By arts editor Helen Musa

The Rosalie Gascoigne retrospective opens to the public at the National Gallery of Australia on Saturday, with more than 80 significant works spanning the late artist’s career.

With members of the Gascoigne family present, National Gallery director Nick Mitzevich unveiled the exhibition to the media on Friday, describing it as 50 years in the making. He recalled the Gallery’s first acquisition of a work by Gascoigne in 1976, under founding director James Mollison.

For 50 years she called Canberra home, Mitzevich said, describing how her work was deeply rooted in history and geography. The exhibition, he said, would encompass the full gamut of her career.

Deborah Hart, the gallery’s head curator of Australian art, spoke passionately about her friendship with Gascoigne and her astronomer husband, Ben, and the importance of a representative retrospective showing how the artist re-envisioned the way we see place.

Arriving on the Australian art scene in the 1970s, when minimalism, conceptual art and installation were gaining prominence, she said, Gascoigne held her first solo exhibition in 1976. By 1982, she was representing Australia at the Venice Biennale.

Hart drew a compelling parallel with renowned Aboriginal artist Emily Kam Kngwarray, observing that Gascoigne’s art did not come from nowhere. Her artistic vision was shaped by the isolation of living on Mount Stromlo, while foraging trips with poet Rosemary Dobson yielded grasses and other objects that she transformed into art.

Constructed from materials including retro-reflective road signs, soft drink crates, enamelware, feathers and weathered wood, Gascoigne’s assemblages combine abstraction, memory and wordplay, transforming overlooked materials into works of extraordinary beauty.

Mitzevich hopes the expansive exhibition will attract international interest as well as engage Australian audiences. Rosalie Gascoigne, he said, was one of the most important artists of the 20th century, changing the way many Australians see the materials and landscapes around them.

Rosalie Gascoigne, free exhibition, National Gallery of Australia, October 24 to February 14, 2027. The exhibition is a Know My Name project.

Public programs at a glance:

• Rosalie’s Studio: Hands-on creative space inspired by Rosalie Gascoigne’s studio, with materials for learning and making, free, October 24 to February 14.
• Opening Address: Dr Deborah Hart explores the life and work of Rosalie Gascoigne, James Fairfax Theatre, October 24.
• Mount Stromlo Excursion: A guided bus trip to the landscape that inspired Gascoigne, with picnic lunch and conversations with Hester and Toss Gascoigne, October 24.
• Friday Art Talks: Three lunchtime talks exploring Gascoigne’s life, assemblages and interpretations of the Australian landscape, November 6, 13 and 20.
• Exhibition Tours: Free daily guided tours of the Rosalie Gascoigne retrospective, 3pm, October 26 to February 14.

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