A Singular Voice

A Singular Voice brings together essays by the controversial and popular Australian art and architecture scholar, Joan Kerr, that have appeared over the past 30 years. The Joan Kerr story is as much a history of changing attitudes to Australian art and architecture as it is a record of the remarkable academic career of a woman distinguished by her open mind, her infectious enthusiasm for everything from colonial architecture to contemporary Aboriginal art, and her generosity to her peers.

From the ancient remains of a dinosaur in an outback museum display to the importance of art in our everyday lives, Joan Kerr always had an interesting and different point of view. Whether she wrote about 19th-century Tasmanian painting, the architecture of imprisonment, or the forgotten and marginalized of Australian art, her writing crackles with energy. Her voice was unlike any other--a singular voice.

A Singular Voice is part of the four-book series Australian Studies in Art and Art Theory and is published with the assistance of the Getty Foundation, the Gordon Darling Foundation, and the Nelson Meers Foundation.

Joan Kerr (1938-2004) was an art and architectural historian, critic, curator of historical and contemporary exhibitions, lecturer and prolific writer, a witty and erudite public speaker, and a committed feminist. Her major publications include The Dictionary of Australian Artists: Painters, Sketchers, Photographers and Engravers to 1870 and Heritage: The National Women's Art Book. A Singular Voice is part of the four-book series Australian Studies in Art and Art Theory and is published with the assistance of the Getty Foundation, the Gordon Darling Foundation, and the Nelson Meers Foundation.