Barbara Brash
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Barbara Nancy Brash (3 November 1925 – 25 February 1998) was a twentieth-century post-war Australian artist known for her painting and innovative printmaking. In an extensive career she contributed to the
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
Modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
art scene, beside other significant women artists including: Mary Macqueen, Dorothy Braund, Anne Marie Graham, Constance Stokes, Anne Montgomery (artist) and Nancy Grant.Art Nomad
"Dorothy Mary Braund" Art Nomad, accessed 6 July 2022


Biography

Barbara Nancy Brash was born in Melbourne on 3 November 1925 to Elsa and Alfred Brasch. The Brasch family had established Brasch Brothers and Salenger partnership in 1866 and opened Braschs music store at 108 Elizabeth Street. Reacting to prejudice against German names during and after the First World War, Alfred anglicised his surname. Barbara and her brother Geoffrey went to primary school at St. Margarets, Melbourne after which Barbara attended secondary school at the all-girls college St Catherine's School, Toorak where artist Rosemary Ryan, was a contemporary, both following Sunday Reed's earlier attendance. While Geoffrey inherited Brashs in the 1970s, Barbara did not join the business, instead caring for her ageing parents at the family home in Toorak until her father's death, though she produced several record covers for Brashs in the 1980s. She lived in the Toorak home briefly before moving to her own home in Kooyong in 1967, and lived there for the remainder of her life. Barbara had family connections in the visual arts; cousin Golda Figa Brasch married Louis Abrahams in 1888, a founding member of the Heidelberg School, and another cousin Reuben Brasch set up Curlew Camp, visited by
Tom Roberts Thomas William Roberts (8 March 185614 September 1931) was an English-born Australian artist and a key member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism. After studying in Melbourne, he travelled to Europe i ...
and Arthur Streeton in the early 1880s. In late 1949 Brash travelled in Europe with Dorothy Braund, returning to Melbourne from London in 1951. Brash's lifelong concern was for the environment and animals, and she willed large sums from her shares to support animal welfare; Wildlife in Secure Environment, The Animal Welfare League of Victoria, The Lost Dogs Home and Animal Hospital, and the International Fund for Animal Welfare were beneficiaries.


