Australian modernist Dorothy Braund pursued simplicity. As she described, it “knocked” her out – “there’s no chance for accidental effects. If you are simple everything has to relate and work” – an ethos that produced work that was more musical than literal, hymns about people, places and activities.

Braund found formal opportunities everywhere she looked, like in the pair of ballet flats she depicts here. ‘Shoes’ recalls Vincent Van Gogh’s famous 1986 still life of a pair of workmen’s boots. A protest to the affluence of the city around him and signifier of his own upbringing, Van Gogh’s boots were a portrait of an unseen subject. Like Van Gogh, Braund’s ‘Shoes’ contain the paradoxical presence of absence. Whose shoes are these and why are they mismatched? In place of masculine boots, she revels in the elegant and idiosyncratic ballet flat, the trace of a pirouette.

Represented across state collections including at the National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of South Australia, Braund was a key figure in Australian modernism. She was a member of the George Bell School and the only woman to exhibit alongside Charles Blackman and his compatriots at the 1953 Herald Art Show. Masterly in her own way, she is an essential – and joyous – addition to collections of modern, still life and female artists. These ‘Shoes’ are too magical to last long.

Dorothy BRAUND (1926 - 2013)
'Shoes' 1992
oil on board
Image Size: 60 x 90 cm
Dimensions: 69 x 99 x 4 cm
Signed: Signed dated lower right
 
Comes with Letter of Provenance
 
Condition: Very Good: While commensurate with age and style, this works frame could undergo repair as it is pulling apart at the top corners.
 
(c) Dorothy Braund / Copyright Agency