Clarice Beckett—Atmosphere

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 our region, and it 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.      

A Geelong Gallery exhibition