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POST-IMPRESSIONISM FROM THE MUSÉE D’ORSAY TICKETS: NGA.GOV.AU HOTEL PACKAGES: VISITCANBERRA.COM.AU/PARIS 1300 889 024 CANBERRA ONLY 4 DECEMBER 2009 – 5 APRIL 2010 Z00 40383 Vincent van Gogh Van Gogh’s bedroom at Arles 1889 (detail), Musée d’Orsay, Paris, © RMN (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski PRESENTING PARTNERS PRINCIPAL PARTNERS I S S U E 6 0 • s u m m e r 2 0 0 9 a r to n v ie w I S S U E 6 0 • S U m m E r 2 0 0 9 N AT I O N A L G A L L E r Y O F A U S T r A L I A
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Vincent van Gogh Van Gogh’s bedroom at Arles 1889 (detail), Musée d’Orsay, Paris, © RMN (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski
The National Gallery of Australia is an Australian Government Agency
PRESENTING PARTNERS PRINCIPAL PARTNERS
TICKETS: NGA.GOV.AUHOTEL PACKAGES: VISITCANBERRA.COM.AU/PARIS 1300 889 024
CANBERRA ONLY4 DECEMBER 2009 – 5 APRIL 2010
MASTERPIECES FROM PARISVan Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne & beyond
POST-IMPRESSIONISM FROM THE MUSÉE D’ORSAY
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VAN GOGH, GAUGUIN, CEZANNE AND BEYOND CULTURE WARRIORS IN WASHINGTON
Issue 60, summer 2009–10
2 Director’s foreword6 Foundation8 Sponsorship and Developmentexhibitions and displays
10 Culture Warriors storm Washington Bronwyn Campbell
14 Masterpieces from Paris: Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and beyond Christine Dixon
collection focus/conservation
22 Celebrating two outstanding sculptors: Bert Flugelman and Inge King Deborah Hart
26 Kenneth Tyler Collection online Gwen Horsfield
acquisitions
30 J Miller Marshall Fossicking for gold Miriam Kelly
32 John Skinner Prout Break of Day Plains and The River Barwon, Victoria Emma Colton
36 Mawalan Marika The Milky Way Chantelle Woods
34 Devare & Co Prince Yeshwant Rao Holkar and his sister Manorama Raje Gael Newton
34 Erich Heckel White horses Jacklyn Babington
36 Walter Burley Griffin Desk chair for Newman College Robert Bell
40 Travelling exhibitions42 Faces in view
published quarterly by
National Gallery of Australia GPO Box 1150 Canberra ACT 2601 nga.gov.au
ISSN 1323-4552
Print Post Approved pp255003/00078
© National Gallery of Australia 2009
Copyright for reproductions of artworks is held by the artists or their estates. Apart from uses permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of artonview may be reproduced, transmitted or copied without the prior permission of the National Gallery of Australia. Enquires about permissions should be made in writing to the Rights and Permissions Officer.
The opinions expressed in artonview are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher.
editors Eric Meredith
designer Kristin Thomas
photography Eleni Kypridis, Barry Le Lievre, Brenton McGeachie, Steve Nebauer, David Pang, John Tassie
rights and permissions Nick Nicholson
advertising Erica Seccombe
printed in Australia by Blue Star Print, Melbourne
enquiries
The editor, artonview National Gallery of Australia GPO Box 1150 Canberra ACT 2601 artonview.editor@nga.gov.au
advertising
Tel: (02) 6240 6557 Fax: (02) 6240 6427 artonview.advertising@nga.gov.au
RRP $9.95 includes GST Free to members of the National Gallery of Australia
For further information on National Gallery of Australia Membership:
Membership Coordinator GPO Box 1150 Canberra ACT 2601 Tel: (02) 6240 6504 membership@nga.gov.au
(cover) Paul Gauguin Tahitian women (Femmes de Tahiti) 1891 (detail) oil on canvas 69 x 91.5 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris gift of Countess Vitali in memory of her brother Viscount Guy de Cholet, 1923 © RMN (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski
The National Gallery of Australia is an Australian Government Agency
2 national gallery of australia
Director’s foreword
Our exhibition Masterpieces from Paris: Van Gogh,
Gauguin, Cézanne and beyond, Post-Impressionism
from the Musée d’Orsay is arguably the most important
exhibition to come to the National Gallery of Australia
in Canberra. Never before have so many famous works
of art been brought together for one exhibition in this
country. It is important for Australia because Australian
collections are not rich in Post-Impressionist pictures
and unfortunately never will be. We are delighted to
be co-curating this exhibition with the Musée d’Orsay
in Paris, which holds the most significant collection of
Post-Impressionist art in the world. The works in this
exhibition rarely leave the Musée d’Orsay, even singly,
and never before in these numbers.
