111-417 Australian Art At Home and Abroad

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Subject Description

This subject investigates the expatriate movement in Australian art during the 1890s, the period from Federation to the First World War, and the postwar era up to 1935, focusing on artists such as John Peter Russell, Bertram Mackennall, Charles Douglas Richardson, E. Phillips Fox, Rupert Bunny, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Dora Meeson, George Lambert, Thea Proctor, Margaret Preston, Jessie Traill, Violet Teague, Grace Cossington Smith, Nora Heysen, Meldrum, Clarice Beckett and the George Bell. Issues considered include: the historians' privileging of nationalist subjects at the expense of other themes; contemporary attitudes to women artists; the European experience of Australian artists abroad; the reception of their art at home and abroad; portraiture in the context of postwar nationalism; the contribution of women artists during the 1920s and 1930s; and the perceived polarity between conservatism and modernism in Melbourne during the 1920s and 1930s. Close attention will be paid to primary sources - the contemporary press, the artist's own writings - and artistic practice.

Assessment

Written work which may comprise class papers, essays, visual tests or take-home examinations totalling about 6000 words.