Grace Crowley

Abstract

An important figure in the development of abstract art in Australia, Crowley studied at Julian Ashton's School, Sydney before going to France where she continued her studies under cubist artists André Lhote and Albert Gleizes in the 1920s.  On her return to Australia, Crowley established an art school in Sydney with Rah Fizelle devoted to the principles and practice of modern art.

One of many purely abstract works executed by Crowley during her career, this work with its overlapping planes of bold colour reflects her interest in geometric and abstract forms.  A leader of the modern art movement in Australia with artists such as Ralph Balsom and Frank Hinder in the 1940's and the early 1950s Crowley commented (in an interview with Leonore Nicklin published in the Sydney Morning Herald on May 10th, 1975) that when she returned to Australia her work was "so different to what was being produced here that only a few people liked it or understood it…In those days selling a painting was very difficult and very different to what it is today."