This important new book looks at one of the most distinctive periods in the history of Australian art, bracketed between the two world wars from 1915 into the 1940s. The Sydney moderns were progressive artists at the forefront of the development of modernism in Australia. They produced exuberant, cosmopolitan paintings, prints, sculptures, designs and applied arts in response to and as part of the changing modern world and the international modernist movement. Artists include Ralph Balson, Harold Cazneaux, Grace Cossington Smith, Roy de Maistre, Margaret Preston, Thea Proctor and Roland Wakelin, amongst many others. Sydney Moderns comprises artworks from the Gallery's collection, as well as other public and private collections. In addition to paintings, prints and sculpture, it includes design and fashion, integral to the modernist project. There are five major essays by Deborah Edwards, Denise Mimmocchi and Terence Maloon and 35 focus essays which spotlight key artists and themes.