Newcastle Art Gallery offers retrospective of Elisabeth Cummings

Elisabeth Cummings is one of Australia's greatest living painters, and she has featured more than once on Australian Art Collectors "50 most collectable artists" list. Now in her 80s, she has never been more successful.
 
A retrospective exhibition of Elisabeth Cummings' work is now on at Newcastle Art Gallery. Elisabeth Cummings: interior landscapes will be on display until the end of April and entry is free.

^{Elisabeth CUMMINGS, Pandava IV 1978 oil and enamel on canvas 139.0 x 191.0cm. Gift of the artist through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program 2011. Newcastle Art Gallery collection courtesy the artist.}
 The exhibition features a large selection of paintings, prints and ceramics from her opus of the past 50 years. Newcastle Art Gallery is the final venue of the exhibition's NSW tour after it first exhibited in February 2017 at Canberra's Drill Hall Gallery and then called Sydney, Armidale and Orange over the past 12 months.
 
"This exhibition is a stunning display of Cummings' work, and we are excited to be the final touring venue for interior landscapes," said Gallery Manager Lauretta Morton.
 
"While most of her contemporaries -- such as Roy Jackson or John Peart -- established their careers and gained recognition well before she did, Elisabeth is now among the most widely acclaimed and best-loved painters of her generation."
 
Born in Brisbane in 1934, Elisabeth Cummings graduated from the National Art School in Sydney in the 1950s as part of a cohort of high achievers. From a generation that witnessed the heyday of Abstract Expressionism, Cummings’ paintings maintain a spirited dialogue with the movement.
 
Perhaps the most crucial factor in the distinctive character of her paintings is the spirit of the Australian bush. Since 1970, Cummings has lived and worked in an artists’ colony in Wedderburn, overlooking a steep, heavily wooded gully near the Georges River.
 
An avid and repeated visitor to remote areas of Australia, Cummings has been traversing the country since the 1980s. She has spent regular periods in the Flinders Ranges, visiting Arkaroola, the Gammon Ranges and their surroundings. Her painting excursions have encompassed Lake Mungo, The Kimberleys, Elcho Island (as an invited guest of the Indigenous community), Menindee, West MacDonnell Ranges, Fowlers Gap, the Monaro and Currumbin in Queensland.
 
This touring exhibition is presented by Drill Hall Gallery and curated by Sioux Garside, founding director of the Campbelltown Art Gallery and former senior curator of the Sydney University Art Gallery.
 
Many of the Gallery's public programs to accompany the exhibition are set to align with International Women's Day (8 March).
 
Elisabeth Cummings: interior landscapes A Drill Hall touring exhibition
 3 March - 29 April 2018
http://nag.org.au/Exhibitions/Future/ELISABETH-CUMMINGS-interior-landscapes
 
Also on display during this period:
 
GRISAILLE: Shades of grey from the collection 
 3 February - 25 March 2018
http://nag.org.au/Exhibitions/Current/GRISAILLE-Shades-of-grey-from-the-collection
 
IN-FORM: Sculpture from the collection
 7 April - 13 May 2018
http://nag.org.au/Exhibitions/Future/IN-FORM-Sculpture-from-the-collection
 
Related Events:
 
International Women’s Day female-focused Guided Tour
Free, Thursday 8 March, 1:30pm no bookings required
Meet at the Gallery Shop
Join a Gallery Guide for a special tour focusing on two great women artists. First, the exhibition ELISABETH CUMMINGS: interior landscapes, then to the Gallery’s outdoor sculpture garden to view Margel Hinder’s Abstract form 1952, and to Civic Park to see Hinder’s Captain James Cook Memorial Fountain.
 
Talking With Painters - Live podcast recording
Free, Thursday 22 March, 2pm no bookings required
Speakers: Maria Stoljar podcast host of Talking with Painters
Lottie Consalvo is a Newcastle-based artist whose practice traverses a variety of mediums
Maria Stoljar is a Newcastle-born painter and podcaster, based in Sydney, whose series Talking with Painters focuses on Australian artists and their painting practice. Join us for a live podcast recording, acknowledging both Maria and Lottie and their individual achievements in the arts. Podcast available for free download here: www.talkingwithpainters.com
 
Public tours
Free, every Saturday & Sunday, 11am no bookings required
Meet one of our guides at the Gallery Shop and join a free tour of current exhibitions. Free, private guided tours are also available for booking at a time that suits you.
 
Art Cart 
Free, every Saturday & Sunday, 
10.30am - 12.30pm (drop-in, activity takes approx 30 minutes) no bookings required
Enjoy free art activities designed for children and their families to extend their experience with tactile, hands-on experiences.