Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Women artists Australia Biography'

This thesis examines the reclamation of the 'Blak' body by Indigenous female photo-media artists. The discussion will begin with an examination of photographic representatiors of Indigenous people by the colonising culture and their construction of 'Aboriginality'. The thesis will look at the introduction of Aboriginal artists to the medium of photography and their chronological movement through the decades This will begin with a documentary style approach in the 1960s to an intimate exploration of identity that came into prominence in the 1980s with an explosion of young urban photomedia artists, continuing into the 1990s and beyond. I will be examining the works of four contemporary female artists and the impetus behind their work. The three main artists whose works will be examined are Brenda L. Croft, Destiny Deacon and Rea all of whom have dealt with issues of representation of the 'Blak female body, gender and reclamation of identity. The thesis will examine the works of these artists in relation to the history of representation by the dominant culture. Chapter 6 will look at a new emerging artist, Dianne Jones, who is looking at similar issues as the artists mentioned. This continuing critique of representation by Jones is testimony of the prevailing issues concerning Aboriginal representation

The genre of biography is, by nature, imprecise and limited. Real lives are lived synchronously and diversely; they do not divide spontaneously into chapters, subjects or themes. All biographers construct stories, in the process forcing the disordered complexity of an actual life into a neat literary form. This doctoral submission comprises a book length creative work, Poisoned: The Trials of Mary Dean, and a reflective written component on that creative work, Writing Fictionalised Biography. Poisoned is a biography of Mary Dean, who, although repeatedly poisoned by her husband at the end of the nineteenth century, did not die. This biography, presented in the form of a first-person memoir, is based closely on historical evidence and is supported with discursive notes and a select bibliography. The reflective written component, Writing Fictionalised Biography, outlines the process and challenges of writing a biography when the source material available is inadequate and unreliable. In writing Poisoned my genre solution has been fictionalised biography - biography which is historically diligent while utilising fictional writing strategies and incorporating fictional passages. This written component reflectively discusses how I arrived at that solution. It includes discussion of the sources I utilised in writing Poisoned, including the limitations of trial transcripts and other court records as biographical evidence; useful precursors to the form; the process wherein I located both a form for my fictionalised biography and a voice for my biographical subject; possible models I considered; how I distinguished established fact from speculative supposition in the text; as well as some of the ambivalences and ethical concerns such a narrative process implies.

The genre of biography is, by nature, imprecise and limited. Real lives are lived synchronously and diversely; they do not divide spontaneously into chapters, subjects or themes. All biographers construct stories, in the process forcing the disordered complexity of an actual life into a neat literary form. This doctoral submission comprises a book length creative work, Poisoned: The Trials of Mary Dean, and a reflective written component on that creative work, Writing Fictionalised Biography. Poisoned is a biography of Mary Dean, who, although repeatedly poisoned by her husband at the end of the nineteenth century, did not die. This biography, presented in the form of a first-person memoir, is based closely on historical evidence and is supported with discursive notes and a select bibliography. The reflective written component, Writing Fictionalised Biography, outlines the process and challenges of writing a biography when the source material available is inadequate and unreliable. In writing Poisoned my genre solution has been fictionalised biography biography which is historically diligent while utilising fictional writing strategies and incorporating fictional passages. This written component reflectively discusses how I arrived at that solution. It includes discussion of the sources I utilised in writing Poisoned, including the limitations of trial transcripts and other court records as biographical evidence; useful precursors to the form; the process wherein I located both a form for my fictionalised biography and a voice for my biographical subject; possible models I considered; how I distinguished established fact from speculative supposition in the text; as well as some of the ambivalences and ethical concerns such a narrative process implies.

