Arabic version: عرض ثلاثة أعمال لكلاريس بيكيت في معرض غولبرن

According to ABC News, Clarice Beckett: Paintings from the National Collection is showing at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery until November 21. The touring exhibition includes 27 restored works by tonal artist Clarice Beckett, whose paintings depict life and scenery around her coastal home in south-east Naarm/Melbourne.

The National Gallery of Australia’s conservation team worked on small studies and paintings during the COVID-19 pandemic. The works had been donated to the gallery by Beckett’s sister, Hilda Mangan, in 1972, but had spent years in boxes. Many were weathered, cracked and peeling, partly because Beckett often painted on cardboard outdoors.

One highlighted work, Not titled (Seascape), dated c1919–1935, shows tea-tree being blown in the wind. NGA senior curator of Australian art Elspeth Pitt said the work offers evidence of Beckett being in nature and weather. A fingerprint visible in the painting’s upper right-hand corner may reflect her need to work quickly while painting outdoors.

Not titled (Sunset), also dated c1919–1935, was among the first paintings from the Beckett collection to receive conservation treatment. Pitt said fluctuations in relative humidity had cracked its surface. Conservator Jocelyn Evans spent months carefully securing and filling the surface, then painting it with close reference to Beckett’s techniques and colours.

A third selection, Not titled (Seascape with boat and reflection), painted sometime between 1920 and 1930, presents still grey water, a small wooden boat and a pale blue horizon. Pitt said its minimalist approach gestures toward abstraction, anticipating directions that became prominent in Australian art decades later.