CANBERRA.- Opening this weekend, Ethel Carrick and Anne Dangar tell the stories of two women artists who deserve to be better known. From Ethel Carrick’s colourful crowds to Anne Dangar’s cubist ceramics – these free major exhibitions transport audiences to another time and place.

Presented as parallel exhibitions at the National Gallery of Australia from 7 December 2024, Ethel Carrick and Anne Dangar offer audiences the chance to experience the diversity of early 20th century art. Working during the same period – Carrick (1872-1952) as a painter and Dangar (1885-1951) primarily as a potter – both artists pushed against convention, established a base in France and forged unique artistic paths.

Carrick was a gifted painter and colourist who was among the first artists to introduce Australia to a post-impressionist approach. She took the art world by storm when she emerged with her bold and vibrant post-impressionist paintings, first exhibiting them in Australia in the early 1900s. Carrick’s work radiates with luminous light, colour and energy; predominantly focusing on crowds, in all their diversity and interconnection. Comprising 140 works, Ethel Carrick will be the first retrospective of Carrick’s work for nearly half a century and the most comprehensive to date.

Carrick’s artistic career has at times been overshadowed by the achievements of her husband, Australian artist Emanuel Phillips Fox. This retrospective shines light on Carrick’s own illustrious career, including her diverse output during her extensive travels, uncommon for a woman of the time. Up until her final years, Carrick travelled widely through Europe as well as to North Africa and India — all important sites for her art. Her work transports audiences to nostalgic scenes from abroad with different cultures across the globe captured as fleeting moments.

Dr Deborah Hart, Head Curator, Australian Art and curator of Ethel Carrick: ‘While Carrick’s art is known to an extent within the art world, she is far from being a household name in Australia, and her work is little known beyond our shores. This major exhibition of Carrick’s work, the first since 1979, offers audiences the chance to experience her significant artistic achievements and remarkable life, which is so international in scope.’

Anne Dangar presents over 180 works including art by Dangar, her counterparts and archival material placing the artist at the forefront of modern art in Australia. Dangar worked and exhibited alongside European cubists as their artistic peer, all the while exerting an irrevocable influence on the course of Australian abstraction. Bringing together ceramics, paintings and works on paper, the exhibition reveals her unique vision, and eye for detail and design.

Dangar is one of very few Australian artists to form part of the European avant-garde in the 20th century, and the only to meaningfully contribute to Cubism in France, her adopted home. As a dedicated advocate and promoter of modern art in Australia, Dangar was the first to teach and arguably to exhibit cubist art in the country, directly influencing the development of abstraction in Gadigal Nura/Sydney from the 1930s onwards.

Dr Rebecca Edwards, Curator, Australian Art and curator of Anne Dangar: ‘By privileging Dangar’s voice and excavating her life, process and practice through primary material, this exhibition seeks to definitively claim her position at the centre of Australian Modernism, rather than at the periphery. More than 70 years after her death and almost 100 years since she devoted herself to Cubism — she stands as one of the most unwaveringly dedicated, impactful and truly modern Australian artists.’

Ethel Carrick and Anne Dangar are Know My Name exhibitions, the National Gallery initiative celebrating the work of women artists to enhance understanding of their contribution to Australia’s cultural life. Previously presented Know My Name exhibitions include Cressida Campbell, Emily Kam Kngwarray and Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now.

Dr Nick Mitzevich, National Gallery Director: ‘For the fourth consecutive year, the National Gallery’s major summer exhibitions have been dedicated to Australian women artists. Exploring the lives and artistic legacies of two innovators in Australian art, these are the most comprehensive retrospectives of both Carrick and Dangar’s work ever held. These exhibitions retell Australian art history as they invite audiences to experience the diversity of early 20th century art.’

Ethel Carrick and Anne Dangar are free exhibitions on display at the National Gallery in Kamberri/Canberra from 7 December 2024 – 27 April 2025.