Visitors to the exhibition will encounter Vincent van
Gogh’s Bedroom at Arles 1889, his intense yet simple
rendition of coloured surfaces influenced by Japanese
aesthetics. Van Gogh’s Starry night 1888 is of course iconic.
Paul Gauguin’s Tahitian women 1891 (see the cover of this
issue) is both monumental and decorative. Paul Cézanne
is the master of still-life, and Kitchen table (Still-life with
basket) 1888–90 fulfils his own prophecy: ‘I shall astonish
Paris with an apple!’ Cézanne’s beloved Mount Saint-
Victoire c 1890 is a classic image for the development
of the modern landscape. The exhibition examines the
evolution of Post-Impressionism, announcing the break
from Impressionism. The masterpieces in this exhibition
mark the arrival of modern art—diverse in style, colourful,
experimental and committed to the new.
The Gallery has published a beautifully designed
and illustrated book to mark this important occasion. It
includes essays by Guy Cogeval, President of the Musée
d’Orsay, Stéphane Guégan and Sylvie Patry, curators from
the Musée d’Orsay, and the National Gallery of Australia’s
Christine Dixon. There are entries on each work written by
National Gallery of Australia curatorial staff.
Félix Vallotton The ball or Corner of the park with child (Le ballon
au Coin de parc avec enfant) 1899
oil on card, laid on wood panel
48 x 61 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris
bequest of Carle Dreyfus 1953 © RMN (Musée d’Orsay) /
Hervé Lewandowski
artonview summer 2009–10 3
It has been three months since the Hon Peter Garrett AM,
Minister for the Arts in Australia, launched Culture Warriors
at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington. The exhibition
has received critical acclaim in the United States: The
Washington Post said, ‘Australian Indigenous Art
Triennial: Culture Warriors is one of the most revolutionary
exhibitions of its ilk. Though the show acts as the most
civil of diplomats, it also subverts expectations …’.
The showing of the exhibition in Washington is a triumph
for Australia, Aboriginal people and Aboriginal art, as well
as for the National Gallery of Australia. Culture Warriors is
the largest contemporary Indigenous art exhibition ever to
leave Australian shores and is part of the Australia Presents
cultural initiative to promote Australia in America.
It has been an outstanding year for acquisitions of
major works of art in all collection areas, both in numbers
of works purchased and in numbers and value of works
given. Many gaps have been strategically filled. In
Australian art, our growing collection of early colonial art
was recently enhanced by the acquisition of a fascinating
pre-gold rush John Skinner Prout watercolour of the
Barwon River near Geelong in 1847; it is one of his few
Victorian works and our earliest landscape from that state.
Another even more brilliant and lively watercolour sketch
by Prout, Break of Day Plains, Tasmania c 1845, was also
acquired. Together, these works are fine representations
of the artist’s Australian period. We continue to raise
funds for the Turneresque masterpiece in watercolour by
Conrad Martens, Campbell’s Wharf 1857, through the
new Members Acquisition Fund, which we highlighted
in the last issue of artonview. The painting, which is in
immaculate condition, came directly from a Scottish
branch of the Campbell family. With the assistance of
Gallery members it will be our finest work by this, the
most eminent New South Wales colonial artist. Thanks
go to those members who have already responded to the
invitation to play a direct role in acquiring an important
work for the National Collection. It is still possible to
contribute and we hope members will consider giving $100
towards this exceptional and rare work now on display in
the colonial gallery.
We also recently acquired Fossicking for gold 1893
by English-born Australian artist J Miller Marshall.