This thesis consists of an introduction and six of my books, published between 1985 and 1999, on aspects of the history of women in nineteenth-century Australia. The books are The Governesses: Letters from the Colonies 1862-1882 (1985); A Colonial Woman: The Life and Times of Mary Braidwood Mowle 1827-1857 (1986); Pen Portraits: Women Writers and Journalists in Nineteenth Century Australia (1988); Pioneer Writer: The Life of Louisa Atkinson, Novelist, Journalist, Naturalist (1990); Tasma: The Life of Jessie Couvreur (1994); and Rosa! Rosa! A Life of Rosa Praed, Novelist and Spiritualist (1999). At the time they were published each of these books either dealt with a new subject or presented a new approach to a subject. Collectively they represent a body of work that has expanded knowledge of women's lives and writing in nineteenth-century Australia. Although not consciously planned as a sequence at the outset, these books developed as a result of the influence on my thinking of the themes that emerged in Australian social and cultural historical writing during this period. The books also represent a development in my own work from the earlier more documentary-based books on letters and diaries to the interpretive challenge of biographical writing and the weaving of private lives with public achievements. These books make up a cohesive, cumulative body of work. Individually and as a whole, they make an original contribution to knowledge of the lives and achievements of women in nineteenth-century Australia. They received critical praise at the time of publication and have led to renewed interest and further research on the subjects they cover. My own knowledge and expertise has developed as a result of researching and writing them. The Governesses was not only the first full-length study of a particular group of letters but it also documented aspects of the lives of governesses in Australia, a little researched subject to that time. A Colonial Woman, based on a previously unpublished and virtually unknown diary, pointed to the importance of 'ordinary' lives in presenting an enriched view of the past. Pen Portraits documented the early history of women journalists in Australia, a previously neglected subject. Three of the women I included in Pen Portraits, Louisa Atkinson, Tasma and Rosa Praed, the first two of whom were pioneer women journalists as well as novelists, became the subjects of my full-length biographies. In my biographies of women writers, Pioneer Writer, Tasma, and Rosa! Rosa!, I recorded and interpreted the lives of these important writers placing them in the context of Australian cultural history as women who negotiated gender barriers and recorded this world in their fiction. My books on Louisa Atkinson and Tasma were the first full-length biographies of these significant but largely forgotten nineteenth-century women writers, while my biography of Rosa Praed was the first for more than fifty years. Each introduced original research that changed perceptions of the women's lives and consequently of attitudes to their creative work. Each provided information essential for further research on their historical significance and literary achievements. Each involved extensive research that led to informed interpretation allowing insightful surmises essential to quality biography.

Thesis (MA)--Macquarie University, Institute of Early Childhood.
Includes bibliographical references.
Introduction -- Literature review -- A brief history of Utopia's art production; its place in the indigenous art movement -- The role of the wholesaler -- The retail sector -- Report on survey of the buyers of indigenous art -- Emily Kame Kngwarreye -- Authenticity -- Conclusion.
Summary: The thesis focuses on marketing art from the Aboriginal community, Utopia, where the majority of artists, and the best known artists, are women. It documents methods by which the art moves from the community to retail art outlets; it includes detailed documentation of marketing in the retail sector and also includes research into the buying of indigenous art by private buyers. -- Emily Kame Kngwarreye is the best known of the Utopia painters. The study proposes reasons for her success and points to further questions beyond the scope of this study. Problems inherent in criticism and editing of her work are raised and interpreted in the context of the marketplace. -- The original thesis plan did not include detailed discussion about authorship. However, in 1997 the media reported controversy about authorship of a prize-winning work. As such controversy must affect marketing, this topic (as it relates to this artist), was included. -- Although possibilities for improvement in marketing methods have become apparent as a result of this research, areas where further research would be beneficial have also become apparent.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
265, [48] p

Introduction: I find myself in the pantry, cleaning shelves, in the laundry, water slopping around my elbows, at the washing line, pegging clothes. I watch myself clean shelves, wash, peg clothes. These are the rhythms that comfort. That postpone. (The Painted Woman, Sue Woolfe, p. 170) As a marginalised group in Australian art history and society, women artists possess a valuable and vital craft tradition which inevitably influences all aspects of their arts practice. Installation art, which has its origins in the craft tradition, has only been acknowledged in the art mainstream this decade; yet evolved in the home of the 1950s. The social policies of this era are well documented for their insistence on women remaining in the home in order to achieve personal success in their lives. This cultural oppressiveness paradoxically resulted in a revolution in women's art in the environment to which they were confined. Women's creative energies were diverted and sublimated into the home, resulting in aesthetic statements of individuality in home decoration. As an art movement, women's installation art in the home provided the similar structures to formally recognised art schools in the mainstream, and include: informal networks and training (schools); matriarchs within the community who were knowledgable in craft traditions and techniques and shared these with younger women (mentorships); visiting other homes and providing constructive advice (critiques); and women's magazines and glory boxes (art journals and sketch books). A re-examination of this vital period in women's art history will reveal the social policies and cultural influences which insidiously undermined women's art, which was based on craft traditions.

