Dorothy Braund (b. 1926 d. 2103) Selected Biography

Dorothy Braund was born in Melbourne in 1926 and studied at the National Gallery School, Melbourne and the George Bell School. A modernist artist, Braund was a student and associate of influential Australian modernists Alan Sumner and George Bell. Her travel studies in the 50s and 60s took her across Europe, Greece, Italy, Pakistan, Persia, and Turkey.

Braund's restrained figurative style had, at its core, the natural world, people and activity, observed with distinctive wit and humanity. The subject was explored often through a series of works and refined and simplified. It was important to Braund to 'attain the ultimate in simplicity', through the play of light on black, white, brown, grey and other tertiary colours.

“I’ve always been knocked out by simplicity. To me it’s got such impact… far more than anything fussy… because you have to get it right. There’s no chance for accidental effects. If you are simple, everything has to relate and work.” says Braund. (Extract from ‘Encyclopedia of Australian Art’, Alan and Susan McCulloch, 1994)

Braund’s work is characterized by economy of means, rhythmic tension of line, close colour harmony, and subordination of the object, concentrating on form and design: the artist’s main vehicle of expression.

Braund exhibited extensively in the eastern states and is represented in several public collections including National Gallery of Australia, Art Canberra, Art Gallery of South Australia, National Gallery of Victoria and such Regional Galleries as Bendigo, Castlemaine, Langwarrin, and Mornington.

Her work was represented in ‘Classical Modernism. The George Bell Circle’, NGV, 1992.

Braund was awarded Prizes in competitive exhibitions at Albury 1962, Colac 1964, Bendigo 1966 and Muswellbrook 1972.

Through her extensive and prolific career, Braund was among a generation of influential women artists who made a significant contribution to the period, including Mary MacQueen, Barbara Brash, Anne Marie Graham, Constance Stokes, Anne Montgomery and Nancy Grant.