Arabic version: معرض في المعرض الوطني يحتفي بروزالـي غاسكوين

According to ABC News, the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra will present an exhibition of Rosalie Gascoigne’s abstract works, tracing an artist whose practice transformed materials gathered from the landscape and everyday life. The exhibition will run from October 24 to February 14.

Gascoigne, born in 1917 and deceased in 1999, did not begin exhibiting until she was 57. She held her first solo exhibition in 1976 and was invited to stage a survey exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1978. Curator Deborah Hart said Gascoigne entered the art world as installation art, minimalism and conceptual art were gaining prominence.

Canberra was central to Gascoigne’s work. She gathered material from local dumps, including at Gundaroo, Bungendore and Captain’s Flat, and reshaped it at the family home. Her daughter, Hester Gascoigne, said the display brings together works she remembered being made over decades and reveals the progression of her mother’s practice.

The artist also drew on her experience of walking through the Canberra landscape while the family lived at Mount Stromlo Observatory. Her husband, Ben Gascoigne, was an astronomer. Hart described the region as the wellspring and foundation of the artist’s work.

National Gallery director Nick Mitzevich said the institution acquired its first Gascoigne work in 1976, under inaugural director James Mollison. He said her work had both defined art history and encouraged audiences to look at art differently. Hart said Gascoigne continued working late in life, while her daughter recalled that collecting natural objects had been part of family outings as well as a serious source of artistic material.