Art

Despite the proximity to their Asian neighbors, often times Australian artists venturing to Asia for the first time in the mid 1900s would have extremely limited or merely stereotypical knowledge of the continent before traveling there. For a great amount of time Australians viewed themselves far more tied to European countries such as Britain then with the unique cultures, languages, and customs of Asian countries. To many Australians the millions of individuals inhabiting the Asian countries appeared threatening. Most settler Australians feared that with those intense numbers, it would be easy for Asians to take their land, just as they had taken it from the Aboriginal people in the eighteenth century (3).
This perception of Asian countries and individuals as being threatening was often apparent in the works of Australian artists, authors, and journalists. They would create pieces relating to the intensity of their arrival or to the predispositions that were common about Asian hygiene, morals, poverty, or danger (181).
At first glance of the particular painting that I looked into, none of that was apparent. The painting conveys a woman with very gentle features grasping for her papers that are blowing around her by a forceful gust of wind. Her face is neither frantic nor upset at the unfortunate turn of events in her walk. She appears very composed for a person whose papers are flying overhead and lying on the rain soaked concrete below her feet. The unique colors in the painting are a mixture of bright and dingy with the dull grayish-green of the sidewalk and a vibrant red filling the majority of the background. The woman’s papers are simply white but there are also bits of yellow and purple displayed throughout the painting.
Initially I found this painting to be very refreshing, especially how the woman kept her composure during what had unfolded. It was only after I looked into the context of the book and understood the history between Australians and Asians slightly better that I truly was able to appreciate the art. The artist had created the appropriately named piece “The Gust of Wind” in 1930, a time when many other artists were portraying the individuals in Asian countries in completely different ways. She appeared to look past all of the predispositions popular with her countrymen and really took a good look at what was in front of her. Her work was simple and unbiased and offered a fresh look at ordinary life of people who were often thought of as being so different.
(Alison Broinowski's The Yellow Lady, Australian impressions of Asia)