This is a ‘rich and highly complex’ story of intricate cultural interactions between émigré scholars, refugee artists and Australian cultural elites, where the ‘outsiders’ transmitted innovative doctrines and principles that transformed the cultural, educational and fine arts environments and institutions in which they lived and worked.

Amongst a large cast of dynamic individuals, the central narrative of this story follows the lives and careers of three art historians, the continentally trained Dr Ursula Hoff and Franz Philipp, and the British civil servant and student of fine arts Professor Joseph Burke.

This book, which is based on new research and extensive interviews, is a significant addition to Australian cultural history, art and modernism, as well as looking at the importance of cultural traffic and the establishment of art history as an academic discipline within an Australian university.

‘… there is much to be learned from the interaction that Dr Palmer recounts and analyses’. – Professor John Poynter