Title
Centre of a city
(circa 1925)
Artist
-
Details
- Date
- (circa 1925)
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on canvas on hardboard
- Dimensions
- 82.3 x 70.0 cm board; 98.9 x 86.6 x 5.7 cm frame
- Signature & date
Signed and dated l.l. "G.Cossington Smith 35 (sic)".
- Credit
- Purchased with funds provided by Susan Rothwell 2002
- Location
- Naala Nura, ground level, 20th-century galleries
- Accession number
- 299.2002
- Copyright
- © Estate of Grace Cossington Smith
- Artist information
-
Grace Cossington Smith
Works in the collection
- Share
-
About
I suddenly liked the subject – the Centre of the City! I liked the going downhill of Moore Street [now Martin Place], the feeling that the Post Office at the bottom was the centre of the city, the people hurrying about. (Then I was interested in outside things, what people did and what was happening ...)
Grace Cossington Smith, 1971
'Centre of a city' was a groundbreaking painting by Grace Cossington Smith, both in terms of its subject and her approach to it. It was painted at a time when Cossington Smith was commuting regularly to art classes in the city from her home at Turramurra on the North Shore. The radiant blue sky and rosy glow of buildings signal her increasing affection for the city, which reached its climax in her paintings of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the late 1920s.
-
Exhibition history
Shown in 12 exhibitions
Forty-sixth Annual Exhibition of the Royal Art Society of New South Wales (1925), Exhibition Gallery Department of Public Instruction, Sydney, Aug 1925 -
Grace Cossington Smith (1972), Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 21 Jun 1972–10 Jul 1972
Grace Cossington Smith (1973-74), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 15 Jun 1973–15 Jul 1973
Grace Cossington Smith (1973-74), Queensland Art Gallery, South Brisbane, 06 Sep 1973–04 Oct 1973
Grace Cossington Smith (1973-74), Western Australian Art Gallery, Perth, 06 Dec 1973–02 Jan 1974
Grace Cossington Smith (1973-74), Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 11 Jan 1974–10 Feb 1974
Grace Cossington Smith (1973-74), National Gallery of Victoria [St Kilda Road], Melbourne, 26 Mar 1974–28 Apr 1974
Grace Cossington Smith (1976), Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 03 Mar 1976–15 Mar 1976
Metropolis, Museum of Sydney, Sydney, 18 Dec 1999–02 Apr 2000
The Fairfax Corporate Collection of Australian paintings, Sotheby's Gallery Sydney, Woollahra, 14 Nov 2002–17 Nov 2002
Sydney studios, S.H. Ervin Gallery, The Rocks, 14 Aug 2004–26 Sep 2004
Grace Cossington Smith: a retrospective exhibition (2005), National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 04 Mar 2005–13 Jun 2005
Grace Cossington Smith: a retrospective exhibition (2005), Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 29 Jul 2005–09 Oct 2005
Grace Cossington Smith: a retrospective exhibition (2005), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 29 Oct 2005–15 Jan 2006
Grace Cossington Smith: a retrospective exhibition (2005), Queensland Art Gallery, South Brisbane, 11 Feb 2006–30 Apr 2006
Australian modern masterpieces from the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Ballarat, 05 Oct 2011–27 Nov 2011
Australian modern masterpieces from the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Newcastle Art Gallery, Newcastle, 10 Dec 2011–04 Mar 2012
Sydney Moderns, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 06 Jul 2013–07 Oct 2013
Destination Sydney, S.H. Ervin Gallery, The Rocks, 11 Dec 2015–21 Feb 2016
O'Keeffe, Preston, Cossington Smith: Making Modernism, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 12 Oct 2016–19 Feb 2017
O'Keeffe, Preston, Cossington Smith: Making Modernism, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 11 Mar 2017–11 Jun 2017
-
Bibliography
Referenced in 24 publications
-
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of New South Wales annual report 2003 [for the year ended 30 June 2003], Sydney, 2003, 9, 14.
