Organised thematically the exhibition includes a wide range of artistic production – painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, fashion, architecture, commercial art and design and shows the rich diversity of the art of this fascinating and contested decade. Brave New World is a dystopian novel by Aldous Huxley, first published in 1932. Addressing contemporary international art beyond glib expressions of globalism.

Beginning with the Great Depression and ending with the Second World War, the 1930s was characterised by both optimism and despair.īrave New World: Australia 1930s presents a fresh look at this turbulent decade, and considers the engagement of artists with the great issues of the time the Depression and its aftermath, nationalism and body culture, the growing awareness of Indigenous rights, the celebration of technological progress and its antithesis in nostalgia for pastoralism, the changing role of women and increasing anxiety about modern lifestyles, and ultimately the spectre of another world war.ĭuring this decade women artists came to the fore as leaders of the modern movement, Abstraction, Surrealism and Expressionism first made their mark, and conservative forces waged a bitter battle against modern art.īrave New World reveals the complex creative forces at work in 1930s Australia and provides an expanded view of modernism. A genius who who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine (The New Yorker), Huxley was a man of incomparable talents: equally an artist, a. The exhibition presents emerging and established artists, featuring works by Eleanor Bond, Edward Burtynsky, Karine Giboulo, Alex McLeod and Jenna Faye Powell.

A brave new world art