By the 1940s, and following on from the experience of the Depressions years, the colour vibrancy of 1920s painting had darkened. Sombre-toned works and an emphasis on the world of the night became prevalent, which seemed to declare the anxious mood of an impending war.
During the 1930s and ’40s the impact of surrealism became a subtext to artistic expression in Australia. While the surrealist movement’s concern with the subconscious terrains of dreams and desires were not always directly addressed, artists strayed from purely formal concerns. They injected an enigmatic mood in their descriptions of the everyday, making landscapes and urban settings appear inexplicably empty, and still lifes oddly airless.
While some artists explored the overt dimensions of surrealist imagery, the Depression also produced a generation of painters who believed that art should serve a social purpose. These artists sought to depict the struggles of society’s marginalised groups and the injustices of the capitalist system. The role of the arts became a contested area with debates on whether political ideology or individual creativity should serve as a platform for addressing truth in modern art.