Career

During a 50-year career, Barbara Brash experimented to extend the limits of the graphic medium, working in and combining
woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...
s,
linocut Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of relief printing in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief printing, relief surface. A design i ...
s, lithographs and screenprints, so that she became a pivotal artist in a post-WWII
printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proces ...
revival in Melbourne. Her work attracted the attention of the public as early as 1953; "Unusual grey and silver invitation cards have been designed by Barbara Brash for the "winter dinner" dance the Whernside Junior Auxiliary of the Royal Melbourne Hospital will hold at Ciro's on 19 June. Barbara, who is an old St. Catherine's girl, is doing an art course at the Melbourne Technical College." Brash began printmaking in 1947 when she studied
etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other type ...
in informal classes run by Harold Freedman at the Melbourne Technical College (now RMIT), simultaneous with her training in painting and drawing at the
National Gallery School The National Gallery of Victoria Art School, associated with the National Gallery of Victoria, was a private fine arts college founded in 1867 and was Australia's leading art school of 50 years. It is also referred to as the 'National Gallery S ...
under its first Modernist instructor, Alan Sumner in 1946, the analytical approach taught by the Gallery School assisted her to find her simplistic, rich, and dynamic style. Furthermore, as an avid student she undertook additional classes with George Bell at his private school, where she formed close relationships with fellow women artists Dorothy Braund and Evelyn Syme. Her work began to reflect the ideas and practices of
Modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
including the principle of dynamic symmetry. As part of the George Bell Group, consisting of Russell Drysdale, Geoffrey Jones, Edwin Robinson, Dorothy Braund, Alan Warren, Roma Thompson, Barbara Brash, Peter Cox, Constance Stokes, Anne Montgomery, Ron Center, Sali Herman, and Alan Sumner, she exhibited frequently in their group shows. Brash benefitted from revived interest in printmaking among the city's galleries and art schools, and local and émigré artists, including screenprinter Senbergs and etcher Kluge-Pott, transmitted new techniques to eager local practitioners. ''The Herald'' newspaper art reviewer 'L.T.’, surveying the year's exhibitions of 1949, associates Brash with Alan Warren, Roger Kemp,
Arthur Boyd Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd (24 July 1920 – 24 April 1999) was a leading Australian painter of the middle to late 20th century. Boyd's work ranges from impressionist renderings of Australian landscape to starkly expressionist figuration, ...
, Keith Nichol, Eric Smith, Wesley Penberthey, Samuel Fullbrook, Robert Grieve, Dorothy Braund,
John Brack John Brack (10 May 1920 – 11 February 1999) was an Australian painter, and a member of the Antipodeans group. According to one critic, Brack's early works captured the idiosyncrasies of their time "more powerfully and succinctly than any Aust ...
, Leonard French and Barbara Robertson, as "the nucleus of a new and strong movement." She also was a foundational member of a group, Studio One Printmakers, which formed in Melbourne in 1961 from the Print Studio in the Art School of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...
after head of the art school
Victor Greenhalgh Victor Greenhalgh (1900–1983) was an Australian sculptor and teacher. He was commissioned to sculpt the King George V statue in Ballarat, Victoria, as well as eight of the portrait busts of Australian Prime Ministers which line the "Avenue of ...
had established for selected artists to have access to RMIT's print facilities. Its other members were Tate Adams, Hertha Kluge-Pott, Grahame King, Janet Dawson, Fred Williams, and Jan Senbergs. Tate Adams included her in an exhibition of Studio One Printmakers; ''Forty Prints by Seven Artists,'' which during 1963 toured the National Gallery of Victoria, Newcastle Region Art Gallery, Castlemaine Gallery, Rudy Komon Gallery (Sydney), Douglas Gallery (Brisbane), Bonython Gallery (Adelaide), Skinner Gallery (Perth) and Yoseido Gallery, Tokyo. Subsequently he opened Crossley Gallery, in Crossley Street, Melbourne, the first private gallery in Australia to be devoted exclusively to showing artists' prints, in 1966, and continued to show her work. Also that year Stuart Purves took on the management of Australian Galleries for the next five decades and during the 1970s, included Brash in its 'stable' alongside George Baldessin,
Jeffrey Smart Frank Jeffrey Edson Smart (26 July 1921 – 20 June 2013) was an expatriate Australian painter known for his precisionist depictions of urban landscapes that are "full of private jokes and playful allusions". Smart was born and educated ...
and
Brett Whiteley Brett Whiteley Order of Australia, AO (7 April 1939 – 15 June 1992) was an Australian artist. He is represented in the collections of all the large Australian galleries, and was twice winner of the Archibald Prize, Archibald, Wynne Prize, ...
. On 23 October 1965 in the print room of the National Gallery of Victoria twelve people met with curator prints Dr Ursula Hoff to establish a national body to promote printmaking in Australia. The result was The Print Council of Australia; in 1981 Lillian Wood recorded that "from 22 June 1967 the first elected committee took over and it is interesting to note that of this first committee, three members continue to serve...Barbara Brash, Robert Grieve and Grahame King." Brash often combined or modified existing techniques and materials, developing and exploiting a proficiency that encompassed a broad gamut of technical printmaking processes, such as screenprints which she adopted earlier than most of her contemporaries and exploited for its intensity of opaque or transparent colour. She continued to work into her seventies and embraced the nascent field of digital printmaking technologies as enthusiastically as traditional media.


Style

Brash's early output, mostly linocuts and etchings, was in a Classical Modernist style and her love of animals and the environment inspires much of the subject matter. In the 1960s she adopted the new medium of
silkscreen Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen in a "flood stroke" ...
, which artists were taking up from industrial applications in which it had been used since the turn of the century, and she explored its effects of solid or translucent colour in boldly graphic abstract works, enhanced with innovations such as embossing and textured inks, as seen in her complex print of 1967 ''Promontory''. Brash revealed details of her working method in an interview for ''The Age'' when she was preparing for a solo show at Australian Galleries in 1965:
"I had wanted a printing press for a long time," Miss Brash said yesterday, "but always seemed to miss out to junk yards. Then I found this mangle and had it converted. It's too big to fit into the house, so I keep it in the garage." Previously, Miss Brash said, she had depended on the hospitality of the art school of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology to do her printing. The forthcoming exhibition will be her first one-woman show of screen prints and etchings...20 pieces epresentingabout two years' work. Miss Brash said she had given all her time lately to this work and had not done any painting. She enjoyed exploring the possibilities of a medium to the limit of the material, she said, and had been translating all her ideas into this medium so each print was a work in Its own right, not just a reproduction of a picture. Miss Brash said she had one plastic print in the exhibition. This was an experimental work which had turned out more successful than she had hoped. She had used plastic for the plate in an endeavour to get a higher relief and has chosen a thick Japanese paper, like blotting paper, she said. The paper had held its form well and the result has a sculptured effect with a translucent quality about the ink. "I was afraid It might break the press but although the plate is cracking the press has not suffered,...”
After a quiescence in the 1980s, Brash was excited anew by the advent of digital printmaking which she experienced while attending the workshops of Bashir Baraki with whom in 1996 she published the collaborative editions comprising their ''The Image Makers''. Works such as ''Fossilised'' of 1993 exemplify the freedom afforded her in these highly coloured abstractions. Her 1997 series of digital prints ''Sludge'' is intended as an insight into destruction of the environment.


