Rosemary Valadon (b. 1947) is a Sydney artist best known for large-scale oil paintings characterised by theatricality and opulence and informed with irony and feminism. Valadon studied the Meldrum style of tonal painting in the early 1970s and after travelling abroad returned to Sydney, where she completed a postgraduate diploma in art. Her interests at this time included philosophy, feminist discourse, art theory, spirituality and mythology. Between 1990 and 1996 she completed The Goddess Series, a major series of portraits of Australian women as mythological/archetypal figures, including Germaine Greer, Ruth Cracknell, Blanche d'Alpuget and Noni Hazlehurst. This was followed by paintings with themes including fairytales, wicked women and the four seasons. Valadon is a regular finalist in the Archibald, Sulman, Blake, Portia Geach and Mosman prizes, and in 1991 she won both the Portia Geach Prize and the Blake Prize for Religious Art.
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Gregory Weight/Copyright Agency, 2024
Patrick Corrigan AM (130 portraits)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Greg Weight on working with Jiawei Shen, and starting out as a photographer.
Portraits of philanthropists in the collection honour their contributions to Australia and acknowledge their support of the National Portrait Gallery.
