When a woman makes art, what does she see? Or when she picks up her brush and looks in the mirror? When she takes off her clothes and paints herself naked, or raises her camera towards another woman? And how is she seen when she turns to face the men, the artists, her colleagues, her friends, her lovers?
In the richly illustrated book A Woman’s Eye, Her Art, acclaimed writer Drusilla Modjeska directs her gaze towards six extraordinary female artists of the 20th century. She examines how they reframed artistic and cultural narratives, why their work still matters and — echoing her seminal and bestselling work Stravinsky’s Lunch — how their pasts connect to our present.
Drusilla will be in conversation with Nicole Abadee.
Drusilla Modjeska is one of Australia’s most acclaimed writers. Her books include the award-winning Poppy and the bestselling The Orchard and Stravinsky’s Lunch, which won the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction. Her novel The Mountain was critically acclaimed and shortlisted for a number of awards; and in 2015 she published her memoir, Second Half First, which was also shortlisted for several prizes. She lives in Sydney and her latest book is A Woman’s Eye, Her Art.
Nicole Abadee is an interviewer, facilitator and journalist who writes for Good Weekend Magazine, Harpers Bazaar, Spectrum and Australian Book Review. She has been a regular interviewer at writers’ festivals including Sydney Writers Festival, Adelaide Writers Week and Canberra Writers Festival. She was the curator of the Woollahra Writers’ Festival 2025. Nicole has been a literary judge, podcaster and a guest on ABC Radio to discuss books. She is a board member of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.
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