For culture lovers
Take your mother, take your daughter, take your sister or your bestie, but just go. Know My Name is the National Gallery of Australia’s inspiring, energetic, slightly revolutionary exhibition of Australian women’s art. And it’s only on in Canberra until July 4, so get your skates on.
You’ll see the light and colour of everyday life in the impressionist strokes of Grace Cossington Smith, and the subtle balance and beauty of Grace Crowley’s abstract work. Julie Dowling’s mesmerising Black Madonna (below) hangs on a wall of arresting portraits alongside Esme Timbery’s Shellworked Slippers, which recall the lives of generations of First Nations children. There is breathtaking contemporary photography and installation work by Rosemary Laing, Tracey Moffatt, Julie Rrap, Fiona Hall, and the forms and fabrics of Linda Jackson and Jenny Kee. The Tjanpi Desert Weavers immense and majestic Kungkarangkalpa (Seven Sisters) owns an entire room.
Know My Name is part of a global movement to increase the representation of women artists in galleries.
At the moment, it’s showing side-by-side with Botticelli to Van Gogh, Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London (left), which is a whirlwind tour of European art history from the Renaissance all the way to PostImpressionism. Aside from the artists for whom the show is named, there are works by Cézanne, Turner, Renoir, Degas, Gauguin – all the stars. There are some surprises too, such as Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo’s very intimate portrait of Mary Magdalene, sitting wrapped in a silver shawl, bathed in moonlight.
To top off the daytrip, pre-book a Devonshire tea in the National Gallery’s ground-floor cafe. Visit nga.gov.au