Slow Burn - A Century of Australian Women Artists from a Private Collection

First published on 23 Jul 2010. Updated on 5 Apr 2011.

Women the world over know what it's like to spend a lifetime mastering the juggling act between career, passions, children, relationships, friendships and home duties. So it is fitting to think that if we were to enter the home of two female life partners who understand this very struggle that we would be greeted by Anna Platten's ‘Myself as Madonna'. Depicting a mother and child with the mum wearing the conical bra of the pop icon, the painting unites the extremes of womanhood that art history has long defined and prescribed.

This artwork, along with the rest of the anonymous couple's private collection, has been uprooted to the SH Ervin Gallery for the exhibition Slow Burn - a showcase of works by 93 Australian women artists from the last 100 years. The exhibition is in honour of the late art dealer, Eva Breuer, who guided the purchasing decisions of the collection's owners for the last 15 years. The display represents the tastes of two very private people who wish to remain anonymous and keep the focus on their curator friend.

Amazingly, given the calibre of the works, some were sourced from garage sales. There are pieces by formerly unrecognised artists such as Portia Geach's ‘The Bridge' and Agnes Goodsir's ‘La Femme de Menage'. By placing these alongside golden Australian names like Anne Zahalka and Tracey Moffatt, a resounding feminist voice is given to the exhibition. It speaks out for more than just the housewife who paints as a hobby.

Three warm Aboriginal faces in ‘Granny's Smile' stare back at us amid other intriguing identities, as artist Julie Dowling glorifies her family heritage and exposes her hybrid practice between Indigenous representation and traditional portraiture. Margaret Olley's ‘The Yellow Room' resembles Van Gogh's famous ‘Room at Arles', yet in Olley's version, the mood of the room is joyous and less spartan.

Comprehensible curation by gallery director Louise Tegart groups Indigenous works, landscapes and portraits in separate zones. A high concentration of 100 years of talent, Slow Burn shows Australian women artists on incendiary form. Aimee Wagenheim