Australian modernist Dorothy Braund started her artistic career at the National Gallery School, studying under William Dargie, Alan Sumner and Murray Griffin. Impressed by her development, she was sent to George Bell School for extra study, impudently submitting a modernist work to the Contemporary Art Society. 
 
Modernism and humour mark her practice. She pursued simplicity, reflecting “There’s no chance for accidental effects. If you are simple everything has to relate and work”. The results are carefully considered compositions. In 1964, art critic Bernard Shaw described her work as lively, “linked with a shrewd and civilised eye for the bizarre and comical” – simple, does not always necessitate seriousness. 
 
Represented across state collections, Braund was honoured with a retrospective at Castlemaine Art Gallery in 2006. She is, as Shaw noted, “masterly in her own way”.

Read our article on Dorothy Braund here.