Reception

It is a reflection of her innovation that Alan McCulloch writing in 1953 in '' The Herald'' noted Brash's application of flat, intense hues in "colorful works after the pattern of cut outs…," while '' The Bulletin'' condemned it; "There is Barbara Brash's "Seated Woman," whose flesh and nightdress have all the variety of a coat of whitewash applied to a smooth surface." In 1954 ''
The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'' art critic called attention to the "two-dimensional pattern with decorative effect" in her lino-cuts, an observation that ''The Herald'' critic repeated; "Barbara Brash is boldly decorative in a series of color lino-cuts. ''The Age'' also drew attention in the same Forty Prints by Ten Artists show at Peter Bray Gallery, opened by Ursula Hoff, to Brash's spanning of oil and watercolour painting and printing, noting that "she feels this new medium ithographyhas a wide scope for experiment and is something which should be developed. The same show traveled to Brisbane where ''Courier-Mail'' critic Gertrude Langer recognised "exceptional gifts" that in Brash's "colour linocut ''Native Dancer'' (which the group used as their poster), could not be bettered in composition and colour." Another Brisbane report noted that "This lithograph exhibition — the first of its kind in Australia — has aroused considerable interest, buyers coming from as-far afield as New Zealand and Tasmania. Particularly noteworthy is the work of Barbara Brash, Kenneth Jack and Walter Gheradin, although all 10 artists excel at individualised style arid skilful handling of their media." Another 1954 exhibition at Peter Bray over November–December prompted
Arnold Shore Arnold Joseph Victor Shore (5 May 1897, Windsor, – 22 May 1963, Melbourne) was an Australian painter, teacher and critic. Biography Shore was the youngest of seven children of John Shore, a coachsmith, and his wife Harriett Sarah, née Mc ...
to comment on Brash's "more exciting colours," and though Alan McCulloch condemned the show for its ‘absence of ideas,’ he conceded "Barbara Brash's ''Woman Seated'' has the forthright quality of a vividly stencilled fabric design" while Allan David in the ''
Jewish News The ''Jewish News'' is a free weekly newspaper, established in 1997, that serves the Jewish communities of Greater London – specifically Middlesex, Hertfordshire and Essex. In 2002, it won the ''Press Gazette'' free newspaper of the year. In ...
'' affirmed its "decorative" "colour and design." In 1955 Arnold Shore in '' The Argus'' starts to see "romantic suggestion" in the "elusive variety of pattern ... of a ''Landscape'', by Barbara Brash." Modernist developments in 1955 still aroused suspicion in some quarters. Of the December show at Peter Bray of the George Bell Group the traditionalist magazine ''The Bulletin'' is typically sardonic; "Barbara Brash's ''Landscape with Houses'' is a little looser n brushwork as is her ''Old Farm'', which has two trees, two wheels and a ladder, and which is easily recognisable as contemporary“ Nevertheless, the National Gallery of Victoria purchased one of her works from the Group's show in 1956 at Peter Bray. By 1960 the ''
Canberra Times ''The Canberra Times'' is a daily newspaper in Canberra, Australia, which is published by Australian Community Media. It was founded in 1926, and has changed ownership and format several times. History ''The Canberra Times'' was launched in 1 ...
'' praised innovation; "Barbara Brash illustrates the use of overprinting in lino cut on rice paper, using many strong, transparent colours. ''The Peacock'' is a radiating composition with pattern and line assisting the glowing colours to make it most decorative," and of the same show "Melbourne Prints," when it traveled to South Australia, ''The Bulletins
Geoffrey Dutton Geoffrey 'Geppie' Piers Henry Dutton Officer of the Order of Australia, AO (2 August 192217 September 1998) was an Australian author and historian. Early life and education Dutton was born at Anlaby Station near Kapunda, South Australia on 2 Au ...
was prepared to appreciate her experiments; "Barbara Brash lays on color with the most notable effect in the show, in separate blocks in ''Lighthouse'' and in gauzy veils in ''Peacock''." His appraisal was re-enforced in
Arnold Shore Arnold Joseph Victor Shore (5 May 1897, Windsor, – 22 May 1963, Melbourne) was an Australian painter, teacher and critic. Biography Shore was the youngest of seven children of John Shore, a coachsmith, and his wife Harriett Sarah, née Mc ...
's comment in 1962 that "Brash revels in color in her seriographs ..and there is exquisite quality in her etching ''Surfaces'';" and by Bernard Smith, who had singled out Brash's contribution to the 1963 Studio One exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria as "colorful and poetic." In his review of her 1965 solo show of screen prints and etchings of birds, flowers and gardens at Australian Galleries, Smith rated her works "Intimate, well-designed, craftsmanly," and considered that "several of the aquatints reveal an exquisite sensitivity to tone and texture, especially the ''Magic Garden'', with its haunting, enigmatic beauty; and the superb formal and tonal control of ''Composition''."
Patrick McCaughey Patrick McCaughey (born 1942) is an Irish-born Australian art historian and academic. McCaughey was born in Belfast, his father being Davis McCaughey. He migrated with his family to Melbourne, Australia. when he was ten years old. His secondary ...
in a review of Barbara Brash's silk screen prints at Crossley Gallery considered them "lively, decorative and unpretentious. When she cuts the color into another color instead of laying it neatly alongside, her work takes on a quiet distinction.