The Owl House is situated in the Karoo village of Nieu Bethesda, and the person responsible for its creation, Helen Elizabeth Martins (1897-1976), is South Africa's best known Outsider artist. A number of newspaper and magazine articles, television programmes, radio interviews, play, films, short stories, theses and art works have resulted directly from her work. Interest in The Owl House continues to grow, with visitors coming from all over South Africa, and various parts of the world,to visit it. The Owl House was Helen Martins' home for most of her 78 years. During the last 30 or so years of her life she devoted all her time and energy to transforming the interior of her house into a glistening fantasy world of colour and light, using crushed glass stuck to almost every surface, coloured glass pane inserts in the walls, mirrors of many sizes and shapes, and countless paraffin lamps and candles. She called her garden' A Camel Yard', and filled it with over 500 cement statues, structures and bas reliefs. All the labour involved, apart from crushing and sorting the coloured glass, was provided by at least four different men, who assisted her over the years, Johannes Hattingh, Jonas Adams, Piet van der Merwe and Koos Malgas, though Helen Martins was the inspiration and director behind it all. Through a study of Helen Martins' background and life, and their effects upon her psyche, a rigorous attempt has been made to reach some understanding of why she became a recluse, and what caused her to create this unique body of work comprising her entire domestic environment. She became increasingly asocial as her life progressed, and ultimately ended it by committing suicide in 1976. Through the universality of symbolism, the meanings of the subjects, themes and concerns which she chose to depict are studied. Then, together with some knowledge of her life and personal influences, an attempt has been made to deduce what it was that Helen Martins was trying to express and work through in her creations. This study also led to an awareness of the fact that, although each one is unique, there are many examples of Outsider Art throughout the world. Fundamentally, creators of Outsider Art remain asocial in relation to their cultural milieu and cultural context. Some other examples of Outsider Art, both in South Africa as well as in Europe and India, were visited, and are described and compared with The Owl House as well as with one another. The way in which society reacts or responds to Outsider Art and its creators is studied through the comprehensive records of one specific case which caused great controversy in Johannesburg during the 1970s. Ultimately, working alone or with assistance, it is the Outsider artist who is the driving force behind these unique works, and whose indefinable inner fire of passion alone makes it possible to bring them into being. It would seem that the fascination with Outsider Art is that through their work, creators allow others a glimpse into a different sense of reality which is both mysterious and inexplicable.

The thesis provides a revaluation of the art of Australian women artists in the period 1900-1940. In the first instance, this study attempts to answer the question posed by a number of male historians: "Why were there so many succesful Australian women artists in the period between the two world wars?" My answer has involved the analysis of three major phenomena: 1. The women's emancipation movement which enfranchised women and gave them the key to education and subsequently to the professions. 2. The women artists of the early twentieth century were the direct benefactors of the women's movement, the confidence that the new woman acquired enabled her to continue her studies abroad for the first time in significant numbers. 3. Women artists became identified with modernism and also for their contribution to the arts and crafts movement. Critics have noted that there was a large proportion of women artists involved with various aspects of the modernist movement. The question has not been examined before in Australian art because there has not been any enquiry into their collective artistic genealogies, nor has the interconnectedness of much of their art been noticed before. When this is analysed, it becomes clear that women had a special affinity with aspects of modernism because of their gendered artistic education in the nineteenth century which rendered them particularly sensitive to some aspects of modernism. This is clear in most of the case studies of the women artists whose careers I examine here. My study has been conducted from the point of view established by certain feminist critics and art historians whose theories have provided an important perspective on the art of this period. This perspective is a necessary one, it hinges on the concepr of "difference" in women's artistic expression. This theory of "difference" also provides a parallel to the sociological study of women's liberation at the beginning of this century (the data for which IS provided in the Appendices at the end of the thesis). The theory of "difference" can be seen to link up with an analysis of gendered art education and thus facilitates an understanding of why it was that so many women readily pursued the criteria for modernist art.

