''The Bridge in Curve'' is a painting completed in

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be ...

by Australian artist

Grace Cossington Smith Grace Cossington Smith (20 April 189220 December 1984) was an Visual arts of Australia, Australian artist and pioneer of Modernist art, modernist painting in Australia and was instrumental in introducing Post-Impressionism to her home country. ...

, depicting the

Sydney Harbour Bridge The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, spanning Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour from the Sydney central business district, central business district (CBD) to the North Shore (Sydney), North Shore. The view of the bridg ...

during its construction. The work is now considered one of Australia's best

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

paintings, but was rejected from exhibition in 1930. Since 1967 the painting has been part of the collection of the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Background

According to the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

, Smith painted ''The Bridge in Curve'', which is based on drawings made at

Milsons Point Milsons Point is a suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The suburb is located 3 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of North Sydney Council. Mil ...

on the North Shore, during an important phase of her career as an artist, when the importance of colour and the application of paint in small strokes gave her paintings a "brilliant vitality". Smith had become interested in

colour theory In the visual arts, color theory is the body of practical guidance for color mixing and the visual effects of a specific color combination. Color terminology based on the color wheel and its geometry separates colors into primary color, seconda ...

and used this painting as an opportunity to demonstrate it with the blue and white of the sky contrasting with the more earthy colours of the buildings and vegetation.

Construction of the bridge

Sydney Harbour Bridge was built to better connect the North Shore suburbs with

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and reduce water traffic. A Royal Commission reported on the potential for a link in 1909, and ground was finally broken on the 28 July 1923. September 1926 saw the completion of the piers that would support the spans approaching the arch. Construction of the arch started on each shore in 1928, and they met for the first time on 19 August 1930. The bridge opened to the public in 1932.

Reception

Upon completion the painting was rejected from the Society of Artists exhibition of 1930. The painting was only purchased for the National Gallery of Victoria in 1967, which has been criticised as indicative of the neglect of Cossington Smith's work. ''The Bridge in Curve'' has since been identified as "one of Australia's most significant modernist paintings". It was described as a masterpiece of bridge painting by Ursula Prinster, curator of a 1982

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...

exhibition on paintings of the Harbour bridge. Others have provided fuller descriptions of the painting' The contrast between the bridge and its surroundings is highlighted by art historians. The differentiation between the distant, obscure shore, and the blocks of colour in the foreground, with the detailed and delicate depiction of the bridge's struts and girders has been noted, the bridge seeming to rise above the chaos below.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bridge in Curve, The 1930 paintings Paintings in the National Gallery of Victoria Paintings by Grace Cossington Smith Sydney Harbour Bridges in art

Background

Construction of the bridge

Reception

See also

References