Despite her reputation today as one of Australia's most influential artists, Rosalie Gascoigne did not start exhibiting any of her work until she was aged 57.

Gascoigne, who created much of her work in Canberra and died in 1999, "hit the art world at just the right time," according to curator Deborah Hart.

"Art was starting to take different forms — there was installation art, minimalism, conceptual art,"Dr Hart said.

Gascoigne held her first solo exhibition in 1976 and in 1978 was invited to have a survey exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria.

But Canberra remained the bedrock of much of her work, with many of her pieces made from materials gathered from dumps and brought back to the family home to be reshaped.

"I'm really hoping that this exhibition might generate some excitement from outside of Australia, but I wonder what they'd make of the names of the local dumps of Gundaroo, Bungendore and Captain's Flat," Dr Hart said.

'A wonderful gift'

Hester Gascoigne said the exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra was made up of pieces she could remember her mother creating over the decades.

"It's quite extraordinary to see it all laid out ... to be reacquainted with works which we saw being made but haven't seen for decades, and to see the progression," Ms Gascoigne said.

Ms Gascoigne said her mother "made a game" of creating art when she was growing up, as a way of engaging children in nature.

"There was always a family competition of finding the best stone when we went for picnics down the river, and the nicest line of branch and all of that,"she said.

"But the trips foraging to dumps were, in many respects, very serious because it was her working material."

The family home was built by Ms Gascoigne's parents with the work of her mother in mind, "so there were spaces to work and place to look at things".

"The hope was we could get access to the dining room table," she said.

"I could never understand how she could create huge things like this or like that from a very crowded, confined space."

Gascoigne 'defined art history'

Gascoigne's husband, Ben Gascoigne, was an astronomer, and for a time the family lived at Mount Stromlo Observatory in Canberra, where the artist did not initially have a car.

"And so she's walking across the landscape, she's getting to know this place. It really is the wellspring, the foundation of her art,"Dr Hart said.

Gallery director Nick Mitzevich said Gascoigne's works had been a part of the collection for decades.

"The National Gallery, with the great insight of the inaugural gallery director James Mollison, made our first acquisition of Rosalie Gascoigne in 1976," he said.

He said Gascoigne was an artist who "both defined art history and encouraged us to look at art in a different way".

Dr Hart said becoming a part of the NGA had been a moment of "sheer excitement" for Gascoigne.

"Suddenly she wasn't the square peg in the round hole that she felt when she brought pieces of driftwood and stones back to the mantelpiece of the house," she said.

Dr Hart quoted some of what Gascoigne had to say about her remarkable career at the exhibition's launch on Thursday:

"I think it's a basic human fear to be boxed in, and when you're an artist, you've got an expanding universe. Anything can happen."

Gascoigne continued working late into her life, retaining a youthfulness that amazed those who knew her.

"She became younger as she got older, because she grew into her true self," Dr Hart said.

The exhibition will run at the National Gallery of Australia from October 24 to February 14.