Celebrating the artistic friendship of Melbourne artists Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme, Spowers & Syme presents the changing face of interwar Australia through the perspective of two remarkable women artists.

The 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 & 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.

Eveline Syme

Sydney tram line 1936

linocut, printed in colour inks, from four blocks

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1979

©Estate of Eveline Syme

Ethel Spowers

School is out 1936

linocut, printed in colour inks, from five blocks

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1976

Exhibition details

Spowers & Syme on display Tuesday – Sunday, 11am – 5pm from Saturday 3 December 2022 – Sunday 12 February 2023*.

*Closed for summer break from Monday 19 December – Monday 2 January 2023 inclusive.

Partners

Spowers & Syme is a National Gallery Touring Exhibition supported by Visions of Australia, Major Patron David Thomas AM, and the Gordon Darling Foundation. Spowers & Syme is a Know My Name project.

How to book your tickets

Exhibition is included in a valid S.H. Ervin Gallery entry ticket.

Book via Eventbrite, where possible, to guarantee a spot.

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