogue Australia collaborated with the National Gallery to commission Betty Muffler for a special cover work to bring hope and healing.

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EMILY KAME KNGWARREYE Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s The Alhalkere Suite celebrates the coming of water and wildflowers in spring after drought.

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COVER STORY To celebrate the Know My Name initiative, we brought together four generations of women artists in conversation about art and gender.

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LINDY LEE & NELL The artists on their love of Buddhism and the art of mentoring.

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KNOW MY NAME Elspeth Pitt explores the historical narratives of gender in art.

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AN EXHIBITION IN DESIGN Exhibiton designer Jing-Ling Chua on the complex task of designing an exhibition with almost 400 works on 4300sqm of floor space.

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PORTRAIT OF A LADY Artist Yvette Coppersmith reflects on the art of the portrait through the female gaze.

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STORIES FROM EUROPE Works spanning 500 years of European art history feature in Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London.

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PARTNERSHIPS VisitCanberra and the Capital Hotel Group.

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MY COLLECTION We visit the private collection of a National Gallery donor.

This month: Dr Dick Quan and John McGrath.

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VALE JOHN SCHAFFER, AO

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DIRECTOR’S CHOICE Virginia Cuppaidge’s Lyon.

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EDDIE THE DIRECTOR DOG The adorable new member of the Gallery family.

Page 38: Lindy Lee & Nell

Page 14: Betty Muffler

On the cover: (from left) Karla Dickens, Vivienne Binns, Fiona Lowry and eX de Medici with Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Anmatyerre people, The Alhalkere suite, 1993, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1993, © Emily Kame Kngwarreye/ Copyright Agency, 2020.

Photograph by Sam Cooper.

DIRECTOR’S WORD

Gooroo Burri On a wintery day in July, I saw our new vision for the National Gallery of Australia come to life when four women artists visited the building to be photographed for the cover of this issue.

Seeing Vivienne Binns, eX de Medici, Karla Dickens and Fiona Lowry – representing four generations of female artists in our national collection – come together for our Know My Name photo shoot in the building that houses some of their key works was incredibly energising. Because of the pandemic we have not been able to have many artists visit for a while, so it created a real buzz in the Gallery and reminded us what is at the heart of the works on our walls: the artists.

Hearing directly from this diverse group of women how important it is for them to not just be represented by their art but to be seen, and to be heard, was very powerful. Whether it was Vivienne discussing the significance of representing women’s identities; eX on gender parity in what artists get paid; Fiona suggesting the need for more childcare assistance for women artists; or hearing Karla, a Wiradjuri woman whose parents and grandparents come from Mascot, describe what it meant to her to see Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s work on a billboard near Sydney Airport at Mascot (one of our Know My Name campaigns) – these were important messages.

It reminded me of the key points of our new vision for the National Gallery: to highlight the stories and histories of all Australians, embrace global ideas, challenge our audiences and disrupt conventions with new concepts and forms of cultural expression. Central to Jeremiah Bonson’s Warrah Bun Bun, which is included in the Body Language Touring Exhibition at Lismore Regional Gallery.

Jeremiah Bonson (Jinang/ Marung peoples), Warrah Bun Bun, 2010, synthetic polymer paint on wood, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 2010 © Jeremiah Bonson, licenced by Elcho Island Arts.

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our vision is the mandate to bring the national

collection to life, with rigorous exhibitions

in history, all 26 editions of Vogue (with an

that are driven by ideas and diverse narratives

international reach of over 50 million) united

that embrace the experiences of our evolving

behind the theme of hope. For the Australian

communities.

cover, artist Betty Muffler – an Anangu

Know My Name: Australian Women 1900

(Aboriginal) Pitjantjatjara woman and spiritual

to Now, which opens 14 November, will do just

healer – was commissioned to produce a work

that. It is one of the largest exhibitions we have

to bring hope and healing from the heart of our

created in recent years: almost 400 works from

Country. You can see Betty’s work and read her

170 women artists displayed in 23 gallery spaces

incredibly inspiring story on page 14. I would

over 4,300 sqm of floor. You may have noticed

like to thank Edwina McCann, Vogue Australia

recent building works as we restore several

Editor-in-Chief, for this collaboration and for

gallery spaces on level 1, which will be revealed

Vogue Australia’s generous proposed gift to the

with the opening of the exhibition.

national collection of Betty’s stunning work,

Know My Name: Australian Women 1900 to Now will be one of our first openings since the pandemic struck, and we have adapted our

Ngangkari Ngura (Healing Country), which is currently on display on level 1.

This year has been difficult for many

programs, starting with our conference which

families, including our own. We recently

is now entirely digital. The four-day conference

said goodbye to two members of the National

features leading artists, academics and activists

Gallery family, long-time donor and patron

in wide-ranging discussions about historical

of the arts John Schaeffer, and John Nixon,

and contemporary experiences of gender in

a leading figure of radical abstraction whose

the arts. It is another innovative approach as

works are in the national collection. We send

we continue to adapt to the new norm of social

our thoughts and best wishes to their families.

distancing and travel restrictions. Our digital

We have been able to return to some sense

offerings enable us to reach members who are

of normality, last month we were thrilled to

unable to visit the Gallery in person, so we hope

restart our Touring Exhibitions program, with

you can join us online.

the openings of Body Language at Lismore

Coinciding with the exhibiton is the release of our fantastic Know My Name publication, featuring 150 artists profiled by 114 writers.

Clockwise from left: Vivienne Binns, eX de Medici, Karla Dickens and Fiona Lowry with Director Nick Mitzevich during a break on the Artonview cover shoot at the National Gallery in July.

Regional Gallery and Art Deco: The world turns modern and Hazelhurst Arts Centre in Gymea.

We have missed our national audiences,

I would like to thank Principal Patron Tim

so we look forward to welcoming you on tour,

Fairfax AC and all of the generous donors who

onsite, or online soon.

have supported the Know My Name initiative.

Another exciting Know My Name project

Nick Mitzevich

we have been working on is a collaboration with Vogue Australia to commission an

I acknowledge and pay my respect to the

Australian artist to be featured on the cover

Traditional Custodians of the Canberra region,

of their September issue as part of the global

the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples and their

Vogue Hope campaign. For the first time

Elders past and present.

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SPRING SPRING 103 103

EDITOR’S LETTER

The National Gallery of Australia acknowledges and pays its respect to the Traditional Custodians of the Canberra region, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples and their Elders past and present.

Artonview may contain names and images of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Editor Sophie Tedmanson Designer Kirsty Morrison Rights and Permissions Ellie Misios

Spring is the prettiest time in the capital.

The wattle has sprung in the Sculpture Garden,

artists, including: Lindy Lee and Nell, who

blossoms are blooming around Lake Burley

discuss the impact and of Buddhism and mentoring Buddhism mentoring (page 38);

Griffin and the sun is bringing warmth back

on their art and friendship (pageabout 38); Yvette Yvette Coppersmith, who writes the art of

into the air. With a new season comes new

Coppersmith, who writes aboutgaze the art of the the portrait through the female (page 48);

beginnings, and after a trying winter there is

portrait through the female gaze (page 48); and fashion designers DI$COUNT UNIVER$E,

Advertising enquiries ArtonviewAdvertising@nga.gov.au

hope on the horizon.

and fashion designers DI$COUNT whose spirited WOMEN collectionUNIVER$E, is an homage

Enquiries artonview.editor@nga.gov.au

whose spirited WOMEN collection is an homage to the twenty-first century female (page 10).

nga.gov.au/artonview

A senior A senior cultural cultural woman woman and and Ngangkari, Ngangkari,

to the twenty-first century female: bold, Elspeth Pitt explores the narratives of gender

© National Galley of Australia 2019 PO Box 1150, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia +61 (0)2 6240 6411 | nga.gov.au

Artist Betty Muffler represents hope. (spiritual healer), Betty was selected by

brash heryou voice (pagethe 10).scenes Curator in art, and and using we take behind with

Vogue Australia to feature on the cover of

Elspeth Pitt explores the narratives of Chua, gender Senior Exhibition Designer Jing-Ling

their September 2020 issue (the first time in

in art, and we behind the with responsible fortake the you complex task ofscenes designing

the magazine’s 60-year history that a work

Senior Exhibition Designer Jing-Ling Chua, the Know My Name: Australian Women Artists

of art has featured on the cover) as part of a

responsible the complex task of designing 1900 to Nowfor exhibition which features almost

collaboration with the National Gallery to bring

the Name:4,300sqm AustralianofWomen Artists 400Know worksMy spanning floor space.

bring a message a message of hope of in hope thisintrying this trying year. year.

1900As topart Nowofexhibition which features our ongoing evolution of almost the

Betty’s painting, Ngangkari Ngura (Healing

400 works we spanning 4,300sqm of floor magazine, have also introduced two space. new

Published quarterly. Copyright of works of art is held by the artists or their estates. Every effort has been made to identify copyright holders but omissions may occur.

Views expressed by writers are not necessarily those of the National Gallery of Australia.

Country) – which is now in display on level 1 –

As part of our evolution of the columns: Meet theongoing Members, where we

is extraordinary, and her story (on page 14)

magazine, have alsopersonal introduced two new highlight awe member’s connection

is remarkable.

columns: Meet and the Members, wherewhere we highlight to the Gallery; My Collection, we

ISSN 2208-6218 (Online)

a member’s personal connection to the Gallery; visit the private collection of a National

Printed by Adams Print, on FSC certified paper using vegetable-based inks, FSC-C110099

The collaboration with Vogue Australia is a project close to my heart – the publication is

and My donor.

Collection, where we visit the private Gallery

where I honed my magazine editing skills, so

collection of aalso National donor.featured You will noticeGallery more people

a huge thank personal youthanks to the to Vogue the Vogue Australia Australia team,

Youcover will also more people on the and notice inside Artonview asfeatured we shine

especially team for this Editor-in-Chief important collaboration Edwina McCann, and for

on theofcover and inside Artonview as we shine more a spotlight on the artists – by seeing

for giving thisaimportant global platform collaboration to Betty,and her for story giving and

more of a spotlight onknow the artists by seeing their faces, getting to their –names and

a Australian global platform Indigenous to Betty, art. her story and

their faces, getting to know their names and hearing their voices.

Australian Betty’sIndigenous work formsart. part of the Know My

hearing theirMuffler voices. says: “Through my As Betty

Name Betty’s initiative worksupporting forms partAustralian of the Know women My

As Betty Muffler says: paintings you can see my“Through Ngangkarimy work:

Name artists,initiative which we supporting are celebrating Australian with our women

paintings see and my Ngangkari work: watching you overcan people also looking after

artists, first ever which coverwe featuring are celebrating five women withartists: our

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Vivienne Fiona Lowry Binns, andeX Emily de Medici, Kame Karla Kgnwarreye, Dickens,

important – we allour need to look after each other and respect home.”

Fiona whoseLowry The Alhalkere and Emily suite Kame celebrates Kgnwarreye, the

other and respect our home.”

whose comingThe of spring Alhalkere aftersuite drought celebrates in the the desert.

Sophie Tedmanson

coming These of inspiring spring after women drought span inathe spectrum desert. of

IArtonview.Editor@nga.gov.au hope you enjoy this issue, Sophie

history These weinspiring will showcase women with span Know a spectrum My Name. of history we will showcase with Know My Name.

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In this issue we highlight some of those

Contributors Jessica Ausserlechner, Jessica Barnes, Kelli Cole, Sam Cooper, Rebecca Edwards, Terry Harding, Aidan Hartshorn, Peter Johnson, Samantha Jones, Kris Kerehona, Eleni Kypridis, Nick Mitzevich, Keren Nicholson, Sandra O’Malley, Elspeth Pitt, Maryanne Voyazis

nga.gov.au nga.gov.au

@sophieted

ISSN 1323-4552

CONTRIBUTORS

MEET THE MEMBERS In a new column, we profile National Gallery of Australia members.

This month, meet Jim and Jacqueline Anderson, who have a heartfelt connection to the Pacific Arts collection: it is where they became engaged.

YVETTE COPPERSMITH Archibald Prize-winning artist Yvette Coppersmith began painting as a portraitist and expanded to still life and abstraction combined with the figure. During lockdown at home in Melbourne, Yvette - a Know My Name artist - penned an essay ruminating on the art of the portrait through the female gaze, on page 48.

ROBERT FORSTER Robert Forster is a musician, author of Grant and I: Inside and Outside the Go-Betweens, and passionate art afficionado. In the 1980s Forster and his bandmates lived in the same neighbourhood as artist John Nixon, whose talent for the blending of disciplines left a heavy influence on The GoBetweens. Forster pays tribute to Nixon on page 8.

JIM: We have been members for many years

JACQUELINE: It was the perfect place for a

and Jacqueline absolutely adores the Gallery, so

proposal: the Pacific Arts collection has always

I decided it was where I wanted to propose.

been significant to Jim, and I studied art and

I was born to Australian parents in Papua New

have done some works myself, so I’ve always

Guinea (PNG) – my dad was a former Royal

loved coming to the National Gallery.

PHOTOS BY MARTINA GEMMOLA, BLEDDYN BUTCHER, DAVE WHEELER, RENEE NOWYTARGER, SAM COOPER

Australian Air Force pilot in the Second World

EDWINA MCCANN Edwina McCann is the Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Australia. On collaborating with the Gallery to commission Betty Muffler to create a work for Vogue Australia’s September cover (on page 14), Edwina said: “In the wake of last summer’s devastating bushfires, the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, I wanted a uniquely Australian image that represents hope, healing and solidarity for us all.”

On the day of the proposal a Rupert Bunny

War who had returned to teach in PNG when

painting was on display around the corner, so

he met my mother, who was also a teacher.

it was very romantic to see that on our way out.

Myself and my siblings were born in Sohano

We even bought the postcard as a momento.

and Port Moresby, so the country has always

I noticed there was a security camera near

had a special place in my heart. We even have

where he proposed, so I rang the Gallery

our own PNG art display at home with artefacts

security office later and they found the footage

found in my dad’s old Air Force trunk.

(above, right) and kindly sent it to us and we

Jacqueline and I started dating in 2008 and she is a big art enthusiast and introduced

played that at our wedding in 2012.

We could have got married in the

me to art appreciation, so when I was ready to

Sculpture Garden but most of Jim’s relatives

ask Jacqueline to marry me I knew it had to be

are in Queensland so it was easier to have the

where the Pacific Arts collection is. On the day

wedding at Burleigh Heads, which was lovely.

of the proposal in 2011, I was pacing around

But the Gallery is one of our favourite places

trying to build up the courage to ask while she

and we visit regularly. I love the Impressionists

was enjoying the art, with no idea what was

the most, and the Australian artists from the

going on. I finally got down on one knee and

Heidelberg school. We love it not just because

asked her to marry me. She was so surprised

we are long-time members, but especially so

she forgot to say yes!

now because it’s where we got engaged.

RENEE NOWYTARGER Photographer Renee Nowytarger has twice won the prestigious Nikon Walkley Press Photographer of the Year award and her images have been featured in publications including The Australian and The South China Morning Post. Renee photographed artists Lindy Lee and Nell (page 38) and National Gallery donors Dick Quan and John McGrath (page 58).

● National Gallery of Australia Members enjoy a range of benefits including exclusive events, behind-the-scenes insights, discounts at the Gallery café and shop, home delivery of Artonview magazine and access to the Members Lounge.

Renew your membership online or find out more: nga.gov.au/members

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Studio Spotlight We visit an artist in their studio and discover how space influences their inspiration and creative process.

This month: XU ZHENÂŽ

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Left and right: Artist Xu Zhen (in glasses), with members of the XU ZHEN® team in his studio.

In 2000, I joined a not-for-profit art centre with other artists in Shanghai called BizArt. We worked as a team to create exhibitions and events. At

villages, art media, limited edition creation, art education).

We have a large team, including: Vigy Jin who is mainly responsible

the time, the whole art scene was quite underground in terms of ideology.

for company management, project management and gallery operations;

But as the economy and the art market grew over that decade, we began

and Ivy Zhou, who is responsible for gallery operations, marketing, and

to realise the importance of the commercial aspect of artmaking. So, in

developing the relationships with artists and collectors. The company

2009 we created MadeIn Company.

operates in different departments, including media, production, finance,

As the company developed, we realised that having different

design and various types of studios.

departments – from creation to production and promotion of works –

For many of our projects and productions, we work with external

was very compatible with my way of working in the art scene at that

companies as much as possible. This can improve our creative efficiency

moment. Most things are a business nowadays, so creating a company

and reduce our operating costs, as well as cultivate a variety of talents.

solves the conflict between art and business; the company brings together these aspects in a magical way.

