General Sources

The following resources cover the history of Australian women artists from the colonial times to the present. They create a picture of the rich legacy produced by women artists in Australia despite challenging and at times hostile circumstances.

ELECTRONIC SOURCES

Websites

• Australian Women's Archives Project 2011, Australian Women’s Register, Australian Women's Archives Project, viewed on 21 September 2011, <http://www.womenaustralia.info/>.

Australian Women's Register is a valuable and growing source of biographical data about Australian women and their organisations, with hyper-links to the archival repositories and libraries where their records are held and to other sources of information. Women and women's organisations are listed alphabetically. This resource can be used at the beginning of the research process to search for a particular artist or organisation.

• Design and Art Australia Online 2010, Design and Art Australia Online, Design and Art Australia Online, viewed on 21 September 2011, <http://www.daao.org.au/>.

Design and Art Australia Online is a collaborative e-Research tool built upon the foundations of the Dictionary of Australian Artists Online. It is an open source freely accessible scholarly tool that presents biographical data about Australian artists, designers, craftspeople and curators. Unlike the abovementioned Australian Women’s Register that deposits information on women and women’s organisations only, Design and Art Australia Online is focused on artists and designers in general and thus provides more search opportunities.

• National Institute for Experimental Arts 2010, Dictionary of Australian Artists Online, National Institute for Experimental Arts, viewed 22 September 2011, <http://www.niea.unsw.edu.au/about/niea-groups/dictionary-australian-artists-online-daao/>.

The Dictionary of Australian Artists Online is a dynamic repository of quality assured biographical data, contextual information, and commentary that is overseen by an editorial board comprising Australia's leading art and design academics and curators. The Dictionary of Australian Artists Online facilitates, promotes and encourages scholarship on Australian artists. It can be used in addition to both Design and Art Australia Online and Australian Women’s Register to search for more general information.

PRINTED SOURCES


Reference materials

• Kerr, J (ed.) 1995, Heritage: The National Women’s Art Book, G+B Arts International, Sydney.

Heritage is an extensive catalogue of a unique commemorative art movement, The National Women’s Art Exhibition that took place in 1995 as a series of independent shows of Autralian women artists in 150 separate locations. It united hundreds of artists, art writers, curators and art institutions in a common goal for the first time and became an example of an unprecedented national collaboration. With the subtitle “Five hundred works by five hundred Australian artists from Colonial Times to 1955,” Heritage becomes more than just an exhibition catalogue; in 11 chapters, each dedicated to a particular theme, it reveals a wide scope and a great depth of Australian women’s art. The chapters are: Exhibitions and Competitions; Gender and Identity; Happy Families; Home Sweet Studio; Learning and Earning; Social Life and Travel; Flora and Fauna; Town and Country; Grand Themes, Myths and Legends; War Works; and Nationalism and Heritage. This structure allows the user to brows the catalogue by topic rather than by the artist’s name although short biographies of all 500 artists are provided in the last third of the book. This is a very useful and exciting resource to begin an in-depth research into Australian women’s art.


This catalogue is available on shelf in the Arts section of the State Library of Victoria, call number AR 709.94 H42K. Free access, no subscription required.

• Kerr, J & Holder, J (eds.) 1999, Past Present: The National Women’s Art Anthology, Craftsman House, Sydney.

Past Present is a collection of 17 essays that grew out of analysis, observations and reflections prompted by the 1995 National Women’s Art Exhibition. These essays emphasise fundamental continuities in women’s art in Australia as well as demonstrate a new and fuller understanding of the multiple interconnections between the historical and the current. The essays cover a wide array of issues spanning from the problems of preservation of aboriginal women’s art to the dilemmas of visibility, representation and respect for women’s art and craft throughout the past two centuries. Their common theme is that the artists of all ethnic groups and both genders working in all materials and media are essential for a vibrant contemporary art scene. This resource can be recommended for an advanced research audience to be used in conjunction with the Heritage as well as on its own.

This anthology is available on shelf in the Arts section of the State Library of Victoria, call number AO 704.0420994 P26K. Free access, no subscription required.

Monographs

• Ambrus, C 1992, Australian Women Artists - First Fleet to 1945: History, Hearsay and Her Say, Irrepressible Press, ACT.

This folio edition illuminates the life and work of four generations of women artists who worked on cultural fringes of Australian art from the First Fleet to the end of World War 2. It comprises nine chapters, 52 colour plates and a number of black and while illustrations and photographs. The author’s main argument is that throughout the history women artists had been excluded from the artistic mainstream by their male counterparts. This forced each generation to reinvent the concept of woman artist instead of building up a continuous artistic tradition. Unlike other monographs of this kind, this resource provides information on women artists who succeeded as well as failed in establishing their artistic careers. In so doing, it pays tribute to those women who were previously forgotten but whose struggle for recognition and independence was nevertheless seminal for the success of the future generations of women artists.


This monograph is available at the State Library of Victoria upon request from an on-site storage, call number AF 709.94 AM1A. Requested items usually become available within an hour. Subscription to the library is required to place an order. 

• Burke, J 1980, Australian Women Artists 1840-1940, Greenhouse Publications, Melbourne.

