Discover the captivating works featured in the exhibition Clarice Beckett: Paintings from the National Collection.
Join historian Dr Edith Ziegler in a conversation about her latest book, The Worlds and Work of Clarice Beckett, a biographical study of this important early Modernist artist who excelled in portraiture, still-life and landscape. Her relatively short life spanned an era in which the very purpose of art was being questioned, different schools of Modernism were emerging, and artists such as Beckett had to navigate the turbulence of an art world characterised by ferocious feuds. She did so in a way that was uniquely her own, not least because she had a strong sense of place and a commitment to her own vision of Australia.
Clarice Beckett was self-effacing; she left no diaries or letters and was only occasionally mentioned in the diaries of her friends. For an insight into her enigmatic genius, Edith Ziegler will discuss Beckett’s family background, childhood; art education; philosophical, spiritual and psychological enquiries and influences; friendships and contacts. Listeners will be drawn into the world in which Clarice’s vision was formed and her talent developed.
About the speaker
Dr Edith Ziegler is an Australian historian, Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the University of New England, writer, and long-term volunteer at the S.H. Ervin Art Gallery in Sydney. All these roles have been taken up since her retirement from a career spent mainly in multinational IT and Biotech corporations and an eleven year stint running her own consulting business focusing on the organisational development needs of small companies.
Since completing a Master’s degree in 2001 and a PhD in 2009—both in American history—her publications have included papers in four peer-reviewed academic journals, and five books—two histories, an epistolary biography, an historical novel and, most recently, ‘The Worlds and Work of Clarice Beckett.’
Dr Ziegler has had a lifelong and strong interest in art. Her current research project involves the members of the so-called ‘Sydney Charm School’—the artists who were prominent in Sydney during the 1940s and were mostly occupants of a boarding house called Merioola in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra.
About the exhibition
'[My artistic aim is] to give a sincere and truthful representation of a portion of the beauty of Nature and to show the charm of light and shade, which I try to set forth in correct tones so as to give as nearly as possible an exact illusion of reality.' — Clarice Beckett
Clarice Beckett: Paintings from the National Collection presents an intimate, rarely seen group of works by one of the most original artists of early twentieth century Australia.
Deeply sensitive to the effects of colour, light and atmosphere, Beckett painted the life and scenery of her coastal home in south-east Naarm/Melbourne with an eye for the commonplace and fleeting effects of nature. Her work captures a world on the cusp of modernisation, evoking both the natural environment and simple pleasures of suburbia.
In 1972, the artist’s sister Hilda Mangan donated a group of Beckett’s works to the National Gallery. It is this collection that will be on view, their freshness and vitality recently restored by extensive conservation treatment.
This National Gallery Touring Exhibition is supported by The Australian Government through Visions of Australia.
Art Gallery at Royal Park, 2 Wellington Street
19 April - 25 May 2025
Free entry | Open daily, 10am-4pm
Image: Clarice Beckett, Bay Road, 1930, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 1971.