The painting was donated by Jenny, David and Melissa
Manton in memory of Jenny’s late husband Jack Manton,
a distinguished collector of small Australian Impressionist
works. For a short time only, this oil painting of a mining
scene is on display with two companion pieces depicting
the same subject—one owned by the Gallery is by Walter
Withers and another attributed to Percy Lindsay is on loan
from the Castlemaine Art Gallery. This is a rare
opportunity to see side-by-side these three interesting
works painted together at the same moment in Creswick,
Victoria, in 1893.
One of the most remarkable nineteenth-century
Australian paintings recently acquired was Tom Roberts’s
oil sketch of breathtaking brevity, Shearing shed, Newstead
1893–94, an iconic depiction of a sunlit landscape and
one of the artist’s finest works left in private hands. It
was largely funded by a successful national appeal, the
Masterpieces for the Nation Fund, and the Gallery is very
grateful to those who generously donated to the fund.
From the early twentieth century, the Gallery acquired
a desk chair that Walter Burley Griffin designed as part
of his 1915 concept for the University of Melbourne’s
Newman College, his second largest project in Australia
after his designs for the national capital in 1913.
Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander collection
grew substantially during the year, in the lead-up to the
opening of the new Indigenous galleries later in 2010.
Among the very recent works acquired is a large early bark
painting by Mawalan Marika. Marika was an important
leader in Yirrkala in the Northern Territory and a key figure
in the development of the distinctive style of bark painting
from Arnhem Land.
From India, the Gallery acquired an interesting group
of hand-coloured photographs from the nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries. Among them is a stunning
1918 photographic portrait of the young Prince Yeshwant
and his younger sister Manorama Raje of Indore. The
photograph is exquisitely hand-coloured and retains its
original gilded frame. The work not only enriches our Asian
photography collection but also has a special connection to
our two Brancusi Bird in space sculptures, which Yeshwant
commissioned at the beginning of the 1930s for his palace
outside Indore. These works, among the Gallery’s greatest
treasures, were acquired in 1973.
The Gallery acquired White horses (Weisse Pferde) 1912
by Erick Heckel for our international prints collection. This
landscape is markedly different to the figurative work that
underpinned the early German Expressionist movement
of 1905–20. It joins our important collection of German
Expressionist prints and sets itself apart from Heckel’s more
tormented psychological portraits in the collection, the
most famous of which is, of course, his postwar woodcut
print Portrait of a man (Männerbildnis) 1919.
In October, the Gallery officially launched the website
for the Kenneth Tyler Collection. The collection includes
4 national gallery of australia
over 7000 works by 77 artists—more than 3000 of which
have been digitised for the website. The dynamic features
of the Kenneth Tyler Collection website allow our online
visitors to take a journey through the decades-long creative
collaboration behind some of the most famous images of
American art from the second half of the twentieth century.
The collection was compiled over decades by Ken and
Marabeth Tyler and gifted exclusively to the National Gallery
of Australia in 2002. The online content includes hundreds
of behind-the-scenes photographs of artists at work as
well as rare film footage and audio from these years. This
website demonstrates the role of the internet in preserving
and publishing archival material and in providing electronic
access to an important part of the national collection.
In late November, we opened a new purpose-built
gallery for our popular Sidney Nolan Ned Kelly series 1946.
This new gallery, off the main foyer in the space formerly
occupied by the Gallery Shop, has been specially designed
to enhance visitor experience of these famous and
much-loved Australian works. Their previous home in
the main Australian galleries on the first floor is now a
dedicated space for our remarkable collection of Australian
Surrealism, including, of course, the recently given
Agapitos/Wilson collection. Other newly opened display
areas near the Ned Kelly gallery include showcases for
Asian and international costumes and fashion, a large
showcase for our stunning jewellery collection, and a
dedicated space for changing displays of photography—
the first display is of John Gollings’s colourful New Guinea
suite 1973–74. Until now, the Gallery has never had a
permanent exclusive place for its jewellery, costume and
photography collections. We have also just opened our
new Polynesian gallery in the space previously occupied by
the Childrens Gallery. Immediately above it upstairs, the
former Pacific arts gallery is now devoted to Melanesian art.
The Childrens Gallery reopens in mid February 2010, near
the Gallery’s Small Theatre.
