Double Act: Eirene Mort and Nora Kate Weston

Overview

Dr Sylvia Martin launches her new book about prominent Australian artists Eirene Mort and Nora Kate Weston, and their incredible 60-year creative partnership.

Eirene Mort studied art in London, returning to Sydney in 1903. Three years later, she met Nora Kate Weston, whose skills complemented her own. These dynamic 'New Women' shared their lives as artist and artisan for sixty years. To their families, they were known simply as 'The Aunts'.

In their twenties, Nora and Eirene opened a professional studio in the city, where they worked and mentored students, held exhibitions and sold their artefacts. Eirene was better known, as a designer and etcher whose work is held in Australia's leading collecting institutions, but she regarded their work as a collaboration, with Nora a skilled carpenter, woodcarver and metalworker.

In this illustrated joint biography, Margarey-Medal-award-winning biographer Dr Sylvia Martin, in-conversation with historian Frank Bongiorno, combines elements of memoir and meta-biography to paint a rich portrait of the shared lives of Eirene Mort and Nora Kate Weston.

Entry to this event is free but bookings are essential. Sylvia will be signing books in the Library foyer following the discussion.