GENE ASHTON (c.1915 - ?)

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Gene Ashton was a well respected and decorated Tasmanian Modernist painter, set designer and theatre performer. She rose to great acclaim in the mid 1930s, designing costumes and sets for numerous National Theatre productions, whilst also performing as a major lead in numerous of these productions. Her set designs were continually referenced, reviewed and complemented in National newspapers at the time, such as The Mercury in Hobart, and she was a regular award winner for her modernist paintings. Her work has been likened to contemporary Grace Cossington Smith in style and content. It was exhibited to great acclaim at the Art Society Of Tasmania in April 1937, and was given special mention in The Mercury, Hobart.