Ethel Spowers, School is out 1936 .
Linocut, printed in colour inks, from five blocks
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Purchased 1976

Ethel Spowers, School is out 1936 .
Linocut, printed in colour inks, from five blocks
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Purchased 1976


Spowers & Syme

Saturday 16 July 2022, from 11.00am to 11.40am

This is a free event
Book now

Join National Gallery of Australia's Curator of Australian Prints and Drawing, Sarina Noordhuis-Fairfax for a guided tour of the National Gallery Touring Exhibition Spowers and Syme.

This exhibition offers rare insight into the unlikely collaboration between the daughters of rival media families. Studying together in Paris and later with avant-garde printmaker Claude Flight in London, Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme returned to the conservative art world of Australia – where they became enthusiastic exponents of modern art in Melbourne during the 1930s and ‘40s.

Much-loved for their innovative approach to lino and woodcut techniques, Spowers and Syme showcases their dynamic approach through prints and drawings whose rhythmic patterns reflect the fast pace of the modern world through everyday observations of childhood themes, overseas travel and urban life.