Our MadeIn Company headquarters are in a warehouse of about

In 2013, I registered XU ZHEN® as a brand of MadeIn Company and all the artworks created since then have been under that name.

Creating a brand has brought new restrictions around the quantity of

3,000 square metres in the suburbs of Shanghai. The company includes

work produced, as well as my way of thinking. However, the restrictions

MadeIn Gallery, XU ZHEN® and XU ZHEN Store, art-ba-ba website and

and relationships between art and business has opened up a lot of

MadeIn Art Education. The MadeIn Gallery is in Shanghai City, and

interesting questions. Usually when people think of artists they have a

represents more than 20 artists.

romantic notion, but when it’s a brand, perhaps it leads to an interesting

There are about 40 employees at MadeIn Company and we work from

misunderstanding,

10am to 6pm every day. Because the company is art-oriented, yet operates

as this identity in society is quite different. The pace of life in China can

as a corporation, it is extremely chaotic and very busy.

make people quite anxious, particularly about the relationship between

The best way to describe the difference between my current way

art and business. By combining them, I find new possibilities.

of working and that of individual artists is the difference between a medium-sized company and a small private business.

PHOTO: XU ZHEN®

My main job is art creation. Our philosophy is that if we want to make what we do more interesting, we must let ideas and the way of

XU ZHEN®: ETERNITY VS EVOLUTION runs until March 14, 2021. It is presented with the support of Dr Judith Neilson AM and the White Rabbit Collection, Sydney.

thinking in art collide with reality. So for me, artistic creation includes creating artworks, exhibition curating and planning, and the social

 In conversation with Peter Johnson, Curator, Projects

practice of art (such as collaboration with brands, development of art

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John Nixon 1949-2020 Musician and author Robert Forster pays tribute to his friend, installation artist and painter John Nixon.

When I lived in culturally and politically conservative Brisbane in the

clear as that emanating from his unpretentious paintings dotting the

late 70s and early 80s, John Nixon was the first full-time practicing artist

walls of his dark-wooded apartment. and here was another lesson for me and Grant: the blending of

hope at that time. I was one of two singer-songwriters fronting the Go-

disciplines. We knew something of this tendency—from 60s Warhol to

Betweens, and to see the dark-clothed charismatic figure, hair swept

then man of the moment David Byrne—but to see someone eight or nine

back behind one ear, a fringe of black ringlets cascading over the other

years older than us, up close, upstairs, making raw-noise audiocassettes

side of his face, gazing intently toward the stage during our pub and club

with his partner and fellow artist Jenny Watson (under the moniker

shows was an unexpected pleasure. Indeed, seeing anyone over 25 at a

Pink + Blue; one tape including new songs from the Go-Betweens),

Brisbane underground music show in those days was rare; the fierce anti-

while producing the wonderfully titled Pneumatic Drill (a xeroxed

intellectualism enabling the ultra-reactionary Queensland government

fanzine dedicated to his experimental-music activities and art-theoretical

chased a generation of creative people into exile in other cities. Into the

manifestoes), shooting innumerable Polaroids, and organizing Dada-

breach stepped John Nixon.

inspired events around town, was really something to behold.

New in town, he had moved into a two-storey apartment block at the

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His energy and curiosity pushed him way beyond paint on canvas,

to be the director of the Institute of Modern Art, a beacon of artistic

And that sociality was a central feature of John’s work, or what I

edge of the city precinct, within walking distance of the IMA. On the floor

witnessed of it; he was a conduit, connecting peers and disseminating

below lived Grant McLennan (1958–2006), the other singer-songwriter

ideas around the often-competing forces of artmaking and its sacred

of the Go-Betweens. We came to know John well; Lindy Morrison, the

principles. He spread the word in both formal and informal settings

band’s drummer, and myself, lived nearby, and the three of us visited his

(it was the latter for me), organising and inspiring others to make art,

apartment often. That is where his influence on the group began. It was

music, and mischief in his own spirit. In the last decade of his life, he

a crucial time for us all in the transformative heat of the post-punk era,

taught at Melbourne’s Monash University; one course was titled Non-

everything in glorious flux, musical forms scrapped and others stripped

Objective Abstraction, and I could well imagine him there in his aesthetic

to the bone, and John’s art—eclectic but distinctive, experimental but

element. He continued painting until the end, exhibiting nationally

disciplined, respectfully plundering utopian avant-gardism but still

and internationally. When I attended, now with a family, his opening

somehow of the moment—was both inspiring and provocative. And unlike

at Melbourne’s Anna Schwartz Gallery in 2013, his paintings had not

us, he could explain what he was doing, slicing open his work and, by

changed that much from those he was producing in Brisbane in 1980.

inference, ours to reveal various historical contexts. No stuffy, wine-glass-

Nor had John. That’s another thing I got from him—a steady dedication

in-hand proclamations of lofty truths here; his manner was gentle and

to one’s own art over a stretch of time as a form of secular belief and

confident, imparting ideas on art and music with a delicacy as cool and

cultural vindication.

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© ROBERT FORSTER, ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN ARTFORUM, 24 AUGUST, 2020.

I ever met. He was from Melbourne and had moved to Brisbane in 1980

© ROBERT FORSTER, ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN ARTFORUM, 24 AUGUST, 2020.

IMAGE COURTESY OF NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, CANBERRA

John Nixon, (Eleven heads), 1978, plastic, paint, cardboard packaging, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1984. © Estate of the artist, courtesy of Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne.

Opposite: Robert Rooney, Portrait of John Nixon, 1979, inkjet print on paper, National Portrait Gallery, purchased 2012. © Estate of Robert Rooney.

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KNOW MY NAME

DI$COUNT UNIVER$E New York-based Australian fashion designers Cami James and Nadia Napreychikov discuss their WOMEN collection, an homage to the twenty-first century female: bold, brash and using her voice. By Rebecca Edwards

Cami James and Nadia Napreychikov of DI$COUNT UNIVER$E developed their collection WOMEN in New York against the backdrop of the #Metoo movement.

It is a body of work imbued with the brash spirit of the new era of women finding their voices and speaking out against assault. Debuting at the New York Fashion Week 2018, their models – including cisgender and transgender women – marched down the runway in flat velvet slippers, rather than high heels, and wore garments emblazoned with the glittering words ‘not for sale’ that bluntly denounced the objectification of the female form. Ten of these outfits now belong to the national collection – a generous gift from ames and Nepreychikov – and will feature in the exhibition Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to now.

All outfits are DI$COUNT UNIVER$E and gifts of the artists 2020, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

This page: ‘I am not sorry, I am not for sale, I am not for reproduction’ embellished slip, 2018. Opposite, top to bottom: ‘Cherry’ puff sleeve top with ‘Hysteria’ gaslight ruffle skirt, 2018; ‘Tiger’ lace up pants and ‘Tiger’ shoulder rash top, 2018; ‘Euphoria’ dress with rash guard top and ‘Babylon’ stockings, 2018.

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Rebecca Edwards (RE): The WOMEN collection is your most overtly feminist body of work to date and speaks about womanhood in the twenty first century with an uncompromising voice. You were based in the United States when it was designed, during the height of the Me Too movement. What can you tell us about how this shaped the collection and what you wanted to say?

DI$COUNT UNIVER$E (DU): Our work has always been laced with social, political and feminist ideology. Of course, each collection is thematically different but the messaging in the work is less about that particular time in history and more about our overall experience as women, throughout our lives. Our work has been coded with political and social messaging since its inception and long before the Me Too movement gained global traction (thanks to Tarana Burke and other incredible female activists). The feminist messaging, sense of empowerment and ownership of identity and sexuality in the punchy language and bold imagery has been woven in since day one. The work is cyclical in that way, we started in order to empower young women like ourselves who couldn’t afford expensive fashion, who were sick of being told what luxury was or that their bodies weren’t good enough. As designers we have been empowered and inspired by representing these women.

RE: Many of the garments are brandished with terms that have traditionally been used to belittle women: ‘hysterical’, ‘crazy’, ‘sassy’, ‘emotional’, ‘whore’. What was your intention in using these terms?

DU: We created oversized woven labels usually used for branding the inside of a garment, with large typographic text displaying ‘labels’ saved for women and used by men. Or in worse cases, used by women against women. We felt that having the platform to showcase these words in a format that utilizes them in a more poetic, meaningful way could shine a light on the power they can hold. These words still hold their power on a day-to-day basis. Men don’t care if you’re a feminist; the words still hold the same negative power. The fact we had a place to use them in a beautiful, whimsical and public way felt necessary because they couldn’t be misconstrued or ignored.

RE: did you look to any feminist heroes in particular When you embarked on this collection?

DU: Our audience, our mothers – all the mothers out there – our women friends, our communities, the artists working alongside us, the girl being cat-called on the street, the sex-workers, women who have worked against all kinds of work-place resistance, victims of abuse, activists, transwomen, and all those who have paved the way before us. We are standing upon the shoulders of giants!

RE: The WOMEN collection debuted at New York Fashion week in September 2018 and was particularly notable for your selection of both cisgender and transgender women models on the runway. the collection obviously celebrates womanhood, but was it also important to you to be able to question and interrogate the

IMAGES COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS

concept of gender and gender binarity itself?

DU: We’re super proud of the casting we had for the WOMEN collection which was done by our long-time collaborator and good friend Alexis Gross. The right casting was imperative to represent the narrative of the collection and our brand as a whole. From the beginning we have always championed inclusivity with regard to ethnicity and gender and that is reflective in our customers and fanbase. As a brand, we feel we have a certain responsibility

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to our audience as it has always attracted such an incredibly diverse and creative group of individuals. We understand that they need to be able to look at our work and casting and relate, see themselves in it, know that their beauty is appreciated and celebrated.

RE: The Covid-19 pandemic has made this an exceptionally difficult year – but especially so for the two of you. You’ve been living in New York and in lockdown for several months. How has this affected your practice and what has this meant for the two of you?

DU: The pandemic has definitely made this year a challenging one across the board.

Experiencing the situation in New York, which was arguably one of the worst hit places on the globe, probably gave us a pretty unique perspective on everything that was going on – when you’re living in a place which in its peak saw 800 deaths a day, portable morgues on the street, temporary hospitals built out of desperation, your focus definitely shifts off your practice. New York was ‘ambushed’ by the virus, whereby the time they realised it was here it was already so widely spread, the purpose of lockdown was very much an emergency measure. So while we can imagine the experience of lockdown as more of a preventative measure might give room to thinking of it as more of an inconvenience, here it felt very militant. So many people were sick and dying, it was just what we had to do whether we liked it or not. Being around so much uncontrollable loss really makes you count your blessings, be grateful for your health, it teaches you humility and patience and makes you see yourself as part of a whole rather than just an individual. In terms of our practice, it reminded us of the importance of being adaptable and there are much greater forces out there beyond our control.

RE: How do you think this event will impact the future of the fashion industry?

DU: Fashion by its very nature as both an industry and a creative practice has always reflected the social and economic blueprint of the current time, so whenever there is a huge worldwide shift of any kind it is inevitable that fashion will follow by default. It’s hard to say exactly how and what the effect will be as no one actually knows the outcome of this situation, how long it will last or what greater effect it will have on society. So yes, there will definitely be a shift – you’re already seeing it with major events and Fashion Weeks around the globe being cancelled, the increase of online shopping, and the closure of many brands, from small to very large.

RE: Cami, you’ve stated in the past that the collection reminds you of a well-known quote made by American historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich: “a well-behaved woman never made history”. I think this sums up the collection perfectly. But could you reflect on what that means to the two of you – in terms of the collection and yourselves as fashion designers?

DU: If we take the definition of ‘well-behaved’ in a traditional, patriarchal sense with regards to how it’s been used to silence and reduce women, then no truer words have been spoken.

Black women, who led the Black Lives Matter protests here in New York City, are changing the course of history as we type this. And their very own President [Donald Trump] is calling them “angry mobs”, “looters”, “thugs”. This perfectly exemplifies the Ulrich quote. We hope that this moment in time, like other historical times of significant social upheaval, will positively reflect upon and commemorate the women on the frontlines. Over generations we have learnt that we have to fight, on a day-to-day basis. It’s not new to us, but there is still a ton of work to be done. And being well-behaved certainly doesn’t get you anywhere when you want real change.

 Rebecca Edwards is the Sid and Fiona Myer Curator of Ceramics and Design

All outfits are DI$COUNT UNIVER$E and gifts of the artists 2020, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Top to bottom: ‘The attack’ silk velvet bow dress, 2018; ‘ A promiscuous woman’ woven label gown, 2018; ‘The battle axe’ red silk velvet shoulder dress, 2018. Opposite: Designers Nadia Napreychikov and Cami James behind the scenes at New York Fashion week in 2018.

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KNOW MY NAME

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KNOW MY NAME

BETTY MUFFLER

During lockdown in early May, Vogue Australia collaborated with the National Gallery to commission an Australian artist to be featured as part of the global Vogue Hope campaign.

For the first time in history, all 26 editions of Vogue (with a global reach of over 50 million) united behind the theme of hope, with each producing a cover that reflects longing for a recovered future. For the Australian cover, artist Betty Muffler – an Anangu/ Aboriginal Pitjantjatjara woman and spiritual healer – was selected and commissioned to produce a work to bring hope and healing from the heart of our Country. Kelli Cole and Aidan Hartshorn convey the story of her extraordinary gift and the collaboration.

Betty Muffler, standing on Iwantja, Yankunytjatjara Land in front of her artwork, Ngangkari Ngura (Healing Country), 2020, synthetic polymer paint on linen.

The painting, commissioned

by Vogue Australia, is a proposed gift to the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. © Betty Muffler/Copyright Agency 2020.

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I

n the blink of an eye the pandemic has changed our world. We can feel it in our bones. We are anxious about the future. We have

turned inwards, searching for the strength from within to get through;

Musgrave Ranges on Pitjantjatjara Country. She later moved to the nearby

searching for hope. As Indigenous Australians we have dealt with many

community of Indulkana, where she still lives and paints at the Iwantja

atrocities – from colonisation to now – and while we are resilient peoples,

Arts centre – a dynamic Aboriginal-owned art centre on the APY Lands

it takes incredible strength to overcome.

in South Australia. Iwantja Arts is a professional artmaking studio that

Betty Muffler, an Anangu Pitjantjatjara woman from remote South Australia, knows the power of finding hope through adversity. Her childhood memories are layered with sadness and grief. When the world

supports the careers of more than 30 artists, including high-profile artists such as Vincent Namatjira, Peter Mungkuri and Kaylene Whiskey.

Muffler’s robust artistic practice is primarily painting and drawing,

went into lockdown, Muffler began painting, and healing. Healing herself,

but she is also an accomplished weaver, creating amazing woven baskets

her people and her Country.

and other sculptural forms supported by the Tjanpi Desert Weavers.

Muffler, now in her 70s, is a survivor. She lost many members of

Alongside maintaining a rigorous artistic practice, Muffler is also a

her family in the aftermath of the 1950s British atomic tests carried out

director for Iwantja Arts and a cultural advisor to the APY Collective –

on Aboriginal Country at Maralinga and Emu Field in South Australia.

a collective of 10 Indigenous-owned and governed enterprises working

She is a Ngangkari, a spiritual healer who has special abilities and a

with a united vision on large-scale ambitious artistic projects to create

reputation throughout her community as one of the best Ngangkari in the Lands.

800 kilometres north-west of Adelaide, part of the

opportunities and increased capacity for artists and their families.

Communities in the APY Lands have had restricted entry since the

Muffler’s story begins on her Country in remote South Australia,

COVID-19 arrived in Australia in February, and Anangu people were

Woomera site where a series of British nuclear tests

“Through my paintings you

were conducted in the desert from 1956 to 1963.

can see my Ngangkari work:

Maralinga, the place, is a word that translates to thunder from the Iwaidja people from Garig/Port Essington on the Cobourg Peninsula in the Northern Territory. The settlement was established by the British government from 1838 to 1849, with a plan for it to be a trade route for the East India Company through

directed not to practise inma (cultural song and dance), due to social distancing rules.

Because of Muffler’s renowned reputation, she

watching over people and

has been in high demand to heal others during

also looking after Country.

the pandemic which has caused anxiety in the

My Country. This place is very important – we all need

to Southeast Asia. But the weather was deemed too

to look after each other

unpredictable as the wet season brought with it the

and respect our home.

maralinga (thunderous) monsoonal rains. The name Maralinga is also an eerie coincidence – the Iwaidja people were lucky that their Rainbow Serpents, spiritual beings, appear each year to bring on the monsoonal rains, which meant the settlement was unable to continue.

