Jan
A Time to Reflect
I recently had the pleasure of visiting this exhibition. It felt like I had returned to something familiar. I used to take my daughter to the gallery when she was young, long summer days spent in cool, quiet rooms, often with children’s activities on offer, I remember her creating a little jewellery box with coloured paper and sequins inspired by the monumental The Visit of the Queen of Sheeba to King Solomon painting. I still marvel at how the art educator came up with the idea through the painting (see below) to create an ornate piece for three year olds to make to link the arts together. This visit carried the same atmosphere of heartfelt joy — a gentle refuge from the sticky heat and an invitation to slow down and immerse myself in beauty and wonder.
A Time for Us
What surprised me most about the Dangerously Modern exhibition was how tender and moving the experience felt. It became a quiet walk through the eyes of young, daring, passionate women of another era, women who followed their hearts across oceans and into uncertainty.
From the very beginning there was a delightful Parisian influence, a sense of Europe opening itself to them, and of these artists contributing not only to their own futures but to the broader development of art on an international stage.
One reviewer noted that the exhibition ‘pulses with feminine energy’, and that feeling stayed with me as I moved from room to room. It was unexpected, and deeply affirming. With 50 artists and more than 200 works, the exhibition was rich and absorbing.
The biographies revealed stories of courage and determination — women saving every coin to make their way to Paris … ‘Marie Tuck saved for eight years for her passage to Europe,’ and capturing moments of World War 1 through their beautiful poetic eyes … recording camp life under the cover of darkness, painting grief through the loss of a husband, painting plants flowering in the war-torn ruins … carving out space for themselves, and quietly shaping art history. Their lives and achievements filled my heart.
As I moved through the galleries, I found myself drawn to works set in gardens and boudoirs, where fabric, expression and joy became their inspiration from palette to canvas. I lingered over interiors and decorative scenes, and then lost myself at the beach, in paintings alive with colour, movement and celebration. I wandered through flower markets in Nice, captured in brushstrokes that felt warm and sunlit.
Discover our Women’s Wear from Europe that is poetic, artful and beautiful.
Margaret Preston’s work stayed with me most strongly. Her flowers and teacups, her way of seeing the extraordinary in the everyday, felt both illuminating and tranquil. I carried that resonance home with me, hoping to somehow weave it into my own work, into the spirit of Little French Heart, and to share with you as a reminder that beauty, courage and creative instinct are often found in the simplest, most heartfelt moments.
Dangerously Modern: Australian Women Artists in Europe 1890–1940 can be seen at the Art Gallery of NSW until 8 February.
See here for Information and tickets.
