Penelope Alice Marjorie Seidler AM (nee Evatt, born 15 December 1938) is an Australian architect, former member of National Gallery of Australia Council, and current member of the NGA Foundation Board. She is also an accountant and director of the Sydney-based architectural firm Harry Seidler and associates.seidler.net.au
Penelope Evatt Seidler AM, Harry Seidler & Associates She was the wife and professional partner of architect

Harry Seidler Harry Seidler (25 June 19239 March 2006) was an Austrian-born Australian architect who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the B ...

. She was the subject of the 2014

Archibald prize The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, the editor ...

winning portrait by Fiona Lowry.

Early life

Penelope grew up in

Wahroonga Wahroonga is a suburb in the Upper North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, 18 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government areas of Ku-ring-gai Council and Hornsby Shire. ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, daughter of

Clive Evatt Clive Raleigh Evatt (6 June 1900 – 15 September 1984) was an Australian politician, barrister and raconteur. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1939 until 1959. At various times he sat as a member of the Industr ...

(1900–1984), a prominent barrister and NSW Labor politician (MLA for Hurstville 1939–1959), and his wife Marjorie Hanna Evatt (née Andreas) (1903–1984), with two siblings,

Elizabeth Evatt Elizabeth Andreas Evatt (born 11 November 1933), an eminent Australian reformist lawyer and jurist who sat on numerous national and international tribunals and commissions, was the first Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia, the fi ...

and Clive Evatt jr. The Evatt family home located at 69 Junction Road, Wahroonga is now known as "Parklands" and is listed on the NSW State Heritage Register.

Professional life

Seidler is the director of Sydney-based architectural firm Harry Seidler and Associates. She studied for her Bachelor of Architecture at the University of Sydney and was registered as an architect in 1964. She joined Seidler and Associates that year as architect and financial manager. She has been a Fellow of the Australian institute of Architects since 1983, sitting on the NSW executive council from 1982 to 1984. She was a founding member of Chief executive Women (NSW) from 1990 to 2005. She currently sits on UNSW's Faculty of the Built Environment advisory council.

Life as an art patron, supporter and collector

Penelope Seidler has sat on the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art in New York since 1973, has been a Biennale of Sydney director since late 2010, and was deputy commissioner for the Australian Pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennale. She was an International Advisory Board member of Vienna's Austrian Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary Art, and is a former council member of the Australiana Fund. In 1971 Seidler joined the Art Gallery of NSW Society's council being one of the first "volunteer guides". In 1973, Seidler received an offer letter from New York's Museum of Modern Art requesting her to be one of the members of its International Council. In 2008 she became the Member of the Order of Australia for her work in the visual arts and architecture. In 2011, she was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur by the French government and received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of NSW. In 2018 Seidler made a gift to the University of Sydney to establish th
Penelope Visiting Professorship in Architectural History
In 2021, the University made her an honorar

Personal life

Penelope met Harry Seidler in 1957 at a fellow architect's drinks in North Sydney. They married on 15 December 1958, and had two children. Together they lived in , in a basement apartment on the water for just over one year, afterwards they moved to Ithaca Gardens, , a newly completed Seidler apartment building, and lived there from January 1960 until late June 1967 before moving to the

Harry and Penelope Seidler House The Harry and Penelope Seidler House is a heritage-listed modernist house located at 13 Kalang Avenue in the Sydney suburb of Killara in the Ku-ring-gai Council local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by architect ...

, designed by her and her husband, located in Kalang Avenue, on Sydney's North Shore.

Awards

* The house she designed with her husband 'Harry & Penelope Seidler House', Killara, NSW won the Royal Australian Institute of Architects' (NSW Chapter) Wilkinson Award in 1967 * Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2008 * Honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of NSW * University of Sydney Alumni Award for Cultural Contribution recipient in 2017

References

Bibliography

*Cawthorne, Z. (27 November 2013) "Architect with touch of genius" The Australian Jewish News
jewishnews.net.au
*Elphick, N. (31 October 2014) "Art and Design: 'Penelope Seidler maintains interest in architecture, arts'" The Sydney Morning Herald

*Frampton, K., & Drew, P. (1992) "Harry Seidler: Four Decades of Architecture" New York: Thames and Hudson *Harry Seidler & Associates (2011) "Company Profile
seidler.net.au
*Indesign Media Asia Pacific. (12 January 2015) "Community: 'Penelope Seidler In Conversation Art and Architecture" Habit Us Living, The Design Hunt Continues
habitusliving.com
*Lehmann, M. (N.d) "Eye of the beholder
theaustralian.com.au
*Media Office, UNSW. (18 December 2014) "Penelope Seidler backs best practice in architecture education" UNSW Newsroom
newsroom.unsw.edu.au
*Mosman Daily. (1 December 2009) "Harry Will Never be Forgotten" Where I Live
mosman-daily.whereilive.com.au
*Penelope Seidler filmed interview at the house for Monocle magazine, February 2016 entitled "Sydney Residence: Harry and Penelope Seidler House. February 2016" online a
monocle.com
– film duration 6:51min. *Specifier Magazine. (N.d). "Penelope Seidler

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seidler, Penelope Living people 1938 births National Gallery of Australia Australian business executives Australian women in business Members of the Order of Australia Australian women architects 21st-century Australian architects 20th-century Australian architects Modernist architects 20th-century Australian women 21st-century Australian women