But not so lucky were the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) people who lived in the area further south. Muffler and her

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Along with her surviving sisters and aunties, Muffler relocated to the Ernabella Presbyterian Mission at Pukatja (Ernabella) situated in the

”

communities. Ngangkari are usually chosen at birth

by Elders of the community and they possess the power to remove pain and bad energy from people who have succumbed to sickness. Ngangkari wisdom has been passed on to Muffler through the paternal line. Her aunties have been an undeniable source of spiritual and cultural knowledge

Muffler’s powers are so strong that she frequently leaves her Country to attend hospitals and clinics to help and heal Anangu family and friends, more so in recent months. While modern medicine assists to heal the physical body, Muffler’s energy also has the power to heal the spirit.

As a Ngangkari, she does not always need to physically travel to be

parents were living on their Country, Watarru, near the border of South

able to heal. While in transient sleep the spirit of the Ngangkari assists in

Australia and the Northern Territory. They were totally unaware that

the action of healing others. “I am a Ngangkari,” explains Muffler. “I’ve

their Ancestral Lands had been chosen as the site for the joint British

got an eagle’s spirit so I can stay at home here and in my sleep I send my

and Australian government military testing facility, an area that covered

eagle spirit across the desert to look for sick people, then I land next to

52,000 square kilometres, with a 260- square kilometre testing zone. In

them and make them better. Ngangkari’s can see right through people to

the 1950s, Prime Minister Robert Menzies had assured Parliament that

what sickness is inside, then they can heal them straight away.” Muffler’s

“no conceivable injury to life, men or property could emerge from the

paintings have become an extension of her ability as well as translations

tests”. Seven tests were conducted from 1956 to 1963 and the site was

of her Tjukurpa (dreaming stories). Her works offer an insight to the

left contaminated with radiation. Muffler’s Homelands were afflicted by

connectedness she and her people have with what non-Indigenous

an ominous “black mist” that rolled across the land, leaving in its path

people term ‘the Dreaming’, the space in which her spirit

a film of black scum that leached into the tjukula tjuta (rock holes) and

flies in search of the sick. Although sometimes explained as a place

waterways. The tests caused displacement, injury and death of her family

of ethereal spirituality, for Indigenous people the connection of the

and people. The impact of radiation was so great the Country’s sickness

Tjukurpa runs much deeper, it is an incredibly complex space in which

remains to this day.

Indigenous people share and occupy with their ancestors, creation

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ALL BETTY MUFFLER IMAGES COURTESY OF IWANTJA ARTS

Betty in the Iwantja Arts studio at Indulkana Community in the APY Lands in South Australia.

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Betty’s red ochre Ngangkari Ngura (Healing Country), 2020, seen here partially completed, was also included in the Vogue Hope portfolio.

Ngangkari Ngura (Healing Country), synthetic polymer paint on linen. © Betty Muffler/Copyright Agency.

2020.

beings and other Indigenous Australians across the country. A simpler

by her ancestors, her marali (journeys) that her spirit travels on through

explanation of the Tjukurpa is that of a symbolic doorway that remains

her Tjukurpa.

open and creates a fluid energy between, and around, Indigenous peoples. It is a space where time collapses and the Western concept

… ngayuku mama ka ngayulu kuwari nyinanyi-tu … paluru iniwai

of past, present and future combine in presenting the idea that space,

ngayula pakani. Paluru nyinanyi in the tree, punungka, ka ngayula

time and people are woven across one another rather than the suggested

mapan wiyaringkula paluru ngayula ananyi tjungu … uwa ngangkari …

lineal form of the three. For Muffler, her connection to the Tjukurpa

“uwa ankula kurunypa mantjila … munu ngalyakati”. Ngayulu patara

becomes a spiritual awakening and extension she translates across

kulini … paluru wiruringu.”

the canvas.

Muffler’s paintings are a depiction of her Country, which isa direct connection to her songlines, a shared story path that has been mapped

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“Paluru walaruru, Tjukurpa paluru nyinanyi nyinanyi paluru

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“The eagle is there, he created that place in the Tjukurpa, so that is my fathers, so now I am the same. His spirit is within me and it can fly off with ease, accompanying me in my Ngangkari work. [In this painting]

KNOW MY NAME he is sitting in a tree nearby, watching. When I have finished assessing the patient, I say to the Ngangkari eagle with me: ‘Yes, go and get that [sick person’s] spirit and bring it back.’ I wait, knowing that when the sick person gets their spirit back they get well.”

Just like the way of a Ngangkari, Muffler’s paintings are imbued with power and sing as they vibrate with energy. The execution is incredibly detailed and layered with iconography. To the trained eye they are a depiction of connection that revolves around her Anangu people, their energy, Muffler’s spirit, the energy she draws upon from her Country and how all these concepts come together in the sacred space of the Tjukurpa. Muffler’s canvases become a performative space while visually documenting the spiritual experience of a Ngangkari healer and their marali. The energy in the painting comes from the visual marali and activation of her tjulpu eagle spirit, while invoking the pulsating energies of the people that Muffler helps in healing, as well as the energy from the country’s big rains and healing of the waters.

“Kapi pulkaringkupai puyinangka panya – hey kapi pulka palatja! Nyanganyi – kapi pulka ngalya puyini: Ooow! Ka Ngangkari wangkanyi kapi palunya wankanyi ‘purkarari tjukaru ngalya puyila!’ uwa Ngangkari.”

“The waterholes fill when it rains. You know how you feel when you see rain: ‘Hey, that looks like big rain!’ You see this big rain coming

VOGUE HOPE

By Edwina McCann, Editor-in-Chief, Vogue Australia

towards you – and go: ‘Ooow!’ Well, the Ngangkari is talking with it, the rain clouds, essentially saying: ‘Make sure you come straight here, rain,

Vogue Australia’s September 2020 cover looks and feels like no

in this direction!’ Yes, it is also part of being Ngangkari.”

other. For the first time in our 60-year history, we are publishing

Finding out her painting would grace the cover of Vogue has been a

fine art on our cover. More than just fine art, it is Indigenous art

big surprise for Muffler. “I’m so happy for my painting to be on the cover

by Betty Muffler, aptly titled Ngangkari Ngura (Healing Country).

of Vogue Australia!” she says. “I’ve been working for a very a long time as

We worked closely with the National Gallery to commission Betty,

a Ngangkari and an artist, and I can’t believe my artwork is going to be

an Anangu/Aboriginal Pitjantjatjara woman and spiritual healer,

on the magazine. Through my paintings you can see my Ngangkari work:

because we wanted an image that represented hope.

watching over people and also looking after Country. My Country. This

This project began in April, when all editors of Vogue met virtually

place is very important – we all need to look after each other and respect

to discuss how we might offer our readers a message of optimism

our home.” ■

in this trying year. Therefore, ‘hope’ is the word that appears on each of Vogue’s 26 September issues published around the world

● Betty Muffler’s painting, Ngangkari Ngura (Healing Country), was commissioned by Vogue Australia and is a proposed gift to the National Gallery of Australia, where it is currently on display on level 1

in 2020.

For Vogue Australia, looking to illustrate this word led us to the work of Betty. When the world went into lockdown, Betty painted to heal herself, her people, and her Country. I was so

● Kelli Cole, a Warumungu/Luritja woman, is Curator of Aboriginal

incredibly moved when I saw Betty’s painting for the first time,

and Torres Strait Islander Art and Aidan Hartshorn, a Walgalu man

nothing could be more significant for our September issue.

of the Gurmal Nation, is the Wesfarmers Assistant Curator, Aboriginal

What moved me most was the placement of the O in the Vogue

and Torres Strait Islander Art

masthead. Historically, the O is where we list the country for each global edition, so not only does it look amazing but it is so meaningful for Betty’s voice and vision to take over that space.

We are very grateful to Betty, and the Iwantja Arts Centre team, for believing Vogue is a deserving home for her work, and message. We were thrilled to work with the National Gallery team to commission Betty’s work of art, which will be included in the international Hope portfolio to be published in every Vogue region.

Ngangkari Ngura (Healing Country) is a proposed gift to the Gallery, and therefore to all Australians. It is my wish that now more Australians will know Betty’s name and appreciate her gifts, talent and story.

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KNOW MY NAME

Below: Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Anmatyerre people, The Alhalkere suite, 1993, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1993 © Emily Kame Kngwarreye/Copyright Agency, 2020.

Opposite: Greg Weight, Emily Kngwarreye, 1994, gelatin silver photograph on paper, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program © Greg Weight, 2020.

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Emily Kame Kngwarreye The cover of this issue features five artists, including Emily Kame Kngwarreye, an Anmatyerre woman whose The Alhalkere suite celebrates the coming of spring after drought in the desert. Kelli Cole revisits the artist’s highlights from the national collection.

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Mer Alhalkerel, ikwerel inngart. Kel akely anem apetyarr-alpek Utopia station-warl. Mern arlkwerremel akeng-akeng mwantyel itnyerremel, lyarnayt tyerrerretyart, tyap lyarnayt. Mern angwenh, ker kaperl arlkwerrek, ilpangkwer atwerrerl-anemel netyepeyel arlkwerrerl ...

Mam atyenhel mern anatyarl itnyerremel, anaty itnyerremel, anaty, amern akeng-akeng lyarnayt, tyap alhankerarl utnherrerl-anem, arlkwerrerl-anemel. Ikwerel anerl-anemel, arlkwerrerl-anemel.

Mern anaty mam atyenhel itnyerlenty-akngerleng artnepartnerleng, akely-akely akenh artnelh-artnelh-ilerrerleng mernek. Mern akely akelyek. Kel alperliwerl-alhemel mer-warl, mern ampernerrerlanemel, atnwelarr ampernerrety-alpem ... Tent anetyakenhel, antywa arterretyart, antywer renh arterrerl-anemel, kel alelthipelthipek arterlanem kwaty akenh atnyepatnyerleng. Arrwekeleny ra. Long time kwa.

I was born at the place called Alhalkere, right there. When I was young we all came back to Utopia station. We used to eat bits and pieces of food, carefully digging out the grubs from Acacia bushes. We killed all sorts of lizards, such as geckos and blue-tongues, and ate them in our cubby houses ... My mother used to dig up bush potatoes, and gather grubs from different sorts of Acacia bushes to eat. That’s what we used to live on. My mother would keep on digging and digging the bush potatoes, while us young ones made each other cry over the food – just over a little bit of food. Then we’d all go back to camp to cook the food, the atnwelarr yams ... We didn’t have any tents – we lived in shelters made of grass. When it was raining the grass was roughly thrown together for shelter. That was in the olden time, a long time ago.

– Emily Kame Kngwarreye Interview recorded and transcribed by Jenny Green, ‘The Enigma of Emily Kngwarreye’, World of Dreamings, at www.nga.gov.au/dreaming

Left: Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Anmatyerre people, For Linda, 1981, painted cotton, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1993 © Emily Kame Kngwarreye/Copyright Agency, 2020.

Opposite: Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Anmatyerre people, Ntange Dreaming, 1989, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1989 © Emily Kame Kngwarreye/Copyright Agency, 2020.

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ADDITIONAL TEXT BY WALLY CARUANA, FORMER SENIOR CURATOR OF ABORIGINAL ART

KNOW MY NAME

Acclaimed artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye exploded onto the Australian

designs on silk. While Kngwarreye completed her first acrylic painting

contemporary art scene in the early 1990s. She began painting at a

on canvas in 1988, it was not the first time she had painted. She began to

time when the international art market recognised the importance of

paint during ceremony (awely) when her fingers first touched the rough

Indigenous art and the impact of her work was immediate. It is estimated

surface of ochre, and her hand swiped across her breast.

that Kngwarreye produced over 3,000 paintings in her short career, an average of one or two per day, many as beautiful as the next.

Kngwarreye was born at Alhalkere on the lands now known as

The Alhalkere suite is one of her greatest accomplishments. The monumental installation of 22 canvases describes the land in flood, fertilised by water; the rains and storms of early spring. After the

Utopia, a Country that is broken into five major ancestral groups. During

rain, brilliantly coloured wildflowers carpet the landscape, and the

this period Aboriginal people could still walk their Country without the

soft-looking spinifex bushes appear beside the desert oak trees and

presence of the white colonists, as it wasn’t until the early 1920s that

blossoming wattle. Kngwarreye is paying homage to the Altyerr, or the

the first of the early pastoralists established their holdings at Utopia.

spiritual forces which are the legacy of the original ancestors who created

Kngwarreye would later work at their cattle stations on her unceded

the land and everything in it, and who laid down the codes of behaviour

homelands.

and law. The powers of the ancestors have imbued the land and have

The origins of Kngwarreye’s paintings lie in the practice of batik, an

graced generation after generation of Kngwarreye’s people. ■

artistic technique that was introduced to the women of Utopia in 1977 during an educational program. Kngwarreye and other signifiant women

● Kelli Cole, a Warumungu/Luritja woman, is Curator, Aboriginal and

artists later formed the Utopia Women’s Batik Group, creating dynamic

Torres Strait Islander Art

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KNOW MY NAME

VIVIENNE, eX, KARLA & FIONA To celebrate the National Gallery’s Know My Name initiative, we brought together women artists from four generations for a wide-ranging conversation about the power of art and gender. By Sophie Tedmanson. Photographs by Sam Cooper.

In her pioneering 1971 essay: Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? Linda Nochlin argues that: “The fault lies not in our stars, our hormones, our menstrual cycles or our empty internal spaces, but in our institutions and our education.” Here at the National Gallery, we created the Know My Name initiative to support Australian women artists, including a commitment to new gender parity guidelines for future programming and collection development. Ahead of the Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now exhibition and conference opening in November, we brought together four Australian women artists for a special cover shoot and wide-ranging discussion. They are: Vivienne Binns, 80, pioneering 70s feminist and pop art icon; eX de Medici, 61, former tattooist whose watercolours featuring guns and skulls reference gender and power; Karla Dickens, 53, a Wiradjuri woman whose Aboriginality and gender informs her work of found objects and poetry; and Fiona Lowry, 46, an Archibald Prize winner renowned for her atmospheric paintings inspired by cultural and spiritual references.

As Karla says: “We want to be seen on a level playing field, our voices and visions are crucial. More and more in the world, female vision and voice is just screaming to be let in.”

Here is what they have to say.

Left to right: Karla Dickens, Fiona Lowry, Vivienne Binns and eX de Medici at the National Gallery of Australia in July, 2020.

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“When we started the women’s art movement, we were not initially interested in joining a group that separated women out as women artists, we just wanted to be artists.

”

Vivienne Binns

Sophie: I want to start by asking each of you to discuss what the

Fiona: I remember reading Linda Nochlin’s essay when I was at art school

Know My Name initiative means to you and how important it is to be

and it really alerted me to something that I wasn’t particularly aware of

recognising and supporting Australian women artists?

at the time; I was surrounded by women at art school. I was quite young

Vivienne: The name has made me pause – Know My Name. I think I’d

when I was there and I’d just left home. That essay really woke me up to

prefer something like: Know My Name, Know Her Name. It’s interesting as an older woman because when we started the women’s art movement, we were not initially interested in joining a group that separated women out as women artists. Many said, “I’m not a woman artist, I’m an artist.”

still going through and I think I determinded then to not be left out of the conversation. I do think the initiative is really important and women need to be supported by institutions and organisations to keep making work. But

In saying that I think it’s an absolutely essential initiative and I applaud

I agree with Vivienne as well, I see myself as an artist, not a female artist.

it. It’s wonderful to see the work women have done over the years, as

Karla: For me, yes I’ve got a name but really it’s about my work, which

well as what younger women are doing. There’s so much that is really

is separate to that. And I totally agree with Fiona and Vivienne – I want to

about the now that young people can pick up on and get the zeitgeist in

be known as simply an artist. And, as an Aboriginal female, well I’ve got

a way and speak in languages that I might not be used to. I love all that.

more labels than most gay men’s wardrobes. But at the end of the day, it

Coming here [to the National Gallery] today has brought me much closer

doesn’t really matter to me what people want to label me as or whether

to understanding the initiative and I very much look forward to what will

that gets me in a show or that gets other women into a show. I want to

come out of it.

see other women’s work, I want to know about other women’s practice.

eX: I think we’ve always known, in Western terms, that women don’t

It’s been amazing being here today with other women. I think we come

have names. We have our fathers’ names and our fathers’ fathers’ names, yet our mothers are completely forgotten and aren’t ever able to be discoverable. I like that there’s a play in this idea that we would never have had names, so to know our current names is a great idea. I think it’s imperative, like anything that is deficit, that it needs to be addressed and analysed and there’s a long list of why women’s work has been excluded.

Ultimately, all I could really conceive of was that women’s aesthetics were just completely unwanted within the male constructs of the art world. I think it’s way overdue, quite frankly, years – 30, 50, 100 years – overdue.

Right: Artist Vivienne Binns. Above: Vivienne’s Vag dens, 1967, synthetic polymer paint and enamel on composition board, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1978 © Vivienne Binns/Copyright Agency, 2020.