A new art loading dock and a goods loading dock,
a new staff entrance and vitally needed spaces for
registration, exhibition preparation, packing, quarantine
and mount-cutting have been completed as part of
Stage 1 early this year. These crucial back-of-house spaces
are of the international standard now expected of a major
art museum.
Gallery 3, which until recently housed The Aboriginal
memorial poles, has been restored and refurbished and has
had new lighting installed for international art. All these
changes complete the planned extensive refurbishment
of the current Gallery building and its displays, which has
been going on for several years. The current Gallery display
spaces have been redesignated, all extensively refurbished
and redisplayed. We can now look forward to the opening
of your new Gallery building later in 2010.
Ron Radford AM
Henri-Edmond Cross Hair (La chevelure) c 1892
oil on canvas 61 x 46 cm
Musée d’Orsay, Paris purchased 1969
© RMN (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski
artonview summer 2009–10 5
credit lines
Grants
Masterpieces from Paris has been indemnified by the
Commonwealth through the Australian Government’s
Art Indemnity Australia program, administered by the
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and
the Arts.
The Australia Council for the Arts through its Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Art Board’s Showcasing the
Best International Strategy
The Gordon Darling Foundation
Australian Government:
Department of Families, Housing, Community Services
and Indigenous Affairs (FHCSIA)
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the
Australian International Cultural Council
Department of Health and Ageing‘s Dementia
Community Grants Program
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and
the Arts through Visions of Australia, an Australian
Government program supporting touring exhibitions
by providing funding assistance for the development
and touring of Australian cultural material across
Australia, and through the Visual Arts and Craft
Strategy, an initiative of the Australian Government,
and state and territory governments
The Queensland Government (Australia) through the
Queensland Indigenous Arts Marketing and Export
Agency (QIAMEA) Arts Partnership Program
Sponsorship
ABC Radio
Accor Hotels
ACT Government (through Australian Capital Tourism)
ActewAGL
apARTments
Brassey Hotel of Canberra
BHP Billiton
Canberra Times
Casella Wines
Champagne Pol Roger
Diamant Hotel
Eckersley’s Art & Craft
Forrest Hotel and Apartments
JCDecaux
Mantra on Northbourne
National Australia Bank
NewActon
Nine Network Australia
Qantas
R.M.Williams, The Bush Outfitter
WIN Television
Wesfarmers Limited
Yalumba Wines
ZOO
Donations
Jason L Brown
John Calvert-Jones AM and Janet Calvert-Jones AO
The Hon Mrs Ashley Dawson-Damer
Warwick Hemsley
Merrill Lynch
Perin Family Foundation
Jason Prowd
Peter G Webster
The Yulgilbar Foundation
Founding Donor 2010
Antoinette L Albert
Luca Belgiorno-Nettis AM
Tony Berg AM and Carol Berg
Catherine Harris AO and David Harris
Neil Hobbs and Karina Harris
Terry Peabody and Mary Peabody
Julien Playoust and Michelle Playoust
Prescott Family Foundation
Penelope Seidler AM and the late Harry Seidler AC, OBE
Village Roadshow Limited
Ray Wilson OAM and the late James Agapitos OAM
Masterpieces for the Nation Fund
Joan Adler
Sarah Brasch
Cheryl Bridge
Ann and Dr Miles Burgess
Dr Stuart Cairns
Deborah and Jim Carroll
Paula Davidson
Anne H De Salis
Anthony Eastaway
Neilma Gantner
Wendy Gray
Aileen Hall
Annette Hearne
Elizabeth Hilton
Rev Bill Huff-Johnston and Rosemary Huff-Johnston
Elspeth Humphries
Dr J Vaughan Johnson CSC, AAM, and Madeleine Johnson
Brian Jones
Dr Dominic H Katter
6 national gallery of australia
Carolyn Kay and Simon Swaney
Thomas Kennedy
Dr Peter Kenny
Pamela V Kenny
James Semple Kerr
Sabra Lane
Simon McGill
Anne Moten and John Moten
Dame Elisabeth Murdoch AC, DBE
Donald W Nairn
Suzannah Plowman
Michael Ian Proud
Dr Lyn Riddett
Alan Rose AO and Helen Rose
Ann Somers
Helene Stead
Alan Taylor
Dr Caroline Turner AM and Glen Barclay
Joy D Warren OAM
Gabrielle Watt
The Hon E Gough Whitlam AC, QC,
and Margaret Whitlam AO
Dr IS Wilkey and H Wilkey
Gifts
Geoff Brash
Ian Brown
Peter Cheah
Brenda L Croft
The Hon Mrs Ashley Dawson-Damer
James Erksine and Jacqui Erksine
Gordon Darling Australia Pacific Print Fund
Dr Anna Gray
Richard Horvath
Lesley Kehoe
Inge King
John Loane
Matisse Mitelman
Mike Parr
Jocelyn Plate and Cassi Plate
Anne Sanders
Lyn Williams AM and the late Fred Williams OBE
The National Gallery or Australia extends thanks to the
many anonymous donors who provided support during
this period.
