Under a Modern Sun: Art in Queensland 1930s–1950s

Jeanettie Sheldon hanging pictures for an exhibition at the Gainsborough Gallery, Brisbane 1939 Photographic illustration of Brisbane women artists 1934 1930 s Queensland artists have yet to be infected by the so-called ‘modern art’ movement. They seem to be resting in a quiet little pot hole amongst the rocks just near enough to the waves to be kept moving but too far away from the surging surf to overflow and wash out. 1 Gwendolyn Grant (1929) Gwendolyn Grant’s assessment of art in Queensland at the end of the 1920s painted an uninspiring, though not entirely accurate, picture of creative practice in the state. In her own work, for instance, Grant drew on the dappled light and high-key colours of Post-Impressionism to create expressive vignettes, such as Winter sunshine 1939 (p.89), while adhering to the tenets of representation. Tangible, public signs that art was valued included government investment in Brisbane’s City Hall, with its imposing clock tower, its impressive tympanum (anachronistic in its depiction of First Nations peoples from a present-day perspective), and its stained-glass windows by William Bustard; and the Gallery’s relocation in 1931 from a room on the third floor of the Executive Building to the Concert Hall of the Exhibition Building. However, artists working in Queensland at this time were certainly constrained by predominantly traditionalist attitudes. For example, within the RQAS, resistance to the decorative arts only began to shift with the advocacy of members such as Mayo, Lahey and Bustard, and with the 1929 appointment of renowned woodcarver and ceramicist L J Harvey as a Trustee. 2 Through their support, women ceramicists who had studied with Harvey, such as Agnes Barker and Dorothy Harvey, were encouraged to contribute work to the Society’s annual exhibitions. William Bustard , Summer haze (detail) 1937 Charles H Lancaster , A corner of Brisbane 1937