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what was happening throughout history and potentially what women were

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to practice differently, we come to audiences differently, we come to the world differently and our visions can be different. So yes, we want to be seen on a level playing field, but our voices and our visions are crucial.

And I think that more and more in the world, female vision and voice is just screaming to be let in. Throughout the world at the moment with what’s happening environmentally, artistically, politically, I don’t really see it working, and I don’t feel safe in the world. And I’d like to connect with, hear and feel a more feminine voice and more feminine visions in the world. So I’m all up for it.

Yesterday, landing at Mascot in Sydney, there was a great big Know My Name billboard with Emily Kame Kngwarrye’s work. And it was amazing. I grew up on Roby Street in Mascot, my grandparents lived there and my grandmother lived in humpy at the back of the airport. So to see an Aboriginal woman’s artwork leading into the airport was really incredible. So it’s an amazing initiative. And like eX was saying, it’s a bit late but ….

EX: Better late than never! I think perhaps there’s a similar equation with the gay marriage debate, for instance, where gay marriage became a similar semantic issue. And until that’s normalised with us being perceived as simply an artist alongside any other male artists... But we’re not there yet.

Vivienne: No, we’re not.

EX: So I’m pretty happy for it to become a debate and to become a better analysis of even the politics of how you position your words together: woman artist, political artist, gay marriage. I mean, these things are still pervasive and unless we work at it, then nothing will change.

Vivienne: That’s absolutely right. I remember when Lucy Lippard [American critic and champion of feminist art] came to Australia in 1975 to give the Power Lecture at Sydney University and she said she didn’t want to have cocktail parties to meet all the great artists of the art scene, instead she just wanted to talk to women artists. And as one of those artists, I can’t tell you how extraordinary it was to have someone of her stature wanting to speak to us. It changed the mindset, all the pundits began speaking differently about the issue. I remember going back into the Australia Council and saying hello to people I knew on the Visual Arts Board, for instance, and the difference in their attitudes when talking

“Not naming names, but I was

about Lucy and starting to talk about women artists was unbelievable.

involved in a program where

how we’re in a time of change. It’s 2020, and we are in the middle

the male artists were paid up to 20 times more than the women an extraordinary difference. eX de Medici

”

Sophie: I wanted to bring up what Karla mentioned before about of a pandemic, and over the last couple of years, we’ve had the gay marriage debate, the Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements - so much has changed. Vivienne, you were part of the feminist revolution in the 70s. Does it surprise you that we’re talking about this now, that it’s taken so long to get to this point? And on the flip side, do you think people will be more receptive to making change now and being more proactive about making sure we do more to recognise female artists?

Vivienne: Look, things come and go. You get all excited because you think, “Oh, geez. This is a whole new thing.” And then you find other forces push back and then it takes a while for the forces to get a resurgence of those kind of ideas. We were part of the second wave of feminism. And we had older women, who would be the age I am now, coming in to talk to us. And this was a women’s art movement, which was different to the women’s movement and some of the gay liberation movements. It was through the women’s art movement that my eyes were opened. I felt as if talking about what women did, it was like this great gate had opened and I was looking out on this whole new vista waiting to be explored. That’s what I meant earlier about young people picking up on the spirit of the time, I was picking up on something. I didn’t know

Right: Artist eX de Medici. Above: eX de Medici (artist), Yianni Liangis (collaborator), Gloria Grady Design (dressmaker), Rob Little Digital Images, Think Positive Prints (printer), Shotgun wedding dress, 2015, printed silk, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 2015 © eX de Medici.

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what it was, but I was picking up on it. It had a keenness of truth about it and an enormous sense of insight.

“As an Aboriginal female, well I’ve got more labels than most gay men’s wardrobes. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter to me what people want to label me as or whether that gets me into a show or that gets other women into a show.

I want to see other women’s work, I want to know about other women’s practice.

”

Karla Dickens

Sophie: Fiona and Karla, you’re from a different generation. How do

At the moment, with Me Too and Black Lives Matter, the world is in

you feel about being part of what’s happening now and reflecting on

trauma. Black Indigenous people are in trauma. Our Country is in trauma

what Vivienne just talked about?

through mining, through the fires. We have the voice and the visions

FIONA: I guess I am surprised ... that we’re still having to make this

of women and non-binary people. But I don’t think that’s going to be

statement and that women aren’t as recognised or supported as they should be. At a political level, we need more support. That starts with good childcare funding. We need this to change through government, so families can be supported through what they’re doing. Also within the institutions, such as art schools, I think there needs to be more women teaching in those areas showing who they are so that young artists feel supported and inspired to keep going.

acknowledged and felt and heard until women’s voices are, especially for the importance of Indigenous peoples who cherish and hold Country and hold the land. That has not been in the vocabulary in the modern world.

And that’s a reflection in the artwork. So seeing all those [Indigenous] artworks, and Judy Chicago’s work – even a great big vulva, when there was a wave of vulvas going on – resonated with me and gave me a connection to what’s in the world because often I don’t feel that. So with all these movements, I can only hope that that trauma and that

KARLA: As a teenager I indulged in high-risk behaviour and was very

uncomfortability drives really incredible voices of change. Especially for

much one of the boys. And when I went to the National Art School in

the planet – I think COVID has been a blessing to slow us all down, send

the early 90s I gave my art that same passion I had on the streets. I had

us to our rooms and have a think about things. Even for artists and what

this older teacher mock me and say: ‘you’re a good artist, but you’ll leave

we want to say and the environmental impact of what we make.

and have kids’. That was when I first started to become aware of the positioning of women in the art world because I hadn’t really looked at art until then. I became aware of the women’s art movement. And then I remember different moments where I saw contemporary Aboriginal

VIVIENNE: We’ll see how it pans out. I’m not that hopeful. You see how much the artist is appreciated by the economy, COVID has highlighted the situation, you see how it has impacted seriously on women artists and others. But the question is where are the values?

artists – Tracey Moffatt, Destiny Deacon – for the first time, it was just so liberating and mind-blowing. Those white fellas teaching at the National

EX: And what are the values? We’re in a time of all the values being overhauled,

Art School at the time were all good artists, but if I was surrounded by

upended. Hopefully, in a better way than has been practiced before.

supportive and nurturing women, I wouldn’t have had that same drive in

KARLA: And who have suffered financially the most from COVID? Women

those days because I was being put in my place.

and the arts. But we didn’t get a look in…

Left: Artist Karla Dickens. Above: Karla’s Warrior woman, 2015–18, mixed media, courtesy of the artist and Andrew Baker, Art Dealer, Brisbane © Karla Dickens.

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Right: Artist Fiona Lowry.

Left: Fiona’s The ties that bind, 2018, diptych of acrylic on linen, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 2019, © Fiona Lowry.

“I am surprised that we’re still having to make this statement and that women aren’t as recognised or supported as they should be.”

Fiona Lowry

VIVIENNE: And of course, poor people and poor countries. We’re talking

was an uncomfortable conversation to say: ‘I want this, this and this’.

about gender and poverty. And the system maintains it. The systems of

I just assumed, I suppose, that there was an understanding between

patriarchy and we could say capitalism and ...

parties and the right thing would occur, but it didn’t. But that sort of

EX: Consumption. I think the system hopefully is looking straight into

thing happens quite a lot. These nebulous transactions add uncertainty

a big mirror and itself because I think everyone knows this has been an unsustainable system for a very long time. And I’m hoping that this will actually open the door to the universal basic wage and ...

FIONA: And again we recently had the waiving of childcare fees that eleviated so much stress for families during this time, which felt like a promise for meamingful lasting support. The fees have come back even though nothing financially has really returned to normal and families are still having to fork out large amounts every week to get to work and feed their families through this crisis. Retracting that childcare arrangement is representative of the inconsistentcy of the level of support that women and families can rely on from goverments and can be quite disrupting.

and can be exhausting and distracting when you’re really just wanting to make the best work. It’s often tricky for a lot of women to navigate these interactions but I’m sure for men to a degree as well.

EX: Not naming names, but I was involved in a program where the male artists were paid up to 20 times more than the women - an extraordinary difference. And this was not that long ago. And ultimately, it’s a bit like the workplace agreements from John Howard’s era: ‘Don’t tell anybody what you earn because then you can compare’. None of this was ever discussed as part of the artist participating in this particular program. I was shocked at the difference between what the women were paid and what men were paid. This significantly different perception as to who is worth what.

Sophie: What about the finances of being an artist and remuneration, knowing your worth, is it hard to put a price on your work compared to a male artist who is usually more confident?

EX: It was already over. But I had a perception that was the standard fee.

FIONA: Yes, it can be quite difficult to know your worth as an artist and

In fact it had nothing to do with the standard fee. We were paid a lot less

what you can and can’t ask for. That conversation often gets avoided

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Sophie: Did you say anything about that at the time?

than men who were probably not even coming near our shoes as artists.

until the last minute in a lot of instances - you’re commissioned to do

Sophie: Each of you approach gender in your work in different ways

something, and then you find out the money’s not there. I was in a

and challenge the perception of the power structure and the way

situation recently where I didn’t step forward because I guess for me it

we look at the body through the female gaze, whether it’s Vivienne’s

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Vag Dens, eX’s Shotgun wedding dress, Karla’s Warrior Women,

knickers in my suitcase. Once I got into the studio the stories and the

or Fiona’s The Ties That Bind. I’d love for each of you to explain your

essence behind that work became more and more clear and, like the

approach to these works, starting with Vivienne. I read a quote where

piece of poetry I wrote, they are very protective, they’ve got lots of gnarly

you said that Phallic Monument completed itself without a great

pits of metal and machinery on them, one has a feral cat attached to it.

struggle, yet Vag Dens (pictured on page 26) didn’t, until you added teeth to it. It’s interesting that the female body part was more difficult.

for the opening, the front page of the paper featured a story about four

VIVIENNE: It was painted as a pair of male and female organs. And yes, the

women who had just been murdered within a short period of time, so

teeth were totally unexpected. But I couldn’t complete the work until I

those works are very much about the protection of women and the abuse

put them in. Vag Dens was taken up a little bit as a feminist icon. But I’ve

of women and how we have to live those experiences and then get up and

always insisted that it was made as part of a pair and if you look at that

be graceful in the world and keep living and keep loving our kids and

pair, it actually problematises the whole situation in a very interesting

our partners and ourselves. They are also fun – at the Art Fair not many

way that I haven’t fully teased out myself. And I probably won’t now, to

men would go into the booth to see those knickers, but the women were

be honest with you. These are archetypal images that have occurred in

laughing those naughty laughs women have when they get it!

different societies over time – the phallus with the flowers coming out of the top and the toothed vagina. There’s a contrast to the way the blokes around me when I started out were doing abstract works. They were using plenty of symbols such as the idea of the phallus becoming a gun, which of course fits in with the force of ejaculation and so on. But the flowers just came out of my imagination. And then coming to Vag Dens, it’s quite a jolly image actually: a funny little fantasy of something around us - there’s sperm and the sun is shining. And if you look right to the centre of it, through the vulva and up, there’s a little circular bit like a scene of the Promised Land. And that’s significant to me. But this image

FIONA: I remember reading something that the writer Joan Didion said about how an overheard conversation can spark a whole novel. I really relate to this idea, as often an idea for a body of work can come from a line in a song or poetry. The Ties That Bind had a very incremental build-up to what ended up being produced in the end. I had heard a line from a Bruce Springsteen song called The Ties That Bind and that sparked this whole train of thought. He was talking about love and complexeties of relationships, but it also reminded me of this line of scripture that I learned growing up: “The sins of forefathers will be visited upon the

of the teeth kept coming into my mind. And I put it off, it seemed too

sons”. The work really is a meditation on that idea or phrase; that if we

violent. I put more decoration around the edge, but I couldn’t make the

don’t acknowledge our history then we’re forever traumatised by it,

painting work and wasn’t happy with it. So I put in the jagged teeth and

historically, as well as on a personal level.

it worked. It was terrific. I wish that there were a lot of women who had

When I think about the figures [in the painting], they’re playing out these

teeth on their vagina in a world where rape is used over and over and over

ideas ... some are intimate or going through something intense together

and over again.

but at the same time there is this absence, aloneness or emptyness that

I’ve had blokes come up to me and think I’m a castrating bitch, but it

is seperating them. It’s not really political but more about searching for

wasn’t a castration impulse. It was more about strengths, the kind of

something within your own mind around relationships and the blind

strength that I see in the lioness who can use her teeth to rip humans

spots that often occur in them. It wasn’t a space that I wanted there

apart or also carry her cubs around. It’s the rose and the thorn; much

to be a definitive meaning though, it was about people going through

more the strength in femininity rather than femininity as the strength.

something - they’re not at the beginning or the end of it, they’re going

KARLA: Warrior Women came about while I was doing a residency in Jakarta, where I had gone for inspiration and to make work. I had this

34

They were shown first at the Melbourne Art Fair and the day I went in

through an experience. I think a lot of my work sits in that murkiness because that’s how I experience things. Things are very ambiguous to me.

vague idea in my mind about making a work with knickers and I had

EX: The Shotgun wedding dress actually started as a joke and then

been collecting them (new ones, not crusty ones!). One day I was walking

[former National Gallery director] Gerard Vaughan thought it was

down this little lane and there were some woman melting aluminium

a good one and asked me to make the object. I work with the gun, the

body parts of cars over a fire, and I went over, pulled these new knickers

absolute ultra-phallic symbol. And I recall years ago doing a floor talk

I had just bought out of my bag and said: ‘could you make these?’, and

here actually with one of the guns from the National Gallery collection.

they said: ‘sure!’. So I came back from Jakarta with 20 pairs of aluminium

And afterwards this guy said to me: ‘I don’t know if you knew, but guns

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are phallic’. It was so patronising, as if the maker has no idea what they’re

to be a mother, I’ve learned from their experience and their sharing.

doing or even bothered to explore it. Again, I think that was part of the

And from being a mother, I’ve learned to mother myself. So it just goes

big problem. But in regards to the wedding dress, as a person who never

around; as much as I give, I get back.

once entertained the idea of getting married, I thought the irony of that

FIONA: I really relate to what Karla said about coming to the Gallery today

was just hilarious; the irony of the fact that it’s a wedding dress, but it’s a forced wedding and so it’s not a really good wedding. Then not long after I finished it, it got included in a show of real wedding dresses at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, the only fake wedding dress in the show.

It had just been a bad theoretical wedding and then it got included with 300 beautiful gowns made for actual weddings.

The Shotgun wedding dress is also tilted at this idea of the Pietà, Michelangelo’s sculpture of the Virgin Mary in the Vatican. The theory is that if she stood up, she’d be around nine feet tall. So I made my wedding dress about as high as the Virgin Mary. So she would stand about the same height as a woman who’s never been fucked and was in a marriage of convenience with some poor cuckold. I don’t usually work in irony

and meeting all the women here; I feel like I’ve gleaned so much just from one short day. My practice is so solitary and I don’t spend a lot of time in the art world. So I’m not often in situations where I meet a lot of other women women who who are are making making work. work. II have have friends friends that that II made made at at art art school school who especially who I’m I’m still still in in touch touch with, with, which which II think think is is really really important, important, especially for young artists to gather your clan around as you keep moving for young artists - to gather your clan around as you keep moving forward. forward. In In those those early early days, days, we we would would show show together together and and support support each each other. other. Now Now II teach teach a a little little bit bit as as well, well, so so II feel feel like like I’m I’m going going back back into into that more social social experience that more experience and and talking talking with with younger younger women women artists artists and and trying to support them in ways that I can.

But I do think that there trying to support them in ways that I can. But I do think that there needs needs to being here to be be more more of of it. it. I’m I’m feeling feeling that that today, today, just just being here in in this this conversation conversation has been really interesting for me personally. has been really interesting for me personally.

particularly, but I’ve felt that the wedding dress was a full-tilt at irony Sophie: Many pioneering Australian artists were teachers, and many in the Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now exhibition mentored each other. How important is that kind of community for each of you, and what impact has mentoring had in your careers?

