Post-war era’s joy, hardship in pictures

The legacy of WA artist Elizabeth Durack was commemorated last week at the opening of her exhibition, With Outstretched Arms, by the Sisters of St John of God.

More than 100 people attended an intimate ceremony at the Heritage Centre in honour of Durack’s artworks.

The exhibition consisted of 45 original artworks, including watercolours and drawings of post-war Kimberley communities, featuring Kimberley Sisters of St John of God with children and patients in Broome, Derby and Beagle Bay.

The collection depicts the joy, hardship, love and faith experienced by the community at that time.

The works were produced on site when Durack visited the Sisters of St John of God in the communities in the late 1940s and early 1960s.

The exhibition was previously displayed in 2005, before the collection was donated to the heritage centre by members of the Durack family in 2007.

National Museum of Australia senior curator Richard Reid managed to avoid the disruption of flight cancellations caused by the recent Chilean ash cloud to officially open the exhibition and gave a special talk on the Durack family.

Durack’s daughter Perpetua Durack-Clancy also attended the presentation and addressed the audience.

Ms Durack-Clancy said the artworks were produced in the early stages of Durack’s life as an independent artist and broadly depicted figures and landscape and how the two interacted with and shaped each other.

The exhibition will run until July 29 in the Bernadine Room at the Heritage Centre.