-
Natasha Bullock, Look, 'Shedding Light, photographs by the great Harold Cazneaux are seen in a new light alongside paintings of the time', pg.13, Melbourne, Aug 2001, 13.
-
Diana Chase and Valerie Krantz, Grace Cossington Smith: a painter ahead of her time, Melbourne, 1993, 18. Book for primary school students.
-
Christopher Dawson., The Sydney Morning Herald, 'In the galleries', Sydney, 22 Jun 1972.
-
Roger Dedman, Art and Australia (Vol. 43, No. 2), 'Market profile: Grace Cossington Smith', pg. 295, Sydney, Dec 2005-Feb 2006, 295 (colour illus.).
-
Deborah Edwards., Australian Collection Focus: Grace Cossington Smith The Lacquer Room 1935-36, 'Secular light and the curve of the chairs', Sydney, 1999, (colour illus.).
-
Peter Emmett, Metropolis, Glebe, 1999, (colour illus.). Exhibition guide, brochure format.
-
Peter Emmett, Sydney: metropolis, suburb, harbour, 'Metropolis', pg. 13-70, Glebe, 2000, 41, 42 (colour illus.).
-
Deborah Hart, Grace Cossington Smith, 'A room of her own', pg. 11-25, Canberra, 2005, 20-24, 114, 126 (colour illus.), 127-129, 175.
-
Bruce James, Australian painters of the twentieth century, 'Grace Cossington Smith', pg. 40-51, Sydney, 2000, 43, 44 (colour illus.).
-
Bruce James, Grace Cossington Smith, Sydney, 1990, 58, 59 (colour illus.), 60. plate no. 20
-
Macquarie Galleries, Grace Cossington-Smith [sic] (1976), Sydney, 1976. cat.no. 1; titled 'Centre of a city'; dated c.1925; price: $2,750
-
Macquarie Galleries, Grace Cossington Smith (1972), Sydney, 1972. cat.no. 10; titled 'Centre of a city'; dated 1935; price: $2,000
-
Jenny McFarlane, Concerning the Spiritual: The influence of the Theosophical Society on Australian Artists 1890-1934, North Melbourne, 2012, 82 (colour illus.), 148. Note: colour plate pages in between pg. 82-83 are unnumbered.
-
Denise Mimmocchi, Sydney moderns: art for a new world, 'Making Sydney modern: the artistic shaping of the postwar city', pg. 66-85, Sydney, 2013, 74, 81 (colour illus.), 217, 316, 324.
-
Drusilla Modjeska, Stravinsky's lunch, Sydney, 1999, 258-259, 296-297, between pages 304 and 305 (colour illus.). plate no. 24
-
Barry Pearce., Foundation Newsletter #2, 'Grace Cossington Smith's "Centre of a city" c1925', Sydney, May 2003.
-
Annabel Pegus, Look, 'Luminous light: a painting that will speak to future generations', pg. 18, Sydney, Mar 2003, 18 (colour illus.).
-
Royal Art Society of New South Wales, Royal Art Society of New South Wales 46th Annual Exhibition (1925), Sydney, 1925. cat.no. 161; titled 'Centre of a City'; priced 12 guineas; not paginated
-
John Slater, Through artists' eyes: Australian suburbs and their cities 1919-1945, 'The city observed to the city experienced', pg. 71-100, Melbourne, 2004, xii, 88 (colour illus.). illus.no. 71
-
Sotheby's Australia, The Fairfax Corporate Collection of Australian paintings, Armadale, 17 Nov 2002, 12, 13 (colour illus.). lot no. 7
-
Virginia Spate, Art Monthly Australia, 'Amazing Grace: Thoughts inspired by the Grace Cossington Smith exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra', pg. 22-30, Canberra, Aug 2005, 25.
-
Daniel Thomas AM, Grace Cossington Smith: a life. From drawings in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1993, 23-24.
-
Daniel Thomas, Grace Cossington Smith, 'Introduction', pg. 8, Sydney, 1973, 10, 24 (illus.). cat.no. 17
-