A groundbreaking exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney is rewriting the narrative of Australian art history by highlighting the contributions of women artists who were previously overlooked or dismissed. "Dangerously Modern: Australian Women Artists in Europe 1890-1940" features more than 200 works by 50 Australian and New Zealand women artists, including notable figures like Nora Heysen, the first woman to win the Archibald Prize, and cubist painter Dorrit Black.
The exhibition's title derives from a 1920s critic's description of Australian artist Thea Proctor's work as "dangerously modern" after she returned from London with new artistic styles. Decades later, critic Bernard Smith dismissively referred to women artists who traveled to Europe at the turn of the century and brought back innovative painting techniques as mere "messenger girls." While these artists gained recognition in Paris and London's flourishing art scenes, much of their work was dismissed or even destroyed upon their return to Australia and New Zealand.
Among the exhibition's highlights is Bessie Davidson's "Fillette au perroquet (Little girl with parrot)" from 1913. Davidson, who first traveled to Paris in 1904 with her art teacher Margaret Preston, eventually moved there permanently in 1910. She established a workshop in Montparnasse, co-founded the Salon des Tuileries in 1923, and served as vice-president of La Société Femmes Artistes Modernes from 1930. According to Elle Freak, associate curator of Australian art at the Art Gallery of South Australia, Davidson's domestic paintings can be seen as "statements of independence and artistic liberation."
The exhibition also features the smallest painting in the show: Justine Kong Sing's self-portrait "Me" from around 1912, measuring only 6.1 x 4.5 centimeters. Kong Sing, believed to be the first professional Chinese Australian female artist, traveled to Europe at age 43 after working as a governess to save money for the journey. Only eight of her works are known to survive, with four miniatures recently discovered in a distant relative's home during the exhibition's Adelaide run. In a 1914 letter, Kong Sing described how liberating it was to blend into London's crowds, contrasting this with the racial prejudice she faced in Australia.
Dora Meeson's "Thames at Chelsea Reach" from around 1913 represents another fascinating story of artistic determination. A suffragette who shared a London studio with her husband, fellow artist George Coates, Meeson resolved to paint outdoors partly because "they couldn't both fit in there," according to Wayne Tunnicliffe, acting director of collections at AGNSW. Over 40 years, Meeson repeatedly returned to paint the River Thames, creating silvery grey scenes that captured both fog and smog while showcasing her evident brushwork.
Margaret Preston's "A view of the Irish coast" holds particular historical significance as one of only two known Irish landscapes by the artist. Preston moved to the remote Irish village of Bonmahon for eight months in 1914, painting alongside her partner Gladys Reynell and New Zealand artist Edith Collier. She returned with a class of more than 20 women artists in 1915, but after German torpedoes sunk the RMS Lusitania, the Irish government prohibited coastal paintings for security reasons. Tunnicliffe notes that these Irish works represent "a key seed for modernism in Australia in the 1920s."
Agnes Goodsir's "Type of the Latin Quarter" from around 1926 depicts her partner, American musician Rachel Dunne, nicknamed Cherry. The painting contains what Freak describes as "coded sapphic symbolism," including a ring on Rachel's pinky finger that served as a queer symbol in some Paris circles of the 1920s. When conservative Australian critics reviewed Goodsir's 1927 exhibition, they praised her realism without recognizing the progressive undertones. "I don't think critics in Australia really saw the queer coding within her works," Freak explains.
The exhibition concludes with Stella Bowen's powerful self-portrait from around 1928, painted during her separation from writer Ford Madox Ford after his affair with Jean Rhys. Bowen, who moved from Adelaide to London at age 20 and mixed with literary figures like T.S. Eliot and Gertrude Stein, used this self-portrait to reclaim her identity as an artist. Freak describes the work as showing Bowen "at the height of her power," with a penetrating gaze that reflects her determination to "find her shape again."
"Dangerously Modern" continues at the Art Gallery of New South Wales through February 15, following its successful run at the Art Gallery of South Australia earlier this year. The exhibition challenges long-held misconceptions about women's roles in Australian art history, demonstrating that these artists were not merely followers but pioneers who brought modernist techniques and perspectives that would fundamentally influence Australian art for generations to come.