Chau, Tsz Kin.
"December 2011."
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012.
Includes bibliographical references.
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
Introduction --- p.1
Chapter Chapter 1 --- Who's Pan Yuliang? Whose Pan Yuliang? --- p.7
Who's Pan Yuliang? --- p.7
Life and Art of Pan Yuliang: Existing Account --- p.12
Whose Pan Yuliang? --- p.22
"Summary of Existing Accounts: Biography, Oedipus complex and Narcissism" --- p.30
Chapter Chapter 2 --- Reconsidering Pan Yuliang --- p.33
Academic works in Mainland China and Taiwan since 2000 --- p.33
Theorizing the Woman Painter --- p.42
Background I: Modern Art in Republican China --- p.54
Background II: Paris Modernism --- p.60
Chapter Chapter 3 --- Expanding Biography into History --- p.63
Chapter Chapter 4 --- The Political Xiesheng and its Gender Politics --- p.82
"Pan Yuliang: from Shanghai (1928-32, 36-37) to Nanjing (1933-35)" --- p.83
The Mission ofNanjang: National Administering of Modernism --- p.86
Pan Yuliang and the Chinese Arts Association --- p.97
Xiesheng and a New Woman/painter Subject --- p.113
Conclusion: a Different Modern for a Woman Painter --- p.123
Chapter Chapter 5 --- Differencing the Modern and Women's Culture --- p.127
Theorizing Women's Culture --- p.130
Pan Yuliang and Women's Community --- p.134
Contextualizing Women's Community: Republican Modernity and Post-war
Pacifism --- p.137
Conclusion: Women's Art and Modernism --- p.145
Conclusion Rethinking Republican and Women's Art --- p.146
Appendix --- p.150
Glossary --- p.158
Graphical Materials --- p.165
Bibliography --- p.251

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Beginning in 1961, the Low Show Group was an active collective of women artists, exhibiting in Newcastle. The group members were Norma Allen, Mary Beeston, Betty Cutcher (Beadle), Elizabeth Martin, Lillian Sutherland and Rae Richards. Madeleine Scott Jones and Lovoni Webb also exhibited in later Low Show Group exhibitions. These artists continued to work independently and Richards is still making and exhibiting art. This study examines the context in which the group was formed and how this impacted on their decision to form a collective. Their contribution to art and craft, art education and the cultural life of Newcastle is documented through their exhibitions and careers. The theories of Howard Becker regarding art as a collective action are used as a framework to examine the success of the Low Show Group. Through a discussion of shared and individual careers as practitioners, their community service and their role as teachers, their influence is shown on the artistic practices of their students and colleagues and on the art world of their time. This study examines the context in which the group was formed and how this impacted on their decision to form a collective. Their contribution to art and craft, art education and the cultural life of Newcastle is documented through their exhibitions and careers. The theories of Howard Becker regarding art as a collective action are used as a framework to examine the success of the Low Show Group. Through a discussion of shared and individual careers as practitioners, their community service and their role as teachers, their influence is shown on the artistic practices of their students and colleagues and on the art world of their time. The development of the Newcastle Technical College Art School, and the formation of the Newcastle University College, was identified as the catalyst for the initial flowering of fine art. The experience of the Low Show Group artists first as students of this new art school, and in some cases as teachers, was the impetus for their desire to develop careers as professional artists. This evaluation of their contribution to the fine arts indicates how the contribution of this regional group of artists was important in paving the way for the present growth and promising future of the fine arts in Newcastle.

