Edmund Capon tells the story of how art helped European settlers come to terms with such an unfamiliar land on the other side of the world and how, ignoring 60,000 years of indigenous culture, they saw the place through a distorted European lens, until a uniquely Australian impressionism reflected the emergence of a distinctive national identity and an independent nation.

Edmund Capon explores how Australian art evolved in the first half of the 20th century against the backdrop of two world wars. As modern artists expressed both the dreams and demons of this new nation, they met with decades of disapproval from the old guard, until they finally revolutionised Australian art and heralded its arrival on the world stage.

Edmund Capon explores how, from the 1960s onwards, Australia and its art went global. Transformed into a migrant nation, Australia's dependence on Britain and Europe ended and artists and nation alike turned their attention to America...