Well-behaved women seldom make history, as the saying goes, and the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra is full of stories of Australian women who refused to conform to narrow ideas about their place and their worth.
Women Make History takes 100 such stories from the NPG’s collection and celebrates a century’s worth of trailblazing Australian women: suffragettes, war heroes, wordsmiths and Nobel laureates; rock stars, record-breakers, divas and fashionistas; from the first woman elected to the House of Representatives to the first female chief justice of the High Court.
Karen Quinlan AM, director of the NPG, says Women Make History offers biographical information and insights on each of the famous figures.
“As the gallery prepares to launch the international exhibition, Shakespeare to Winehouse, which features iconic works and faces from London’s National Portrait Gallery, we thought it was only appropriate to display some of our own icons, and to highlight the courage and commitment that underpins the achievements of this inspirational bunch of women.”
Carlotta, Kings Cross (Les Girls) 1970/1971 by Rennie Ellis.Credit:© Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive.
1. Carol Spencer AM (b.1943), known as Carlotta, is a cabaret performer, television personality and LGBTIQ+ advocate. Known as the “Queen of the Cross”, Carlotta joined Les Girls in 1962 and soon became the star, performing for almost three decades. In 1973, Carlotta was the first transgender person in the world to play a transgender character on television in the Australian series Number 96, and was one of the inspirations for the 1994 film Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. She was immortalised in the 2014 film Carlotta. This glamorous image of Carlotta, taken by photographer Rennie Ellis in the dressing room of Les Girls, was part of a series capturing the “surface glitter and underground guts” of Kings Cross.
Marea Gazzard 1966 by Judy Cassab.
Credit:© Estate of Judy Cassab.
2. Marea Gazzard AM (1928-2013) was one of Australia’s leading ceramicists. After studying in London, she returned with her husband to Australia in 1960 and set up a studio in Paddington. She was one of the first craftspeople to exhibit at the National Gallery of Victoria. Through the 1970s and 1980s, she exhibited large abstract works in a number of important group shows and solo exhibitions. She was commissioned to create the bronze sculpture Mingarri: The Little Olgas (1988), which stands in the central Executive Courtyard of Parliament House, Canberra.
Margaret Fink 1989 by Kerrie Lester.
Credit:© Estate of Kerrie Lester.
3. Margaret Fink (b.1933), film producer, was a key figure in the renaissance of Australian cinema in the 1970s. She married businessman Leon Fink in 1961 and was renowned for her riotous dinner parties with friends such as Clive James, Barry Humphries and Germaine Greer. In 1975, her film adaptation of David Williamson’s The Removalists established her as a “hands-on” producer. Her collaboration with Gillian Armstrong on My Brilliant Career (1979) launched the careers of Armstrong and its lead actors, Judy Davis and Sam Neill. Candy (2006), her last production, starred Heath Ledger in his final Australian film. Artist Kerrie Lester is known for her distinctive portraits in which the outlines of the sitters are hand-stitched. This portrait also features diamantes, a reference to Fink’s well-known penchant for clothes by fashion designer Sonia Rykiel.
From Pam to Carlotta: Celebrating a century of trailblazing women
Source: Philippines Alive