artonview summer 2009–10 7
Foundation
McCubbin opening
McCubbin: Last Impressions 1907–17 exemplifies how
philanthropy can greatly assist the Gallery to present
exhibitions of the highest quality. Council member and
Foundation director the Hon Mrs Ashley Dawson-Damer
generously donated towards the cost of the exhibition, as
did R.M.Williams, The Bush Outfitter.
Several works of art included in McCubbin were
acquired through the benefaction of Foundation members.
Ashley Dawson-Damer, John Wylie AM and Myriam Wylie
donated towards a key work painted in McCubbin’s final
years, Violet and gold 1911. An earlier work, At the falling
of the year 1886, which is also included in the exhibition,
was acquired through the generous donation of Terry
Campbell AO and Christine Campbell.
Masterpieces for the Nation Fund 2009
On 29 September 2009, Gallery Director Ron Radford
AM hosted an event to celebrate the acquisition of Tom
Roberts’s Shearing shed, Newstead 1893–94. All donors
to the Masterpieces for the Nation Fund 2009 were
invited to view the work that they helped acquire for
the Australian art collection. The Director spoke about
the importance of the artist’s work for the national art
collection and how he was delighted and grateful that
so many donors had contributed.
Founding Donors 2010
The Founding Donors 2010 program, which is an
opportunity to become involved in the history of the
Gallery, is progressing very well. With the completion of the
Stage 1 South Entrance and Indigenous Galleries building
project less than a year away, the funds raised through the
Founding Donors 2010 program will be used to acquire
works of art for the new galleries. Stage 1 is the most
extensive building program since the Gallery opened in
1982, when the initial Founding Donors program provided
most valuable support to the Gallery.
The Founding Donors 2010 program aims to raise
$1 million through 100 donors contributing $10 000 over
two years. All donors will be recognised in perpetuity
through the inclusion of their name on the donor board
being placed in the Gallery foyer.
If you are interested in becoming a Founding Donor 2010,
please contact Annalisa Millar, Executive Director of
the National Gallery of Australia Foundation, on
(02) 6240 6691. Your support would be most welcome.
Membership Acquisition Fund
The Membership Acquisition Fund, under which members
have been invited to support the Gallery, has proved
very popular with many donations received towards the
acquisition of Conrad Martens’s spectacular watercolour
Campbell’s Wharf 1857. For more information about this
program, or to make your tax-deductible donation today,
please contact the Membership Office on 1800 020 068.
Gala dinner and weekend 2010
The next annual fundraising weekend will be held on
20 and 21 March 2010 and will include behind-the-scenes
tours, a private viewing of Masterpieces from Paris:
Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and beyond, and an
exquisite gala dinner at the Gallery on the Saturday evening.
Funds raised from the weekend will assist the Gallery
to acquire a work of art for the national art collection.
For further information, please contact Annalisa Millar
on (02) 6240 6691 or annalisa.millar@nga.gov.au.
Foundation AGM and board meeting
The Annual General Meeting of the National Gallery of
Australia Foundation was held on 28 October 2009 and
was attended by Foundation directors and a number
of members of the Foundation. Chairman of the
Foundation, Charles Curran AC, provided an outline of
the achievements for the Foundation for this financial year
and the Gallery’s Director Ron Radford AM spoke about
Christine Simpson and Kerry Stokes AC with McCubbin’s Oliver’s Hill, Frankston (Summer idyll) 1910 from the Kerry Stokes collecton, on display in McCubbin: Last Impressions 1907–17 at the National Gallery of Australia.