Awards

* 1948: 2nd prize (a landscape) Jewish Competitions Society series of competitions * 1949: Sara Seri Scholarship, judged by A.M.E. Bale, Eric Thake, Douglas Dundas and Daryl Lindsay * 1951: Victorian Jewish Competitions Society 1at Prize, Art Division * 1975: Warrnambool * 1980: Stanthorpe * 1981: Mornington * 1984: Victor Harbor Drawing Prize * 1988: selected award, 5th International Miniature Print Exhibition, Seoul, Sth Korea


Collections


National and state

*
National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...
, 286 works *
Art Gallery of New South Wales 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 import ...
*
Art Gallery of Western Australia The Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA) is a public art gallery that is part of the Perth Cultural Centre, in Perth. It is located near the Western Australian Museum and State Library of Western Australia and is supported and managed by the ...
*
National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited art mu ...
*
Queensland Art Gallery The Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) is an art museum located in South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. It complements the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) building, situated only away. The Queensland Art Galle ...
*
Australian War Memorial The Australian War Memorial (AWM) is a national war memorial, war museum, museum and archive dedicated to all Australians who died as a result of war, including peacekeeping duties. The AWM is located in Campbell, Australian Capital Territory, C ...
*
Heide Museum of Modern Art The Heide Museum of Modern Art, also known as Heide, is an art museum in Bulleen, Victoria, Bulleen, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Established in 1981, the museum exhibits modern art, modern and contemporary a ...
* Artbank


Regional galleries

*
Castlemaine Art Museum Castlemaine Art Museum is an art gallery and museum in Castlemaine, Victoria, Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1913, it is housed in a purpose-built Art Deco building, completed in 1931 and heritage-listed by the National Trust. Its ...
* McClelland * Mornington * Newcastle * Stanthorpe * Swan Hill * Wagga Wagga Art Gallery * Warrnambool


Tertiary collections

*
University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...
*
Adelaide University Adelaide University is a planned public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 2024, it will combine the University of Adelaide, the third-oldest university in Australia, and the University of ...
*
Flinders University Flinders University, established as The Flinders University of South Australia is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia, with a footprint extending across a number of locations in South Australia and ...
*
Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...
*
University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...
, Cruthers Collection of Women's Art, 23 works from the Barbara Brash estate


