Lesley Dumbrell (b1941) is one of Australia’s most remarkable abstract artists. A stalwart of the women’s art movement in the 1970s, Dumbrell is known for her sophisticated and lyrical abstract paintings and works on paper. Highly ordered and exactly rendered, her immersive and compelling work transports the viewer into worlds of vibrant rhythm, colour and sensation. As a young woman, Dumbrell was inspired by the writings of Wassily Kandinsky and the work of Bridget Riley, whose paintings conveyed the power of abstract art to express memory and emotion, natural phenomena and human experience. Dumbrell’s remarkable facility with colour and grasp of the organising power of the grid remain at the heart of her distinctive and exploratory abstraction, sustained over five decades of practice in Melbourne, the Strathbogie Ranges of northern Victoria, and Bangkok, Thailand. Publishing on the occasion of a major retrospective exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, this book showcases the evolution of Dumbrell’s artistic language, tracing the various phases and themes that have defined her creative trajectory. Richly illustrated with over 120 works, and accompanied by insightful essays by exhibition curator Anne Ryan, art historians Terence Maloon and Juliette Peers, artist Consuelo Cavaniglia, and an interview with the artist herself.
