Anita Aarons (6 November 1912 – 3 January 2000) was an

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

artist.

Life

Born in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

, Aarons studied at the East Sydney Technical College and the

National Art School The National Art School (NAS) is a tertiary level art school, located in , an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The school is an independent accredited higher education provider offering specialised study in studio arts p ...

in Sydney before moving to New York City, where she graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1964. She exhibited work in venues in the United States, Canada, and Australia. She taught sculpture and crafts in a number of institutions, and designed

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

windows, furniture, and jewelry, in addition to working as a sculptor. Collections which include examples of her work include the Charlottetown National Craft Collection and the National Collection of the Canadian Craftsmen Guild in Toronto. On 25 June 1951, Aarons was invited to attend a meeting of the City of Sydney's Health and Recreations Committee to discuss her submission to erect a piece of sculpture in the children's playground of Phillip Park. The Council approved the submission on 2 October 1951. The sculpture was removed on 2 April 1952. In 1965 she became a critic for the

Royal Architectural Institute of Canada The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) is a not-for-profit, national organization that has represented architects and architecture for over 100 years, in existence since 1907. The RAIC is the leading voice for excellence in the built ...

's ''Journal RAIC'', writing a column titled "Allied Arts" about the role of craft in architecture. In 1983, she was awarded the Diplome d'Honneur from the Canadian Conference of the Arts. Aarons returned to Australia at the end of her life and settled in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

, where she died on 3 January 2000. The

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; french: Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Bev ...

's Special Collections holds a small collection of sixteen audio recordings of Anita Aarons interviewing figures of Canadian art or world figures active in the 1970s and 1980s. These include Ron Bloore,

Graham Coughtry Graham Coughtry (June 6, 1931January 13, 1999), was a Canadian modernist figurative painter. Biography Coughtry was born in Saint-Lambert, Quebec, on June 8, 1931. He learned to paint at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts School, then attended ...

, Dorothy Cameron,

Guido Molinari Guido Molinari (October 12, 1933 – February 21, 2004) was a Canadian artist, known internationally for his serial abstract paintings. Biography Molinari was born in Montreal, Quebec to Italian heritage with his parents from Cune (Borgo a ...

Yves Gaucher Yves Gaucher, (January 3, 1934 – September 8, 2000) was an abstract painter and printmaker. He is considered a leader amongst Quebec's printmakers in the 1950s and 60s. His work has been included in the collections of public galleries suc ...

, Ted Bieler, Gordon Rayner, and

Jack Pollock Jack Henry Pollock (1 August 1930 – 10 December 1992) was an author, painter, art educator and art dealer who was a fixture on the Toronto art scene for over 3 decades. Pollock was the flamboyant founder and owner of The Pollock Gallery in Toront ...

. Aarons also has work, "Year of the Moon," that is also held by the

Art Gallery of NSW The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aarons, Anita 1912 births 2000 deaths 20th-century Australian sculptors 20th-century Canadian sculptors Canadian women sculptors Artists from Sydney 20th-century Australian women artists 20th-century Canadian women artists Australian emigrants to Canada National Art School alumni Columbia University School of the Arts alumni Australian designers Canadian designers Australian stained glass artists and manufacturers Canadian stained glass artists and manufacturers Australian jewellers Canadian jewellery designers Australian expatriates in the United States Women jewellers