The Cruthers Collection, donated by Sir James and Lady Sheila Cruthers to The University of Western Australia in 2007, is a significant body of work by women artists working in the modernism, second wave feminism, and post-feminism eras and beyond. The collection includes some 600 artworks by over 100 artists, covering the period 1892 to the present. The works include paintings, works on paper, prints, sculpture, installation pieces, photography, video, textiles and ceramics.
The significance of the Cruthers Collection is in its diversity. In his essay, ‘REFOCUS’, Ted Snell notes that the collection started out as a mere obsession with buying art, but organically turned its attention to art by women. The couple became intrigued by the personalities portrayed and the perceived contexts in which the pictures were made; “as the collection began to grow the works they bought revealed the varied forms of practice that grew from the special circumstances of women working in the arts: not only the worlds they had to build for themselves to find the time and space to make art, but the domestic environments from which many drew inspiration.
‘Look. Look Again’ is a survey exhibition of historic and contemporary art by women drawn from this collection. It charts the creative output of women artists – and the contexts in which their creativity blossomed and influenced our wider culture – over 125 years.
The collection and exhibition includes key historical figures such as Clara Southern, Elise Blumann, Margaret Preston, Nora Heysen, Dorrit Black, Kathleen Sauerbier, Freda Robertshaw and Grace Crowley, and contemporary artists Rosalie Gascoigne, Susan Norrie, Narelle Jubelin, Jenny Watson, Tracey Moffatt, Judy Watson and Julie Dowling.
A two-day symposium will accompany the exhibition – ‘Are We There Yet?’ – with lectures from some of the country’s leading scholars discussing Women’s Art based around this collection and exhibition.
Laurence Wilson Art Gallery
October 20 to December 15, 2012
Symposium: Are We There Yet?
October 20 to 21, 2012
Register online
Ann Newmarch, Self portrait, 1/60th of a second, 1981, photo-etching, 35 x 45cm
Courtesy the artist and The Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art at The University of Western Australia
