Join us at the Gallery on 7 September 2025 for a celebratory finissage program and afternoon tea on the final day of the exhibition, Clarice Beckett: Paintings from the National Collection. We are delighted to welcome Historian Dr Edith Ziegler, who will speak about her latest book, The Worlds and Work of Clarice Beckett. The book, which will be available to purchase in the Gallery shop, is a biographical study of this important modern artist.

Edith Ziegler will discuss Beckett’s family background, including her childhood, art education, philosophical and spiritual influences, friendships and contemporaries. The program will be held in the exhibition space and attendees will have one last chance to view Beckett’s visionary work.

About the Book: Clarice Beckett was one of Australia’s most important early twentieth-century modernist painters, excelling in portraiture, still-life and landscape. The discovery of a trove of her artworks in 1971 has led to her remarkable talent and evocative art being recognised afresh and greatly admired.

Clarice Beckett was self-effacing; she left no diaries or letters and was only occasionally mentioned in the diaries of her friends. For an insight into her enigmatic genius, Edith Ziegler focuses on Clarice’s family background, childhood; art education; philosophical, spiritual and psychological enquiries and influences; friendships and contacts. The reader is drawn into the world in which Clarice’s vision was formed and her talent developed.

About the Author: Dr Edith Ziegler is an Australian historian, Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the University of New England, writer, and long-term volunteer at the S.H. Ervin Art Gallery in Sydney.

Since completing a master’s degree in 2001 and then a PhD in 2009—both in American history—her publications have included papers in four peer-reviewed academic journals, and five books—two histories, an epistolary biography, an historical novel and, most recently, ‘The Worlds and Work of Clarice Beckett.’

Clarice Beckett: Paintings from the National Collection is a National Gallery Touring Exhibition supported by The Australian Government through Visions of Australia.

Contact the host of Author Talk with Edith Zieglar

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