National Gallery Announces Three New Exhibitions By Women Artists

The National Gallery of Australia continues to highlight the extraordinary contribution of women artists with the announcement of three new women-led exhibitions opening in mid-2021; part two of Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now, Project 1: Sarah Lucas and touring exhibition Spowers & Syme.

Know My Name, the National Gallery's ongoing gender equity initiative, is a celebration and a commitment to women artists - intending to recast a male-dominated art history and reimagine a more inclusive future at the Gallery and beyond.

Natasha Bullock, Assistant Director of Artistic Programs at the National Gallery, said that when Know My Name launched in 2019, it marked a moment of major transformation for the Gallery.

'Know My Name is only the start of an extraordinary era of collecting, exhibiting and presenting the work of women artists to the wider Australian public.'

'Elevating women artists now and into the future is being embedded into the culture of the Gallery. While art and artists are fundamental to this initiative, our aim is to ultimately lead the conversation to transform the cultural landscape of Australia,' said Bullock.

The National Gallery acknowledges Principal Patron Tim Fairfax AC and all Know My Name donors and corporate supporters for their collective generosity, which has made this all possible.

See more information on exhibitions below.

Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 To Now

12 Jun 21 - 26 Jan 22

With part two of the exhibition, Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now will continue its evolution as one of the most comprehensive exhibitions of art by women ever assembled in Australia.

Mainly drawn from the national collection, Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now continues to propose alternative histories, challenge stereotypes, and celebrate the achievements of more than 250 artists.

Co-curators of the exhibition Dr Deborah Hart and Elspeth Pitt emphasise that this is still an exhibition - and a broader conversation - that we need to have in Australia.

'Australian women artists are truly extraordinary. We hope by presenting Know My Name in two parts with different artists and themes, we reiterate to the public the significance of these artists - and the importance of recognition into the future,' said Hart and Pitt.

Highlights of part two of Know My Name include works by artists Joy Hester, Grace Cossington Smith, and Margaret Preston; renowned First Nations artists Doreen Reid Nakamarra, Thanakupi (Gloria Fletcher AO), and Karla Dickens; large-scale installation works by contemporary artists Simryn Gill and Justene Williams; and newly acquired works by Diena Georgetti and fashion icons, Romance Was Born.

Artists included in part two of the exhibition include: Jean Baptiste Apuatimi, Yvonne Audette, Solvig Bass-Becking, Eugenie Keefer Bell, Jean Bellette, Marion Borgelt, Jane Bowden, Hermia Boyd, Jean Broome-Norton, Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley, Bush Couture, Roma Center, Susan Cohn, Grace Cossington Smith, Cecily Crozier, Elisabeth Cummings, Karla Dickens, Rosemary Dobson, Mikala Dwyer, Janenne Eaton, Patricia Englund, Dorothy Erikson, Janet Fieldhouse, Flamingo Park, Nicole Foreshew, Corrie Fullard, Mari Funaki, Marea Gazzard, Diena Georgetti, Simryn Gill, Agatha Gothe-Snape, Julie Gough, Elizabeth Gower, Helen Grace, Dulice Greeno, Lola Greeno, Marion Mahony Griffin, Louise Hearman, Mona Hessing, Joy Hester, Margel Hinder, Marian Hosking, Natalya Hughes, Linda Jackson, Kutuwalumi Purawarrumpatu Kitty Kantilla, Jenny Kee, Lily Sandover Kngwarray, Helge Larsen & Darani Lewers, Pat Larter, Margo Lewers, Fiona Lowry, Valerie MacSween, Marguerite Mahood, Hilarie Mais, Carlier Makigawa, Marion Marshall, Leslie Matthews, Helen Maudsley, Erica McGilchrist, Bridgid McLean, Mascha Moje, Mirka Mora, Doreen Reid Nakamarra, Susan Norrie, Kate O'Sullivan, Ewa Pachucka, Klytie Pate, Patsy Payne, Debra Phillips, Rosslynd Piggott, Gwyn Hanssen Pigott, Margaret Preston, Thea Proctor, Angelina Pwerle, Jude Rae, Gillian Rainer, Margaret Rarru, Eugenia Raskopoulos, Jacky Redgate, Norma Redpath, Brenda Ridgewell, Romance Was Born, Caroline Rothwell, Robyn Stacey, Heather B Swann, Thanakupi (Gloria Fletcher AO), Aida Tomescu, Marian Tubbs, Mazie Karen Turner, Anne Wallace, Caroline Mary West, Margaret West, Lorri Whiting, Justene Williams, Judith Wright, Nyapanyapa Yunupingu and more to follow.

Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now: will run from 12 June 2021 to 26 January 2022.

Curators: Dr Deborah Hart, Henry Dalrymple Head of Australian Art and Elspeth Pitt, Curator, Australian Art with Yvette Dal Pozzo, Assistant Curator, Australian Art.

Project 1: Sarah Lucas

7 Aug 21 - 13 Feb 22

Project 1: Sarah Lucas brings together recent work by one of England's most influential and unapologetic artists.

Over the past 30 years, Sarah Lucas has built an illustrious career challenging the social constructs of gender through sculpture, photography and performance - and curator Peter Johnson wants Australians to know her name.

'I think Australians are going to love Lucas - who uses crude and humorous imagery to explore the representation of gender and confront the realities of bodily existence,' said Johnson.

Project 1: Sarah Lucas features two recent sculpture series, including new works from the Bunny series she has been making since 1997. A new series of bronze sculptures depicts similar figures that incorporate both masculine and feminine elements, challenging gender stereotypes and humorously playing with conventions of representation.

Lucas's sculptural work is exhibited alongside rarely seen images of the artist's first self-portrait, Eating a Banana, which will be reproduced to more than seven metres high - covering the exhibition walls from floor to ceiling.

Project 1: Sarah Lucas will open 7 August 2021 and close 13 February 2022.

Project 1: Sarah Lucas is the first of the National Gallery's Project Series and is a Know My Name Project.

Curator: Peter Johnson, Curator of Projects.

Spowers & Syme

From 14 Aug 2021

Celebrating the artistic friendship of Melbourne artists Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme, the Know My Name touring exhibition - Spowers & Syme - will present the changing face of interwar Australia through the perspective of two pioneering women artists.

The National Gallery's Curator of Australian Prints and Drawings, Dr Sarina Noordhuis-Fairfax hopes that regional audiences will add the names Spowers and Syme to their knowledge of ground-breaking women artists from the era including Margaret Preston, Thea Proctor, Dorrit Black and Grace Cossington Smith.

'Spowers and Syme are often overlooked in Australian art history, yet during the 1930s they were recognised by peers as being among the most progressive artists working in Melbourne.'

'Exhibiting in Australia and England, they championed key ideas from European modernism such as contemporary art reflecting the pace and vitality of life,' said Noordhuis-Fairfax.

Much-loved for their dynamic approach to lino and woodcut prints, Spowers & Syme offers rare insights into the creative alliance between the daughters of rival media families from Melbourne-based newspapers The Argus and The Age. After studying art together in Paris and London, Spowers and Syme returned to the conservative art world of Australia where they became enthusiastic exponents of modern art during the 1930s and 40s.

Spowers & Syme will open at the Canberra Museum and Gallery in August, followed by a national tour:

Canberra Museum and Gallery, Canberra | 14 Aug - 24 Oct 21
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane | 12 Nov 21 - 13 Feb 22
Western Plains Cultural Centre, Dubbo | 26 Feb - 1 May 22
Heide, Melbourne | 18 Jun - 2 Oct 22

Spowers & Syme is a National Gallery Touring Exhibition supported by Visions of Australia and is a Know My Name project.

Curator: Dr Sarina Noordhuis-Fairfax, Curator of Australian Prints and Drawings.

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