Grace Cossington Smith (1892–1984) was one of the most inventive colour painters to emerge from Australia’s first wave of modernism in the early decades of the twentieth century. After growing up in Sydney’s northern suburbs, in 1914 Cossington Smith moved with her family to the Turramurra residence that would become her lifelong home and the…
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Recognised and admired for her vibrant and distinctive art, Margaret Preston (1875–1963) possessed an equally colourful personality, and was described by one associate as ‘the natural enemy of the dull’. After committing to a career as an artist from an early age, Preston completed her academic training in Melbourne and Adelaide before spending two lengthy…
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Acknowledged as one of America’s most significant twentieth-century artists, Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986) is admired around the world for her elegant and innovative modernist paintings. O’Keeffe grew up on a farm near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, and as a child received art lessons at home. By the time she graduated from high school in 1905 she was…
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Celebrating the work of three pioneering artists who made distinguished contributions to the development of international modernism. All born in the late nineteenth century, American painter Georgia O’Keeffe and Australian artists Margaret Preston and Grace Cossington Smith came of age during the 1910s and ’20s, decades of great social and cultural transition. While they were…
Even though they did not discuss their work with each other, North American artist Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986) and Australians Margaret Preston (1875–1963) and Grace Cossington Smith (1892–1984) shared a passionate curiosity for the natural world, and each worked within the emerging transcultural discourse of Modernism. Their respective early training in traditional representational techniques gave way…
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