Exhibitions


Group

* 1948, April:
Victorian Artists' Society The Victorian Artists Society, which can trace its establishment to 1856 in Melbourne, promotes artistic education, art classes and Art museum, gallery hire art gallery, exhibition in Australia. It was formed in March 1888 when the Victorian Acad ...
* 1952, October: Victorian Artists' Society * 1953, August: George Bell group, with Anne Montgomery, Roma Thompson, Dorothy Braund and Constance Stokes,
Peter Bray Gallery Peter Bray Gallery (a commercial gallery) was established as Stanley Coe Gallery in 1949 before being renamed in 1951, after a change of management. Situated at 435 Bourke Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria, Australia, it closed in ...
* 1953, October: Victorian Artists' Society Autumn Exhibition * 1954, from 27 April: ''Forty Prints by Ten Artists'' (3 women, Brash with F. Higgs and Jennifer Purnell)), opened by Ursula Hoff, Peter Bray Gallery * 1954, May: ''Forty Prints by Ten Artists'', Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane * 1954, October:  Contemporary Art Society exhibition of graphic art, P. W. Cheshire's Bookshop, 338 Little Collins St. with
Charles Blackman Charles Raymond Blackman (12 August 1928 – 20 August 2018) was an Australian painter, noted for the ''Schoolgirl, Avonsleigh'' and ''Alice in Wonderland'' series of the 1950s. He was a member of the Antipodeans, a group of Melbourne painte ...
, Kenneth Jack, and Edith Wall * 1954, October: Painting, Melbourne Contemporary Artists at Vic Artists Society 1 Albert St East Melbourne * 1954, 22 November–2 December: George Bell Group, Peter Bray Gallery * 1955, 20 May–2 June: ''Thirty-Six Prints by Twelve Melbourne Artists:'' Tate Adams, Christine Aldor, Ian Armstrong, Geoff Barwell, Barbara Brash, David Allen, William Gleeson, Florence Higgs, Kenneth Jack, Verdon Morcom, Harry Rosengrave, Guenter Stein. Peter Bray Gallery * 1955, 8–20 June: ''Thirty-Six Prints by Twelve Melbourne Artists.'' Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane * 1955, 25 July–1 August: ''Thirty-Six Prints by Twelve Melbourne Artists.'' Riverside Gallery, Canberra * 1955, October: Victorian Artists Society * 1955, November: Fine Arts Week exhibition of painting, sculpture, pottery, and allied arts, with
William Dobell Sir William Dobell (24 September 189913 May 1970) was an Australian portrait and landscape artist of the 20th century. Dobell won the Archibald Prize, Australia's premier award for portrait artists on three occasions. The Dobell Prize is named ...
, Russell Drysdale, Leonard French, Roger Kemp, Constance Stokes, Len Annois, Dawn Sime, Alan Warren, Tina Wentcher,
Arthur Boyd Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd (24 July 1920 – 24 April 1999) was a leading Australian painter of the middle to late 20th century. Boyd's work ranges from impressionist renderings of Australian landscape to starkly expressionist figuration, ...
, Noel Counihan. Tasmanian Tourist Bureau gallery, 254 Collins St * 1956, from 1 June: Melbourne Woman Painters: with Joy Hester, Phyl Waterhouse, Lena Bryans, Guelda Pyke, Valerie Albiston, Ann Taylor, Dawn Sime, Dorothy Braund, Barbara Brash. Erica McGilchrist, Yvonne Cohen, Mirka Mora, Yvette Anderson, Christine Miller and Elena Kepalaite. Museum of Modern Art Australia, Tavistock Place, Melbourne * 1956, to 28 June: with Dorothy Braund, Helen Ogilvie, Guelda Pyke, Roma Thomson, Phyl Waterhouse, and six male artists, ''Paintings for Seven Guineas'', Peter Bray Gallery * 1956, 25 September–4 October:  ''Melbourne Graphic Artists'', Mary MacQueen, Kenneth Jack, Christine G. Miller, Harry Rosengrave, Tate Adams, Florence M. Higgs, Verdon Morcom, Lesbia Thorpe, Ian Armstrong, Barbara Brash, David Dalgarno, Anne Scott, William Gleeson, Edith Wall, Robin Hill. Peter Bray Gallery, Bourke St Melbourne * 1956, October: ''Melbourne Contemporary Artists Annual Exhibition'' with Douglas Annand, Michael Shannon, Ronald Millar, Richard Chriton, Helen Maudsley. Victorian Artists' Society, East Melbourne * 1956, 12 November–15 December: ''Olympic Fine Arts Festival''. National Gallery of Victoria * 1957, December: George Bell Group. Brummels Gallery, South Yarra * 1958, September: ''Melbourne Contemporary Artists''. Victorian Artists' Society, East Melbourne * 1958, November: ''Graphic Artists'': including Anne Graham, Barbara Brash, Nancy Clifton, Florence Higgs, Mary Macqueen, Christine G. Miller, Wendy Rendell. Lesbia Thorpe, Edith Wall, Fred Williams,
