From 16 August, the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) presents ‘Under a Modern Sun: Art in Queensland 1930s–1950s’, an expansive exhibition of more than 140 paintings, sculptures, photographs and works of decorative art by Queensland-born artists and those who travelled here in the middle decades of the twentieth century.

QAGOMA Director Chris Saines said the free exhibition included significant works by Brisbane-based artists William Bustard, WG Grant, Vida Lahey, Daphne Mayo, Carl McConnell, Margaret Olley and Leonard and Kathleen Shillam as well as luminaries from the regions such as Kenneth Macqueen on the Darling Downs and Joe Alimindjin Rootsey (Barrow Point people, Ama Wuriingu clan) who captured his Country in North Queensland.

‘In developing the exhibition, Samantha Littley, Curator, Australian Art, QAGOMA has drawn from the Gallery’s extensive holdings of work by Queensland artists, and included seminal artworks by Charles Blackman, Sidney Nolan and Max Dupain who made significant contributions to the development of a modernist sensibility in the state,’ Mr Saines said.

‘The exhibition celebrates a transformative period in Queensland’s cultural and artistic evolution, during which artists introduced new creative approaches to what was then a very conservative climate.

‘It presents a light-filled vision of Queensland and reveals the beginnings of more experimental means of expression here.’

Minister for the Arts John-Paul Langbroek said 'Under a Modern Sun' shares works from the State collection to offer gallery visitors new insights and stories about Queensland as it was experienced last century.

'This free exhibition offers a compelling glimpse into a defining era in Queensland’s creative history, sharing the perspectives of some of Australia’s most revered artists,' Minister Langbroek said.

'Queensland Government investment in QAGOMA delivers on our new Queensland’s Time to Shine: a 10-year strategy for arts and culture, providing locals and visitors with high-quality arts experiences that strengthen the state‘s reputation as a vibrant cultural destination ahead of Brisbane 2032.'

Exhibition curator Samantha Littley said ‘Under a Modern Sun’ underscored the vital role that women artists played in fostering art in Queensland, as they worked to introduce the concepts they had encountered In Europe.

‘Vida Lahey’s paintings of Brisbane’s Central Station and the Grey Street Bridge under construction foreground their subjects as symbols of a rapidly modernising city; while her highly coloured and patterned still lifes were a vehicle through which Lahey similarly expressed modernist ideas,’ Ms Littley said.

‘Both Lahey and sculptor Daphne Mayo made extraordinary contributions to art in Queensland through their work, and advocacy for contemporary practice. Their artworks feature alongside works by their peers, including painters Gwendolyn Grant, Betty Quelhurst and Joy Roggenkamp; photographer Rose Simmonds; textile designer Olive Ashworth and women ceramicists from the Harvey School.

‘A later group of paintings by Margaret Olley and Margaret Cilento, who returned to Brisbane in the 1950s, and Jon Molvig, who moved to the capital in 1955 and became a leading light in the city’s art scene, point to the expressive directions that art in Queensland followed in succeeding decades,’ Ms Littley said.

On Saturday 16 August from 11:30am to 12:15pm audiences can join Samantha Littley for a curator’s tour of the exhibition and on Sunday 31 August from 1.30pm to 2:15pm they can take a deep dive into the social, economic and political setting of Queensland during the 1930s to 1950s with a tour through the show led by Emeritus Professor Peter Spearritt.

‘Under a Modern Sun: Art in Queensland 1930s–1950s’ is showing at the Queensland Art Gallery from 16 August 2025 until 26 January 2026. It is accompanied by an exhibition catalogue, supported by Publication Sponsor the Gordon Darling Foundation, with contributions from curator Samantha Littley and Emeritus Professor Peter Spearritt.

ENDS