For the modernist Dorothy Braund (1926 – 2013), simplicity was key: “There is no chance for accidental effects… If you are simple everything has to relate and work”, she once remarked. Her work is a testament to this ethos – strikingly original and sophisticated compositions that are more musical than literal, hymns about people, places and activities.

In this collection of her work, there are scenes from the beach, ballet studio, parties and still lifes. Braund found inspiration everywhere she looked – in bodies warming by the water, gyrating jeans on the dance floor and a pair of discarded ballet flats. As famed art critic Bernard Shaw observed of her work in 1964, it is “linked with a shrewd and civilised eye for the bizarre and comical”, an awareness that simple does not necessitate seriousness. Indeed, Braund’s work is inflected with a levity that feels rare. Her beach-goers are all hot flesh and striped swimwear, while her partiers twist together in kissing abandon. 

Represented across state collections including at the National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Australia and the Art Gallery of South Australia, Braund was a key figure in Australian modernism. She was a prominent member of the George Bell School and the only woman to exhibit alongside Charles Blackman and his compatriots at the 1953 Herald Art Show. As Shaw asserted, Braund was masterly in her own way, an essential – and joyous – addition to any collection of modern or female artists.