Anne Dangar at Moly-Sabata: Tradition and Innovation
National Gallery of Australia
13 July - 28 October 2001
This is the first exhibition of Anne Dangar's work in an Australian art museum. It shows the significant influence of the art and teachings of the French Cubist painter Albert Gleizes (1881-1953) on this expatriate Australian artist's ceramic work. The exhibition will also examine the introduction of modernist thought to Australian painting through Dangar's correspondence with the Sydney-based painter Grace Crowley.
A substantial collection of Dangar's ceramic works has been lent for this exhibition by the Fondation Albert Gleizes in Paris. These works, produced in France during the 1930s and 1940s, are augmented by a select number of works from Australian public and private collections, including that of the National Gallery of Australia, which has an extensive collection of Australian ceramics.
Anne Dangar
Anne Dangar (1887-1951) was an Australian artist, a teacher at the Julian
Ashton school and a close friend of Grace Crowley. Dangar's life was transformed
by her decision to live in France as a disciple of Albert Gleizes. There,
in the little village of Sablons, she discarded her ambition to become
a painter and began a humble apprenticeship in a traditional French pottery.
Through unstinting work and determination she reinvigorated the local
pottery tradition, developing designs originating in Cubism as well as
reflecting Gleizes' theories about ancient art. She never returned to
Australia.
This exhibition has been staged to coincide with three others at the National Gallery of Australia: Modern Australian Women, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Mexican Modernism and, from 1 September, Joy Hester and Friends. It displays the little-known ceramic work of an Australian expatriate artist in the context of the modernism that engaged Australian women artists from the 1920s to the 1940s.
Anne Dangar at Moly-Sabata: Tradition and Innovation is based on the research of consultant curator, Dr Helen Topliss.
Public Lectures at the Gallery which discuss the work of Anne Dangar include:
- Saturday 14 July. 2.00pm Introduction to the exhibition by Dr Helen Topliss, Exhibition Curator
- Tuesday 28 August. 6.00pm. Australian Art Lecture Series Part 3, Anne Dangar by Dr Helen Topliss, Exhibition Curator. (This is the third session of a 4 part series.) Tickets: $10, Members/concessions $8
- Thursday 2 August. 12.45pm. Australian Women in Craft, Robert Bell, Curator of Decorative Arts and Design.
For information about these lectures please contact eventbookings@nga.gov.au
For further information about the exhibition please contact Public Affairs
on +61 2 6240 6431
or Robert Bell, Curator, Decorative
Arts and Design, on +61 2 6240 6510.