An Australian Retrospective 1788 1945

A history of the development of Australia since the first white settlement of 1788.

Grace Crowley has been recognized as a product of European modernism and was one of the leading innovators of geometric abstraction in Australia. Having studied in Paris in the 1920s with one of the leading art teachers, writers and theorists, André Lhote, she returned to Australia having mastered the complex mathematics and geometry of the golden section and dynamic symmetry, that had become a framework for modernism. Through her teaching of these compositional techniques at the most progressive modern art school in Sydney in the 1930s, she became a crucial influence on the group of artists now recognized as the historical forerunners to American colour-field painting introduced to Australia in the 1960s, and Australian abstraction. Through her close friendship with Anne Dangar, who played a critical role in the success of Albert Gleizes’ utopian art colony in rural France, Crowley maintained contact with mainstream European modernism and links to the Abstraction-Creation Group in Paris. During the 1940s and 1950s, Crowley worked with fellow-artist Ralph Balson, and together they developed their own style of geometric abstract art which reflected the spiritual dimensions of Kandinsky and Mondrian. Although undervalued in her own time, the sincerity and uncompromising quality of her work that transcends national boundaries, makes her one of the most important Australian women artists of her generation.

This comprehensive survey uniquely covers both Aboriginal art and that of European Australians, providing a revealing examination of the interaction between the two. Painting, bark art, photography, rock art, sculpture, and the decorative arts are all fully explored to present the rich texture of Australian art traditions. Well-known artists such as Margaret Preston, Rover Thomas, and Sidney Nolan are all discussed, as are the natural history illustrators, Aboriginal draughtsmen, and pastellists, whose work is only now being brought to light by new research. Taking the European colonization of the continent in 1788 as his starting point, Sayers highlights important issues concerning colonial art and women artists in this fascinating new story of Australian art.

This bibliography includes all traceable self-contained books, monographs, pamphlets and chapters from books which in some way pertain to Jews in Australia and New Zealand between 1788 and 2008 Born in Russia in 1942, Serge Liberman came to Australia in 1951, where he now works as a medical practitioner. As author of several short-story collections including On Firmer Shores, A Universe of Clowns, The Life That I Have Led, and The Battered and the Redeemed, he has three times received the Alan Marshall Award and has also been a recipient of the NSW Premier's Literary Award. In addition, he is compiler of two previous editions of A Bibliography of Australian Judaica. Several of his titles have been set as study texts in Australian and British high schools and universities. His literary work has been widely published; he has been Editor and Literary Editor of several respected journals and has contributed to many other publications.