 Poster designed by Ruby Lindsay for the Society's 1907 exhibition. | |
| Formation | 1895 |
|---|---|
| Dissolved | 1965 |
| Type | Artist collective |
| Headquarters | Sydney |
Region served | Australia, but mainly in Sydney |
1st Chairman | Tom Roberts |
The Society of Artists was an influential Sydney based group of progressive artists who staged annual exhibitions from 1895 to the 1960s. The Society included many of Australia's best artists of the time. It lapsed during the mid 1960s.
In 1888, the artist Tom Roberts established the Victorian Artists' Society, but he and Arthur Streeton moved to Sydney in 1891 during an economic depression in Melbourne. Roberts then formed the "Society of Artists" in Sydney in 1895 as a breakaway group from the Royal Art Society of NSW [1] as a protest by avant-garde artists who believed that the general body of members should have a vote in choosing the committee of selection for annual shows,. [2] As well the formation of the new Society was a protest against what they considered to be the cramping effect of the old unchanging tradition that photographic realism was the essential of good art [3] and a desire to limit the membership to more professional painters.
The Society of Artists' foundation sought a more progressive and contemporary version of English art, similar to the New English Art Club. Many of the Society's early executives were in some way influenced by Henry Tonks, Walter Sickert and their English fellows. [3]
The Society of Artists' first exhibition, in 1895, was inaugurated by Sir Henry Parkes. [4]
In 1897, the Society of Artists secured a Government subsidy of £400 a year, which was later raised to £500. This enabled the painters to rent a gallery in Pitt Street, Sydney, and also to offer a travelling scholarship of £150 a year for three years to the best student of the year. [2] Recipients of the Society's travelling scholarship included people like William Dobell, who later became famous artists. [5]
Sydney Ure Smith was President of the Society from 1921 to 1948 and during this time he encouraged new members and advocated measured progress in Australian art. Together with George Washington Lambert he helped to keep the Society liberal and supported the award of the Society's travelling scholarship to young artists. Ure Smith arranged the Society's controversial 1923 Exhibition of Australian Art in London — which attracted controversy because a group of Victorian artists wanted to remove Norman Lindsay's works as being "immoral" and applied for a court injunction to prevent the exhibition leaving Australia without further selections. [6]
The "Press and Arts Club", a supper club of the Society of Artists was a bohemian club also founded and presided over by Tom Roberts. It was established for professional painters and illustrators, as opposed to some of the older art societies, which were dominated by laymen. It met monthly at the Cafe Frangois in George Street, Sydney. The Supper Club was described by artist George Taylor as a "glorious, wonderful feast of song, sketch and story that would follow the feast of beefsteak". [7] [8]
From its inception in 1895, the Society held various functions to augment money for its travelling scholarship including an annual Artists' Ball, children's parties and an Art Union [5] [9] [10] [11] [12] and these as well as afternoon teas to entertain women were often held at the same time as the Society's art exhibitions. [13]
The Society's publications included annual exhibition catalogues and books such as Amy Lambert's Thirty Years of an Artist's Life, a book about her husband (George Washington Lambert) and his career, and the Anzac Memorial Building N.S.W about the sculptures by Rayner Hoff in the ANZAC War Memorial in Sydney. [6] [14] The Society also awarded medals to encourage 'good service for the advancement of Australian art'. [6]
David Edgar Strachan was the last president (1965) of the Society, [15] after which it folded. [1]
The Society of Artists included artists from all over Australia. The Society stated in its 1946 exhibition catalogue [3] that the only qualification for membership being:
...competence, but at a high level not only of technique but of thought. It must be remembered that a good artist puts on canvas only what he has thought about deeply and unceasingly both as to content and technique and especially as to significance in the world of life and nature. The merit of all those elected to the Society has been always an individuality of approach and expression, content being subordinate to the thought.
The first exhibition by the Society was held in 1895 and included works by some Australia's best artists of the time [3] including: Julian Ashton, Margaret Fleming, Frank P. Mahony, Emily Meston, Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton. [16] Theodora Cowan was a regular exhibitor. [17] Other 19th century exhibitors were Howard Ashton, W. F. Hughes, C. Lloyd Jones, G. W. Lambert, Sid Long, Edith Loudon, Mildred Rivett, A. Dattilo Rubbo, Hall Thorpe and J. S. Watkins [18]
The Society of Artists organised annual exhibitions at which members could sell their works. Some of the outstanding exhibitions held by the Society included an exhibition of Arthur Streeton's work in 1920. The Society's regular venue was the Education Department's Art Gallery in Loftus Street, Sydney. [6]
During the 1950s and 1960s, artists represented at the Society of Artists' annual exhibition included:
The Victorian Artists Society, which can trace its establishment to 1856 in Melbourne, promotes artistic education, art classes and gallery hire exhibition in Australia. It was formed in March 1888 when the Victorian Academy of Arts and the Australian Artists' Association amalgamated.