KARLA: I used to teach and do a lot more before I became a mother, and I guess most of my mentoring now is focused on my daughter, which is amazing. But that’s why things like today - coming together and listening to other women and their experience is so important. I’m an artist who doesn’t have assistants, and last year I was in a position where I needed an assistant. I always try and have women and mothers – especially single mothers - involved in that process, which has been essential for me. I’m inspired by any artist who continues to work and more so by any female who continues to work and make art, especially when it’s not materially-

EX: I’ve had a long history of mentoring and collaboration for pretty EX: I’ve had a long history of mentoring and collaboration for pretty much my whole career. I have been under mentorship with Dr Marianne much my whole career. I have been under mentorship with Dr Marianne Horak from the CSIRO since 1996. And I’ve trained three fantastic women Horak from the CSIRO since 1996. And I’ve trained three fantastic women tattooists. I made a decision not to train men because I felt as though they tattooists. I made a decision not to train men because I felt as though they already had so many advantages in that particular medium that I was not already had so many advantages in that particular medium that I was not going to advantage them any further. Those girls I trained were known going to advantage them any further. Those girls I trained were known as ‘Ex’s Rottweilers’ because they were ferocious. It’s a world where you as ‘Ex’s Rottweilers’ because they were ferocious. It’s a world where you have to to really really stand stand your your ground, ground, you you have have to to be be very very tough. tough. So So those those have three women women have have brilliantly brilliantly handled handled their their lives lives beyond beyond me. me. It’s It’s just just been been three a normal part of my work all the way.

I also work with Roslyn Atkins, a normal part of my work all the way. I also work with Roslyn Atkins, who’s a a printmaker printmaker in in Melbourne.

Melbourne. We’ve We’ve been been working working together together now now for for who’s 15 years. years. These These are are all all ongoing ongoing relationships relationships and and II value value them them immensely. immensely.

15 VIVIENNE: I have one very special mentor, from when I was at the National

experience at different times. I live in the Northern Rivers of NSW and

Art School, East Sydney in 1958 to 1962. Her name was Irene Broadhurst, VIVIENNE: I have one very special mentor, from when I was at the National and she had studied art with Dattilo-Rubbo. I credit her for bringing out Art School, East Sydney in 1958 to 1962. Her name was Irene Broadhurst, some of the very best in me. She was widely read, had a wry, wonderful and she had studied art with Dattilo-Rubbo. I credit her for bringing out sense of humour. I’m a bloody gasbag and she was a great listener. She some of the very best in me. She was widely read, had a wry, wonderful was very wise and introduced me to interesting ways of thinking and sense of humour. I’m a bloody gasbag and she was a great listener. She philosophy and various kinds of spiritual movements. I have always was very wise and introduced me to interesting ways of thinking and taught and now I am certainly mentoring people. The people who are philosophy and various kinds of spiritual movements. I have always assisting me with getting ready for two big exhibitions are wonderful. taught and now I am certainly mentoring people. The people who are They are bright and capable and they learn from me, but they also teach assisting me with getting ready for two big exhibitions are wonderful. me many things. (continued) They are bright and capable and they learn from me, but they also teach

there are women in the Nimbin community who have taught me how

me many things.

based for us most of the time. I hope to do it more and I think that with COVID, community-based work is more important than ever. I don’t live in a city, so I see more community-based art coming out of the situation.

Since COVID hit, Megan Cope, a Quandamooka woman and incredible artist, moved into our home. We have very different practices, but just seeing how another woman goes through the process is invaluable. I love it and I hope that I can continue to encourage and give support - whether that just be a cup of tea or a bed if somebody needs one. I think that mentoring is not just studio-based, but it broadens over the whole life

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PRODUCTION ASSISTANT JESSICA BARNES ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHER ELENI KYPRIDIS Left: Karla Dickens, Vivienne Binns, Fiona Lowry and eX de Medici with Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Anmatyerre people, The Alhalkere suite, 1993, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1993, © Emily Kame Kngwarreye/Copyright Agency, 2020.

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KNOW MY NAME

Sophie: In closing, what advice would you give today’s young women artists or students?

eX: “I come from a generation that was pretty feral, which was actually quite good training we didn’t particularly care if someone didn’t like us or whether they thought we were unfeminine or whether we were any damn thing that they wanted us to be. It’s a long game.

And ultimately, to survive the long haul of being an artist, you have to be fearless and take risks.”

Fiona: “Work hard, make work every day and really dig deep into who you are. Make work from a deep place inside yourself.”

Karla: “Be brave and try and avoid wanting instant gratification. Pace yourself and hang around PRODUCTION ASSISTANT JESSICA BARNES ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHER ELENI KYPRIDIS HAIR AND MAKE-UP VICTORIA HAYES

other people who are going to support you in that process. And be brave and be gentle at the same time.”

ViviEnNE: “Be honest and ruthlessly brave enough to look into yourself, into your emotions, to watch and beware of self-deception. Even if it takes you into very challenging areas, there’s every chance that that will be an experience for great development and further insight.

And follow the yellow brick road, follow that little light that’s bouncing along in front of you.

The one you can’t quite take your eyes off and you’re drawn back to all the time. Stay with it.” ■

 The Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now exhibition opens 14 November.

The Know My Name conference will be delivered virtually on 10-13 November.

For more information head to: www.nga.gov.au/knowmyname

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KNOW MY NAME

Lindy Lee & Nell Mentoring and Buddhism have played a large part in the friendship between artists Lindy Lee and Nell, writes Georgina Safe.

Photograph by Renee Nowytarger.

When Nell met Lindy Lee almost three decades

They share a passion for Eastern philosophy

ago, the aspiring artist was heartened, to say

and questioning the white-male and colonial

the least.

art canon, and while each woman has carved

“What really smashed my world was that

out a separate role in the nation’s contemporary

Lindy was so fit, healthy and clean and clear

pantheon they also share a commitment to

minded,” says Nell. “She didn’t have that

questioning cultural norms. When they reunite

clichéd artist vibe about drinking, smoking and

at the Chinese Gardens of Friendship in Sydney,

going to the pub. She went for power walks at

amid preparations for their works (seen on

lunch time and swam a lot. I wanted to make

pages 40 and 41) to be featured in the National

art but I didn’t want to be fucked up, so Lindy

Gallery’s Know My Name: Australian Women

quickly became my role model.”

Artists 1900 to Now exhibition, the rapport

It was 1993 and Nell was an 18-year-old student at Sydney’s College of the Arts where

between Lindy and Nell is instant and easy.

“With Nell it was always very easy because

Lindy was teaching. Lindy recalls her student

she already had the clarity, joy and sincerity,

possessed a drive and focus beyond her years.

so the mentorship was very unconscious,”

“From the beginning Nell had a very clear

says Lee. “We hung out a lot together as

vision that she wanted to be an artist and that’s

our relationship evolved and I don’t think I

unusual,” says Lindy. “For most people there

did anything in particular, I think Nell just

is quite a lot of soul searching to arrive on the

absorbed the situation all around her and look

artist’s path, but Nell was committed from the

at her now!”

very beginning.”

Over the ensuing decades the pair

With a new book, Nell, celebrating her work, the artist is today known for her

embarked on a unique journey together, with

practice fusing Zen Buddhism and rock and

Lindy becoming Nell’s mentor, spiritual guide,

roll that straddles sculpture, installation and

confidante and even housemate as two of

performance. But she was a naïve and homeless

Australia’s leading female artists supported and

teenager from Maitland when Lindy hired her

nurtured each other along their careers.

as a studio assistant in the early 90s.

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“I was going to go to do a residency in China

it could be hollow,” she says. “Whatever is

emphasis on being present in the moment by

and I needed somebody to house-sit because I

inside me needs to be tested out and one of

burning holes in photographs, through sheets

had a cat,” says Lee. “Somebody mentioned that

the best ways is through the teacher/student

of metal and on paper scrolls as her immersion

Nell needed a place, so I asked her to stay. When

relationship. An artist has to speak from

in its rich spiritual traditions continued to

I came back it became obvious it was good fun

a place of sincerity and a means of testing

deepen.

to have her around so I made her an offer that if

that authenticity is an exchange of advice or

she worked for me one day a week that would

information between two people.”

be her rent and she could stay on.”

What began as a brief sojourn turned into

things: pay attention, meet your life and be curious about it without judgement,” she says.

which the former discovered in the early 90s

“For me that made the question of ‘who am

three years sharing a terrace with Lindy in

and drew on to express her experience as

I?’ a more profound question. Who you are

Glebe, as Nell soaked up everything about her

a Chinese-Australian in a country that has

is not your self-image. In fact, forget that and

world while working for the woman whose

historically whitewashed its diversity.

just enter into this relationship with the world

practice exploring her Chinese ancestry

“I had been exploring western art history

and see what happens - that is who you are.

through Taoism and Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism has

thinking I was more inclined towards the west

When I do things like flung bronze I completely

spanned over three decades and exhibitions

but after a lot of self-interrogation I realised a

relinquish my conscious control and allow all

around the world.

big part of me had supressed my Chinese-ness

sorts of relationships that constitute existence

“Lindy really opened up her life to me

as a reaction to the bias and racism that I was

to come into play and force phenomena into

in a way that was bigger than just making art,”

born into here,” says Lindy. “I shifted the focus

being.”

says Nell. “I helped her with everything from

towards Eastern philosophy and Buddhism and

paper work and wrapping up works of art to

I really took to it, or it took to me.”

installing shows and meetings. It was truly an

Her studies at the Sydney Zen Centre

After Lindy took Nell to the same Sydney Zen Centre, she too discovered Buddhism.

It has manifested in Nell’s work exploring

on-the-job art apprenticeship and when the

soon began infiltrating her art, through

contemporary expressions of spiritual

couriers came to take the art away I thought

techniques of wax splatters, ink spills and

traditions, such as her Rock Gate piece for

‘this is going to be my life; one day the courier

molten bronze pouring that referenced the

the 2019 Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, which

will come to take my art away’.”

ancient practice of “flung ink painting” by

took the form of a Japanese torii gate built

Ch’an Buddhists to embody the Buddhist act

from amplifiers. Buddhism has also enabled

of renewal, where all that is held inside oneself

Nell to be more present in all aspects of her

is released. Lindy continued her exploration

life, whether that’s in the studio or doing

of mark-making referencing the Buddhist

the dishes.

As the mentoring relationship progressed, Lindy discovered it was a two-way street.

“I might think I have a high-falutin’ insight into something but the moment I speak it,

40

Lindy also introduced Nell to Buddhism,

“The practice of Buddhism is simply three

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KNOW MY NAME

“I try to make my whole life one practice, whether it’s my art or just walking down the

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SULLIVAN+STRUMPF, ALAN COOK

street,” she says. “It’s not like you just meditate

have a long life, he did have a life. It was just a short one.”

Despite her loss, today Nell practices

and then you tick that box for the day, it’s about

gratitude for what she does have in her life, and

trying to be present and compassionate with

pays it forward through her own mentoring of

whatever you are doing.”

younger female artists.

Nell’s spiritual life evolved to a deeper level

“Lindy’s mentoring was so profound, deep

when the artist and her wife, chef Kylie Kwong,

and generous so it’s been a great role model for

lost their son through stillbirth in 2012.

me to be a role model for others,” Nell says. “I

“I don’t know how I could have survived

really enjoy helping however I can: just chatting

the loss of a stillborn baby without having had

to other women about their work and helping

that spiritual backbone,” she says. “All those

them reach their maximum potential. I have

years I sat in meditation through difficult

found female artists to be incredibly collegiate

feelings and physical pain: in some ways it was

and supportive and as someone who has

a real training for that. Buddhism really helped

definitely been a recipient of that, I enjoying

because you come to understand that things are

passing it on where and whenever I can.” ■

impermanent and that even though he didn’t

Previous page: Artists Nell (left) and Lindy Lee, photographed at the Chinese Garden of Friendship in Sydney.

Opposite: Lindy Lee, Placeless, nameless, traceless, 2017 (detail), flung bronze, Courtesy the artist and Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney/Singapore © Lindy Lee/Copyright Agency, 2020.

Above: Nell, self-nature is subtle and mysterious - nun.sex.monk. rock, 2010, glass reinforced plastic, silver leaf, varnish, nickel plated bronze, Courtesy of the artist and STATION, Melbourne and Sydney, © Nell.

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KNOW MY NAME

I REMEMBER, THEY REMEMBER, WE REMEMBER

Barbara Hanrahan, Baby on a chain, 1966, lithograph, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, gift of Jo Steele 1994, © the Estate of Barbara Hanrahan.

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THE TITLE OF THIS ESSAY IS INSPIRED BY THE WORK BODIES IN TIME 2016 BY BARBARA CLEVELAND,

As we celebrate Australian woman artists with an expansive new exhibition, curator Elspeth Pitt explores the historical narratives of gender in art.

Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900

is an action that marks a moment in time; this

’78 Hayward annual (Hayward Gallery, 1978).

to Now brings together work by women artists.

one, too, is a gesture made against neglect, an

Assembled by Burke at the age of 23 in little

appeal to remember, and to keep remembering.

over six months, it brought together 71 works

But there are other, deeper aims—to isolate moments in which women led progressive

AN ARTISTIC TRADITION

experience, unique to gender, facilitated new

In the catalogue for The women’s show, an

(slim, glue‑bound, monochromatic) its then

forms of art and cultural commentary; to suggest

exhibition of work by women artists held at

unusual format combined art historical essays

stylistic and intellectual relationships between

venues across Adelaide in 1977, a list of figures

that drew from and critiqued existing histories

artists through time; to inflect extant history

was given.

by William Moore and Bernard Smith, and

While its catalogue now seems modest

with women’s living memory. In these ways

Neither Jansen’s History of art (1962),

the project aims to enrich the linear, male-

recommended by the New South Wales Board

and Margel Hinder, with each given equal

dominated narratives we’ve typically known.

of Senior Studies for years 11 and 12, nor

weight. Embodying the delicate interplay of

Gombrich’s The story of art (1950) included a

history and living memory, Burke suggested the

of gender is in many ways a complex undertaking,

single woman artist. In Larousse’s Encyclopedia

pliancy of the former and the evident richness

it represents in this instance an opening up, not

of modern art (1965) 134 women and 1796 men

of the latter as a resource for further enquiry,

a closing down, in that its aim is to enrich and at

were referenced as having produced art after

and in doing so produced a document at once

times overturn the dominant narratives.

1900. For women who aspired to be artists

grounded, formative, burgeoning and perhaps

in the mid-to-late twentieth century it was

most importantly, generative.

While predicating an exhibition along the lines

To do so is necessary, still, as the work of

long‑form artist recollections by Grace Crowley

women even now remains lesser known and

often through projects like The women’s show

is by implication lesser valued. One has only

which were underpinned by collective work

made it one of several projects of the 1970s

to look at the collections of Australia’s cultural

and knowledge sharing that a life in art became

that facilitated the restoration of women artists

institutions to understand that the art of women

possible. But it was also by looking back and

including Grace Cossington Smith and Dorrit

is not represented to the same depth or degree as

re-writing the dominant histories that women

Black into the histories of modernism, and

that of men.

recognised they were part of an artistic tradition

resulted in the acquisition of their work into

that was not new but continuing.

public collections.

This is not the first exhibition dedicated to women’s art held in Australia, and it draws

THE TITLE OF THIS ESSAY IS INSPIRED BY THE WORK BODIES IN TIME 2016 BY BARBARA CLEVELAND, ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES, SYDNEY.

from collections across Australia.

practice; to identify points at which their

In an Australian context, the process of

Her partial focus on women modernists

But it is something different to understand

on the remarkable scholarship of those who

re‑writing narratives that had excluded or

the practices of artists outside of more familiar

have dedicated their professional lives to the

diminished women occurred in a sustained

frameworks, even if it had been a struggle

advocacy of women’s work. However, while the

manner from the 1970s, pioneered by curators

to initially place them there. The painter

reach of this exhibition is historical its impetus

and academics including Janine Burke,

and printmaker Dorrit Black, for example,

is contemporary. The Me Too movement may

Julie Ewington, Joan Kerr and Kiffy Rubbo.

has become closely aligned with the story of

have originated as a campaign against sexual

Like revisionist and feminist art historians

modernism but her work of the mid-1930s and

violence but its cultural impact has been equally

internationally they often employed two

1940s eschewed its earlier dynamism in favour

significant, inspiring many projects focused on

approaches in their work. One involved retrieving

of efforts to portray a resonant and archaic

women’s art, and compelling the kind of critical

‘lost’ or ‘forgotten’ artists and placing them within

energy evident in paintings such as In the

review undertaken by women and feminist art

pre‑existing art historical narratives.

foothills 1942 and The olive plantation 1946.

historians of the 1970s who ‘recovered’ artists of

The other, in recognising that these

Similarly, the work of photographer

the early twentieth century neglected in general

frameworks were inherently flawed,

Olive Cotton, which from its inception was

histories and public collections.

disregarded them wholly to develop new ones.

finely attuned to the rhythms of the natural

Although these methodologies were sometimes

world, set her practice apart from more

by women in the latter part of the twentieth

Now, curators are considering work made

regarded as antithetical, with the insertion

typical iterations of modernist photography

century, some of which, given its performative

of women into existing narratives regarded

emphasising architectural pattern and

and materially fluid nature, was collected

as a concession to prejudiced histories, some

vertiginous perspective. Although curators and

infrequently or partially and now risks being

projects evidenced the value of combining

academics have rightly argued for Black and

neglected—even forgotten.

both approaches.

