{"id":27811,"date":"2025-02-19T18:55:32","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T16:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/?p=27811"},"modified":"2025-02-19T19:06:24","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T17:06:24","slug":"retrospective-anne-dangar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/retrospective-anne-dangar\/","title":{"rendered":"Retrospective: Anne Dangar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Press release and photos by the National Gallery of Australia<\/em><\/p>\n

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\nAnne Dangar, Plate, (1933-38), National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri\/Canberra gift of Grace Buckley in memory of Grace Crowley, 1982. Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Australia.<\/em><\/p>\n

Anne Dangar<\/a>
\ntrough 27 APRIL 2025
\nat the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, Australia<\/p>\n

Almost a century ago in 1930, she moved permanently to the artist community Moly-Sabata in France, established by the cubist painter Albert Gleizes. Over the next two decades, she dedicated herself to Cubism, developing a distinct practice that synthesised traditional French pottery with cubist designs and decorations.<\/p>\n

Dangar is one of very few Australian artists to form part of the European avant-garde in the twentieth century, and the only to meaningfully contribute to Cubism in France, her adopted home. She was also a dedicated advocate and promoter of modern art in Australia, the first to teach and arguably to exhibit cubist art in the country, and she directly influenced the development of abstraction in Sydney from the 1930s onwards.<\/p>\n

Bringing together ceramics, paintings, works on paper and archival material, this exhibition will explore Dangar\u2019s life and practice, as well as her important position in French modern art as one of most dedicated and truly modern Australian artists of the twentieth century.<\/p>\n

Dr Nick Mitzevich, the museum director writes: ‘For almost a century, Anne Dangar has quietly occupied a position in art history as one of Australia\u2019s most important, yet underacknowledged modern artists. Through privileging Dangar\u2019s voice and excavating her life, process and practice through primary material, this major retrospective of Dangar\u2019s work seeks to definitively claim her position at the centre of Australian odernism, rather than at the periphery.<\/p>\n

Anne Dangar<\/a><\/em> draws upon a range of rarely accessed archival material, including an extensive collection of Dangar\u2019s sketchbooks, drawings, ceramic designs, teaching notes and materials, which was acquired by the National Gallery in 2012. While she is among many women artists of the 20th century who have gained recognition in recent years \u2014 more than 70 years after her death and almost 100 years since she resolved to devote herself to Cubism \u2014 she stands alone as one of most unwaveringly dedicated, quietly impactful and truly modern Australian artists of the twentieth century.’<\/p>\n

The exhibition is accompanied by a major publication led by Rebecca Edwards with contributions from Peter Brooke, Angela Goddard, ADS Donaldson, Elena Taylor and Anne O\u2019Hehir. [Read more about the art book.]<\/p>\n

Anne Dangar<\/em> is a Know My Name project, the National Gallery initiative celebrating the work of all women artists to enhance understanding of their contribution to Australia\u2019s cultural life.<\/p>\n

The National Gallery gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Sid and Fiona Myer Family Foundation.<\/p>\n

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\nAnne Dangar, Plate, 1934-35, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri\/Canberra, gift of Ruth Ainsworth 1998, courtesy of the National Gallery of Australia.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\nAnne Dangar, Pot with spiral decoration, 1934-1950, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri\/Canberra purchased 2002, courtesy of the National Gallery of Australia.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\nAnne Dangar, Jug (1933\u201338), National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri\/Canberra, bequest of Michael Fizelle 1985, courtesy of the National Gallery of Australia.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Artist biography | Anne Dangar<\/h2>\n

1885 Kempsey, New South Wales \u2013 1951 Sablons, France.<\/p>\n

During the first half of the 20th century, Anne Dangar (1885\u20131951)<\/a> was one of the few Australian artists to engage directly with currents of European modernism. She is now recognised as one of Australia\u2019s most important cubist artists. Born in 1885 in Kempsey, New South Wales, Dangar studied under Julian Ashton at the Sydney Art School. In 1926, she and painter Grace Crowley<\/a> travelled to France where they studied under cubist painter Andr\u00e9 Lhote.<\/p>\n

During this time, Dangar also encountered the paintings of Albert Gleizes and was immediately drawn to his cubist philosophies which drew upon the symmetries and patterns found in nature and ancient cultures, and theorised a rhythmic art based on the translation of planes and rotation of forms.<\/p>\n

Lacking financial support, Dangar reluctantly returned to Gadigal Nura\/Sydney in 1929. When Crowley reached out to Gleizes on Dangar\u2019s behalf, he and his wife invited her to permanently join their artist community at Moly-Sabata in Sablons, a small town located on the Rh\u00f4ne River in the south of France. Despite never having met or corresponded with Gleizes directly, Dangar accepted the offer immediately and arrived at Moly-Sabata in 1930. Dangar became a dedicated adherent and conduit for Gleizes\u2019s philosophies and a much-loved member of the local community. Although she had originally trained as a painter, Dangar worked principally as a potter, decorating wheel-thrown plates and vessels with her cubist designs. She continued to advance her skills by working with potters based in the nearby towns of Saint-D\u00e9sirat and Roussillon. Her works were inspired combinations of tradition and modernism, melding rustic methods of the region with avant-garde, abstract designs. She exhibited her works regularly at annual exhibitions at Moly-Sabata and the wider region, as well as at commercial art and design galleries in Lyon. Her works were also included in important surveys and presentations of modern art in Paris, including \u2018The Masters of Independent Art, 1895\u20131937\u2019 held at the Petit Palais, Paris in 1937, \u2018Aspects of Cubism\u2019 held at the Salon d\u2019Automne, Paris in 1938, and the major exhibition \u2018Du Cubisme aux Arts traditionnels\u2019 held at the \u00c9cole des Beaux-Arts, Paris in 1953.<\/p>\n

Dangar never returned to Australia, leaving France only once to work with potters in Fez, Morocco in 1939. She stayed at Moly-Sabata throughout the Second World War, and despite several plans to return home, was ultimately too attached to Gleizes\u2019s ideas and the community to leave. She died in France after a short illness in 1951. While she was relatively unknown in Australia at the time of her death, she is increasingly considered one of the most important figures in Australian abstraction by art historians and curators, and her works are represented in all major state institutions. In France, her works are held in numerous public collections, including the Mus\u00e9e National d\u2019Art Moderne, Paris, Mus\u00e9e des Beaux-Arts, Lyon and the Mus\u00e9e des Beaux-Arts, Valence.<\/p>\n

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\nAnne Dangar, Gouache (1936), gouache on paper. National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri\/Canberra, purchased 2002. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Australia.<\/em><\/p>\n

In 1938, Dangar exhibited ceramics and two gouaches in the major cubist survey exhibition Aspect actuel du cubisme chez quelques a\u00een\u00e9s et quelques jeunes, staged at the Salon d\u2019Automne, the progressive alternative to the Paris Salon. In a photograph of the display, this gouache can be seen hung on the far wall alongside major paintings by Albert Gleizes and Robert Delaunay around the doorway. Although smaller in scale, it matches their formal complexity, the trio of overlapping circular shapes spiralling upwards. Among Dangar\u2019s ceramics was an angular coffee-set and plate featuring a graphic black-and-white abstract design. Her inclusion in this important exhibition firmly announced her participation in the cubist movement in France.<\/p>\n

Related Link<\/h2>\n

Art Book: Anne Dangar (2024)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anne Dangar
\ntrough 27 April, 2025
\nat the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, Australia <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27815,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1479,11],"tags":[1681],"class_list":["post-27811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-design","tag-anne-dangar"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}