Marea Gazzard, c. 1985

Marea Gazzard (b. 1928) emerged as one of England's leading ceramicists in the 1950s after training in Sydney and London. She returned to Australia in 1960, building a strikingly modern house in Paddington and starting Sydney's first urban heritage action group. In 1973, with fibre artist Mona Hessing, Gazzard was one of the first craftspeople invited to exhibit at the Victorian Art Gallery. The exhibition, Clay and Fibre, generated much discussion about whether craft was art and accelerated acceptance of women artists. (The following year, the pair entered Australian theatre history when the wife of one of Barry Humphries's most pretentious characters, Neil Singleton, threw a Marea Gazzard ashtray at him and he bled onto their Mona Hessing.) Through the 1970s and 80s Gazzard held the first Chair of the Crafts Board of the Australia Council, and she was President of the World Crafts Council from 1980 to 1984. She created the bronze sculpture Mingarri: the Little Olgas (1988) for the central executive courtyard of New Parliament House, Canberra. She is shown here with the maquettes (models) of the work.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
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