Geelong Gallery presents an exclusive in-focus, thematic survey of the work of Australian artist Clarice Beckett (1887–1935). This much-anticipated exhibition will present key works from across Beckett’s oeuvre ranging from 1919 to the early 1930s, providing a critical representation of this enduringly enigmatic modernist artist’s atmospheric depictions of light, climate, and bayside Melbourne. Beckett’s beautiful paintings are revered for the ways in which they captured the essence of Beaumaris streetscapes and Melbourne cityscapes in varying light and weather conditions, as well as atmospheric vistas towards the waters of Port Phillip Bay.

Beckett also worked in the Geelong region, and it is these works that provide an important local context for Geelong Gallery’s presentation. For a period of six months in 1926, Beckett left the familiar environment of her coastal home in Beaumaris to visit rural Victoria. She stayed with the brother of her good friend Maud Rowe on his Western District sheep station, ‘Naringal’. It was in this new environment that she produced some of her most experimental landscapes, capturing the radiating heat of the afternoon sun, or the muted light of dusk, across wide panoramic farming country. 

In addition, Beckett also frequented the beaches of Anglesea as evidenced in paintings of 1929 when she joined a group of Meldrum school students on painting camps.

This exclusive Geelong Gallery exhibition will bring a new perspective on the practice of this enduringly popular artist through key works from major Australian public galleries and rarely-seen private collections.   

Featured Image:

Clarice Beckett, Rainy day 1930, Geelong Gallery, Purchased 1973

Image 2:

Clarice Beckett, Across the Yarra c. 1931, National Gallery of Victoria, Bequest of Harriet Minnie Rosebud Salier, 1984

Image 3:

Clarice Beckett, Anglesea 1929, Private collection

Image 4:

Clarice Beckett

Luna Park 1919

Art Gallery of South Australia                       

Gift of Alastair Hunter OAM and the late Tom Hunter in memory of Elizabeth through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 2019

Image 5:

Clarice Beckett

Wet sand, Anglesea 1929

Art Gallery of South Australia                       

Gift of Alastair Hunter OAM and the late Tom Hunter in memory of Elizabeth through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 2019

Image 6:

Clarice Beckett, The empty seat c. 1925-30, Bendigo Art Gallery, Anonymous Gift under the Taxation Incentives for the Arts Scheme, 1993