The view from here: Women artists in the UNSW Art Collection celebrates the many extraordinary works by women artists in the university’s collection. Featuring twenty works from the 1990s to the present day, it includes some of Australia’s best-known contemporary artists including Janet Laurence and Nonggirrnga Marawili, as well as those such as Hayley Millar-Baker and Louise Zhang who are just beginning to make their mark. Ranging from bark paintings to textiles, photography to sculpture, the selected works are diverse in expression, style and concerns and reflect the rich heritage and ongoing impact of women in the visual arts.

This online exhibition is a collaborative project between the UNSW Art Collection and UNSW Library. Many of these works are exhibited in the student spaces of the Library.

Women artists in the collection

Women artists have historically been under-represented in the UNSW Art Collection. In recent years efforts have been made to address this imbalance by concentrating upon works by women and Indigenous artists and to expand the diversity of voices and viewpoints represented in the Collection. These include bark paintings by Yolngu artists Malaluba Gumana and Djirrira Wunungmurra and prints by Nonggirrnga Marawili and Nyapanyapa Yunupingu, three works from the Cook book series by Hayley Millar-Baker and shellwork by local Bidjigal artists Esme Timbery and her daughter Marilyn Russell. Other notable acquisitions are works by UNSW alumni Katthy Cavaliere, Kylie Banyard and Louise Zhang.

The first works by women artists acquired for the University were two paintings by Margaret Olley and a charcoal drawing by Jean Bellette. These were amongst a group of seventeen works purchased in 1955 intended to form the nucleus of a future collection. The Art Collection developed slowly until the 1970s, when the U-Committee (a philanthropic group comprising mostly of women), provided valuable support for major acquisitions including Mona Hessing’s monumental tapestry Banner 1971 for the new Sir John Clancy Auditorium, the first major public art commission on campus awarded to a woman. During the 1980s, Jenny Birt, wife of the Vice-Chancellor Michael Birt was a champion of the Art Collection. She led U-Committee fundraising efforts including the establishment of the Invitation Art Purchase Exhibition from which significant works by Micky Allan, Hilarie Mais and Ann Thomson were acquired. The Art Collection was put under professional management in the early 1990s, and works by Emily Kngwarreye, Gwyn Hansen Piggott, Janet Laurence and Barbara Hanrahan were acquired during this decade. The 2000s saw the purchase of paintings and prints by Western and Central Desert artists, including Kumuntjai Napurrula, Kayi Kayi Nampitjinpa and Ada Bird Petyarre.

The recent focus upon acquiring works by women has also prompted the desire to make existing works in the Collection better known and appreciated. The view from here: Women artists in the UNSW Art Collection is the result, and features new acquisitions alongside earlier works. This online exhibition includes prints, photographs, paintings, textiles, ceramics, and sculpture and reveals the range and breadth of work by women artists in the university’s collection, and the extraordinary stories that they have to tell.

UNSW Library would like to acknowledge the Bedegal (Kensington campus), Gadigal (City and Art & Design Campuses) and Ngunnawal people (Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra) who are the traditional custodians of the lands where each campus of UNSW is located.