Modern Being – art and design

Modern Being: Australian Mid-Twentieth Century Art and Design exhibited at the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide features work from Australian artists and designers who favoured abstraction and functionalism in design.

These artists, including Inge King (1915-2016), Ralph Balson (1890-1964), Grace Crowley (1890–1979), Clement Meadmore (1929-2005), Robert Klippel (1920-2001), and Douglas Snelling (1916-1985), were preoccupied with the modern human experience. They experimented with new materials and simplified methods of production and manufacturing that influenced built forms and Australian interior design. This exhibition includes paintings and sculpture, as well as ceramics, textiles and furniture.

The display presents key examples of the optimism of Australia after World War II when visual artists and designers broke away from past conventions. They embraced modern industrial design, such as arc welding, indigenous art, and holistic design.

The exhibition includes Clement Meadmore’s Cord Chairs (1953), Ralph Balson’s 1958 Painting, and Inge King’s Blue and Yellow (1985).

Top image: Grace Crowley, Abstract painting (1953)

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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