Ann Newmarch

Ann Foster Newmarch (9 June 1945 – 13 January 2022) , known as "Annie", was a South Australian painter, printmaker, sculptor and academic, with an international reputation, known for her community service to art, social activism and feminism. She co-founded the Progressive Art Movement and the Women's Art Movement (WAM) in Adelaide, and is especially known for her iconic 1978 colour screenprint piece titled Women Hold Up Half the Sky!.

Early life and education Ann Foster Newmarch was born on 9 June 1945 in Adelaide, South Australia.

She graduated with a teaching diploma from the Western Teachers College in 1966 after three years' attendance there, after which she studied philosophy and psychology at Flinders University in Adelaide for a year.

She spent 1968 teaching art, at Croydon and Mitcham Girls High Schools, and became a lecturer at the South Australian School of Art in 1969, continuing there until 2000. in Adelaide. When she graduated from this school, she became one of the few women to serve as an instructor there in 1969."

Art practice Newmarch's work is extensive and she did not hold to an individualistic prescriptive signature style. She was introduced to the women's movement in 1970 and balanced teaching, mothering and artmaking with community and cultural development work. She worked in painting, printmaking, and sculpture, Embracing feminism from the early 1970s, her art practice highlights that all representation is political and the absence of voice is in itself an acceptance of the status quo. Her early work heavily featured silkscreen printing,

Later, in the 1990s, her work included more sculptural objects, and after that she focused on the objects being the subjects, allowing hands and the body to become canvases for the exploration of artmaking.

In 1974 Newmarch was co-founder, with philosopher Brian Medlin, of the Progressive Art Movement (PAM), which focused on political issues, social concerns, and education. It arose from a course at Flinders University called Politics and Art, and was inspired by Marxist Leninist theory. The group included students, Mandy Martin Margaret Dodd, Bert Flugelman, and Ken Searle.

Recognition and awards

In 1989 Newmarch was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) the Newmarch Gallery, to honour her long involvement with community arts at the Community Association of Prospect and the Prospect Mural Group.

For individual works

Women Hold Up Half the Sky! (1978) A major exhibition mounted by the National Gallery of Australia in 1995 was given its title, Women Hold Up Half the Sky, by Newmarch's print. 2007: the only Australian work selected for the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles' exhibition WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution

In February 2022 Sydney artist Vivienne Binns called Newmarch a "giant", to whom she had yet to pay proper tribute.

Women Hold Up Half the Sky! became an icon of the feminist movement in Australia.

Art Gallery of South Australia Art Gallery of New South Wales Australian War Museum Ballarat Fine Art Gallery Bendigo Art Gallery Luilichang Cultural Trust, Beijing, China City of Hamilton Art Gallery Flinders University Art Museum Griffith University Naracoorte Art Gallery National Gallery of Australia National Gallery of Victoria Newcastle Art Gallery Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania Queensland Institute of Technology Riddoch Art Gallery, Mount Gambier SA Dept of the Premier and Cabinet University of Canberra