The Art World Came to Us: The Macquarie Galleries 1938 - 1963

official opening Saturday 14 September | 5 pm - 7 pm

PRE-PURCHASE THE EXHIBITION CATALOGUE HERE

In-stock from mid-October

The Macquarie Galleries was a gallery of crucial importance in Sydney's cultural life. Basil Burdett and John Young founded the gallery in 1925, and John Aeneas McDonnell was another partner (1929-36). Treania Smith exhibited her first solo exhibition at the gallery in 1934, and shortly after, she became the assistant to John Young. In 1938, Smith and Lucy Swanton formed a partnership and acquired Macquarie Galleries. Their partnership continued until 1956. Thereafter, Smith co-directed Macquarie Galleries with Mary Killen (later Turner) (from 1956-76) and Penelope Meagher (1966-72). With Smith’s retirement in 1976, Mary Turner continued in partnership with Eileen Chanin.  Turner retired in 1979, and Eileen Chanin continued as solo Director of the Galleries. The exhibiting premises in Rushcutters Bay closed in 1993. However, the Macquarie Galleries continues to operate to this day under Chanin. ¹

The Art World Came to Us: Macquarie Galleries 1938-1963 exhibition at Ngununggula focuses on a 25-year period between 1938 and 1963 and celebrates Treania Smith, Lucy Swanton and Mary Turner, women at the helm of Australian art who carved out a new way of working and representing artists during this period of significant global and social change. 

They managed dozens of artists in the many exhibitions they staged annually. The scope of the galleries was broad. They supported artists of their time early in their artistic careers. Australian painters exhibited most frequently, but there were also exhibitions of sculpture, pottery, stage designs, and other art forms that emerged at the time. Patrons of the Galleries included Sydney's elites, but the Galleries made art accessible to everyone through their egalitarian approach with the Five, Six and Eight Guinea exhibitions.  

Featuring over 50 Australian artists represented by Macquarie Galleries from 1938 to 1963, this exhibition pays tribute to a significant period in Australian art history but only scratches the surface of the profound impact Macquarie Galleries had historically and continues to have today.

ARTISTS: Jean Appleton,  Ralph Balson,  Jean Bellette,  Nancy Borlase, Arthur Boyd,  Rupert Bunny,  James Cant,  Margaret Cilento,  Grace Cossington Smith,  Ray Crooke,  Desmond Digby,  William Dobell,  Russell Drysdale,  Douglas Dundas,  John Eldershaw,  Ian Fairweather,  James Gleeson,  Thomas Gleghorn,  Nancy Goldfinch, Elioth Gruner,  Weaver Hawkins,  Elaine Haxton,  Sali Herman,  Frank Hinder,  Jean Isherwood, Fred Jessup,  Ena Joyce,  J. Noel Kilgour,  Michael Kmit,  George Lawrence, Daryl Lindsay,  Lionel Lindsay,  Rodney Milgate,  Godfrey Miller,  Sidney Nolan,  Justin O’Brien,  Margaret Olley,  John Olsen,  Desiderius Orban,  Ethleen Palmer,  John Passmore,  Carl Plate,  Thea Proctor,  Clifton Pugh,  Lloyd Rees,  Alison Rehfisch,  William Rose,  Loudon Sainthill,  Michael Shannon,  Arnold Shore,  Jeffrey Smart,  Treania Smith,  David Strachan,  Roland Wakelin.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales and TLE Electrical support this exhibition through a Principal Loan Partnership with the National Gallery of Australia’s Regional Initiatives Program.

Artworks for this exhibition have also been loaned from the Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Chau Chak Wing Museum, Orange Regional Gallery, Maitland Regional Gallery, and Private Donors.

A publication will accompany the exhibition. Publication Sponsors: Gordon Darling Foundation and Robyn Martin-Weber. Designed by Hayman Design.

1.Eileen Chanin, 'Smith, Treania Helen Lindsay (1901–1990)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, /biography/smith-treania-helen-lindsay-15737/text26925, published first in hardcopy 2012, accessed online 13 August 2024.

Image Credit: Jeffrey Smart, The Stilt Race, 1960. Art Gallery of New South Wales
Purchased 1961. © Art Gallery of New South Wales.