Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies (Jun 2008)
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The Case of a Designing Woman
Abstract
Ann Gillmore Rees was a designer and teacher who used three different names over the course of a career, which began in England in the 1920s and concluded in Australia in the 1970s. Rees illustrated books, designed textiles and exhibited work in a variety of genres. As a teacher she influenced notable Australian women including Marion Hall Best and Joan Law-Smith. It is surprising then that since her death in 1982, Ann Rees has largely been forgotten. In this paper, I reconstruct the story of Ann Rees’ career and discuss reasons for her omission from British and Australian art, craft and design histories, concluding that the telling of stories like hers would provide us with a more complete view of our cultural history.
