COSSINGTON SMITH, GRACE (1892-1984)

“The Bridge In Curve” (1930)
Limited edition colour lithograph, ed. 1/850
53 x 70cm (image)
*produced by National Gallery Of Victoria, 1984
*Certificate of authenticity
*private collection, Sydney
 
Grace Cossington Smith is one of Australia’s most celebrated 20th century painters. An important early exponent of modernism in Australia, her work formed part of the first significant wave of Australian responses to European post-impressionism. A brilliant colourist, she drew her subject matter from the familiar surroundings of her home and her experience of Sydney city life, which she transformed into vibrant images of light-infused colour. In the 1920s Cossington Smith painted a dynamic series of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in construction, including the masterpiece The curve of the bridge, 1928-29. She developed a highly individual technique, utilising rhythmic broken brushwork in unmixed, high-keyed colour. Her aim, she said, was ‘to express form in colour – colour within colour, vibrant with light’ and colour became the key mode through which she represented structure, depth and solidity, in works such as the Gallery’s Things on an iron tray on the floor, c1928. In 1926 Cossington Smith had joined Thea Proctor, Ralph Balson, Grace Crowley, Roland Wakelin and other modernist artists in the Contemporary Group, with whom she exhibited for many years. A first solo exhibition at Grosvenor Galleries in Sydney in 1928 confirmed her reputation as a skilful and poetic colourist, and she continued to exhibit at the Macquarie Galleries from 1932 until 1971. In 1973 she was awarded an Order of the British Empire and had a major retrospective exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW. This stunning lithograph was the only one authorised by Smith herself in her lifetime. It was produced by the National Gallery of Victoria in 1984 in a limited run of only 850. This significant piece of Australian history!!