Cotton’s recognition as key modernists, their

In recognising the cyclical nature of

One of these was Janine Burke’s Australian

art frequently operated outside of its more

forgetting and remembering, this essay

women artists: one hundred years 1840–1940

obvious tenets, compelled instead by distinct

considers some of the circumstances that

which opened at the Ewing and George Paton

individualism. A quality that grew as their work

have impacted the development of women’s

Galleries in 1975. The first such undertaking

matured, it was one also forced by personal

art, and the related production of history and

of its kind in Australia, it predated comparable

circumstance and their exclusion — chosen and

discourse, since the 1970s. Any exhibition in its

international surveys including Women artists:

otherwise — from galleries, societies and artistic

impermanent drawing together of works of art

1550–1950 (Brooklyn Museum, 1977) and the

networks. Combined with continual economic

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43

uncertainty and the demands made on

Helen Ennis, Jennifer Higgie and the American

considers the discomfort often implicit in

them by family, their practices were frequently

writer Quinn Latimer are some of the authors

discussions of the artist’s work, her early critics

drawn inward rather than outward, into the

who have in recent years forged and refined

downplaying its keen sensuality, her later ones

realm of idiosyncrasy and, often, originality.

these approaches.

smarting at its seemingly complicit use of the

The experiences of artists such as Black

A dependence on advancing a history

and Cotton suggest the inadequacy of art

according to conceptions of outwardly avant-

historical models that rely on ever forward

garde practices is also problematic in so far

moving trajectories of clearly defined, collective

as these exclude more traditional artforms.

movements. Given this, it is unsurprising that

As argued by Rex Butler and ADS Donaldson,

subsequent generations of art historians have

there are certain types of progressive work that

relied less on narratives based on groups and

developed within tradition.

manifestos, and have turned to biographical

The figurative portraits and interiors of

and literary approaches that allow the

artists including Ethel Spowers, Agnes Goodsir

retracing of their subject’s movements, permit

and Janet Cumbrae Stewart, for example, may

speculation and imaginative conjecture, and

not seem radical, but they are pioneering

facilitate the full integration of a subject’s art

in their evocation of women’s sexual desire

and life as opposed to their being obliquely

and same-sex relationships. In her essay on

referenced within self-reflexive art histories.

Cumbrae Stewart in this volume, Juliette Peers

academic idiom of the nude study, typically employed by men.

EN INTIME (THE INTIMATE) Corresponding with the advances of feminism in the 1970s, a specific collection of art practices inspired by women’s domestic experience emerged. In one sense, this work may be seen as a continuation of still life and interior painting produced by artists earlier in the century, which, in counter to en plein air—an approach to painting in nature often associated with male artists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries— was described as en intime.

Carrol Jerrems and Virginia Fraser’s A book about Australian women, published by Outback Press in 1974, undertook to document the lives of a diverse group of women—from artists to activists to sex workers—many of whom were photographed and interviewed in their homes. Jerrems’ remarkable ability to elicit connections with her subjects is perhaps best-evidenced in the beautiful sequence of photographs of the actress Sylvanna Doolan who over the course of four frames is cleareyed but cautious, then guarded; collapses into candid laughter, before arriving at a forthright and relaxed kind of openness. The interviews that accompany the 129 photographs are characterised by a similar sense of candour.

One woman describes the first time she was raped, another speaks of her abortion; others detail their feelings about marriage, and their relationship to the then burgeoning women’s movement. But while the photographic subjects are named, the interviewees remain anonymous.

The congruence of the personal and private emerges and recedes, and an evident complication between the clarity of the photographs and the anonymity of the accompanying text is arguably used on some level to suggest implicit, shared experience.

A sense of intimacy, its connection to domesticity, and the ways in which these qualities could operate at once in tandem Vivienne Binns, Toni Robertson, Tin Sheds Art Workshop (print workshop), Mothers’ memories others’ memories [2nd version], 1979, screenprint, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1982, © Vivienne Binns/Copyright Agency, 2020.

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KNOW MY NAME and in challenge to the cool detachment of the art gallery was the focus of Micky Allan’s first solo exhibition Photography, drawing, poetry: A live-in show, held in 1978 at the Ewing and George Paton and Watters galleries, in Melbourne and Sydney respectively. For both presentations Allan brought the domestic space in which her work had been conceived into the realm of the gallery, and, in doing

Carol Jerrems, (Syvanna Doolan, National Black Theatre), 1974, gelatin silver photograph, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, gift of Mrs Joy Jerrems 1981, © Ken Jerrems and the Estate of Lance Jerrems.

so, encouraged viewers to experience her art in a comfortable setting over a prolonged period of time. Coinciding with an approach to presentation that coalesced lived and performative aspects, the work she exhibited encompassed ‘high’ and ‘low’ art forms, including hand-coloured photographs which

adequately represent forms of art that exist

there is not (to my knowledge) a comprehensive

she described as demonstrating her interest

outside of narrowly defined and self-referential

study exploring the aesthetics and approaches,

in ‘synthesising’ and ‘crossing borders

art histories. While one of the great subjects

common or otherwise, of this subject in

between media’.

of western art, the Madonna and Child, has

recent Australian art. There is, however, ample

been revered and endlessly repeated, women’s

material. Jude Adams recalled that ‘since having

to both presentation and media are defining

own experience of mothering as distinct from

a child, floors and household fixtures have

characteristics of her work and that of other

religious evocation or aesthetic ideal is a subject

assumed a different significance for me …

artists of the era including Bonita Ely and

that has seldom appeared in conventional

My perspective is directed downwards’,

Jude Adams. The frameworks and collecting

histories or presentations of Australian art, but

her subsequent work revealing this descendant

policies of state and national galleries, however,

is one that occurred with increasing frequency

looking as ‘a contemplative, creative gaze’.

which tacitly rely on the accrual of objects by

as the twentieth century advanced. Initiated by

On the birth of her first child, Mazie Karen

curatorial departments arranged by media

Vivienne Binns at the University of New South

Turner spoke of becoming accustomed to the

(painting, sculpture, photographs, drawings,

Wales and continued in Blacktown, Mothers’

‘scatter’ of things which she translated into

prints) has entailed that their materially fluid

memories, others’ memories 1979–81 involved a

a manner of working and a characteristic

and performative art has rarely been acquired

diverse group of women who recalled, discussed

aesthetic, gathering toys and household items

in depth or at all. Whereas one might suppose

and gave visual expression to their matrilineal

into tumbling arrangements that she recast as

that the representation of women artists

heritage at a time when women’s personal

increased in institutional contexts as the

histories were not widely valued or recorded.

twentieth century progressed, it remains

One of the eventual forms of Binns’ collaborative

that the most radical work of the period—

work comprised postcards in vitreous enamel,

involving spaces, performances, actions,

each screenprinted with an image drawn from

challenges to the sacrosanctity of individual

a participant’s family album. Outwardly, the

media, and approaches to material combining

work is charming, moving, homespun, but

high and low art—have in many cases not been

the way in which its method of production

holistically or even partially preserved.

corresponds with its subject is also significant.

Allan’s democratic, iconoclastic approach

Furthermore, the documentation of

The evident tension between the postcard

these works has at times been dismissed as

as something momentary and ephemeral,

ephemera and deemed unworthy or irrelevant

and vitreous enamel which is delicate then

to collections predicated on the idea of unique,

strengthening, embodies the transition of an

valuable objects.

individual’s personal memory into a collective

The original documentation for Bonita Ely’s

sweeping blueprints.

Elizabeth Gower’s Found images series 1984–89 discloses a domestic impetus for abstraction, its ostensibly non-figurative forms revealed, with sustained looking, as the outlines of bottles, prams and chip packets. Barbara Hanrahan’s fractious linocuts portray an imagined childbirth that coalesces the cutting of the linoleum block with the painful opening of the body. Even these few examples give a sense of the richness of this work for iconographic, material and broader art historical study. ■

history. The work also challenges the idea

Murray River Punch 1980, among the first

of history’s apparent primacy over memory.

examples of a performance work that combined

Mothers’ memories, others’ memories invited

feminist and environmental strategies,

multiplicity, participation, touch and discussion,

influential and often cited, remains in the

and drew attention to the necessity of memory

artist’s collection.

when enriching histories that can so often seem

● This is an extract from an

immutable.

essay in the National Gallery’s upcoming

Given that the institution has not always been open to, or capable of, collecting these works forces the question of whether it can

Despite the continuing proliferation of works that have made mothering their focus,

Know My Name publication. To reserve your copy, go to: www.nga.gov.au/knowmyname

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KNOW MY NAME

KNOW MY NAME BY NUMBERS

1 Ford Falcon ute

6 metres of Birds Eye chillies

23 gallery spaces

170 artists

200 ShELLWORKED SLIPPERS 390+ works of art

4,300 square metres of floor space

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An exhibition in design The Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now exhibition is one of the largest ever created at the National Gallery. Keren Nicholson talks with Senior Exhibitions Designer Jing-Ling Chua about the complex task of designing an exhibition featuring almost 400 works spanning 4,300sqm of floor space.

Clockwise from far left: Exhibition designer Jing-Ling Chua checks the empty galleries before the works are installed; works on a design; makes final changes to the exhibition model; checks Gemma Smith’s colour pallette for the exhibition walls.

What are the professional skills of an Exhibition Designer?

My background is in architecture, however our team is made up of graphic, interior architecture and industrial designers. A sound spatial knowledge is key, and being a good listener is important as we design in a collaborative manner taking cues from the curator’s vision for the show as well as artist, lender and conservation requirements.

14m x 14m room with a minimum height of 4.5m. A circle of 10 poles surround a colourful tent structure that are suspended from the ceiling using an assortment of black and tan Razzamatazz stockings. Across the galleries, ceiling heights vary from 2.8m to 12m high, and some spaces have limited rigging points. In these instances, the design is informed by the limitations of the architecture, and creative thinking with an engineer.

Tell us about some of the early process in exhibition design.

Describe the collaborative relationship with the curators.

Careful consideration has gone into where to place each of the 390+ works. I’ve been designing exhibitions at the Gallery for over a decade and become quite familiar with Colin Madigan’s building, however I’m still discovering new vistas and rhythms in the architecture. For this exhibition I began by intuitively placing more complicated works at strategic points within the layout. This allowed me to ensure a variety in

Yvette Dal Pozzo. Because of COVID-19 we had to redesign the exhibition in a short time frame. The curators and I responded to this by mobilising our creativity and passion, and we navigated the uncertainty by being incredibly supportive of each other during such a challenging time.

the experience as you move through the exhibition and control the pace.

Describe the collaborative relationship with artists.

What have been some of the unique challenges in designing this show?

We’ve been fortunate to have many artists including Barbara Campbell,

Justene Williams’ Given that/You put a spell on/mine uterus uses found objects including a Ford Falcon ute, fluorescent lights, a bar fridge and a BBQ. The Gallery’s freight lift is not long enough to accommodate the ute, so we asked Justene if it could be cut in half in order to get it into the PHOTOS BY SAM COOPER

This exhibtion is co-curated by Deborah Hart and Elspeth Pitt, assisted by

Gallery then reassembled within the space. Simryn Gill’s Forking tongues

Janet Laurence, and Micky Allan visit the Gallery to discuss their works.

We are collaborating with Micky to design a zone within the exhibition that emulates her 1978 exhibition A Live-in Show performance, in which she disrupted the typical gallery experience and transformed the gallery into a domestic space where visitors could make themselves at home.

involves cutlery and chillies meticulously placed in a 6m diameter spiral

We also commissioned painter Gemma Smith to devise a colour palette

on the floor. The lender asked that we source the dried chillies, which

for the walls of this exhibition. Gemma’s concept explores the palest

we freeze for several weeks pre-install to ensure no insects travel into the

end of the colour spectrum with an emphasis on subtlety. Working with

Gallery with them. Several works involve suspended elements, including

Gemma has been like travelling through these familiar galleries with a

Mikala Dwyer’s Square Cloud Compound which requires at least a

fresh set of eyes.

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KNOW MY NAME

PORTRAIT OF A LADY Artist Yvette Coppersmith reflects on the art of the portrait through the female gaze.

We are in an interesting era to reflect upon the representations of female bodies. The year 2020 will illustrate how advanced - or how far from advanced - we are.

There are issues of greater concern than painting; the imminent danger of climate change, with a detour of a pandemic. But we rely on images to understand ourselves, and to see where we have come from.

Historically, those who had power to make images have been predominantly white and male. When women made images, they entered an established language and found ways to position themselves within that realm. Increasingly, in the second half of the 20th century, those ways and conventions have been subverted and reimagined by artists. What bodies have signified changes throughout art history, and the contemporary viewer can only interpret from their lived experience and knowledge of historical context. As anyone who has taken a selfie knows, there is always a gap between the lived experience and the image.

The earliest portrait in the Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now exhibition is Dian Dreams (Una Falkiner) 1909,

by Violet Teague. Painted in the Edwardian era, the elegance of the subject would have been seen as an acceptable product of the time. For a woman to be in the role of the artist, which required ambition and financial independence, was an exception to the time.

While painting had been considered an admirable talent in a lady, it was the pairing of ambition with financial means that would permit a career in the arts. In the following decades, a handful of women were to be the precursors of the modern woman, and through their artwork bring new directions of modernism into Australia.

Above: Yvette Coppersmith, Nude Self Portrait, after Rah Fizelle, 2016, oil on linen.

Courtesy of the artist © Yvette Coppersmith/ Copyright Agency, 2020.

Opposite: Violet Teague, Dian dreams (Una Falkiner), 1909, oil on canvas, Art Gallery of New South Wales, gift of the sitter’s daughter, Lawre Bruce Steer 1975.

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Living in the era of fourth-wave feminism, the digital tools for image making and distribution have been democratised. Image makers are no longer the domain of a privileged few. It’s important to realise several women artists of the first half of the 20th century - Grace Crowley, Grace Cossington Smith, Margaret Preston, Stella Bowen, Agnes Goodsir - were artists because of a combination of their privilege and their willingness to take risks. They cleared and created the path for the modern women to make choices about how to live their lives.

I have always wondered: whose language are we using? If it is the language constructed by men for men, is an image of a body either conforming to, or a reaction to, the existing framework? Can I take pleasure in viewing the same signifiers that cast women as unequal citizens? Can I see a nude and not be complicit in the objectification of the body? Can I paint myself as a nude that encompasses these two questions? My attempt to create an image of embodied subjective experience is perhaps what we all face each time we post on social media.

An aspect of portraiture is the capacity for rapport and empathy.

And while the viewer can never really understand the dynamic between the artist and subject, it is open to the viewer to engage in the one-to-one relationship with the person in the frame. Just like any interaction, the immediate impression will convey signifiers of race, gender and social class.

For me, a portrait sitting is about connection; the studio is a context to really see each other, a unique kind of intimacy in a digital world.

The tools for image-making are now accessible to all. And humanising one another’s image beyond the classification of gender and race is the most radical tool we have. ■

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Stella Bowen, Reclining Nude, 1927, oil on canvas. Art Gallery of South Australia, gift of Mrs Suzanne Brookman through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 2003.

Opposite: (clockwise from top lef) Grace Cossington Smith, Study of a head: selfportrait, 1916, oil on canvas on board. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased with funds from the Marie and Vida Breckenridge bequest 2010, © The Estate of Grace Cossington Smith.

Agnes Goodsir, Cherry, 1924, oil on canvas, Glenelg Shire Art Gallery.

Grace Crowley, Woman (Annunciation), c 1939, oil on canvas on composition board.

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1972, © Grace Crowley.

Margaret Preston, Self portrait, 1930, oil on canvas. Art Gallery of New South Wales, gift of the artist at the request of the Trustees 1930 © AGNSW.

KNOW MY NAME

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Stories from Europe

Works spanning more than 500 years of European art history feature in the upcoming exhibition Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London. Christine Riding, Jacob Rothschild Head of the Curatorial Department at the National Gallery, London, reveals the stories behind works from key periods that have captivated art lovers for centuries.

