Dr Ann Elias

Biography

Ann Elias is a citizen of Australia and New Zealand. Her PhD at the University of Auckland investigated the history of still life and flower painting in New Zealand. She has published on New Zealand’s leading artists including Rata Lovell-Smith, Peter Peryer and Paul Hartigan. She was appointed to Sydney College of the Arts as head of the study area of art history and theory in 1990. Since then Ann’s research has focused on Australian subjects.

Research

Ann's primary research focus is Australian art and visual culture and her publications place Australian material in the context of British and American histories. She investigates the interplay of theories of nature and society, and the impact of war on artists. She has two specializations: camouflage, including the crossing of disciplines between art and science, and flowers, especially flowers as objects of camouflage. Among past and present staff and postgraduates at SCA who Ann has written about are Robyn Backen, Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Debra Dawes, Merilyn Fairskye, Anne Ferran, Matthys Gerber, Gudrun Klix, Lindy Lee, Toni Warburton, Julie Rrap, Josephine Starrs, and Margaret West. In 2011 Ann embarked on new research investigating the Great Barrier Reef, surrealism, photography and fantasy.

Recent Publications

A.Elias, 'Camouflage and Surrealism', War Literature & the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities (forthcoming, 2012)

A.Elias, ‘Hidden from History’, Sydney Alumni Magazine (SAM), 2011, pp. 28-29

A.Elias, ‘Sydney and Sookmyung’, International Exhibition Exchange Project: Special Exhibition to mark the 50th Anniversary of Australia-Korea, The University of Sydney and Sookmyung Women’s University, 2011, pp. 13-23

A. Elias, Camouflage Australia: art, nature, science and war, Sydney, Sydney University Press, 2011, ISBN 9781920899738

A. Elias, ‘Military Magic: Camouflage and Goodenough Island’, in Prue Ahrens and Chris Dixon (eds), Coast to Coast: Case Histories of Modern Pacific Crossings, Newcastle, U.K, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010, pp. 139-153, ISBN: 1-4438-2395-3

'Camouflage and The Half-hidden History of Max Dupain in War', History of Photography,2009, pp. 370–82

'Fantin-Latour in Australia' Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, 2009, online journal
http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org

'Art has no Country:Hans Heysen and the consequences of the First World War', History Australia 2009, pp. 4.1–4.16

'Camouflage Campaigners:Abbott Thayer and William Dakin', Leonardo, 2009, pp. 36–41

'Flower Men: the Australian canon and flower painting', E-Maj, 2008,online pp. 1–17,
http://www.melbourneartjournal.unimelb.edu.au/E-MAJ/pdf/issue3/elias.pdf

'War and The Visual Language of Flowers',War', Literature and the Arts, 2008, pp. 234–50

'William Dakin on Camouflage in Nature and War',Journal of Australian Studies,2008, pp. 251–63

'Moral Conflict, Cultural Pluralism, and and Contemporary Visual Arts Education' in Angela Brew and Judyth Sachs (Eds), Transforming a University of teaching and learning in practice, Sydney, Sydney University Press, 2007, pp. 39–47, ISBN: 978-1-920898-28-1

Research Supervision

Rachel Scott, PhD, 'Wendy Paramour'

Vilma Bader, PhD, 'Hysteria'

Michele Zarro, PhD, Sydney, 'Abstraction and the Fifties'

Clare Milledge, PhD, 'Formlessness'

Rolande Souliere, PhD, 'Abstraction'

Giles Ryder, PhD, 'Minimalism'

Emily Hunt, MFA, 'Revulsion'

Paul Tanchio, MFA, 'The Sublime'

Awards & Grants

2009 SCA Teaching Award Excellence in teaching
2006 Writing Fellowship The Beautiful, Mutable Flower
2006 Research and Development Grant Flowers and War

Professional Membership

Auckland Museum Life member
College Art Association of America Member 2010
Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Member 2009

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