Book Launch: An afternoon with Jessie Traill
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra | March 16, 2.00-4.00pm
Curators Roger Butler, Sarina Noordhuis-Fairfax and Rebecca Edwards will explore aspects of Jessie Traill’s life and work, followed by the catalogue launch by Ron McBurnie and an exhibition tour.
Free and open to the public
Date: 2-4pm, March 16 2013
Venue: Small Theatre and Project Gallery, National Gallery of Australia
For more information, visit the National Gallery website, http://nga.gov.au/Traill/
About the Exhibition
The National Gallery of Australia exhibition Stars in the River: The Prints of Jessie Traill highlights the prints of one of Australia’s most important printmakers of the early twentieth century.
Growing up in Melbourne’s bayside suburbs of Sandringham and Brighton gave Jessie Traill an early appreciation of the natural landscape. She studied painting and drawing at the National Gallery School in Melbourne, and took lessons in etching from prominent Melbourne printmaker John Mather. Intrigued by the medium, she later moved to England to study with key printmaker Frank Brangwyn, who brought a bold and experimental quality to her printmaking.
Stars in the River: The Prints of Jessie Traill displays early career works of Victorian rural scenes, including numerous striking depictions of landscapes and Melbourne, as the ‘Paris of the South’, as well as her major series documenting the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The exhibition conveys her poetic sensitivity with an unerring eye for line and form, with Traill’s large, bold and dramatic compositions now recognised as vital to the evolution of post-war Modernism.
The exhibition is accompanied by a generously illustrated publication featuring essays by curators Roger Butler, Sarina Noordhuis-Fairfax, Rebecca Edwards and Macushla Robinson and Professor Tim Bonyhady.
Stars in the River: The Prints of Jessie Traill is now in the Project Gallery at the National Gallery of Australia, closing on 23 June 2013. Entry is free.
