Women Artworks in current stockroom

(alphabetically by artist surname)

Composizione

Category: Painting Women

Yvonne Audette (b. 1930)

Composizione1956

oil on linen

85 x 68cm

Provenance

Galleria Schettini, Milan, Italy;

Galleria Michelangelo, Bergamo, Italy;

Private collection;

Sotheby’s, Modern and Contemporary, Sydney, March 2005, lot 60;

Company collection, Sydney;

Deutscher Hackett, Important Australian and International Fine Art, Sydney, April 2019, lot 55;

Private collection, Sydney

Essay

“Yvonne Audette holds a unique position in twentieth century Australian art as one of the few female artists of her generation to have maintained a long and successful career working in an abstract mode. She left Australia to further her studies in late 1952, however unlike most of her peers, headed to New York, influenced by her American-born parents’ agreement to provide financial support if she went there rather than to Europe. While her training had been traditionally academic, with an emphasis on the figure, Audette’s first-hand exposure to the work of artists including Willem de Kooning (whose studio she visited in 1953), Robert Motherwell and Mark Tobey brought her face to face with the burgeoning New York School of Abstract Expressionist painting and she began to move confidently towards abstraction, developing a unique visual language that merged a lyrical use of colour with dextrous mark-making and the textural layering of line and abstract form.

After travelling in Europe, Audette settled in Florence, establishing a studio there in 1955. Against the backdrop of Italy’s rich culture and artistic past, she was welcomed into a community of professional artists (including Arnaldo Pomodoro and Lucio Fontana), who encouraged her and provided an aspirational example. Focussed and determined, Audette worked hard, holding commercial exhibitions in Florence, Milan, Paris, Rome and London.

While Audette’s work was rarely seen in Australia during her expatriate years, it has since been recognised for its important contribution to the history of twentieth century art in this country. Acquisitions by major public galleries were followed by a series of institutional exhibitions – Queensland Art Gallery (1999), Heide Museum of Modern Art (2000), National Gallery of Victoria (2008), Ian Potter Museum of Art (2009) and the Art Gallery of Ballarat (2016) – and the publication of a major monograph in 2003.

Audette was awarded Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the June 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for significant service to the visual arts as an abstract painter.”

– Kirsty Grant for Deutscher and Hackett, April 2019

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[Ploughed Field With Shadows]

Category: Photography Women

Olive Cotton (1911-2003)

[Ploughed Field With Shadows]1940

vintage silver gelatin photograph

signed and dated in pencil in lower margin

29.6 x 29.5cm

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Fence and Tree

Category: Photography Women

Olive Cotton (1911-2003)

Fence and Tree

vintage silver gelatin photograph

signed and dated in ink lower right

15.1 x 15cm

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Max Dupain with Tripod

Category: Photography Women

Olive Cotton (1911-2003)

Max Dupain with Tripod

silver gelatin photograph

signed in margin below, titled verso

18.1 x 17.9cm

Essay

In 1929, at the age of 18, Olive Cotton became a member of the Sydney Camera Club and the Photographic Society of New South Wales. She graduated from Sydney University with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in english and mathematics. She joined Max Dupain’s studio shortly after completing her studies, marrying him in 1939. During the war years Cotton ran Dupain’s studio while he was away on war service. Today, she is recognised as a major contributor to Australian photography.

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Honey Flow

Category: Mixed Media Modern Women

Rosalie Gascoigne (1917-1999)

Honey Flow1985

painted and stencilled wood, nails on plywood backing

signed with initials, dated and inscribed with title verso

108 x 84cm

Provenance

Collection of the artist, Canberra;

Thence by descent;

Deutscher and Hackett, Important Australian and International Fine Art, Sydney, 10/04/2018;

Private collection, Sydney

Exhibited

Rosalie Gascoigne 1985, Fine Arts Gallery, University of Tasmania, Hobart, 8 – 28 September 1985, cat. 3 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)

Rosalie Gascoigne, Pinacotheca, Melbourne, 15 October – 1 November 1986, cat. 1

From the Studio of Rosalie Gascoigne, Drill Hall Gallery, Australia National University, Canberra, 5 September – 8 October 2000, cat. 17

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Vale Street

Category: Photography Women

Carol Jerrems ((1949 - 1980))

Vale Street1975

vintage silver gelatin photograph

signed with artist's stamp upper right, signed (twice), photographer’s address, titled and dated in pink ink, and signed (twice) in pencil; 'Australian Centre for Photography' copyright stamp verso

19.2 x 24.6cm

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Wanjina

Category: Aboriginal Women

Lily Karadada (b.c. 1921)

Wanjinac. 1982

natural earth pigments on bark

42 x 36.5cm

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Five Futures

Category: Contemporary Large Scale Works Women

Beth Letain (b. 1976)

Five Futures2017

oil on canvas

170 x 140cm

Provenance

Pace Gallery, London;

Private Collection, Sydney

Exhibited

Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Los Angeles, US, 25-28 January, 2018

Essay

Berlin-based Canadian artist Beth Letain engages with the history of colour and abstraction. While her works feel minimalist compositionally, they are vivid with strong colour painted on white canvas. Letain’s geometric structures are harmonious and rhythmic, referencing Agnes Martin, Mary Heilmann and the Bauhaus theories of colour. This work is of magnificent scale with lashings of oil and rich pigment, so characteristic of the artist’s style. Her works are simple and enduring.

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Parwalla

Category: Aboriginal Large Scale Works Painting Women

Elizabeth Nyumi Nungurrayi (b. 1947)

Parwalla2008

synthetic polymer paint on linen

inscribed verso: artist's name, size and Warlayirti Artists cat. 134/08

180 x 120cm

Provenance

Warlayirti Artists, Balgo Hills;

Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne;

Private collection, Melbourne;

Deutscher and Hackett, Part 2: Important Aboriginal Art, Melbourne 26 November 2014, Lot 104;

Private collection, Sydney

Essay

This painting depicts Elizabeth Nyumi’s father’s country, Parwalla. It is a large area that fills with water after the wet season and consequently produces an abundance of bush foods. The painting shows a variety of native foods including bush raisin, bush tomato and seeds. Women, shown as U shapes, with their digging sticks and coolamons gathering the foods, are also depicted.

Parwalla is a characteristic example of the work of Nyumi, one of the most-renowned, contemporary female Aboriginal artists. In her maturity as a painter Nyumi initially worked with a thick brush, covering the canvas in emanating lines in muted tones. The white, so pleasing and prevalent in her work, represent spinifex grass. She is an active member in the Balgo community, being a strong law and culture woman.

In 2004 Nyumi was selected for inclusion in the Biennale of Sydney. Her works are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin; the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; Artbank, Sydney; the Laverty Collection, Sydney; and the Holmes à Court Collection, Perth.

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Dabee Winter

Category: Painting Women

Susan Rothwell ()

Dabee Winter2021

oil on Belgian linen

100 x 140 cm

Exhibited

Susan Rothwell is a renowned Australian architect and contemporary painter who resides in Sydney. In Dabee Winter the artist has skilfully built up the paint layers over a terracotta primed canvas. Both her exceptional gifts as a colourist and abiding fascination with Australian subject matter are evident in her joyous, atmospheric images.