Modern: the 1920s to 1950s

Clarice Beckett, Rainy day, 1930

Rupert Bunny, Portrait of Sybil Craig, 1928

Noel Counihan, On the eve of the elections, 1955

Sir Russell Drysdale, Hill End, 1948

Sali Herman, Dan's place, 1947

Freed by the efforts of the Heidelberg artists to explore new concepts and absorb the diversity of styles and techniques that were emerging from the art centres of France and London, the art produced between the 1920s and 1950s reflected a new vitality in Australian art. Europe saw a succession of art movements during the first half of the twentieth century, including cubism, futurism, fauvism, primitivism, expressionism, surrealism and abstraction, that excited and inspired many Australian artists. As a result, Australian modernism was influenced enormously by European art, in particular by cubism, which explored the three-dimensionality of objects, and fauvism, which favoured an emphasis on colour and design.

It was during this period that women artists came to the fore. As a result of the two world wars, the absence of a large portion of the male population and subsequent extension of responsibilities, women gained an independence and confidence that they carried into the art world, becoming more experimental and adapting to new styles, techniques and materials. Women artists played a significant role in the development of Australian modernism, and this is reflected in the Geelong Gallery's collection, which began to represent a growing number of leading women artists.

The larger proportion of works entering the collection was, however, still by male artists. Amongst these are paintings by George Bell and Max Meldrum, whose rival art schools made a strong impression on the art of a generation of Melbourne artists during the 1920s and 30s. The following decades saw the emergence of enthusiastic artists who continued the search for new forms of expression and included the now iconic figures of Arthur Boyd, Russell Drysdale and Sydney Nolan. Like their predecessors in the Heidelberg School, these artists immortalised Australian life through contemporary art practice and were in turn immortalised themselves.

Together with artists of more modest, but no less solid reputations working in a more conservative style, they contributed to a collection that incorporates an extreme diversity of subject matter. This included not only landscapes and seascapes but also an increasing number of portraits, interiors and still life paintings as well as topical war imagery. The Gallery's particular interest in local themes and its print collection continued to be pursued, with major acquisitions of large bodies of work by Florence Royce, a Geelong-based porcelain painter and Lionel Lindsay, whose interest in the Gallery resulted in the addition of ninety-four of his prints in 1944.