8 national gallery of australia
recent developments, including an update on the building
program. The Director also spoke about the forthcoming
major international exhibition Masterpieces from Paris: Van
Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and beyond. Thanks to everyone
who has supported the National Gallery of Australia through
the Foundation. The board expressed their gratitude to Jennifer
Prescott, who has resigned after nine years as a board member.
The Foundation also welcomed two new board members:
Zeke Solomon and Julian Beaumont.
National Gallery of Australia Bequest Circle
The National Gallery of Australia Bequest Circle was
launched in November 2008 as a way of recognising the
important role that bequest benefactors play in the life of
the Gallery. Ray Wilson OAM spoke at the launch of the
program. He has been a generous benefactor and recently
left a bequest as a way of reinforcing his commitment to
the National Gallery of Australia.
The Bequest Circle was introduced to increase
awareness of the Gallery as a potential bequest choice.
The program provides existing and potential bequest
donors the opportunity to enjoy a closer relationship
with the Gallery. It also enables the Gallery to formally
acknowledge and honour bequest donors during
their lifetime.
Members of the Bequest Circle are invited to an
exclusive annual event as well as other Gallery events and
programs. They are formally acknowledged in the
National Gallery of Australia Foundation Annual Report
and in artonview.
A bequest to the National Gallery of Australia is a
significant and lasting contribution to the future of the
national collection. If you have ever felt captivated, excited,
challenged or inspired by a work of art, please consider
making a bequest to the National Gallery of Australia.
Further information on this exciting new program is
available on the Gallery’s website nga.gov.au/aboutus/
development/bequests.cfm, where you can also download
the Bequest Circle brochure.
If you would like to join the National Gallery of Australia
Bequest Circle or would like more information, please
contact Liz Wilson, Development Officer, on (02) 6240 6781.
Ron Radford AM, Director, Rupert Myer
AM, Chairman, Dr Anna Gray, Head of Australian Art, Ken
Cowley AO, Chairman of R.M.Williams, The Bush Outfitter, The Hon Mrs Ashley Dawson-Damer,
Exhibition Benefactor, and Her Excellency Quentin
Bryce AC, Governor-General of Australia, at
the McCubbin opening on 13 August 2009
artonview summer 2009–10 9
Sponsorship and Development
Masterpieces from Paris: Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne & beyond Post-Impressionism from the Musée d’Orsay
Australian Capital Tourism through the ACT Government (Presenting Partner)
We extend our great appreciation to the ACT Government
through ACT Tourism for partnering with the Gallery
to present to the people of Australia the iconic, rare
and extremely important Post-Impressionist works from
the Musée d’Orsay. The Gallery is thrilled that the ACT
Government chose to support Masterpieces from Paris.
Through this partnership, the ACT Government has
proven that they value the tremendous benefits that major
exhibitions bring to the local economy.
Our great appreciation is extended to the staff at
Australian Capital Tourism for their integrated and
collaborative approach to this important partnership.
Australian Government: Art Indemnity Australia (Presenting Partner)
The assistance of Art Indemnity Australia—the Australian
Government’s art indemnity scheme through which loans
to Masterpieces from Paris have been indemnified—has
been invaluable. Without this support, this exhibition could
not have taken place. Since 1979, the Commonwealth has
indemnified approximately $15.4 billion worth of cultural
objects in 103 exhibitions (including this one), with a
combined audience total of more than 22 million visitors.
The scheme was established to provide greater access for
the people of Australia to significant cultural exhibitions.
We are grateful to Art Indemnity Australia for
supporting the Gallery in bringing this unique exhibition
to Australia. Art Indemnity Australia is an Australian
Government program managed by the Department of the
Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.
National Australia Bank (Principal Partner)
We are delighted to announce a long-term strategic
partnership between the National Australia Bank (NAB) and
the Gallery, where the NAB has become the Gallery’s Art
Education and Access Partner. As part of this partnership,
the NAB is also a Principal Partner of Masterpieces from
Paris. The visionary and generous support of NAB has
reinforced their reputation as a leader in corporate
philanthropy with a profound and tangible commitment to
advancement and enrichment of the Australian community.
