Ethel L Spowers

Australia, b.1890, d.1947

Wet Afternoon

  • 1930
  • Linocut
  • Presented by Mr Rex Nan Kivell, 1953
  • 320 x 225mm
  • 94/211

Contemporary scenes of modern life, particularly busy street scenes such as Wet Afternoon, were common subjects in Ethel Spowers’s linocuts. Apart from a young child in the centre of this composition, people have become anonymous underneath a sea of umbrellas. Born in Melbourne, Spowers attended the Grosvenor School of Modern Art between 1928 and 1929 and again in 1931. She studied linocuts under Claude Flight and participated in the British Linocut exhibitions. In 1930 Spowers organised an exhibition of Australian linocut artists in Melbourne and helped to promote the medium in Australia. This is one of four prints by Spowers given to the city in 1953 by Rex Nan Kivell.

(Turn, Turn, Turn: A Year in Art, 27 July 2019 – 8 March 2020)

Exhibition History

earlier labels about this work
  • Contemporary scenes of modern life, particularly busy street scenes such as Wet Afternoon, were common subjects in Ethel Spowers’ linocuts. Apart from a young child in the centre of this composition, people have become anonymous underneath a sea of umbrellas. Born in Melbourne, Spowers attended the Grosvenor School of Modern Art between 1928 and 1929 and again in 1931. She studied linocuts under Claude Flight and participated in the British Linocut exhibitions. In 1930 Spowers organised an exhibition of Australian linocut artists in Melbourne and helped to promote the medium in Australia.