Interior Designer, Marion Hall Best was an enthusiastic supporter of emerging Australian artists, including a then up and coming Sidney Nolan.

The exhibition is a rare opportunity to see a Nolan painting from the Carcass series (part of the Nolan Foundation Collection held at Canberra Museum and Gallery) alongside iconic Australian design. Hall Best displayed a different work from this same series in her proposal for a ‘Contemporary Study’ for the First Exhibition of the Society of Interior Designers held at the Woollahra Council Chambers in September 1953, shortly after the Nolan work was painted.

Michael Lech, Senior Curator at Sydney Living Museums will be joined in conversation with Virginia Rigney Senior Curator at CMAG for this floor talk which will highlight how Best made connections between art and design throughout her career and her commissions in Canberra.

This floor talk highlights the relationships between art and design and Marion Hall Best’s commissions in Canberra.

Presented by CMAG, Marion Hall Best: Interiors is a travelling exhibition from Sydney Living Museums.

IMAGE:

Contemporary Study (The White Room ) Display designed by Marian Hall Best for the Society of Interior Designers, First Exhibition, Woollahra 1953 Image Courtesy the Caroline Simpson Library and Research Collection Sydney Living Museums