This study traces the adaptation of the traditional gathering practices of Anglo/Celtic women to the landscape of Colonial Australia, thus developing a context for contemporary land-based art practices. Traditional gathering practices became one of the important forces that influenced and shaped the work of many women artists in post colonial Australia. Interacting with the landscape on a personal level helped contextualize women's gathering role into a contemporary theme, which linked past knowledge to present day voices. The author's art work is an interpretation of this traditional gathering practice. By relating herbal knowledge to present day concerns, she is able to extend the knowledge of past generations of women gatherers into present day images. The art work is also a diary of experiments, that are concerned with preserving the dye making recipes that have been handed down for generations. These botanical experiments have enabled the author to re-present herbal knowledge that took hundreds of years to glean, and to extend the use of the dyes obtained to create the art works.
Master of Arts (Hons) (Creative Arts)

In view of the scarcity of Indian women in the South African art field, this study investigates how issues of race, class and gender can affect the decision to become and sustain a career as a professional artist. By exploring the historical background of the Indian community and their patriarchal mind set it becomes clear that women's roles in this community have always been prescribed by tradition and cultural values, despite western influence. Moreover the legacy of apartheid created a situation in which black artists, especially women. have not always benefitted in terms of career opportunities. The research is based on case studies of five Indian women who have received due recognition as artists: Lalitha Jawahirilal, Usha Seejarim, Sharlene Khan, Simmi Dullay and Reshma Chhiba. These artists' lives, careers and artistic output are closely studied, documented and critically interpreted using key concepts such as orientalism, black feminism and post colonialism.
Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology
M.A. (Art History)

This thesis addresses a gap in research regarding South Australian china painting. Although china painting has been practised in Australia for the last 120 years and is held in major Australian collections, it has been little researched and then in a minor role associated with ceramics and studio potters, or as women’s art/craft. The china painters too, have been little researched. My research identifies the three ‘highs’ of the changing fortunes of china painting, and how the practice survived in between. I argue that it was first taught in the city’s School of Design, Painting and Technical Art in 1894 as a skill for possible industrial employment, due to the initiative of School Principal, Harry Pelling Gill. However china painting classes were discontinued by 1897 due to an economic depression and the fact that the anticipated industry did not eventuate. In 1906 china painting classes were reinstituted in the (re-named) Adelaide School of Art and teacher Laurence Howie was pivotal in that revival. China painting classes ceased during the First World War while Howie served overseas in the Australian Forces, but resumed in 1923 after his return and appointment as Principal of the (renamed) School of Arts and Crafts. The resulting change in the fortunes of china painting was the outcome of the School’s appropriate training in art and design, and I argue this enabled emerging professional female artists to confidently exhibit china painting alongside their fine art. I will devote a chapter to the important role of the South Australian Society of Arts in facilitating this important public exposure of china painting. The Second World War marked a decline in popularity of china painting. Chapter 5 traces its survival till it burst into popularity again in 1965. Further chapters describe china painting’s following meteoric rise in fortune and the role played by the South Australian teachers of the art/craft, few of whom had received formal art training. I argue that china painting became a conservative social craft, but nonetheless a serious hobby, pursued by married, middle-class women who strongly believed their work was art, not craft. I will point out how they were visited and influenced by entrepreneurial American teachers, politically active in the art/craft debate in the United States of America. Chapter 8 will chart the steps taken by Australian teachers in the 1980s to break from the American influence and regain an Australian identity in teachers’ organisations and iconography. I will describe the debates that ensued following experimental work exhibited by avant-garde Australian teachers to resolve the art/craft debate regarding china painting in Australia, and the difficulties of maintaining china painting momentum as the majority of practitioners became elderly women. This thesis identifies education of the practitioners as a key factor throughout South Australian china painting history as a way of better understanding the place of china painting within the decorative arts. China painting is currently in decline; nevertheless, as I will point out in my conclusion, there are several future pathways it could take. Only within recent decades have curators and writers shown an increased interest in women’s decorative arts, including china painting. It is timely to undertake research before existing documentation of china painting is lost.
http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1374281
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of History and Politics, 2009

