Abundance, 1934, 1987 by Jean Broome-Norton ::

Details

Dates

1934
1987

Media category

Sculpture

Materials used

bronze

Dimensions

128.5 x 67.5 x 22.0 cm

Signature & date

Signed and dated l.r. corner below right leg of male figure, incised ".../ Jean Broome A.S.T.O./ .../ 1934".
Signed l.l. corner verso on base, incised "JEAN BROOME".

Credit

Purchased 1985

Location

South Building, ground level, 20th-century galleries

Accession number

427.1985

Copyright

Reproduction requests

Artist information

Jean Broome-Norton

Works in the collection

1

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About

The themes of sexuality, procreation and vitality were pronounced in the sculpture of Rayner Hoff and his school. As a student of Hoff, Jean Broome-Norton drew from
his example to produce her own powerful expressions of a modern, forthright physicality and feminine procreative power.

In Broome-Norton’s exceptional art-deco relief 'Abundance', the sexually assertive male and female bodies proclaim their child as a heroic product of their union. The workis an emblem of the fruitfulness of the land and the human race. The athleticism and fecundity of the bodies is coupled with a sense of the fertility of the land, signified by sheaves of wheat and a wreath. Such optimistic and mythic imaging gives no indication that the sculpture was conceived during the social upheaval of the Great Depression. The work instead reinforces notions of Australian life as a golden age of physical and environmental harmony.

Exhibition history

Shown in 4 exhibitions

Stampede of the Lower Gods: Classical Mythology in Australian Art 1890's-1930's, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 19 Oct 1989–26 Nov 1989
'This vital flesh': the sculpture of Rayner Hoff and his school, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 26 Nov 1999–16 Jan 2000
Thoroughly modern Sydney, Museum of Sydney, Sydney, 01 Jul 2006–15 Oct 2006
20th-Century galleries, ground level (rehang), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 20 Aug 2022–2023

Bibliography

Referenced in 15 publications

Isobel Crombie, Body culture: Max Dupain, photography and Australian culture, 1919-1939, 'Natural Selection has here created an almost new race', pg. 47-68, Mulgrave, 2004, 56 (colour illus.). NOTE: this is the plaster edition in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria
Deborah Edwards, Art and Australia (Vol. 24, No. 1), '"This vital flesh": the 1920s sculpture of Rayner Hoff', pg. 62-68, Sydney, Spring 1986, 64 (illus.).
Deborah Edwards, Aspects of Art Deco in Australia: Sunrise over the Pacific, 'The new classicism: Rayner Hoff and his school', pg. 36-45, Sydney, 2001, 40 (colour illus.), 41-42.
Deborah Edwards, 'This vital flesh': the sculpture of Rayner Hoff and his school, 'Australia, the new Greece: the body as nation', pg. 30-51, Sydney, 1999, 39, 41 (colour illus.), 107.
Deborah Edwards, Look, 'This vital flesh in three dimensions', pg. 14, Melbourne, Dec 1999-Jan 2000, 14 (colour illus.).
Deborah Edwards, Daphne Wallace, Margo Neale, Victoria Lynn and Sandra Byron, Review: works by women from the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1995.
Deborah Edwards, Stampede of the Lower Gods: Classical Mythology in Australian Art, 'The New Greece / 'Delos of a coming Sun-god's race'', pg. 31-54, Sydney, Sep 1989, 39 (illus.), 65.
Deborah Edwards, Look, Jean Broome-Norton's 'Abundance', pg. 16, Heidelberg, Nov 1987, 16 (illus.).
Bruce James, Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, 'Australian Collection: Painting and Sculpture', pg. 102-181, Sydney, 1999, 143 (colour illus.).
Joan Kerr (Editor), Heritage: The national women's art book, Sydney, 1995, 79 (illus. colour). cat.no. 126.
Christopher Menz, Art Deco 1910-1939, ''A growing enthusiasm for Modernity': Art Deco in Australia', pg. 406-416, London, 2003, 409 (colour illus.). illus.no. 38.4
Ursula Prunster, Aspects of Australian art, Sydney, 2000, (illus.). card no. 7: Russell Drysdale 'Sunday evening' 1941
Roseville Community Association Inc, William Henry's 40 acres & the people who lived there: then and now, 'A thing of beauty', pg. 54-55, Sydney, 2000, 54, 55 (illus.).
Howard Tanner and Inara Walden, Thoroughly modern Sydney: 1920s and 30s glamour & style, Sydney, 2006, 10. List of works.
Monique Leslie Watkins, Look, 'Anatomy of an artwork: Jean Broome-Norton "Abundance" 1934, 1987', pg. 22-24, Sydney, Oct 2022-Nov 2022, 22 (colour illus.), 23-24.