John Brack John Brack (10 May 1920 – 11 February 1999) was an Australian painter, and a member of the Antipodeans group. According to one critic, Brack's early works captured the idiosyncrasies of their time "more powerfully and succinctly than any Aust ...
, Noel Counihan, Ray Crooke, Roy Bizley, V.G. O'Connor, Arthur Boyd, Kenneth Jack, Len Annois. Australian Galleries, Collingwood * 1960, from 27 May: Melbourne Prints 1960, Canberra Art Club * 1960, December: Melbourne Prints, Royal South Australian Society of Arts * 1961, August: ''Melbourne Contemporary Artists,'' Argus Gallery * 1962, 50 members in ''Melbourne Contemporary Artists 1962 Exhibition'', including women Mary McQueen, Edith Wall, Clothilde Atyeo, Valeria Albiston, Christine Aldor, Mignonne Armstrong, Barbara Brash, Margaret Benwell, Yvonne Cohen, Joyce Donovan, Margaret Dredge, Dorothea Francis. Peggy Fauser, Marion Fletcher, Nancy Grant, Rosa Garlick, Inez Hutchison, Evelyn McCutcheon, Joan Marks, Maidie McGowan, Lucy Newell, Yvonne Pettengell, Guelda Pyke and Ellen Rubbo. opened by Prof. Joseph Burke Argus Gallery Melbourne * 1963, from 12 August: Melbourne Contemporary Artists 1963 exhibition, Argus Gallery, Melbourne * 1963, September: ''Studio One Printmakers'', Print Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria * 1965, July: Exhibition of work by former students of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Opened by Governor Sir
Rohan Delacombe Major-general (United Kingdom), Major General Sir Rohan Delacombe, (25 October 1906 – 10 November 1991) was a senior British Army officer. After he retired from the army, he was the last British-born Governor of Victoria, Australia from 1963 t ...
. Storey Hall * 1963, 12 August: ''Melbourne Contemporary Artists 1963 Exhibition,'' with women artists including Anne Montgomery, Evelyn McCutcheon, Mary McQueen, Edith Wall, Barbara Brash'', Margaret Dredge, Marion Fletcher, Marjorie Woolcock, Constance Stokes and Guelda Pyke. Argus Gallery Melbourne'' * 1963, September: ''Prints' 63'': Tate Adams, Barbara Brash, Janet Dawson, Grahame King, Hertha Kluge-Pott, Fred Williams, John Senbergs. National Gallery of Victoria * 1963, 1 September: ''Prints '63, Studio One Printmakers'', Tate Adams, Barbara Brash, Janet Dawson, Grahame King, Hertha Kluge-Pott, Jan Senbergs, Fred Williams. Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum * 1966: Barbara Brash, Mary Macqueen, Lesbia Thorpe. Crossley Gallery, Crossley St., Melbourne * 1969, December: 3rd Print Prize Exhibition of the Print Council * 1973, March: an exhibition of prints by Barbara Brash, Noela Hjorth, Moonya McNeilage, Richard Beck and Robert Trauer. Brotherhood of St.Laurence Bazaar, East Bentleigh * 1973, August: Ian Armstrong, Barbara Brash, Nancy Clifton, John Borrack, Arch Cuthbertson Mary MacQueen Anne Montgomery David Newbury and others. The Coombe Down-Flinders Gallery 327 Shannon Avenue, Newtown, Geelong * 1974, March: ''Paintings:'' Arthur Boyd, Sidney Nolan, Frank Matsaers, J. Coln Angus, Pro Hart. Arthur Hamblin, Alan Bernaldo. Mal Gilmour, Fred Whiliams, Barbara Brash and others, Butterfly Art Gallery, Balaclava * 1975, July: Graphic artists. Australian Galleries, Collingwood * 1977, 22 February–16 March: Clive Parry Galleries, Beaumaris * 1978, April: Recent Australian Prints, Caulfield Arts Centre * 1978, August: Annual exhibition of the Print Council of Australia, Meyers Blaxland Gallery * 1978, December: ''10th Birthday Exhibition of Paintings''. Manyung Gallery, Mt Eliza * 1979, 10-11 February: ''Henty Electorate Committee : Fourth Annual Art Show'': Clare Baimford, Charles Bock, Barbara Brash. Judy Brownie, Freya Dade, Margot Fincher, Anne Graham, Frank Harding, Kate Hellard, Nora Hutchinson, Gareth Jones-Roberts, Alan McCulloch, Alexander McLintock, David Newbury, Undine Padoms, Janet Price, Pauline Quinn, John Rowell, Jane Stapleford, Pierre Struys, Noel Teasdale. 