Sandro Botticelli, Four scenes of the early life of Saint Zenobius, 1500 © National Gallery, London. Mond Bequest, 1924

Four scenes of the early life of Saint Zenobius depicts the life of Saint Zenobius, the first citizen to become the Bishop of Florence and the first in a series of four panels that capture key

Johannes Vermeer, A Young Woman seated

moments in his life: his conversion to Christianity, baptism and ordination as Bishop. It is a type

at a Virginal, Ca. 1670–72

of painting known as a spalliere, often set into the panels of a room. The inspiration remains a

© The National Gallery, London. Salting Bequest, 1910

mystery; some suggest the panels were ordered by the Girolami family who claimed

Vermeer was famous for his scenes of

to be descendents of Zenobius.

everyday Dutch life and this work shows a curtain drawn back to reveal a young, apparently wealthy woman sitting at a Carlo Crivelli, The Annunciation, with Saint Emidius, 1486 © The National Gallery, London. Presented by Lord Taunton, 1864

painting within tells an alternate story: a work of art on the back wall – a real life

significance, the Annunciation, when the

painting held in an American collection –

Archangel Gabriel descends to tell the

depicts a brothel keeper talking to her client

Virgin Mary she is to bear a child, but is

and a prostitute. Vermeer raises the question:

interrupted by the titular Saint Emidius. It

is this young model in fact a prostitute or

is a playful take on the painting inscription

a wealthy merchant’s daughter?

suggesting a local saint could intervene in a heavenly mission. The work is recognised for its play on perspective, particularly the three-dimensional apple and cucumber-like vegetable in the foreground.

nga.gov.au

ready to play. However, some believe the

Crivelli brings levity to a moment of religious

Libertas Ecclesiastica (Religious Liberty)

52

virginal – a keyboard instrument – possibly

Anthony van Dyck, Lady Elizabeth Thimbelby and Dorothy, Viscountess Andover, Ca. 1635 © The National Gallery, London. Salting Bequest, 1910

Canaletto, Venice: A Regatta on the Grand Canal, Ca. 1735

Van Dyck captures sisters Elizabeth and Dorothy in a

© National Gallery, London. Wynn Ellis Bequest, 1876

moment of celebration, likely in honour of Dorothy’s marriage. Cupid is handing the bride a bouquet – a potent symbol of fertility. Born in Belgium, van Dyck travelled to London at the behest of King Charles I and had a transformative impact on British portraiture and the English aristocracy, in part because of his depictions of his subjects. Here the artist adds a glamourous touch with double pearl earrings on Dorothy, which highlights her wealth

Canaletto was famous for his paintings of The Grand Tour, a rite of passage for wealthy young men who travelled through Europe to learn about the world before settling down.

Italy was a popular destination – particularly Venice – which by the eighteenth century was known as a place for pleasure, a so-called brothel of Europe. Canaletto depicts the Grand Canal during the Regatta with a glimpse of the Rialto Bridge peeping into view.

Despite the realistic detail, it would not have been possible to see the Rialto Bridge from the artist’s point of view. This was painted during Carnival season, evident by the traditional masquerade costumes worn by revellers seen on balconies and boats.

and status.

● Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London opens at the National Gallery of Australia on March 5, 2021. Members

COMPILED BY SANDRA O’MALLEY

pre-sale tickets available from mid-November: nga.gov.au/members

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Ulysses deriding Polyphemus – Homer’s Odyssey, 1829 © The National Gallery, London. Turner Bequest, 1856

For most of the eighteenth century, many British artists had to make a living by painting Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the

portraits because there was not the patronage or market for landscapes. It was not until

National Gallery, London is organised by the

the nineteenth century that Turner transformed contemporary landscape painting into an

National Gallery, London, Art Exhibitions

international genre. Here, Turner captures the moment where Ulysses blinds Polyphemus,

Australia and the National Gallery of Australia.

enabling the hero to continue his journey, and paints the moment as a new dawn – a

Thank you to our Exhibition Partners and

sunrise, one of the artist’s most famous motifs – for Ulysses. Shown at the height of the

Patrons for their support.

British realm, many see it as a metaphor for the rise and fall of empires.

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Partnerships Presenting Partner

Strategic Partners

Indigenous Art Partner

Contemporary Art Partner

Touring Partners

Major Partners

Visions of Australia

Supporting Partners

Media Partners

Promotional Partners

Corporate Member Clayton Utz

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Partnerships The arrival of spring brings a new exhibition, blossoms blooming around the capital, and many more reasons to come back to the Australian Capital Territory and support Canberra businesses.

Here, key partners talk about the challenges of 2020 and emerging into the new season.

56

Canberra is the centre of a region of contrasts

over the coming months to ensure the major

in environment within a small geographic area.

exhibitions will be major drawcards and a key

From capital to coast, the Snowy Mountains

part of the city’s economic recovery.

to the tablelands, there is a lot of diversity. You

VISITCANBERRA HAS PARTNERED WITH THE

could spend a long weekend skiing, surfing,

GALLERY ON SEVERAL EXHIBITIONS. WHAT WORK

wine tasting, topped off with a stroll through

OF ART HAS BEEN A FAVOURITE OF YOURS?

the National Gallery. We anticipate an increase

It is hard to pick a favourite, but probably van

in the self-drive market in the months ahead as

Gogh’s Starry night from Masterpieces from

Australians look to rediscover the country and

Paris in 2009. Seeing it in a gallery setting ... it

return to the great Aussie road trip.

had such powerful presence. That is the great

HOW HAS THE PERCEPTION OF CANBERRA

thing about art – those experiences are in the

VISITCANBERRA

CHANGED WITH VISITORS IN RECENT YEARS?

eye of the beholder. The Gallery’s permanent

JONATHAN KOBUS, DIRECTOR

There has been wonderful investment in a

collection is incredible too. I try to find time to

range of businesses recently, many driven by

walk through the Indigenous galleries. The Fish

2020 HAS BEEN A CHALLENGING YEAR, WHAT

young creatives. This is shaping the personality

trap (pictured, left) is a personal favourite. It is

ARE THE VISITCANBERRA PRIORITIES AS TOURISM

and character of the city. I would Iike Canberra

so functional but so beautiful and sits perfectly

FOCUSES ON DOMESTIC TRAVEL?

to be a destination that is top of mind for those

in its place in the Gallery.

It has been a difficult year for Canberra

who haven’t been, to be in the short list of

WHAT ARE YOUR TIPS FOR CANBERRA?

businesses with the bushfires, smoke, hailstorm

places to travel when thinking about their next

Explore the precincts: Braddon, NewActon,

and then COVID-19. But the resilience and

short break, road trip or family holiday.

Dickson, Kingston, Manuka, Kambri at ANU,

optimism under trying circumstances has been

HOW IMPORTANT ARE CULTURAL EVENTS IN

to name a few. Canberra is a place of many

a true test of the human spirit. Hopefully there

ENCOURAGING TRAVEL TO THE REGION?

villages each offering something different and

is relief in sight, and we have the opportunity to

Arts and cultural events provide a mechanism

their own culture and artistic influence. Leave

focus on promoting Canberra’s diverse visitor

to connect with Australia’s great national

the car at the hotel and walk or hire a bike.

experience and welcome people back.

institutions. Visitors can immerse themselves

Canberra is such an easy city to explore on foot

WHAT UNIQUE OFFERINGS DOES THE REGION

in the stories of the nation told through the

or by turning the pedals - it gives you so many

HAVE TO ATTRACT VISITORS EMERGING FROM

interpretive lens of each attraction. We are

different perspectives, allows you to stop in

COLLECTIVE ISOLATION?

looking forward to working with the Gallery

amazing places and really be a part of the city.

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During this pandemic, what changes have

do you feel positive that domestic tourism

you made to your business operations?

will return quickly to the ACT?

We’ve introduced many measures in our hotels

Yes, definitely. Canberra is an easy city to

to keep our guests COVID-safe and to keep with

get around, it’s not overwhelming, and the

government restrictions. This included: setting

attractions are close together. There’s so much

up hand sanitising stations in all our properties;

to see and do in the ACT and it’s only a short

increasing both the frequency and depth of

drive from both Sydney and Melbourne, so I’m

our cleaning regimes – especially in our public

confident that visitors will return – especially

areas with high-touch points like lift buttons,

as families will be looking to stay in Australia

door knobs and handrails; changing our

rather than venturing overseas for their

restaurant operations, including not offering

holidays. Whether you are a lover of art, an

Capital Hotel Group

buffets anymore – it’s all a la carte dining now

adventurer or adore food and wine, Canberra

Jackie Mckeown, Group General Manager

with a minimised number of tables; and we

has you covered.

closed our gyms. But changing our business

The Capital Hotel Group has partnered

How have the Avenue, Deco and the

operations was something we did without

with the gallery on several major

Pavilion on Northbourne hotels

question – keeping our guests safe and healthy

exhibitions. What work of art has been a

weathered 2020?

has always been our number one priority.

favourite of yours?

We’ve had to reinvent ourselves in many ways

What are the positives from this time that

I absolutely loved Cartier: The Exhibition.

– from reducing our accommodation rates to

you may take forward?

Seeing beautiful jewellery pieces up close and

introducing takeaway options at our restaurant

It’s been incredible to see the Australian

personal that once belonged to celebrities like

Marble & Grain. We’ve had to learn to think

community pull together – helping those who

Elizabeth Taylor and Grace Kelly was amazing.

differently. What has been a blessing is that our

are struggling and placing such importance

My favourite piece was the Queen’s London

hotels target a range of audiences, from families

on the collective wellbeing of the nation. And

Halo Tiara, which was worn by the Duchess of

and budget travellers to those looking for a

it’s been lovely to watch the Canberra tourism

Cambridge at her wedding to Prince William.

more premium offering, and we’re seeing all

community band together too, we’ve all been

As a work of art, it really was impressive.

types of guests return. We have high numbers

working hard collaboratively to increase

of loyal returning guests and this has helped to

visitation numbers and get the message out that

keep us buoyant during these uncertain times.

Canberra is a brilliant place to visit.

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My collection In a new series, we visit the private collection of a National Gallery donor.

PHOTO BY RENEE NOWYTARGER

This month: Dr Dick Quan and John McGrath

Dr Dick Quan and his husband John McGrath in front of Hiromi Tango’s NatureNurture at the Holdsworth House Medical Practice in Sydney.

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TERRY HARDING (TH): WHAT INFLUENCED YOU TO BEGIN COLLECTING? Dick Quan (DQ): I come from a family of out-of-control collectors. I had to collect because it was part of my heritage. When you are young you want to collect what you know, but soon I became bored with that, hence

In reality, some of the best collections I’ve ever seen are of things I really dislike. Especially work that I don’t like and don’t understand, but in a certain person’s collection, it’s fantastic. What I’m less interested in are the ones where you can see they collected the big names.

my curiosity for things on the periphery. I was very lucky that when

TH: IS THERE ONE WORK IN YOUR COLLECTION AT THE MOMENT THAT

I was at university I met lots of artists and collected their works from

RESONATES WITH YOU?

the beginning. Lindy Lee was one of these people. So my influence came

DQ: No, because to me they are like children – you love them all. If I look

from many factors: my heritage of collecting and the artists and people

at a work for long enough that I think I understand it, it’s time to bring

who are now in my circle.

in the young artists and say: ‘which one would you move?’. Art is about

TH: CAN YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST WORK OF ART THAT MADE YOU THINK

learning and understanding new perspectives. As a doctor, it is important

OR FEEL DIFFERENTLY?

to understand beliefs and ideas that you don’t necessarily hold yourself.

Getting someone else to show you something that you never would have

DQ: One of the most pivotal works for me is Lindy Lee’s In Preference for Specific Virtues. It has been included in nearly all her retrospectives, including the upcoming exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art. She made the work in response to me coming out. The work itself is a

thought of or put something in a place that you never thought of is always good.

TH: YOU ARE A GENEROUS SUPPORTER OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY.

detail from Delacroix’s The Raft of the Medusa. The original involves an

WHAT MOTIVATES YOU TO GIVE?

image of a figure about to drown, but in Lindy’s version the person is

DQ: Sharing gives me the greatest joy. If I keep a work in my home or

rising. It made me think about relooking at things we know, and that has

even my practice, only a limited number of people can see it. If a work

informed my collecting. One of the reasons I am so proud to gift AES+F’s

is truly great, I always want to share it. If I can share my passion, it gives

The Feast of Trimalchio to the National Gallery is because as a kid I had to

me greater joy than having it stuck in a backroom or in storage. I also find

learn Latin and did so by studying The Feast of Trimalchio. When I saw

that in Australia, often galleries do not have the budget to buy challenging

AES+F recontextualise this in the modern world, it very much resonated.

works. I’m passionate about talking of Australian art in the context of

I recall these equally as pivotal works and both are based on the classics.

global art. I’m interested in having a Korean artist based in Berlin shown

TH: WHAT DO YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT LIVING WITH ART?

alongside a Russian artist who works on every continent; the diversity of these cultures and artistic medium and the frisson that creates.

DQ: To me, art is about changing the way we think. I’m faced with

I’m interested in those ideas and artists that show Australia is truly

problems all day at work, so when I come home there’s nothing better

multicultural, reflecting a country of diverse experience and thought.

than to contemplate in front of a work that is often complex; when I can

TH: IS THERE A PARTICULAR WORK IN THE NATIONAL COLLECTION

consider other things. It helps me to develop my thoughts. I’ve always said that in art the action is always on the periphery. It’s about breaking the rules, which is always changing. That is what I love about art: it is always morphing into another shape, and that excites me most – looking for those edges, those boundaries.

THAT HAS INSPIRED YOU OR INSPIRES YOU? DQ: No, you have so many amazing works! Of course, Blue poles is your hallmark painting and, on many levels, it is a painting that discusses all the things I collect for. At the time, it was very unpopular with the

PHOTO BY RENEE NOWYTARGER

public but now people have warmed to it. To me, a great work is one that TH: DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE ABOUT CURATING A PERSONAL COLLECTION?

anyone can respond to. You don’t have to be an academic. You don’t have

DQ: Follow what you like, not what other people tell you to like. It is not

to be told this is good. You don’t have to read Derrida. Whichever way

about a quest for academic perfection, but finding beauty in something,

you interpret it is valid. I love asking children about works that I collect,

finding something intellectually challenging. I talk often about this when

to hear what it is, unencumbered by what others have written about the

I buy art from young artists. I tell them to go into my house and hang the

work. To me, it’s very important to come to your own decision.

work where they think it should be. I love the interplay of the most junior

Dr Dick Quan and John McGrath recently gifted three works of art to the

artist being portrayed right next to the most senior artists. People come in

National Gallery including AES+F’s The Feast of Trimalchio: Arrival of

and say: ‘well who is that?’ They start guessing the big names. And I say:

the Golden Boat, in memory of Mr Bing Kuen Quan.

‘no, I bought this from an art school’. z In conversation with Terry Harding, Development Manager

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59

Vale John Schaeffer AO 1941–2020 John Schaeffer was an active and enthusiastic patron of the arts who left an inspiring legacy, remembers Maryanne Voyazis.

It is John Schaeffer’s ever-smiling face that I

Tina have been part of the National Gallery’s

an impact on the Australian arts community. A

family for over two decades and were regulars

man with a mischievous manner and an elegant

at our events. Most memorably, the couple

National Gallery Director Nick Mitzevich:

presence, John was a genuine art enthusiast

travelled with the Gallery team to London for

“John was truly a great friend of the National

and avid collector, unrestrained and deeply

the opening of the AUSTRALIA exhibition at

Gallery and of the arts in Australia. John

passionate about art and sharing it with others.

the Royal Academy of Arts in 2013, of which

will be dearly missed by Gallery staff and

John left an extraordinary legacy to the

they were Exhibition Patrons. John and

the wider Australian arts community. He

artistic community including the National

Tina saw the importance of this project in

and Bettina remain part of our family and

Gallery where he was an active and enthusiastic

bringing Australian art to the world stage and

John’s legacy will continue to inspire us going

Foundation Board Director for more than 20

showcasing the sophistication and calibre of

forward. It is the support of friends such as

years. He was a generous donor to the Gallery

Australian artists.

John and Bettina that lift us up and give us

and supported many major acquisitions and

courage to move towards our ambitions.”

exhibitions, sharing his love of art and the

commitment to collecting and sharing the

national collection with everyone he met.

work of British Pre-Raphaelite artists was

Former Council Chairman Rupert Myer AO:

A great supporter of many cultural

John’s knowledge of art was vast and his

well-known and admired. He took pride in

“John had a way of bringing a particular

institutions across the nation, John also served

lending Isabella and the pot of basil by William

calmness to any conversation. He was always

as a former trustee of the Art Gallery of New

Holman Hunt to the National Gallery’s 2018

very present and attentive to whomever he

South Wales and a Founding Benefactor of the

exhibition Love and Desire: Pre-Raphaelite

was speaking with.”

National Portrait Gallery where he was a Board

Masterpieces from the Tate, for which he and

Director from 2000-2005. His generosity to

Tina also served as Patrons.

