Women of Influence

Women of Influence highlights the impact leading Sydney designers, Marion Hall Best, Margaret Jaye and Margo Lewers, had upon design and style in post World War II Sydney.

These enterprising women were instrumental in introducing Sydneysiders to new ways of expressing themselves through the fabrics and furnishings of their habitats, importing the latest interior design ideas and products from Europe and the United States as well as championing the development of contemporary Australian design by exhibiting the cream of post war Australian designers and artists.

The exhibition is centred on Rowe Street, Sydney, one of the principal locales for art and design in Sydney from the 1930s through to the late 1960s. Located between Pitt and Castlereagh Streets, Rowe Street was a hub of fashion boutiques and coffee shops. Here, Marion Hall Best, Margaret Jaye and Margo Lewers each ran interior decorators' galleries.

The cross-fertilization between art and design facilitated by these three women designers is a highlight of this exhibition. It will illustrate how their enterprises contributed to the development of modernist art and design in Australia.

Margaret Jaye gave the noted Australian designer Gordon Andrews, one of his first exhibitions in Sydney as well as promoting the fabric designers Francis Burke, Nance Mackenzie and Douglas Annand. Painters, including Donald Friend and Thea Proctor were invited to design Margaret Jaye's shop windows and exhibit in them.

Widely known for importing bold design ideas and furnishings from Scandinavia and the US, Marion Hall Best also promoted the local designers Gordon Andrews, Grant Featherston and Clement Meadmore, while also showing the design work of artists such as Elaine Haxton.

Margo Lewers' Notanda Gallery was not only an outlet for her own ceramics and painting but provided an exhibiting opportunity for artists and designers including Adrian Feint. The exhibition will feature a wide range of work by artists and designers including Gordon Andrews, Frances Burke, Grant Featherston, Margo Lewers, Jack Meyer, fabric designs from Marimekko and Knoll & Co, New York, Clement Meadmore, Loudon Sainthill, Frank Hinder and Elaine Haxton amongst others, as well as documentary photographs of its heyday by leading photographers.

For further information, please contact Ivan Dougherty Gallery.