"The world is the biggest education you can get."

So said Nora Heysen, one of South Australia’s most loved painters, who famously forged her own style and emerged from the shadow cast by her famous father Hans while living in London.

The first woman to win the Archibald Prize, Heysen’s work is featured alongside that of other female artists in Dangerously Modern: Australian Women Artists in Europe 1890-1940, a major exhibition presented by the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Art Gallery of New South Wales that reveals a new Australian art history.

Illuminating the stories of 50 trailblazing women artists who were once dismissed as "messenger girls" by influential Australian art historian Bernard Smith, Dangerously Modern is the first exhibition to focus on their vital role in the development of international modernism.

Dangerously Modern will feature more than 200 works of art by both celebrated and rediscovered women artists, encompassing paintings, prints, sculpture and ceramics.

The exhibition will premiere at AGSA from 24 May to 7 September before being presented at the Art Gallery of New South Wales from 11 October to 1 February 2026.

Part of an unprecedented wave of women travelling to Europe at the turn of the 20th century, these artists pursued international professional careers, taking advantage of opportunities newly available for women and exhibiting widely at the salons and academies in London and Paris.

They embraced modern ideas and achieved creative and professional success abroad, yet many remain little known in Australia.

Dangerously Modern will invite visitors to embark on a journey of the senses. Artistic explorations of colour, light, form and movement will offer moments of contemplation, love, loss and transcendence.

Ranging from large public statements to private portrait miniatures, the exhibition will include breakthrough works of professional intent alongside personal, diary-like expressions – spells of intimacy, internal battles, triumphs and tragedy.

AGSA director Jason Smith said: "Beginning as early as 1883, both the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Art Gallery of New South Wales started to acquire the work of women artists.

"Dangerously Modern builds on the strengths of those collections, especially AGSA’s representation of South Australian-born modern women artists, such as Dorrit Black, Stella Bowen, Bessie Davidson, Nora Heysen, Margaret Preston, Gladys Reynell and Marie Tuck.

"We’re thrilled to collaborate with the Art Gallery of New South Wales on an exhibition that adds such depth to our understanding of Australian women artists during this period."

The exhibition takes its name from an article written by Thea Proctor, who, upon her return to Sydney from London in 1921, was surprised to find her art labelled as "dangerously modern".

This title serves as a reminder of the boundaries these women artists were breaking, celebrating their contribution and critical successes as active participants in the development of international modernism.

Image 1: Agnes Goodsir, Girl with Cigarette_1 Agnes Goodsir, born Portland, Victoria 1864, died Paris, France 1939, Girl with Cigarette, c.1925, Paris, oil on canvas, 99.5 x 81.0 cm; Bequest of Amy E Bayne 1945, Bendigo Art Gallery.  

Image 2: Alison Rehfisch Oranges and lemons _1 Alison Rehfisch, born Woollahra, New South Wales 1900, died Pymble 1975, Oranges and lemons, c 1934, oil on canvas, 50.0 x 40.0 cm stretcher, 63.0 x 52.7 x 4.5 cm (frame); Purchased 1976, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, © Estate of Alison Rehfisch.

Image 3:  HQ-953P12_1 Grace Crowley, born Cobbadah, New South Wales 1890, died Sydney 1979, Miss Gwen Ridley, 1930, Glen Riddle, Barraba, New South Wales, oil on canvas on board, 72.0 x 53.0 cm, 87.2 x 68.5 x 5.5 cm (frame); Purchased 1995 with the assistance of South Australian Government Grant, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.