Know My Name
Making it Modern
5 Aug – 8 Oct 2023

Grace Cossington Smith, Four panels for a screen: loquat tree, gum and wattle trees, waterfall, picnic in a gully, 1929, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 1976
‘In each instance the artists convey a particular take on what it meant to be a modern woman in their times and in the making of their art.’
About
Know My Name: Making it Modern celebrates pioneering women artists who changed the course of modern art in Australia.
Drawn from the national collection, this major exhibition profiles Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme, Margaret Preston, Grace Cossington Smith, Clarice Beckett and Olive Cotton, their works unified by their expressions of daily life, nature, still life and interior worlds of place, mind and imagination.
From dramatic prints by Margaret Preston, to evocative photographs of Olive Cotton, to Grace Cossington Smith’s radiant paintings, and the poetic atmosphere of Clarice Beckett’s works, Making it Modern presents each artist’s distinctive approach to their artistic practice and what it meant to be a modern woman in their times.
Making it Modern continues to build on the National Gallery’s Know My Name initiative which celebrates the work of all women artists with an aim to enhance understanding of their contribution to Australia’s cultural life.
Curators: Dr Deborah Hart, Head Curator, Australian Art
Elspeth Pitt, Senior Curator, Australian Art
Dr Shaune Lakin, Senior Curator, Photography
Dr Sarina Noordhuis-Fairfax, Curator, Australian Prints and Drawings
Deirdre Cannon, Assistant Curator, Australian Art
Artists
Events
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Daily, 15 Aug – 8 Oct 2023
11am
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Daily, Sat 23 Sep – Sun 8 Oct 2023
11am – 12.30pm
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25–29 Sep and 3–6 Oct 2023, 1pm
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Fri 6 Oct 2023, 12pm
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Wed 4 Oct 2023, 11.30am
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Fri 29 Sep 2023, 12pm
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Talks & Lectures
Art Talk: Deborah Hart on Grace Cossington Smith
Know My Name: Making it ModernPast EventFri 22 Sep 2023, 12pm
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Sun 17 Sep 2023, 3pm
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Thu 14 Sep 2023
11–11.30am
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Wed 13 Sep 2023, 11am
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Fri 8 Sep 2023, 12pm
Publications
Know My Name
With profiles and essays on more than 150 women artists by 115 women writers, this book seeks to retell the story of Australian art through the work of women. Part of a series of ongoing gender equity initiatives by the National Gallery, it aspires to make the art of women better known in the wider community, and to counter the dominance of art historical displays emphasising men. By turning the tables, we present an opportunity to reckon with the strength and breadth of women's contributions to the art of this country.
PUBLISHED JUNE 2022
458 pages
311 x 238 x 44 mm
Full Colour | Hardback
RRP A$79.95*
*Members discount available for publication purchases made at the Gallery in the Art Store only.
Spowers & Syme
This beautifully illustrated catalogue celebrates the artistic friendship of Melbourne artists Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme. Two women from rival media families who pioneered modern printmaking in Australia and whose prints, drawings and paintings, remarkable for their expressive energy, capture the zeitgeist of the interwar years.
PUBLISHED AUGUST 2021
96 pages
240 x 195 mm
Full Colour | Hardback
RRP A$39.99*
ISBN 9780646842189
*Members discount available for publication purchases made at the Gallery in the Art Store only.
Stories & Ideas
Works of Art

Clarice Beckett, Evening landscape, c 1925, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 1974

Clarice Beckett, Sandringham Beach, c 1933, oil on canvas, 55.8 x 50.9 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1971

Clarice Beckett, Not titled (Sherbrooke Forest), c 1919–1935, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, gift of Mrs Hilda Mangan 1972

Clarice Beckett, Beaumaris seascape, c 1925, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 1971

Clarice Beckett, Not titled (Seascape), c 1919–1935, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, gift of Mrs Hilda Mangan 1972

Clarice Beckett, Not titled (Road with telegraph poles), c 1932, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, gift of Mrs Hilda Mangan 1972

Grace Cossington Smith, Eastern Road, Turramurra, c.1926, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, bequest of Mervyn Horton, 1984

Grace Cossington Smith, Interior in yellow, 1962-64, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 1965

Grace Cossington Smith, Study of a head: self-portrait, 1916, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased with funds from the Marie and Vida Breckenridge bequest 2010

Ethel Spowers, The bamboo blind, 1926, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 1976

Ethel Spowers Bank holiday, 1935 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra purchased 1976

Eveline Syme, The factory, 1933, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 1979, © Estate of Eveline Syme

Olive Cotton, Glasses, 1937 prtd 1997, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 2016

Olive Cotton, The sleeper, 1939, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Purchased 1987

Olive Cotton, Max, c. 1935, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 1998

Olive Cotton, Grass at sundown, 1939, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, gift of the artist 1987

Margaret Preston, Tea-tree and Hakea petiolaris, 1936, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased from Gallery adimission charges 1986 © Margaret Rose Preston Estate/Copyright Agency

Margaret Preston, Still life, 1925, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 1980 © Margaret Rose Preston Estate/Copyright Agency

Margaret Preston, Sydney Bridge, 1944, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, bequest of Alan Queale 1982 © Margaret Rose Preston Estate/Copyright Agency
Supporters
Principal Patron
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Tim Fairfax AC
Strategic Partners
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Seven West Media (SWM)
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ooh Media
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Major Partner
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Qantas
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