Grace Crowley
(Australia 28 May 1890–21 Apr 1979)
The artist and his model
- Location
- 20th & 21st c Australian art
- Further information
The subject of Grace Crowley’s work is fellow artist Ralph Balson, painting a model on the roof terrace of Crowley’s studio in George Street, Sydney. Influenced by the cubist theories of French artist André Lhote, whose teaching emphasised the importance of subsuming colour into geometric structure, 'The artist and his model' reveals a disintegration of figurative forms and division of the pictorial space into decorative areas. It also signalled a growing commitment, shared by both artists, to complete abstraction.
In 1939, Crowley and Balson took part in the important 'Exhibition I' at David Jones Art Gallery, Sydney. With other participating artists – including Rah Fizelle, Frank Hinder and Eleonore Lange – Balson and Crowley collaborated in the 1930s as leaders of the second phase of the modern movement in Australia, developing the earlier ideas of Roland Wakelin, Roy de Maistre and others that dated from the beginning of World War I.
- Place of origin
-
Sydney,
New South Wales,
Australia
- Year
- 1938
- Media
- Painting
- Medium
- oil on hardboard
- Dimensions
- 86.0 x 54.0cm board; 98.7 x 66.7 x 2.4cm frame
- Signature & date
- Signed and dated l.r. corner, black oil "GRACE CROWLEY/ -/38".
- Credit
- Gift of the artist 1975
- Accession number
- 61.1975
- Copyright
- © Reproduced with permission of Grace Crowley Estate
