9 May 2009 to 21 June 2009
Image: Colin Colahan, Australia, 1897-1987, Ballet of Wind and Rain, 1945, oil on canvas. Australian War Memorial, Canberra (ART25701) © Australian War Memorial.
Misty Moderns: Australian Tonalists 1915–1950 is the first exhibition of its kind ever assembled, and showcases the previously unexplored riches of the Australian Tonalist painting movement, which flourished during the twentieth-century interwar period. Remarkably, despite the fact that some of Australia’s greatest twentieth-century artists, such as Max Meldrum, Clarice Beckett, Lloyd Rees, Roy de Maistre and Elioth Gruner, variously explored the gentle atmospheric effects of Tonalism, it became maligned over time and developed into one of the most misunderstood and most underestimated movements in Australian art.
In the introduction to the catalogue accompanying the exhibition Christopher Menz, director Art Gallery of South Australia, said
"Although representing a reactionary conservative force in art through the 1910s to 1940s that eschewed modernism, Meldrum and his tonalist style touched a wider range of artists more fully than has been previously recognised."Curated by Tracey Lock-Weir, Curator, Australian Paintings and Sculpture Art Gallery of South Australia. Organised and toured by Art Gallery of South Australia.
Read more about this exhibition here
