Mary Turner and
the Macquarie Galleries
A systematic and comprehensive history of the Galleries and their influence on the shaping of Australian art
PUBLICATION PROPOSAL
Mary Turner and Treania Smith at the Macquarie Galleries, with a Grace Cossington-Smith painting, Sydney, April 1960. Photo by Jack Hickson; Property of State Library NSW
By Ann Proudfoot Horn and Dorothea Wilkin
'The whole art world came to us'
Mary Turner describing the Macquarie Galleries in the late 1950s
THE PROPOSAL
We propose to research, write and produce a book on Mary Turner and the Macquarie Galleries.
We request funding from sponsors, private donations and funding bodies, to pay modest professional fees to the authors and their associate during the financial year 2010–11. The main outcome will be a substantial book published by a reputable publisher.
It is expected that donations to the project will be tax-deductible. We are seeking an administrator or an organisation to auspice and to play an oversight role regarding the financial and legal aspects of the project.
THE MACQUARIE GALLERIES AND THE SYDNEY ART WORLD
The Macquarie Galleries, Sydney's seminal commercial gallery, was established in 1925 by the art dealers John Young and Basil Burdett. It represented a galaxy of Australia's great artists, including Roland Wakelin, Ian Fairweather, Grace Cossington-Smith, Lloyd Rees, John Olsen, Salvatore Zofrea, Rodney Milgate, Stan de Teliga, Kevin Connor and Ken Whisson. The directorships of Treania Smith BEM (1938–78), Lucy Swanton (1938–56) and Mary Turner OAM (1956–79) brought the Macquarie from pre-war artistic innocence, through the tumult of mid-century art, to the relative calm of the late 1970s.
Until 1957 the Macquarie were the only galleries in Sydney devoted to modern art. The Macquarie withstood competition from galleries that sprang up in the late 1950s and 1960s, such as those founded by Terry Clune, Rudy Komon and Kim Bonython. Then in the 1960s the floodgates opened and the art scene proliferated. But still the Macquarie endured, outlasting many of its younger rivals, until it closed its doors finally in 1993.
The Macquarie Galleries was founded in an era when art and commerce were seen as separate realms. Relations between the Galleries and its artists were founded on mutual trust, and the schedule of exhibitions was punishing, with typically two or three weeks for each show, including hanging, press reviews, Wednesday morning 'sherry' openings, and five, six and eight guinea shows.
Leading gallery directors of the present day, such as Frank Watters, willingly acknowledge the pioneering role of the Macquarie Galleries and its continuing influence on present practices. The Macquarie was the leading exhibitor and proponent of modern art in Sydney, and was known especially for its high ethical standards, fostering of artistic integrity and enduring relationships with artists. For example, artist Roland Wakelin, one of the first Australian modernists and a seminal figure in Australia's artistic development, exhibited with the Macquarie from 1925 through to his death in 1971.
The reminiscences of Mary Turner – rich in anecdotes and opinions about the life and times of the Galleries – will furnish one of the main strands for the proposed book. The State Library of NSW and Art Gallery of NSW have already recorded and transcribed extensive interviews with Mary. These resources will be augmented through further interviews with Mary and by reference to archival material on her colleagues at the Galleries, Treania Smith and Lucy Swanton. The three were doyennes of the Sydney art world between the 1930s and 1970s, and a clear account of their contribution to that world is long overdue.
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
A full-scale account has been written on the John Young era of the Galleries (1925–38) (Early Sydney Moderns: John Young and the Macquarie Galleries 1916-1946, Jean Campbell, Craftsman House, 1988). Nothing however has been done on the subsequent decades, apart from an obituary of Treania Smith by Mary Turner (Art and Australia, vol. 28, no.8, Autumn 1991, p. 343).
Required is a systematic and comprehensive history of the Galleries and their influence on the shaping of Australian art. The story to be told is rich with detail and anecdote about the artistic milieu of Sydney. The large Macquarie Galleries archive at the Art Gallery of NSW remains relatively unexplored and will be a major resource for the project.
The proposed book will explore four decades of the Macquarie Galleries, covering the years from 1938 to 1979. It is planned that the book will be approximately 80,000 words in length, and well-furnished with photographic illustrations. Several publishers have expressed strong interest in the project.
PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
Co-ordinator: Dorothea (Dot) Wilkin
MCAE DDM BArtEd ArtCert
Dorothea (Dot) Wilkin is an artist and secondary school art teacher. She has participated in numerous exhibitions and won awards for her painting, most recently the Nora Heysen Award in 2009. Her first degree was from COFA in Art Education (1991). More recently, she has graduated from the Master of Contemporary Art for Educators (2006). Dorothea is a cousin of Mary Turner.
Art Writer: Ann Proudfoot Horn
BA(Hons1) DipMusStud DipEd
Ann Proudfoot Horn has worked as curator, registrar and educator at museums and galleries in Sydney and Canberra, including the Powerhouse Museum, the Australian War Memorial and Government House in Sydney. She has published scholarly investigations of several Australian artists, and has produced substantial exhibition catalogues. Ann holds a B.A. with First Class Honours in Fine Arts from the University of Sydney (1991).
Researcher: Kathleen Worboys
BArtTh DipBkEdPub
Kathleen Worboys holds a Bachelor of Art Theory from the College of Fine Arts (2009) and a Diploma in Book Editing and Publishing from Macleay College (2009). She has worked as a volunteer on a variety of projects ranging from the Sydney Writers Festival to visual art exhibitions at Performance Space gallery in Sydney. She has edited the COFA produced online publication ArtWrite.
TASKS
- Carry out research in the Macquarie Galleries archive at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, focusing on the period 1938-1979.
- Carry out research on Macquarie Galleries' relations with artists during the period 1938–1979, and its influence on their careers. This will include video-recorded interviews with surviving artists, such as John Olsen and Rodney Milgate.
- Carry out further interviews with Mary Turner.
- Interview other gallery directors including Frank Watters (Watters Legge Gallery), Stella Downer and Eileen Chanin, Mary Turner's successor at the Macquarie Galleries.
- Interview Edmund Capon, Director, Art Gallery of NSW.
- Interview art collectors associated with the Macquarie Galleries.
- Picture research in newspaper archives.
- Write the book.
- Negotiate publication.
Mary Turner
Contact: Dorothea (Dot) Wilkin
Co-ordinator, Mary Turner and the Macquarie Galleries Project
Phone: 0439 441 333
Email: dot.wilkin@gmail.com
