Moya Dyring

Moya Dyring (10 February 1909 – 4 January 1967) was an Australian artist. She was one of the first women artists to embrace Modernism and exhibit cubist paintings in Melbourne. For several years she was a member of the modern art community known as the Heide Circle, named after the home of art collectors John and Sunday Reed, and now the Heide Museum of Modern Art. Dyring then travelled to the USA and France, where she lived most her life. Her work is held in the Heide Museum as well as the National Gallery of Australia.

Early childhood and education Moya Clare Dyring was born in Coburg, Victoria in 1909, the third child of Carl Peter Wilhelm Dyring, medical practitioner, and his second wife Dagmar Alexandra Esther, née Cohn, both Victorian born. The family moved to Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne, in 1920. Moya was educated (1917–1927) at Firbank Church of England Girls' Grammar School, Brighton. where she met her future husband Sam Atyeo an artist who was a Parisian resident. After NGV, Moya studied under George Bell in the Bourke Street Studio School in Melbourne. Bell and Atyeo encouraged her to experiment with modernism. Sunday Reed also studied at Bell's school at the time.

Career For several months in 1937 Dyring took charge of Heide, the home and garden of the art patrons John and Sunday Reed, at Bulleen, a suburb of Melbourne. Much of what is known about Dyring's life comes from her life-long correspondence with Sunday Reed.

In August 1937, Dyring embarked for Panama, then travelled to New York City. She disliked the work of contemporary American artists and sailed for France. In 1938, she was based in Paris, taking advantage of Atyeo's contacts within the avant-garde. She studied at the Académie Colarossi, the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and with André Lhote.

Works

Dyring produced drawings, oil paintings and pastels.

While her early works were figurative or cubist, in France she turned to landscape as she travelled to various towns throughout France. In her later years, unable to travel freely, she painted children against the backdrop of Paris.

As time passed, she was largely glossed over and not included in major exhibitions of artists, especially women artists, of the 30s, 40, and 50s. In 2002, at the University of Melbourne, Gaynor Patricia Cuthbert delved into her life and work for a doctoral thesis, helping to bring back attention to her work.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales holds multiple works.

The websites of these galleries include images of Dyring's works.

Tribute Dyring Place in the Canberra suburb of Chisholm is named in her honour.