Grace Cossington Smith

Biography

In her paintings Grace Cossington Smith acheived a vibrancy of both composition and colour unpararlleled in the Australian modernist movement. She received much of her artistic education in Sydney from Anthony Dattilo-Rubbo, as well as some training during 1912 in England and Germany. On her return to Australia from overseas, she moved to her family home Cossington in Turramurra, a northern suburb of Sydney. There, over the ensuing decades, she concentrated mainly on the world within her close proximity - the nearby bush landscape and its intriguing flora and fauna, the sunlit rooms of the house she lived in, her studio and her garden. In relative isolation she created progressive, highly evolved and beautifully modernist works over a period of nearly sixty years.

Cossington Smith's interiors are lively and inhabited. In them doors are open to admit fresh air and sunshine, wardrobe doors hang open revealing piles of contents, mirrors reflect corners of bedroom furniture and fabrics of various textures are draped over comfortable armchairs.

J.Hylton

Exhibitions

'''SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:'''

'''2005

''After Van Gogh: Australian artists in homage to Vincent'', Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery

'''1998

''The Modern Landscape'', Museum of Modern Art at Heide

''Seeing Cezanne: Australian Affinities'', Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney and regional galleries tour

Bibliography

Eagle, M. & Jones, J., ''A Story of Australian Painting'', Macmillan, Sydney, 1994

''The Modern Landscape'', Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Melbourne,1998