J.W. Power: An Australian Avant-gardist: A Book Launch

Sydney-born painter John Joseph Wardell Power, better known as J.W. Power, was Australia’s most accomplished artist of the interwar years. In London and Paris in the 1920s and 1930s, Power’s unique blend of cubism, surrealism and abstraction found an audience in the heart of the avant-garde. Today, he is chiefly remembered as a benefactor whose extraordinary gifts led to the founding of the Power Institute at the University of Sydney in 1968 and the establishment of the Museum of Contemporary Art in 1991.

Join us to celebrate the launch of the monograph, J.W. Power: An Australian Avant-gardist.

The book, published with NLA Publishing, accompanies the J.W. Power: Art, War and the Avant-garde exhibition at the University of Sydney’s Chau Chak Wing Museum, reveals his singular role in Australian art in the 20th century.

The book is co-authored by Dr Ann Stephen, FAHA (Senior Curator, Art, Chau Chak Wing Museum) and ADS Donaldson (artist, art historian and curator).

The evening features presentations by Mark Ledbury (Power Institute, The University of Sydney) and TBC (National Library of Australia).

Copies of the book will be available to purchase on the evening.

For more details on the publication, visit the National Library of Australia website.

Part of the University of Sydney’s 175th anniversary Community Festival.

About our speakers

Professor Mark Ledbury is Power Professor of Art History and Visual Culture in the Discipline of Art History and Director of the Power Institute at the University of Sydney. His research interests include eighteenth and nineteenth- century European art; questions and definitions of genre in visual art; the relationships between theatre and visual art and methods of art history.

NLA speaker to be determined

Above image: Book cover of J. W. Power: An Australian Avant-Gardist.

Header image: J. W. Power: Art, war and the avant-garde (installation view), Chau Chak Wing Museum, 2025. Photo by David James.

Also check out other Arts events in Pyrmont, Festivals in Pyrmont, Exhibitions in Pyrmont.