The Society of Artists. Spring Exhibition 1961

Sydney : the Society, 1961. Quarto, lettered wrappers (light vertical creases), pp. [32], catalogue of works, foreword by the President Lloyd Rees, essay on abstract expressionism by John Coburn, biography on Douglas Dundas by Lloyd Rees, catalogue of works.

‘In 1888 the artist Tom Roberts established the Victorian Artists’ Society but he and Arthur Streeton moved to Sydney in 1891 during an economic depression in Melbourne. Roberts then formed the “Society of Artists” in Sydney in 1895 as a breakaway group from the Royal Art Society of NSW as a protest by avant-garde artists who believed that the general body of members should have a vote in choosing the committee of selection for annual shows,. As well the formation of the new Society was a protest against what they considered to be the cramping effect of the old unchanging tradition that photographic realism was the essential of good art and a desire to limit the membership to more professional painters.’ – Wikipedia