Bauhaus Australia: Transforming Education in Art, Architecture and Design. This project aims to examine the influence of Bauhaus-inspired émigrés on Australian cultural life. An under-examined but profound influence on Australian cultural history was the forced migration of émigré and refugee modernists from Germany and central Europe, who transformed art, architectural and design education from the 1930s to the 1970s. German and central European training, inspired by the Bauhaus, centred on sys ....Bauhaus Australia: Transforming Education in Art, Architecture and Design. This project aims to examine the influence of Bauhaus-inspired émigrés on Australian cultural life. An under-examined but profound influence on Australian cultural history was the forced migration of émigré and refugee modernists from Germany and central Europe, who transformed art, architectural and design education from the 1930s to the 1970s. German and central European training, inspired by the Bauhaus, centred on systematic approaches to pictorial method and design, colour theory and art education, all underwritten by an all-encompassing social ambition. This project aims to provide a new cross-disciplinary history of modernism in Australia that shifts focus from solo contributions to the networks of education, where modernism’s impact was most public, widespread and influential.Read moreRead less
Outsider artists and the reformulation of Australian art. This project aims to produce an understanding of outsider artists, their lives, their histories, and the socio-historic context in which they made their work. “Outsider artists” includes artists experiencing incarceration, disability, mental illness and other forms of marginalisation. Integration of their work will lead to a deeper understanding of mainstream art in Australia to paint a richer, more complex picture of the history of Aust ....Outsider artists and the reformulation of Australian art. This project aims to produce an understanding of outsider artists, their lives, their histories, and the socio-historic context in which they made their work. “Outsider artists” includes artists experiencing incarceration, disability, mental illness and other forms of marginalisation. Integration of their work will lead to a deeper understanding of mainstream art in Australia to paint a richer, more complex picture of the history of Australian art. The project will alter the perspective of arts policy and agencies, and of Australian artists themselves.Read moreRead less
“The Complete Craze”: Women’s Photography and Colonial Modernity in the Asia-Pacific, 1860-1930. To date there has been no sustained research into the photography produced by women in the Asia-Pacific region in the late colonial era even though much of it was aesthetically sophisticated and innovative. Combining historical research with postcolonial and gender theory, this project critically examines a large body of images by women photographers working across the region. It identifies the facto ....“The Complete Craze”: Women’s Photography and Colonial Modernity in the Asia-Pacific, 1860-1930. To date there has been no sustained research into the photography produced by women in the Asia-Pacific region in the late colonial era even though much of it was aesthetically sophisticated and innovative. Combining historical research with postcolonial and gender theory, this project critically examines a large body of images by women photographers working across the region. It identifies the factors enabling these women to be examined as a group, investigates their subject matter, techniques and styles, and establishes what was exciting and new, as well as conventional, about their methods. It also shows how their artworks both reflected and contributed to the region’s burgeoning modernity. Read moreRead less
Eurasian exchange and artistic transformation in art. This project aims to bring European and Chinese art history into dialogue. It explores the early Italian Renaissance in the larger geopolitical context of Mongol Eurasia and the Yuan Empire, to address the questions of influence, contact, and exchange. In reframing the development of early European art as a fundamentally cross-cultural phenomenon, this project aims to offer a better understanding of the roots of our own global visual culture. ....Eurasian exchange and artistic transformation in art. This project aims to bring European and Chinese art history into dialogue. It explores the early Italian Renaissance in the larger geopolitical context of Mongol Eurasia and the Yuan Empire, to address the questions of influence, contact, and exchange. In reframing the development of early European art as a fundamentally cross-cultural phenomenon, this project aims to offer a better understanding of the roots of our own global visual culture. The project will benefit and enrich the study of cross-cultural contact and exchange in art history as a larger field, leading to the re-examination of art in the Australasian region.Read moreRead less
