This important new book looks at one of the most distinctive periods in the history of Australian art, bracketed between the two world wars from 1915 into the 1940s. The Sydney moderns were progressive artists at the forefront of the development of modernism in Australia. They produced exuberant, cosmopolitan paintings, prints, sculptures, designs and applied arts in response to and as part of the changing modern world and the international modernist movement. Artists include Ralph Balson, Harold Cazneaux, Grace Cossington Smith, Roy de Maistre, Margaret Preston, Thea Proctor and Roland Wakelin, amongst many others. Sydney Moderns comprises artworks from the Gallery's collection, as well as other public and private collections. In addition to paintings, prints and sculpture, it includes design and fashion, integral to the modernist project. There are five major essays by Deborah Edwards, Denise Mimmocchi and Terence Maloon and 35 focus essays which spotlight key artists and themes.

"This important new book looks at one of the most distinctive periods in the history of Australian art, bracketed between the two world wars from 1915 into the 1940s. The Sydney moderns were progressive artists at the forefront of the development of modernism in Australia. They produced exuberant, cosmopolitan paintings, prints, sculptures, designs and applied arts in response to and as part of the changing modern world and the international modernist movement. With the rise of the new city, artists explored and promoted modernity through the revolutions in colour and light which accompanied European modernism, and advanced the forms of abstraction. These artists presented the modern metropolis and the dynamic patterns of modern living under Sydney's light-filled skies or in coloured interiors as new realms of visual experience."--Publisher's description.

This book tells the story of the architects and buildings that have defined Australia’s architectural culture since the founding of the modern nation through Federation in 1901. That year marked the beginning of a search for better city forms and buildings to accommodate the changing realities of Australian life and to express an emerging, distinctive, and, eventually, confident Australian identity. While Sydney and Melbourne were the settings for many of the major buildings, all states and territories developed architectural traditions based on distinctive histories and climates. Harry Margalit explores the flowering of these many architectural variants, from the bid to create a model city in Canberra, through the stylistic battles that opened a space for modernism, to the idealism of postwar reconstruction, and beyond to the new millennium. Australia reveals a vibrant and influential culture of the built environment, at its best when it matches civic idealism with the sensuality of a country of stunning light and landscapes.

Includes section "Reviews and notices of books".