Anita Aarons (6 November 1912 – 3 January 2000) was an Australian-Canadian artist.

Anita Aarons
Born(1912-11-06)6 November 1912
Sydney, Australia
Died3 January 2000(2000-01-03) (aged 87)
Brisbane, Australia
NationalityAustralian-Canadian
Alma materSydney National Art School
OccupationArtist

Life edit

Born in Sydney, Aarons studied at the East Sydney Technical College[1] and the National Art School in Sydney before moving to New York City, where she graduated from Columbia University in 1964.[citation needed] She exhibited work in venues in the United States, Canada, and Australia. She taught sculpture and crafts in a number of institutions, and designed stained glass windows, furniture, and jewelry, in addition to working as a sculptor. Collections which include examples of her work include the Charlottetown National Craft Collection and the National Collection of the Canadian Craftsmen Guild in Toronto.[2]

On 25 June 1951, Aarons was invited to attend a meeting of the City of Sydney's Health and Recreations Committee to discuss her submission to erect a piece of sculpture in the children's playground of Phillip Park. The Council approved the submission on 2 October 1951. The sculpture was removed on 2 April 1952.[1]

In 1965 she became a critic for the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's Journal RAIC, writing a column titled "Allied Arts" about the role of craft in architecture.[3]

In 1983, she was awarded the Diplome d'Honneur from the Canadian Conference of the Arts.[4]

Aarons returned to Australia at the end of her life and settled in Brisbane, where she died on 3 January 2000.[4][5]

The Art Gallery of Ontario's Special Collections holds a small collection of sixteen audio recordings of Anita Aarons interviewing figures of Canadian art or world figures active in the 1970s and 1980s. These include Ron Bloore, Graham Coughtry, Dorothy Cameron, Guido Molinari, Yves Gaucher, Ted Bieler, Gordon Rayner, and Jack Pollock.[6]

Aarons also has work, "Year of the Moon," that is also held by the Art Gallery of NSW.[7]

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Play Sculpture". City of Sydney. Archived from the original on 25 October 2022. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  2. ^ Jules Heller; Nancy G. Heller (19 December 2013). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-63882-5.
  3. ^ Alfoldy, Sandra (2012). The allied arts : architecture and craft in postwar Canada. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 21. ISBN 9780773539600.
  4. ^ a b "Anita Aarons". Design and Art Australia Online. 9 March 2022. Archived from the original on 8 November 2022. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  5. ^ "Anita Aarons". Australian Prints and Printmaking. Centre for Australian Art. Archived from the original on 26 October 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  6. ^ "Anita Aarons collection". Art Gallery of Ontario. Archived from the original on 4 March 2021. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  7. ^ "Year of the Moon, 1969 by Anita Aarons". Art Gallery of NSW. Archived from the original on 14 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.