Mary Alice Evatt

Mary Alice Evatt (1898–1973) was an Australian artist, art patron, arts advocate and political activist. In 1943 she was the first woman to be appointed as a trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. She was a noted advocate of contemporary art in Australia, and a student of André Lhote in Paris in 1938. Evatt did much to promote modernism in Australian public life in the 1930s to 1950s. With direct links to the centre of political power in mid 20th century Australia via her husband's legal and political career, she enjoyed unique public agency for an Australian woman artist in the mid 20th century and much of her career unfolded in the public spotlight.

Early life and early political activities

Evatt was born in Iowa to Samuel Sheffer (d.1929), manufacturing chemist, and his wife Alice Maud, née Holt. As a child, her family moved to New Zealand, then Melbourne, and finally settled in Sydney where her family enjoyed a comfortable life due to her father's business success.

She enrolled in the architecture school at the University of Sydney but after meeting H.V. Evatt changed her course to legal studies to better engage with his interests. They married in 1919, against her father's wishes, as he regarded Evatt as from a lower social class and travelled overseas for their honeymoon. Evatt also wrote poetry at this date and throughout her life, which remained unpublished. Throughout the 1920s she supported her husband by vigorously campaigning amongst women voters and also organising relief for families affected by the great depression. In Melbourne she became close to the early Australian cubist Moya Dyring, and they remained friends throughout their lives. Evatt often visited Moya in Paris and the two women painted together in France. Art patrons John and Sunday Reed also were friends and through them Evatt and her high profiled husband became known in the Heide Circle. Through George Bell and John Reed both of the Evatts became active in the Contemporary Art Society. In 1938, Evatt studied with André Lhote in Paris and Hans Hofmann in New York.

Art Gallery of New South Wales trustee

Appointed a trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) in 1943, she often voted against the conservative stance of the other trustees, including during the controversy about William Dobell's portrait of Joshua Smith. She was an ally and a supporter of the young Bernard Smith who managed the wartime touring exhibitions of Australian art sent out from the AGNSW into rural NSW, an initiative that Evatt advocated. Notably she was one of the strong women who facilitated and supported Smith's career. She held that post until 1970 and was the only female trustee during those years. Her public career and her political commitment made an early link between the Australian Labor Party and the art world, which would not be ratified until the election of the government of Gough Whitlam in 1972. Evatt's lobbying for Smith also enabled him to reach a highly influential position and established his career. Thus Mary Alice Evatt had a uniquely extended influence for a woman artist.