Heritage in the limelight: the magic lantern in Australia and the world. The project aims to discover and analyse the large number of glass magic lantern slides that remain under-used in our public collections. International scholarship has recently begun to show that lantern slide shows were a ubiquitous, globalised and formative cultural experience. The project aims to explore the international reach and diversity of this globalised modernist apparatus from the Australian perspective. It plans ....Heritage in the limelight: the magic lantern in Australia and the world. The project aims to discover and analyse the large number of glass magic lantern slides that remain under-used in our public collections. International scholarship has recently begun to show that lantern slide shows were a ubiquitous, globalised and formative cultural experience. The project aims to explore the international reach and diversity of this globalised modernist apparatus from the Australian perspective. It plans to understand how diverse audiences affectively experienced these powerful forms of early media, and to develop ways for today’s Australians to re-experience their magic, invigorating and expanding our cultural heritage.Read moreRead less
The Abbey Art Centre: Reassessing postwar Australian art, 1946–1956. In fully documenting Australian artists who worked at the Abbey Arts Centre, London, 1946-56, and the British and European avant-garde in which they mixed, this DP throws light on this historically neglected art colony and recasts conventional understandings of post-WW2 Australian artists’s role in the European postwar period. At a time when this period is being extensively revised within a postcolonial frame, this DP is a time ....The Abbey Art Centre: Reassessing postwar Australian art, 1946–1956. In fully documenting Australian artists who worked at the Abbey Arts Centre, London, 1946-56, and the British and European avant-garde in which they mixed, this DP throws light on this historically neglected art colony and recasts conventional understandings of post-WW2 Australian artists’s role in the European postwar period. At a time when this period is being extensively revised within a postcolonial frame, this DP is a timely contribution to current art historiography that will add significance to Australian art, especially within global institutional contexts. Outcomes include a state gallery exhibition, monograph and catalogue for retail, and potential additions of artworks and archives to national collections.Read moreRead less
The art of pastoralism in Australia. This project aims to study art made on sheep and cattle station by Aboriginal labourers from the 1880s to the early 1970s, in regions from South-West Australia to Northern Queensland. Australia is said to have been founded 'on the sheep's back', but the experience of Aboriginal labour in Australian pastoralism is little documented. The project will combine the methods of art and labour histories to contextualise carved stock whip handles, early drawings of ho ....The art of pastoralism in Australia. This project aims to study art made on sheep and cattle station by Aboriginal labourers from the 1880s to the early 1970s, in regions from South-West Australia to Northern Queensland. Australia is said to have been founded 'on the sheep's back', but the experience of Aboriginal labour in Australian pastoralism is little documented. The project will combine the methods of art and labour histories to contextualise carved stock whip handles, early drawings of horses, rock engravings, watercolour paintings and branded shields. The project outcomes will be a reconstruction of Aboriginal experiences of pastoralism in Australia to create a more nuanced history of Aboriginal art before 1970, as well as the history of Australian pastoral industries.Read moreRead less
Art and Cultural Exchange at the Strait of Gibraltar. The project aims to give a first-time analysis of visual culture at the Strait of Gibraltar. It asks how painting, photography, film, and maps relate to colonial expansion, with a focus on Australian, French and Spanish involvement in the Western Mediterranean. The British fortress-colony of Gibraltar and the international Moroccan port of Tangier have never before been subject to comparative analysis. Key outcomes include two major exhibit ....Art and Cultural Exchange at the Strait of Gibraltar. The project aims to give a first-time analysis of visual culture at the Strait of Gibraltar. It asks how painting, photography, film, and maps relate to colonial expansion, with a focus on Australian, French and Spanish involvement in the Western Mediterranean. The British fortress-colony of Gibraltar and the international Moroccan port of Tangier have never before been subject to comparative analysis. Key outcomes include two major exhibitions, one on Australian Orientalism at the National Gallery and the second on historical art in the region. By shedding historical light on people smuggling, contraband and post-Brexit identity at the Strait, the project aims to generate cultural knowledge pertinent to international co-operation.Read moreRead less