The Heidelberg School was an Australian art movement of the late 19th century. It has been described as Australian impressionism.
Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton was an Australian landscape painter and a leading member of the Heidelberg School, also known as Australian Impressionism.
Sir William Dobell was an Australian portrait and landscape artist of the 20th century. Dobell won the Archibald Prize, Australia's premier award for portrait artists on three occasions. The Dobell Prize is named in his honour.
The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most important public gallery in Sydney and one of the largest in Australia.
George Washington Thomas Lambert was an Australian artist, known principally for portrait painting and as a war artist during the First World War.
The Dobell Drawing Prize is a biennial drawing prize and exhibition, held by the National Art School in association with the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation.The prize is an open call to all artists and aims to explore the enduring importance of drawing and the breadth and dynamism of contemporary approaches to drawing.
Sir Lionel Arthur Lindsay was an Australian artist, known for his paintings and etchings.
The National Art School (NAS) is a tertiary level art school, located in Darlinghurst, an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The school is an independent accredited higher education provider offering specialised study in studio arts practice across various disciplines.
George Feather Lawrence (1901–1981) was born in Sydney, Australia and for many years was regarded as one of the foremost painters in the impressionist style. He studied under Julian Rossi Ashton at the famous Sydney Art School in the old Queen Victoria Building; and later in London and Paris.
Sydney George Ure Smith OBE was an Australian arts publisher, artist and promoter who "did more than any other Australian to publicize Australian art at home and overseas".
Michael Kmit was a Ukrainian painter who spent twenty-five years in Australia. He is notable for introducing a neo-Byzantine style of painting to Australia, and winning a number of major Australian art prizes including the Blake Prize (1952) and the Sulman Prize. In 1969 the Australian artist and art critic James Gleeson described Kmit as "one of the most sumptuous colourists of our time".
The Newcastle Art Gallery is a large, public art museum in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.
Howard Hinton was an Australian art patron and benefactor. A thwarted artist due to shortsightedness, he visited many of the great galleries of Europe in his youth. At age 24 he migrated to Australia and quickly associated with leading artists of the Heidelberg School and the bohemian artists' camps around Sydney Harbour in the 1890s. He built a successful career in shipping and, along with a family inheritance, used his moderate wealth to support waves of Australian artists in the first half of the twentieth century. Through extensive donations to the Art Gallery of New South Wales and particularly the Armidale Teachers' College he became one of the greatest benefactors in Australian art history.
Dora Lynnell Wilson was a British-born Australian artist, best known in her adopted country of Australia for her etchings and street scenes.
The Exhibition of Australian Art in London was a show organised by the trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), notably Julian Ashton, and financially supported by the philanthropist Eadith Walker. Held at London's Grafton Galleries between April and September 1898, it featured 371 artworks made in Australia by 114 artists, and was the first major exhibition of Australian art to occur internationally.
The Julian Ashton Art School was established by Julian Ashton in 1890 as the "Academy Julian", has been an influential art school in Australia. For a long time it was known as the Sydney Art School.
Sedon Galleries was a commercial art gallery in Melbourne, Australia, representing Australian traditional, impressionist and post-impressionist painting and prints. It operated from 1925 to 1959.
Velasquez Gallery, also known as Velasquez Gallery at Tye's, and later Tye's Art Gallery, was a Melbourne art gallery that showed contemporary traditional, and later, modernist Australian art, including some sculpture and prints, as well as Australian indigenous art. It operated from 1940 to 1955.
Harold Brocklebank Herbert (1891–1945) was an early 20th century Australian painter and printmaker, an illustrator and cartoonist. A traditionalist, as an art teacher he promoted representational painting, and as a critic was an influential detractor of modernism. He was the first war artist to be appointed for Australia in the Second World War, serving for 6 months with the Australian Infantry Forces in Egypt in 1941 and in the Middle East in 1942.
