Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Women artists Australia'

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

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.
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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.

This exegesis examines the context of my studio work submitted for the degree of Doctor of Visual Art at Griffith University in 2004. My art practice reflects my identity, which is complex and many-stranded, but at its core is my identity as a 21st century woman of Torres Strait Islander descent. I also acknowledge multiple heritages and, like many of my contemporaries, I am a descendant of those two thirds of the Torres Strait population who now live on the Australian mainland. Having been born and brought up on the mainland also means that I am connected to, and have been affected by, wider Australian Indigenous issues, particularly those resulting from the alienation and dislocation which stem from colonialism. Therefore, as I draw from both traditional and contemporary modes and theory to explore the appropriateness of my art practice, this exegesis centres on the question: What constitutes culturally appropriate practice for me as a contemporary Torres Strait Island woman?

Everyone experiences leisure differently but, for people who excel in a chosen field, a hobby can become a serious goal-oriented leisure pursuit. Many talented people, however, fail to reach their leisure goals due to constraints. This study explored individual life experiences of serious leisure participants. It focused on the lived experiences of individual event [horse] riders and opera singers who successfully negotiated their constraints, enabling them to reach their high performance goals. The purpose of this study was to explore positive personal strategies that individuals used to negotiate constraints in serious leisure. This was done by exploring intrapersonal, interpersonal and structural leisure constraints using an individual’s life experiences. During the process of this study, elitism in the leisure pursuits of event riding and opera singing, and the perceptions about individuals who participate in these activities, were also explored. A multidisciplinary approach was used in this study using a two stage mixed research methodology. The first stage explored the lived experiences of two individuals through a series of in-depth case study interviews, followed by interviews with their parents and coaches. Focus groups followed to establish if a wider group of participants within the same leisure pursuits experienced similar findings. The second stage of the study used a quantitative method, which consisted of a broader national survey. The survey data validated the qualitative findings and strengthened study outcomes. The findings of this study related to the opportunity-seeking skills an individual develops throughout their leisure life. These opportunity-seeking skills were linked to the likes, needs and wants an individual must have to reach a high performance level. It also found four principal ‘C Factors’ important to individual decision-making processes: conditioning, change, choice and control. Research findings revealed that early support and encouragement, however small, conditioned and motivated individuals to start and continue in a particular leisure activity. It also showed that those who had the ability to improve their talent, who personally believed in themselves, who viewed difficulties or complicated situations positively, and sought opportunities to enhance their leisure goals and change constraint outcomes, continued to succeed. Individuals had to make choices to enable them to control their goal achievement and deal with constraints throughout their leisure life. High performance success was found to be related to superior opportunity-seeking skills. Constraints arising from perceptions of elitism within serious leisure pursuits were found to be based on an individual’s life experiences and societal opinions, and not on the actual activity itself. In this study the strength of an individual’s motivation and self-belief, had a direct influence on their perceptions of constraints, and how they personally used opportunity-seeking to negotiate these constraints. Although the ability to predict which athletes or artists will become national or world class is limited, the conceptual framework developed in this study based on successful constraint negotiation strategies, could aid individuals wishing to reach a high performance level, and guide their parents and coaches to provide optimal support.

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.

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 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.
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Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of History and Politics, 2009

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)

Eirene Mort: Artist, Artisan and New Woman Eirene Mort (1879 – 1977) was an Arts and Crafts practitioner and teacher whose work reflected transitions in twentieth century Australian art and culture, and in the opportunities available to women artists in changing patterns of taste, art markets and education. This thesis examines the factors that shaped Mort’s career and contribution as a – for a time – prominent artist and artisan who was emblematic of independent womanhood. I assess the ways in which her struggles and achievements extend our understanding of the significance of gender in the art world of twentieth century Australia. Analysing Mort’s wide-ranging body of art, together with her memoirs, family histories, financial documents, teaching records, social networks and contemporary reports of her life and work, I draw out the patterns that emerged in her life and work. Mort’s significance as an historical figure is twofold. Firstly, the course of her long career illustrates the interdependency of art with a range of social and political influences, including gendered identities, patronage, education, class-based networks and aesthetic movements. Secondly, the relative neglect of Mort’s work highlights the importance of restoring these dimensions to studies of artists in their context, and of dissolving an often-artificial distinction between ‘art’ and a range of craft- based practices in their social contexts. My biographical approach is informed by methodologies using qualitative and quantitative data – often fragmentary, but revealing even in that state – to reconstruct the social and personal contexts of her art practice, and to relate her work to changes in taste, patronage and education, and placing Mort in the wider cultural social, and economic patterns of her times.

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?

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, is 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. Newcastle’s background as a convict settlement and an industrial centre had developed a working class culture with a strong masculine influence. While some individual women artists were able to develop a career in fine arts, there was a long battle to establish a city art gallery and in 1961 there were no commercial galleries. The formation of the Low Show Group is shown to be as much about the society in which they lived as their artistic ambitions. The development of the Newcastle Technical 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 artists first as students of this 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 a promising future of the fine arts in Newcastle.