Deborah Hart, Head of Australian Art:

many organisations included gifts of works of

“We had been working with John on a

art from his own collection.

project about Barbara Tribe. His passion and

John was born in the Netherlands and

John is survived by his partner Bettina Dalton, her daughters Pnina and Chana, John’s daughter Jo Schaeffer, and three grandchildren.

absolute love of the artist was moving and

moved to Australia in 1960 where he built a

impressive. John was determined that the best

career as a successful businessman. His life and

him, John Schaeffer will be remembered

representation of Barbara’s work would find a

passions were shared by his beloved partner

always.

place in Australia’s national art collection.”

Bettina Dalton, or Tina as she is widely known.

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Loved and respected by those who knew

A formidable couple, John’s pride in Tina’s

z Maryanne Voyazis is Head of Development

work as a film producer was always apparent

and Executive Director of the National Gallery

as was his admiration of her as a warm and

of Australia Foundation

engaging woman.

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As donors and Exhibition Patrons, John and

think of when I recall the man who made such

Above: Evert Ploeg, John Schaeffer AO – art collector and philanthropist, 2014, oil on canvas, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, purchased with funds provided by Harold Mitchell AC © Evert Ploeg / Copyright Agency, 2020.

Opposite: Bettina Dalton, John Schaeffer AO and Nick Mitzevich in front of William Holman Hunt’s Isabella and the pot of basil, 1867–68, oil on canvas, John Schaeffer Collection.

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Donors The National Gallery gratefully acknowledges the support of all donors and recognises here the donations made between April and June 2020.

Donors of all gifts made in the 2019-20 Financial Year will be included in the Foundation Annual Report.

Supporters in Focus From the end of April, over 449 donors supported the Know My Name giving appeal, collectively donating almost $170,000 to support this timely initiative.

These funds come together with other generous gifts made over the past twelve months to help the National Gallery deliver an expansive suite of programs that celebrate the work of Australian women artists. These include the signature exhibition Know My Name: Australian Women Artists from 1900 to Now as well as other exhibitions and artistic commissions by some of Australia’s leading artists such as the Tjanpi Desert Weavers and Micky Allan.

The artistic program will be accompanied by a diverse range of learning and access offerings, and a major anthology featuring essays and profiles on more than 150 Australian women artists by 115 pre-eminent Australian writers which was generously funded by the Foundation Board Publishing Fund.

These ambitious projects, and so many more, are made possible through the generosity of our donors.

We are especially grateful for recent major gifts from Tim Fairfax AC, Anthony and Suzanne Maple-Brown, Sally White OAM and Geoffrey White OAM, Julian and Alexandra Burt, Ruth and Steve Lambert, and Susan MapleBrown AM.

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Pamela Kenny in memory of Peter Kenny Julian Beaumont OAM and Annie Beaumont Jeff Hall and Sharon Grey John Jackson and Ros Jackson Bernard Shafer Australian Art and Sculpture John Anderson Prof Jeff Bennett and Ngaire Bennett Vivienne Binns OAM Mary Boyd Turner Helen Creagh Margaret Collerton Chella Pollard in memory of Jeanette Robertson Paul Spence Paul Whitfield

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Australian Artists Film Fund Philip Bacon AM Australian Ceramics Fund Sid and Fiona Myer Family Foundation Balnaves Contemporary Series The Balnaves Foundation Conservation Jacqueline Anderson Angela Compton Maria Magda Damo Sue Dyer and Dr Stephen Dyer S Podhorsky Wendy Webb Contemporary Art Dr Dick Quan and John McGrath Decorative Arts and Design Pamela Kenny Megan Webb Donations to support the National Gallery John Bell and Judy Bell Don Clark Heather Crompton and Malcolm Crompton De Lambert Largesse Foundation Lynette Elliott Michael Gannon and Helen Gannon Ruth Lambert and Steve Lambert Anthony Maple-Brown and Suzanne Maple-Brown Susan Maple-Brown AM Ralph Melano Trent Twomey and Georgina Twomey Sally White OAM and Geoffrey White OAM Jane Kinsman International Travel Fund Dr Jane Kinsman Education Tim Fairfax AC Jan Whyte and Gary Whyte Exhibition Patrons: Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London Dr Michael Martin and Elizabeth Popovski Sally White OAM and Geoffrey White OAM Exhibition Patrons: XU ZHEN®: ETERNITY VS EVOLUTION Dr Judith Neilson AM White Rabbit Collection, Sydney Foundation Board Publishing Fund Geoffrey Ainsworth AM Philip Bacon AM Robyn Burke

Terry Campbell AO John Hindmarsh AM Wayne Kratzmann Ezekiel Solomon AM Gala 2020 The Aranday Foundation Kay Bryan Rupert Myer AO and Annabel Myer The Yulgibar Foundation 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial David Paul

International Art James Erskine Cami James and Nadia Napreychikov Steven Nasteski Know My Name Otto Aberle and Hilary Aberle Doris Acoymo Lenore Adamson Margaret Adamson Jo Aldridge and Tricia Rees Antoinette Albert Karen Allen Allen Family Foundation Venise Alstergren John Anning and Gillian McAllister Isabelle Arnaud Margaret Ashford-MacDougall Debra Askew and Michael Askew Maria Athanassenas Dr Lynne Badger Trevor Bail Anna-Rosa Baker Suzanne Baker-Dekker Sheryl Ballesty Sarah Balzer and Lotte Hansen Patrick Barrett Annabel Baxter Kay Beatton Jenny Benjamin Vivienne Binns OAM Lynne Booth Charles Bowden Amy Boyd and Stephen Rebikoff Sarah Brasch Margaret Brennan and Geoffrey Brennan Wendy Brigg Helen Bristow Matthew Brown and Julie Alt Vicki Brown Sandra Browne The Burkevics family Ron Burns and Gail Burns Julian Burt and Alexandra Burt Annette Byron John Caldwell and Judith Caldwell Deborah Carroll Dr Diana Carroll Belinda Casey Marguerite Castello Helen Catchatoor

Catherine Center Maureen Chan Susan Chapman Joan Clarke and Joseph Clarke Jan Clemson Jacqui Clissold Penny Clive AO Patricia Coats Jenni Colwill Dr Ray Cook and Diane Cook Graham Cooke and Cassandra Hampton Ann Cork and Steve Cork Elizabeth Cowan Merrilyn Crawford Rear Admiral Ian Crawford AO AM (Mil) RAN Retd and Catherine Crawford Ann Crewe Georgia Croker Victor Cumpston and Connie Cumpston Charles Curran AC and Eva Curran Dorothy Danta Peter D’Arcy and Robyn D’Arcy Rowena Davey Dr Barbara Davidson Wilma Davidson Matthew Davies Elisabeth Davis Anne De Salis Irene Delofski and Ted Delofski Detached Cultural Organisation Ltd Jane Diamond Sue Doenau and Roger Doenau Murray Doyle Shaun Duffy and Susan Duffy Judith Eisner Naomi Elias Julia Ermert Pauline Everson Ingrid Mitchell Dr D Farrant Carolyn Farrar Prof Norman Feather AM Brian Fitzpatrick Richard Flanagan Anna Fletcher Lyn Fletcher and Wayne Fletcher Michelle Fletcher Bruce Flood Louise Francis Andrew Freeman FACS Kay Freudenstein-Hayes Margaret Frisch Alan Froud PSM and Judy Froud Ian Fry and Kathryn Fry Fiona Gale Kathleen Gilbert Linda Gilmore Sally Goodspeed Alix Goodwin June Gordon Ross Gough Gillian Gould Jeremy Grainger Dr Elizabeth Grant AM Dr Anna Gray AM Lynnere Gray Barbara Green

Ginny Green and Leslie Green Karen Greenfield Wendy Greenhill Pauline Griffin AM Karen Groeneveld and Peter Groeneveld Beverley Hammond Cheryl Hannah and Dr Helen McKenna Pauline Harding Margaret Hardy Yvonne Harrington Yvonne Harrington in memory of Elizabeth Bryant Glenys Harris Dr Patricia Harvey and Dr Frank Harvey Robert Hawes Dr Carolyn Hawkins Verity Hawkins Haydn Barling Landscapes Janet Hayes Warwick Hemsley Jacqueline Hicks in memory of Billie Marden Hicks Assoc Prof Lybus Hillman Meredith Hinchliffe Rosemary Hirst Janet Ho Graham Hobbs Genine Hook Jennifer Hotop Diana Houstone Margaret Hughes Terry Hull and Dr Valerie Hull Elspeth Humphries and Graham Humphries Judith Hurlstone Claudia Hyles OAM John Hyndes and Danielle Hyndes OAM Victoria Hynes Dr Anthea Hyslop Dr Peter Ingle and Rosemary Ingle Prof Chennupati Jagadish and Dr Vidya Jagadish Dr Cary James and Anne James Frances James Dr Victoria Jennings Deborah Johnson Joseph Johnson CSC OAM AAM and Madeleine Johnson Annette Jones Caroline Jones and Ben Jones Pauline Junankar Mary Kendell David Kennemore and Rosemary Kennemore Pamela Kenny Dr Ruth Kerr Merle Ketley Christine King and Ken Wardrop Krysia Kitch Lou Klepac OAM and Brenda Klepac Yvonne Korn Eric Koundouris AM and Georgia Koundouris Gerry Kruger and Ted Kruger The Honourable Dr Diana Laidlaw AM Jenni Large Ian Latham

Dr Thomas Laue Susan Laverty Erin Law Thomas Leffers and Corrie Leffers Frank Lewincamp and Barbara Lewincamp Stuart Lindenmayer Elizabeth Loftus Amanda Love and Andrew Love Dr Andrew Lu OAM and Dr Geoffrey Lancaster AM Mike Lynch and Liz Lynch Mary Lou Lyon and Rob Lyon Judy Macourt and Peter Macourt Judith Manning Jennifer Manton Graeme Marshall and Dr Walter Ong Alison Martin Trudi-Anne Martin Robyn McAdam Julia McCarthy Merle McCarthy Ian McCay Christine McCormack and Jacqueline McCormack Patricia McCullough Janet McDonald Judy McGowan David McKay and Kaet Lovell Robyn McKay Selma McLaren Karen McVicker Dr Betty Meehan Ralph Melano Kathy Montgomery Catherine Moore Andrew Moorhead Dr Angus Muir and Charlotte Wilenski Neil Cramond Mulveney Janet Munro Peter Murphy Stephen Murphy Laura Murray Cree Geoffrey Murray-Prior and Gillian Murray-Prior Dr Liz Musgrove Marion Newman and Dr Mike Newman Leonora Nicol Noakes Design Robyn O’Bryan John Oliver and Libby Oliver Kathy Olsen Dr Milton Osborne Kathryn Ovington Elizabeth Pakchung Jonathan W de B Persse Judy Pettiford Andrew Phelan and Monica Phelan Judy Pilkington Suzannah Plowman Dr Margaret Potts Christine Prietto Anne Prins Tony Purnell and Kaye Purnell Prof Shirley Randell AO Stephanie Ratnaike The RT Honourable Margaret Reid AO

Warwick Richmond and Jeanette Richmond Ernesta Richter and Paul Richter Sue Robertson Paul Robilliard and Hanan Robilliard Suzanne Robinson Dr Maxine Rochester Clive Rodger and Lynlea Rodger Sue Rogers Arjen Romeyn Jennifer Rowland Prof Lyndall Ryan AM Eileen Sadler Alice Sainsbury Dr Murray Sandland The Sargeson family Sally Saunders The late John Schaeffer AO and Bettina Dalton Bec Scott Claire Scott Emer Prof Dr Robert Shanks and Ms Josephine Shanks Maggie Shapley Judith Shelley and Michael Shelley Lynette Shelley Rosamond Shepherd Ellen Shipley Lisa Shute Dr Marian Simpson Joanne Small in memory of Jennifer Claire Small Jennifer Smith Libby Smith Wendy Smith Margaret Smythe Ezekiel Solomon AM Sophie Gannon Gallery Adam Stankevicius Clare Stanwix Helene Stead John Stead Shaun Stephens Rex Stevenson AO and Dr Caroline Stevenson Dr Kate Stewart Ryan Stokes AO and Claire Stokes Robyn Stone Gay Stuart and Charles Stuart Jacqueline Tallon Jenny Taylor Joan ten Brummelaar Felicity Tepper The Tall Foundation Bernadette Thompson and Gregory Cairns Helen Topor Dr Noel Tovey AM Sandra Trew Helen Unwin Niek Van Vucht Hugo van Willigen and Hendrika van Willigen Penny Vandenbroek in memory of Rhonda Vandenbroek Derek Volker AO Avril Vorsay

Maryanne Voyazis, Fred Smith and Olympia Smith The Waring-Dyke family Dr Hilary Warren and Aart Groothuis Emily Warwick Amanda Weate Alexandra Wedutenko Christine Wellham Kirsten Westaway Adrienne Westman Chris Westworth Murrelia Wheatley Anne White Helen White Sally White OAM and Geoffrey White OAM Mary Anne Whiting Rev George Wilkins Emer Prof David Williams AM and Margaret Williams Jean Williams and Alex Williams Liz Wilson Zandra Wilson Deborah Winkler and Abdelkareem Abdelmaksoud Wombat & Poss Daniel Wong Ellen Woodward Wright Burt Foundation Members Acquisition Fund 2018-19 Julian Beaumont OAM and Annie Beaumont Members Acquisition Fund 2016-17 Murrelia Wheatley Robert and Eugenie Bell Decorative Arts and Design Fund Dr Eugenie Bell FRAIA Gael Newton AM Sculpture Garden Judith Rogers and Andrew Rogers Timothy Fairfax Fund for Education Tim Fairfax AC Touring Exhibitions The Neilson Foundation

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Virginia Cuppaidge, Lyon, 1972, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, gift of the artist 2012 Š Virginia Cuppaidge.

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KNOW MY NAME

Director’s Choice: Lyon A personal highlight from the national collection by Nick Mitzevich.

Virginia Cuppaidge lives in Newcastle in the NSW Hunter region, a town where I spent my formative years. And since I became Director of the National Gallery I have discovered several connections with the artist and her art that continue to resonate.

What I admire enormously about Virginia is that she is a trailblazer.

She left her hometown of Brisbane to live in New York City in 1969, was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 1976 and became one of Australia’s most high-profile artists whose work is held in dozens of international collections.

Virginia’s work, including the painting Lyon – which will be on display in November as part of the Know My Name: Australian women artists 1900 to Now exhibition – has a great sense of power. It always remains true to itself and is rigorous in the pursuit of balance and harmony and evolving the power of abstraction.

I first met Virginia when I was the Director of the Newcastle Art Gallery (from 2001–2007), and she donated a work to that collection.

I found her to be so gracious, a woman of such dignity. I was always captivated by her extraordinary passion for art, and her amazing knowledge of art history. She is a charming character whose impact stays with you long after the conversation has ended.

Spending five decades in New York not only had an enormous impact on Virginia professionally, but personally. It was where she first met fellow Australian geometric abstractionist Clement Meadmore.

Meadmore’s steel sculpture Virginia – which is in the national collection and graces the lakeside entrance to the Sculpture Garden – is an homage to Virginia Cuppaidge.

I can see the sculpture Virginia when I look out the window from my desk in the Director’s office. It always reminds me of the personal stories and synergies between artists, their work, and our collection.

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Eddie the Director Dog Dogs have long been the best friend (and subject) of many artists: Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and David Hockney had daschunds (named Lump, Archie, Stanley and Boodge respectively), Lucian Freud had Eli the whippet, Georgia O’Keeffe had Bow and Chia the Chow Chows, and Napier Wallace had Airedales Baldur, Undine and Siren (below). Now meet Eddie Mitzevich, a mischievously lovable wire-haired fox terrier who is the newest and most adorable member of the National Gallery of Australia family. Nick Mitzevich brought Eddie home during lockdown earlier this year when the Director was healing a damaged knee. Eddie loves tummy rubs, walks in the Sculpture Garden and his unconditional love for people and art in his new role as Director Dog is the perfect tonic to 2020.

Napier Waller, Christian Waller with Baldur, Undine and Siren at Fairy Hills, 1932, oil and tempera on canvas mounted on hardboard, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1984, © The Trustees of the Waller Estate. This work is currently on tour in Art Deco from the National Collection.

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ABSENCE MAKES THE ART GROW FONDER ARCHIBALD PRIZE

AUSTRALIA’S FAVOURITE PORTRAIT PRIZE 26 SEPTEMBER 2020 – 10 JANUARY 2021

ARTONVIEW SPRING 2020 | 103 National Gallery of Australia Vincent van Gogh. Sunflowers (detail) 1888. © National Gallery, London

Government Partners

Principal Partner

Principal Donor

Major Partner

Organised by

KNOW MY NAME Karla Dickens | Vivienne Binns | Fiona Lowry | eX de Medici with Emily Kame Kngwarreye