407 North Road, Sth. Caulfeld * 1981, December: Contemporary Australian printmakers: Veda Arrowsmith, Helen Best, Peter Bond, Barbara Brash, Trisha Carland-Salih, John Coburn, Ruth Faerber, Robert Grieve, Basil Hadlewy, Jean Johnson, Edgars Karabanovs, Ursula Laverty, Alun Leach-Jones, Bill Meyer, Max Miller, Shirley Miller, Lyndal Osborne, Leon Pericles, Robert Trauer. Raya Gallery, Kew * 1982, May: ''30 prints by Australian printmakers from the Carnegie collection 1945–1981'' : John Brack, Barbara Brash, Les Kossatz, John Olsen, Janet Dawson, Albert Shomalyand, Graeme Peebles, Anthony Clarke. The McClelland Gallery, Langwarrin * 1982, 21 November–12 December: ''Women potters and printmakers:'' Barbara Brash, Kim Martin, Fran Clarke, Tina Banitska, Dianne Mangan, Yvonne Boag, Noela Hjorth, Mary McQueen''.'' Golden Age Galleries * 1983, August: Artists include Barbara Brash, Clifton Pugh, Yvonne Ricketts, Howard Sparks and Paul Margocsy. Artist Proof Galleries, 108 Punt Rd., Windsor * 1984, April: ''51 Victorian Artists mark the 50th Anniversary of the City of Heidelberg,'' Victorian Artists Society, East Melbourne * 1984, 20 May–6 June: Original prints by Barbara Brash, Maadi Einfeld, Janette Faircloth, Robert Grieve, Leslie Sprague. Leveson Gallery, 130 Faraday St, Carlton * 1987, November: Limited edition prints by Charles Blackman, Clifton Pugh, Jamie Boyd, Barbara Brash and others. Artist Proof, 108 Punt Rd, Windsor * 1989, from 19 April: Group exhibition of important modern painters from the 1930s to the present day: Norman Albiston, Valerie Albiston, Ian Armstrong, Yvonne Atkinson, George Bell,Meg Benwell, Barbara Brash, Dorothy Braund, Rod Clarke, Yvonne Cohen, Jack Courier, Frances Derham, Russell Drysdale, Anne Graham, Geoff Jones, Grahame King, Bernard Lawson, Evelyn McCutcheon, Maidi McGowan, Mary MacQueen, Guelda Pyke, Harry Rosengrave, Dorothy Stephen, June Stephenson, Constance Stokes, Eric Thake, Edith Wall. Eastgate Gallery * 1990, August: Works by George Bell, Constance Stokes, Alan Warren, Ian Armstrong, Geoff Jones, Dorothy Braund, Barbara Brash, Jack Courier, Percy Watson, Guelda Pyke, William Gleeson, Jeremy Barrett. Eastgate Gallery 729 High Street, Armadale * 1991, June: Eastgate Gallery, 729, High St., Armadale * 1991, from 28 November: ''Works On Paper'': Ian Armstrong, George Bell, Barbara Brash, Dorothy Braund, Nutter Buzzacott, Jack Courier, Arch Cuthbertson, William Gleeson, Mary Hammond, Geoff Jones, Grahame King, Mary MacQueen, lain MacNab, Anne Montgomery, Guelda Pyke, Constance Stokes, Alan Sumner, Eveline Syme, Alan Warren, Percy Watson, Fred Williams. Eastgate Gallery 158 Burwood Rd., Hawthorn * 1992, to 3 August: ''Classical modernism : the George Bell Circle'', National Gallery of Victoria * 1993, 27-28 February: ''The Estate Of Anne Montgomery'': Bernard Hall, W. Blamire Young, Charles Wheeler, J. Muntz-Adams, George Bell, Eveline Syme, Kenneth Jack, Jessie Traill, Len Annois, Barbara Brash, Alex Colquhoun, Edith Alsop,
Lionel Lindsay Sir Lionel Arthur Lindsay (17 October 187422 May 1961) was an Australian artist, known for his paintings and etchings. Early life Lindsay was born in the Victoria (Australia), Victorian town of Creswick, Victoria, Creswick, into a creative f ...
, Lucy Newell, Cedric Flower, Jocelyn Priestley, T. Langlois, Anne Scott, Ron Center, Ellen Rubbo, E. M. Abeel, Margaret Pestall, Myrtle Fasken, Mary MacQueen, William Montgomery, Rosemary Thurber, and selected works by Anne Montgomery. Eastgate Gallery, 158 Burwood Rd Hawthorn * 1993, 2–16 October: Lasssetters Gallery, Canberra * 1996, to 26 May: ''Insights into Image'' ''Making'' : Bashir Baraki, Barbara Brash and Jean Knox, Limited edition laser copy prints and cibachrome photographs Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery


Solo

* 1965, from 15 June: Barbara Brash screen prints and etchings. Australian Galleries, Collingwood * 1980, July: screenprints by Barbara Brash. Works gallery, 313 Pakington St., Geelong * 1969, June: ''Barbara Brash survey exhibition''. Crossley Gallery, Melbourne * 1989, 2–23 August: ''Barbara Brash survey exhibition'' Eastgate Gallery, Armadale


Posthumous

* 1991, 28 November– 18 December:  ''Works on Paper'': Ian Armstrong, George Bell, Barbara Brash, Dorothy Braund, Nutter Buzzacott, Jack Courier, Arch Cuthbertson, William Gleeson, Mary Hammond, Geoff Jones, Grahame King, Mary MacQueen, Iain MacNab, Anne Montgomery, Guelda Pyke, Constance Stokes, Alan Sumner, Eveline Syme, Alan Warren, Percy Watson, Fred Williams. Eastgate Gallery * 1995, from 30 April: ''Collector's exhibition'': Mary Cecil Allen, Len Annois, George Bell, Barbara Brash, Dorothy Braund,  Lina Bryans, Geoff Brown, George Browning, Rupert Bunny,  Maie Casey, Ron Center, Jack Courier, Peter Cox, Sybil Craig, Russell Drysdale, Raymond, Bill Gleeson, Nancy Grant, Robert Grieve, Harry de Hartog,  Frank Hinder, Kenneth Hood, Roger James, Geoff Jones, Grahame King, Helen Maudsley, Anne Montgomery, Esther Paterson, Peter Purves Smith, Harry Rosengrave, Arnold Shore, Clive Stephen, Constance Stokes, Eric Thake, Louise Thomas, Isabel Tweddle, Murray Walker, Alan Warren, Fred Williams * 2000-2001, to 14 January: ''Australian identities in printmaking''. The Australian print collection of Wagga Wagga Art Gallery. * 2006, 25 July 24 September: ''From Tuesday to Tuesday'': Barbara Brash, Nancy Clifton, Mary Macqueen and Lesbia Thorpe, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery * 2011, 1 June–2 July: ''Australian etchings'' featuring works from the collection of Ron Nott. Bridget McDonnell Gallery, Hampton * 2012, 20 October–15 December: ''LOOK. LOOK AGAIN'', survey exhibition of historic and contemporary works of art made by women in Australia drawn from the Cruthers Collection of Women's Art. Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, UWA * 2022, 25 June – 9 October: ''Barbara Brash—Holding Form'', Geelong Art Gallery


Publications

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Bibliography

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brash, Barbara Australian women artists 1925 births 1998 deaths Australian printmakers Artists from Melbourne People from Toorak, Victoria People educated at St Catherine's School, Toorak National Gallery of Victoria Art School alumni