Special edition

Ethel Spowers was amongst a group of women artists instrumental in introducing modernism to Australia in the early twentieth century. Of independent means (she was from a wealthy Melbourne publishing family), she travelled to Europe to further her education, first in Paris in 1921 and then London in 1928–29 and 1931.

Spowers’s second trip to Europe was prompted by her discovery in 1928 of a book on linocut printing by the British printmaker Claude Flight in a Melbourne bookshop. She moved to London to undertake classes with him at the Grosvenor School of Art. Spowers responded to the new medium of linocut by creating bold designs of both city and country life, subjects that lent themselves to Flight’s teachings, which emphasised rhythmic composition.

This print, one of Spowers’s finest linocuts, was made on her return to Australia. A swirling mass of figures winds its way along an urban street, absorbed by the news contained in the special edition of a daily paper, which is being sold from a kiosk. The bowed heads of the readers amongst the white papers dominate the composition, the humour of the image achieved through exaggeration. The subject had a particular resonance for Spowers as her father had business interests in two leading Melbourne newspapers.  

Spowers gained significant national and international recognition during her lifetime, exhibiting in Melbourne, Sydney and London, and her works were collected by the British Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the National Gallery of Victoria.

Maria Zagala, Associate Curator, Prints, Drawings & Photographs