“It’s an extraordinary way to end the year,” National Gallery of Australia director Nick Mitzevich told media on Thursday morning as he unveiled the dual exhibitions, Ethel Carrick and Anne Dangar.

Extraordinary indeed, for patrons of the national collecting institution are used to high-profile summer shows featuring world-famous artists at this time of the year and, even more extraordinary, the breadth and quality of the work will probably astonish those who do come along.

Opening this weekend, the shows tell the stories of two women artists whose names are little-known. The exhibitions, Mitzevich said, along with their in-depth catalogues, represented five years of research by the curators, Deborah Hart and Rebecca Edwards.

Whether from Ethel Carrick’s colourful crowd scenes and travel paintings to Anne Dangar’s cubist ceramics, the exhibits have been selected to take viewers to another time and place, offering the chance to experience early 20th century art.

Working during the same period, Carrick as a painter and Dangar mainly as a potter, both pushed against convention and both established a base in France.

Carrick, married to Australian artist Emanuel Phillips Fox, was among the first artists to introduce Australia to the post-impressionist approach. With 140 works, this will be the first retrospective of her work since 1979 and pays tribute to her as an important artist in her own right.

Hart, head curator, Australian art and curator of Ethel Carrick says: “While Carrick’s art is known to an extent within the art world, she is far from being a household name in Australia, and her work is little known beyond our shores.”

The adjacent exhibit, Anne Dangar, presents more than 180 works. Dangar worked and exhibited alongside European cubists and the show brings together ceramics, paintings and works on paper.

She is one of very few Australian artists to form part of the European avant-garde in the 20th century, and the only one to meaningfully contribute to Cubism in France, her adopted home.

Curator Edwards says: “More than 70 years after her death and almost 100 years since she devoted herself to Cubism — she stands as one of the most unwaveringly dedicated, impactful and truly modern Australian artists.”

Both exhibitions are part of Know My Name, the National Gallery’s initiative celebrating the work of women artists.

Ethel Carrick and Anne Dangar, NGA, December 7-April 27, free admission.