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Title

The curve of the bridge

1928-1929

Artist

Grace Cossington Smith

Australia

1892 – 20 Dec 1984

Artist profile

Alternate image of The curve of the bridge by Grace Cossington Smith
Alternate image of The curve of the bridge by Grace Cossington Smith
Alternate image of The curve of the bridge by Grace Cossington Smith
Alternate image of The curve of the bridge by Grace Cossington Smith
Alternate image of The curve of the bridge by Grace Cossington Smith
Alternate image of The curve of the bridge by Grace Cossington Smith

  • Details

    Place where the work was made
    Sydney → New South Wales → Australia
    Date
    1928-1929
    Media category
    Painting
    Materials used
    oil on cardboard
    Dimensions
    110.5 x 82.5 cm board; 126.5 x 99.0 x 8.0 cm frame
    Signature & date

    Signed l.l. corner, black ink "G.Cossington Smith". Not dated.

    Credit
    Purchased with funds provided by the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales and James Fairfax AO 1991
    Location
    South Building, ground level, 20th-century galleries
    Accession number
    1.1991
    Copyright
    © Estate of Grace Cossington Smith

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    Artist information
    Grace Cossington Smith

    Artist profile

    Works in the collection

    26

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  • About

    One of Australia’s most celebrated 20th-century painters, Grace Cossington Smith was an important early exponent of modernism in Australia. Her work formed part of the first significant wave of Australian responses to European post-impressionism. A brilliant colourist, she drew her subject matter from the familiar surroundings of her home and her experience of Sydney city life, which she transformed into vibrant images of light-infused colour.

    Throughout its construction, which was completed in 1932, the Sydney Harbour Bridge inspired many artists to redefine their visions of the city and the harbour by incorporating this new industrial structure. This painting shows the massive framework in mid-construction, emerging from the shores of North Sydney. It reveals Cossington Smith’s view of the bridge as a dynamic work-in-progress.

    In a powerful translation of forms through colour and light, the painting radiates optimism and energy in a celebration of modern engineering and, more broadly, the modern age. The artist made many pencil studies onsite, which she inscribed with notes on colour, took back to her studio and transformed into an iconic expression of Sydney’s most enduring urban monument.

    Cossington Smith shared her fascination with the experience of modernity with artists such as American Georgia O’Keeffe and fellow Australian Margaret Preston, revealing modernism to have been a global experience. Their art was part of a transcultural and transcontinental flow of ideas about abstraction and modernism.

  • Places

    Where the work was made

    Sydney

  • Audio

    The curve of the bridge - Grace Cossington Smith 1:14

  • Exhibition history

    Shown in 11 exhibitions

  • Bibliography

    Referenced in 42 publications

Other works by Grace Cossington Smith

See all 26 works