I was in Canberra for the National Folk Festival, and I put aside some time to go see Ethel Carrick’s works, displayed with Anne Dangar’s. Exhibition was free, always a good start!
It was a story of patriarchy impacting strongly on women artists’ work, and the evaluation of it. Carrick’s stuff exudes joy. Beach scenes with stripes all over the planet, France, Australia, Egypt, Africa. She was married to E. Phillips Fox, who had his own fame as an Australian impressionist, and she lived in that shadow(was she aware of it? was i the way things were? It’s hard to put a 21st century feminist lens on something that was so systemic that she may not even have thought it strange).
She was monied to begin with, and so was he. She was spared the need to make money from her art. But her paintings are often of groups of women – because in the early 20th century, markets, parks and beaches were places women could safely stand and paint. Even then there were stories of her being bothered (if not harassed).
He died in 1915, but she lived much longer. She lived in Australia during World War II. While she was here, the Nazis raided her apartment in Montmartre (oh, to have an apartment in Montmartre!). They took his work. Not hers.
Anne Dangar’s works, mostly pottery (because it was more profitable to sell at markets) was in the same exhibition. Not from privilege, she sold her works and taught to make money to live with. She couldn’t afford to leave France in World War II. She lived in a communal artist colony in Sablons in ardeche.
Anne was a advocate for new ways of seeing and painting. She sent hand written notes and how to to her friend Stella Bowen (whose life is outlined in Stravinsky’s Lunch) in Australia.
I wasn’t as much a fan of Dangar’s stuff (i’m just not into ceramics much), but I loved Ethel Carrick’s work. And what male ceramicists works have been promoted ahead of Anne’s, I have to ask!
Images below.
