What can a self-portrait tell us about an artist’s life, and what happens when we look closely at what she chose to wear? Taking self-portraits by Nora Heysen and Stella Bowen in the National Portrait Gallery collection as its starting point, my project considers dress as a form of biographical evidence. Both artists fashioned themselves for the viewer, using clothing, pose and the conventions of self-portraiture to negotiate professional identity and their position as women artists. Bringing paintings into dialogue with photographs, letters, autobiography and other archival sources, the project asks how attention to dress and material culture might complicate or enrich established narratives of their lives. It also considers the role of the curator and cultural institution in producing artist biography. How does the interpretation and display of portraits shape the lives we construct around them, and what might remain obscured when particular images become definitive?

Please note this talk will be delivered via Zoom. Attendees are still welcome to come in person if they wish.

Dr Emma Kindred is a curator at the National Portrait Gallery and an art historian specialising in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Australian art. She has held curatorial roles at the National Gallery of Australia and the Australian War Memorial, and is an Honorary Research Associate at the National Gallery of Australia. Her research interests include Australian women artists, travel art, fashion and material culture, and the ways objects and artwork can illuminate artistic identity and biography.