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Ethel Carrick was an inveterate traveller, and amongst her legacies is an extraordinary collection of paintings inspired by her early 20th century travels through Europe, North Africa and India. I confess to knowing little about her and Anne Dangar, the other artist highlighted in the National Gallery of Australia’s summer exhibition – which makes me exactly the sort of person the gallery wants to target.
It’s all part of the gallery’s ‘Know My Name’ initiative to shine the spotlight on previously overlooked female artists. Australian-born Dangar spent two decades at Moly-Sabata, an artist’s colony in France established by cubist painter Albert Gleizes. Shortly before she died there in 1951, she wrote in one of her last letters to artist Grace Crowley: “I wonder when Sydney will deign to give you and me orders? Perhaps in 100 years they’ll pay fabulous prices for us darling, and we’ll smile down upon ’em from above!”
English-born Carrick’s artistic career was overshadowed by the achievements of her Australian artist husband, Emanuel Phillips Fox, yet she took the art world by storm when she first exhibited her vibrant post-impressionist paintings in Australia in the early 1900s. Despite making a home in France, she made numerous visits to Australia, eventually becoming an Australian citizen.
Ethel Carrick and Anne Dangar are presented as parallel exhibitions at the National Gallery of Australia until April 27, 2025. There is usually a ticket price for the gallery’s summer exhibitions; it was an inspired decision, in my view, to make this one free. I think it may be a sleeper hit.
Exploring the lives and artistic legacies of two innovators in Australian art, these are the most comprehensive retrospectives ever of both artists’ work. Working during the same period – Carrick (1872-1952) as a painter and Dangar (1885-1951) primarily as a potter – both artists pushed against convention, established a base in France and forged unique artistic paths. Carrick was among the first artists to introduce Australia to a post-impressionist approach, while Anne Dangar was a pioneer of Cubism.
The exhibitions are beautifully presented, with Carrick’s paintings displayed vividly against a dark blue backdrop, and Dangar’s works brought to life against a bold green backdrop. While Dangar’s ceramics are very striking (and her contribution to the art world enormous), it was Carrick’s works that I found enchanting on many levels.
Carrick’s paintings of her travels radiate light, colour and energy, serving as a travelogue of her journeys – travels that were uncommon and unusually extensive for her time, especially for a woman. Surprisingly, she even visited Canberra in the 1940s, with three beautiful Canberra paintings in the exhibition capturing different points of interest in all their seasonal colour.
The curator of the Ethel Carrick exhibition, Dr Deborah Hart, described Carrick as a “great travel artist” who had a strong commitment to other women and to social justice. “On her second visit to Australia, she showed the painting Christmas Day On Manly Beach in which she really captures the light. When she went to India in her 60s, she was still doing posters to earn her keep.
“Travel gave her inspiration. She was a transnational artist; she loved her connection with Australia. Even though she wasn’t very well for periods in her life, travel was a fuel for her.” Yet, remarkably, on her death certificate she was listed as a “housewife”.
The curator of the Anne Dangar exhibition, Dr Rebecca Edwards, was an intern at the Gallery in 2012 and her job at the time was to catalogue the Dangar archive that had been purchased by the Gallery, an enormous collection of 700 sketchbooks, drawings, photographs and letters. What an honour for her to have such a pivotal role in now introducing Dangar’s art to a wider audience.
During her two decades in France, Dangar dedicated herself to Cubism, developing a distinct practice that synthesised traditional French pottery with cubist designs and decorations. The exhibition explores her life and practice through an expansive collection of ceramics, paintings, works on paper and archival material.
“Dangar is one of very few Australian artists to form part of the European avant-garde in the 20th century. She was also a dedicated advocate and promoter of modern art in Australia, the first to teach and arguably to exhibit cubist art in the country, and she directly influenced the development of abstraction in Sydney from the 1930s onwards,” Dr Edwards said. “(The) exhibition seeks to definitively claim her position at the centre of Australian Modernism, rather than at the periphery.”
Two outstanding books, one on each artist, have been produced in conjunction with the exhibition, not only serving as a catalogue of the works on exhibition but, more importantly, drawing on primary research material about their life and work. Both are available from the National Gallery of Australia shop.
If you go:
What? Ethel Carrick | Anne Dangar
Where? National Gallery of Australia
Parkes Place East, Parkes ACT 2600
When? 7 December 2024 to 27 April, 2025.
Cost? Free.
If you visit the National Gallery of Australia, make sure you see Lindy Lee’s monumental sculpture, Ouroboros, which we wrote about here.
