DETAIL: Grace COSSINGTON SMITH,  'Interior in yellow', 1964, oil on composition board, National Gallery of Australia
 
 
Grace COSSINGTON SMITH | Interior with wardrobe mirror
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COSSINGTON SMITH, Grace
Australia 1892 – Australia 1984
UK, Europe 1912-14; UK, Italy 1949-51
Interior with wardrobe mirror 1955
oil on canvas on paperboard
91.4 (h) x 73.7 (w) cm
framed 103.0 (h) x 85.0 (w) x 5.6 (d) cm
Art Gallery of New South Wales Purchased 1967
© Art Gallery New South Wales
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In Interior with wardrobe mirror the artist recreates her bedroom from multiple perspectives. Two wardrobe doors are open; one revealing a close-up of drawers within the cupboard, the other with a mirror reflecting the garden and sky outside. It is a miraculous, poetic integration of intimate interior space and the exterior sun-filled environment – the parts and the whole illuminated by vibrant colour. As in all of Cossington Smith’s late interiors, we become aware of spaces in which complexity is made to look effortless.

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