Margaret Olley: Australian Intimiste at NAS Gallery Reframes Beloved Artist

The National Art School Gallery in Darlinghurst, Sydney, is presenting 'Margaret Olley: Australian Intimiste' from 31 July to 24 October 2026, curated by NAS Gallery Manager Katrina Cashman in consultation with biographer Christine France OAM. The exhibition offers a fresh psychological perspective on the beloved Australian painter, focusing on her intimate lived spaces and circle of friends rather than her well-known still lifes. It celebrates Olley's early years as an emerging artist, featuring works by her and her teachers including Jean Bellette, Douglas Dundas, Dorothy Thornhill, and Frank Medworth. Highlights include 'Portrait in the mirror' (1948), painted after she got her first studio, and the famed portrait by William Dobell that won the 1948 Archibald Prize, which Olley found painful to view due to media scrutiny. The exhibition traces her departure to Europe and return in 1953, when she turned inward to an intimist approach, painting interiors of her family home Farndon in Brisbane, the homes of friends like artist David Strachan and gallerist Brian Moore, and her own Duxton Street home studio. A key work, 'Interior' (1974), inspired the curatorial focus, evoking Bonnard's light. The show concludes with 'The Yellow Room Triptych' (2007), painted when Olley was 84, four years before her death. With over 80 works, more than 20 by her peers, the exhibition is presented in the school's 20th anniversary year, steps from where Olley's career began. Entry is free.