This thesis examines the impact of gender, feminism and motherhood on the careers of four Australian composers: Margaret Sutherland (1897–1984), Ann Carr-Boyd (b. 1938), Elena Kats-Chernin (b. 1957) and Katy Abbott (b. 1971).
Aspects of the biographies of each of these women are explored, and I situate their narratives within the cultural and musical contexts of their eras, in order to achieve heightened understanding of the ideologies and external influences that have contributed to their choices and experiences. Methodologies derived from feminist biography and oral history/ethnography underpin this study. Theorists who inform this work include Marcia Citron, Daphne de Marneffe, Sherna Gluck, Carolyn Heilbrun, Anne Manne, Ann Oakley, Alessandro Portelli, Adrienne Rich and Robert Stake, along with many others.
The demands traditionally placed on women through motherhood and domesticity have led to a lack of time and creative space being available to develop their careers. Thus they have faced significant challenges in gaining public recognition as serious composers. There is a need for biographical analysis of these women’s lives, in order to consider their experiences and the encumbrances they have faced through attempting to combine their creative and mothering roles. Previous scholarship has concentrated more on their compositions than on the women who created them, and the impact of private lives on public lives has not been considered worthy of consideration.
Three broad themes are investigated. First, the ways in which each composer’s family background, upbringing and education have impacted on their decision to enter the traditionally male field of composition are explored. The positive influence from family and other mentors, and opportunities for a sound musical education, are factors particularly necessary for aspiring female composers. I argue that all four women have benefited from upbringings in families where education and artistic endeavour have been valued highly.
The second theme concerns the extent to which the feminist movement has influenced the women’s lives as composers and mothers, and the levels of frustration, and/or satisfaction or pleasure each has felt in blending motherhood with composition. I contend that all four composers have led feminist lives in the sense that they have exercised agency and a sense of entitlement in choices regarding their domestic and work lives. The three living composers have reaped the benefits of second-wave feminism, but have eschewed complete engagement with its agenda, especially its repudiation of motherhood. They can more readily be identified with the currently evolving third wave of feminism, which advocates women’s freedom to choose how to balance the equally-valued roles of motherhood and the public world of work. I assert that Sutherland was a third-wave prototype, a position that was atypical of her era.
The third and final theme comprises an investigation of the ways in which historical and enduring negative attitudes towards women as musical creators have played out in the musical careers in these composers. It is contested that Sutherland experienced greater challenges than her successors in the areas of dissemination, composition for larger forces, and critical reception, but appears to have been more comfortable in promoting her work. The exploration of their careers demonstrates that all four of these creative mothers are well-respected and recognised composers. They are ‘third-wave’ women who have considerably enriched Australia’s musical landscape.

Canvassing the emotions examines the role and meaning of artmaking in the lives of women who have experienced mental ill-health and/or psychological trauma in Australia between the 1950s and the present. Hovering at the nexus of a number of contested domains, the thesis bypasses the perennial question of what is art to explore the neglected and perhaps more interesting query – what does art do for the artmaker? – and associated questions of why does art matter; what is the function of artmaking in relation to wellbeing; and what are the implications of a thwarted life of making? The thesis presents the findings of three studies: The Exhibition – a touring exhibition of art produced by women with an experience of mental ill-health; The Interviews – with thirty-two women who make art and who have experienced mental ill-health; and The Collage – a collation of women’s accounts of – what does art do?

This thesis examines the writing of Irish identity in Australia to explore how nineteenth-century Australian-born women writers negotiated their Irish emigrant heritage. A gap in knowledge about Irish women's emigrant experiences and those of their descendants provides an opportunity to investigate the translation of the Irish emigrant experience from the perspectives of first-born Australian daughters. A critical analysis of the writing histories of Mary Eliza Fullerton, Mary Grant Bruce and Marie Pitt (McKeown) will demonstrate the fragility of national identity in terms of the cultural and symbolic language used to define Irish emigrant and Australian settler culture identity between the late nineteenth-to-mid-twentieth centuries. The thesis provides an alternative reading of national cultures and histories to show how each writer used images of Irish national culture to clarify and elaborate notions of home in their Australian writing.

The tensions between ethical practice and aesthetic freedom in documentary film are particularly magnified in auto/biographical films that involve representations of family members or participants from a different cultural background to the artist, both contexts that demand a greater awareness of self and other. In this doctoral thesis I use 'auto/biographical' in its most expansive sense to signify the blurring of autobiographical stories with biographical material - the impossibility of telling the self's story without implicating others and vice-versa. Also accompanying this thesis is a booklet of poems, titles "Porous", which is held in the Victoria University Library. The related URL links to the catalogue entry for this booklet.