This monograph has developed from a catalogue of the 1975 exhibition under the same title. It consists of four parts and included 87 colour and black and white illustrations as well as short biographies of the 44 women artists whose work it covers. Although this resource has its merits as the first history of Australian women artists, it is somewhat outdated and limited in scope. It confines itself to the analysis of the art and life of women artists who did became successful and provides limited analysis of the relevant social context. This resource can be recommended as a starting point for research but it is best to be complemented by other resources from this list.

This monograph is available at the State Library of Victoria upon request from an on-site storage, call number SLT 759.994A14. Requested items usually become available within an hour. Subscription to the library is required to place an order.

• Topliss, H 1996, Modernism and Feminism: Australian Women Artists 1900-1940, Craftsman House, Sydney.

This monograph covers one of the most important and fruitful periods in the history of Australian women artists when the role of women in art had been redefined and the foundation for the future development had been created. It comprises five chapters and multiple appendices that detail the chronology of artists’ travels abroad, their scholarships, and other information including an extensive bibliography. The author places the history of Australian women artists within the international context as well as against the social and economic background at home. The book presents a quality amalgamation of such important issues as the birth of art as an institution and a profession, women emancipation, and art and gender. It can be recommended for advanced readers who are interested in an in-depth analysis of Australian women art, as well as in modernism and feminism. 

This monograph is available at the State Library of Victoria upon request from an on-site storage, call number AF 709.94082 T62M. Requested items usually become available within an hour. Subscription to the library is required to place an order. 

•   Voigt, A 1996, New Visions, New Perspectives: Voices of Contemporary Australian Women Artists, Craftsman House, Roseville East, NSW.

This richly illustrated folio edition explores the life and work of the 34 contemporary Australian women artists through the series of interviews. It examines the creative process behind women’s art by asking them a number of standardised questions such as: what and who motivates their art; who made them aware of their artistic potential; how being a woman influenced their creative process; what is their ideas about art and their role in art; what is the meaning of their work, and many others. As the author puts in the introduction, this book “is in honour of the feminie principle in Nature and as expressed in Art.” As such, it provides a unique and intimate view of the women’s role in contemporary art and society. It can be recommended to those users who are interested in exploring the creative processes behind women’s art and the multiple interconnections between womanhood, nature and art.

This monograph is available at the State Library of Victoria upon request from an on-site storage, call number AF 109.9409045 V87N. Requested items usually become available within an hour. Subscription to the library is required to place an order.

Journal articles


Art and Australia is one of the country’s most well respected and diverse art journals. It first appeared in 1963 by Sam Ure Smith, as a hair to Art in Australia that was published and edited by Sam’s father, Sydney Ure Smith between 1916 and 1942. In the early 90’s the journal was purchased by international publishers Gordon and Breach but in 2001 was returned to Australian ownership and was acquired in 2003 by Elonora Triguboff, who is now publisher and editor-in-chief.

In 1995, Art and Australia dedicated its spring issue to women’s art (vol. 32, issue 3). The journal is available in hard copy from the State Library of Victoria Arts, call number AO 709.94 AR7H.

Below is the list of several articles from this the 1995 themed issue (in order of appearance):

• Burke, J, ‘Anima: feminist art since the seventies,’ p. 338-43.

In this article, the author discusses the relevance of the concept of women’s art in the contemporary world. She is concerned about the lack of an adventurous, informed and accessible way of discussing contemporary and, specifically, women’s art as well as about an absent historical perspective that challenges boundaries rather than creates them or imposes them on others. This article can be useful for the users interested in feminism, pos-structuralist theory as well as women’s art.

• Fenner, F, ‘New Girls: the disembodied culture of the nineties,’ p.344-9.

The article discusses the return of the physical body—its costumes and cosmetics—to women's art of the 1990s in relation to five young Australian artists: Mikala Dwyer, Kathy Temin, Deej Fabyc, Simone Paterson, and Suzannah Barta. These artists expose the myth of feminine fragility and open up new artistic avenues more appealing for contemporary women. The article can be recommended to users interested in contemporary art, feminism and body image.

• Johnson, V, ‘Is there a gender issue in aboriginal art?’ p. 350-7.

The article discusses the question of whether there is a gender issue in aboriginal art in the light of the 1989 Review Committee of the Aboriginal arts and crafts industry report which highlighted the fact that 56% percent of the 2,397 producers of Aboriginal arts and crafts in Australia were women. While women artists appeared to be far more prolific, this greater productivity did not translate into correspondingly higher economic returns. However, the author suggests that recent success of the best-known Aboriginal women artists may help to understand gender as a transformative force of all Aboriginal art rather than a limitation. This article will be useful for those readers interested in Aboriginal art, gender, and economic impact of arts and craft industry on the Indigenous community.

• Jordan, C, ‘No-man’s land? Amateurism and colonial women artists,’ p. 358-65.

The article discusses the 19th-century Australian women artists in terms of their marginality: their amateurism, their gender, and their colonial separation from Great Britain. The author suggests that although excluded from the male dominated “high art,” women artists had a greater presence in the art scene than many contemporary critics are ready to accept. This article can be recommended to those users who are interested in colonial period of Australian art and the role of women in the 19 century.

• Thomas, S, ‘In print - out of fashion: women artists and printmaking 1950-64,’ p. 372-9.

These articles cover a considerable period of Australian art history from colonial times to the nineties. They analyse a broad arrays of topics ranging from aboriginal art to feminism. They can be addressed individually or as a corpus of writings that detail various aspects of Australian women’s art.