Eirene Mort: Artist, Artisan and New Woman
Date
2017
Authors
Lane, Pamela Joyce
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Eirene Mort: Artist, Artisan and New Woman
Eirene Mort (1879 – 1977) was an Arts and Crafts practitioner
and teacher whose work reflected transitions in twentieth century
Australian art and culture, and in the opportunities available to
women artists in changing patterns of taste, art markets and
education. This thesis examines the factors that shaped Mort’s
career and contribution as a – for a time – prominent artist
and artisan who was emblematic of independent womanhood. I assess
the ways in which her struggles and achievements extend our
understanding of the significance of gender in the art world of
twentieth century Australia. Analysing Mort’s wide-ranging body
of art, together with her memoirs, family histories, financial
documents, teaching records, social networks and contemporary
reports of her life and work, I draw out the patterns that
emerged in her life and work. Mort’s significance as an
historical figure is twofold. Firstly, the course of her long
career illustrates the interdependency of art with a range of
social and political influences, including gendered identities,
patronage, education, class-based networks and aesthetic
movements. Secondly, the relative neglect of Mort’s work
highlights the importance of restoring these dimensions to
studies of artists in their context, and of dissolving an
often-artificial distinction between ‘art’ and a range of
craft- based practices in their social contexts. My biographical
approach is informed by methodologies using qualitative and
quantitative data – often fragmentary, but revealing even in
that state – to reconstruct the social and personal contexts of
her art practice, and to relate her work to changes in taste,
patronage and education, and placing Mort in the wider cultural
social, and economic patterns of her times.
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Artist, Arts and Crafts movement, girls' education in late nineteenth century Australia, art education in early twenties century London, early Australian feminism
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