NAB is also the naming rights sponsor of the Gallery’s
Sculpture Gallery, which opened in 2007. We extend our
thanks to the team at NAB for their continued support.
Nine Network Australia (Principal Partner)
We are very grateful to Channel Nine for their generous
support of Masterpieces from Paris. As the major media
partner, Nine is partnering with the Gallery to present
this remarkable exhibition to Australians through a
national advertising and media campaign. Thank you to
the team at Nine.
JCDecaux (Principal Partner)
We welcome JCDecaux as Principal Partner of
Masterpieces from Paris and thank them for choosing to
support this important exhibition of European masters.
Through their significant contribution as media partners,
JCDecaux have created a prominent street promotion
campaign, ensuring high visibility of this important
exhibition in all major metropolitan areas of Australia.
We extend our gratitude to the team at JCDecaux.
Qantas (Major Sponsor)
Our thanks go to Qantas for their generous and continued
support of the Gallery. We are grateful to Qantas Freight
for assisting with the transport of these valuable works
from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris to the National Gallery
of Australia in Canberra. We extend this appreciation to
Qantas Holidays, for partnering with the Gallery to create
packages and promotions that drive tourism and visitation
to Canberra.
Arthur Koo’ekka Pambegan Jr, Dennis Richardson AO, Ambassador to the United States, and Mavis Ngallametta at the official opening of the Australian Indigenous Art Triennial: Culture Warriors at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, DC, USA. Photograph © Greg Chesman
10 national gallery of australia
The Yulgilbar Foundation (Major Sponsor)
The Gallery thanks the Trustees of The Yulgilbar Foundation.
The Foundation’s generosity and vision has ensured that the
Family Activity Room and childrens program for Masterpieces
from Paris will be developed and presented for the enjoyment
of children and families. The support from The Yulgilbar
Foundation and its Trustees is highly valued and deeply
appreciated by the Gallery.
The Canberra Times (Major Sponsor)
We are pleased to announce The Canberra Times as a
major sponsor of Masterpieces from Paris and thank
them for their further commitment to promote and support
other exhibitions and activities throughout 2009–10.
We are very grateful to the team at The Canberra Times
for their energy and collaborative work with the Gallery.
National Gallery of Australia Council Exhibitions Fund
We are grateful to the Gallery’s Council for their active role
in the life of the Gallery and for their support of exhibitions,
including Masterpieces from Paris, through the National
Gallery of Australia Council Exhibitions Fund.
ABC Radio
We are grateful to ABC Radio as Media Partner of
Masterpieces from Paris, and thank them for their ongoing
support of the Gallery’s major exhibitions through radio
coverage and promotions around Australia.
WIN Television
We extend our gratitude to WIN Television for supporting
Masterpieces from Paris. In addition, we would like to
thank WIN Television for their commitment towards the
Gallery’s exhibition and programs throughout 2009–10.
Novotel (Accor Hotels)
We welcome Accor Hotel Group as partner of the Gallery
and Masterpieces from Paris, and thank them for being
the Accommodation Partner for this iconic exhibition.
Champagne Pol Roger
We are delighted to announce that Champagne Pol Roger
will once again be supporting a major exhibition at the
National Gallery of Australia. Pol Roger will be the official
supplier of French Champagne for all VIP events held in
conjunction with the exhibition. Pol Roger’s philosophy
of ‘style and elegance’ along with their company values
of ‘excellence and independence’ align perfectly with this
amazing blockbuster exhibition.
Yalumba Wines
We welcome the iconic family-owned Yalumba Wines back
to the Gallery, and thank them for supporting another
blockbuster exhibition. Yalumba, along with Champagne
Pol Roger, have sponsored Turner to Monet, Degas and
now Masterpieces from Paris.
McCubbin: Last Impressions 1907–17
Our appreciation is extended to R.M.Williams, The Bush
Outfitter who are generously partnering with the Gallery
for McCubbin: Last Impressions 1907–17. This exhibition
closed at the Gallery on 1 November 2009, to travel
to Perth, where it will displayed at the Art Gallery of
Western Australia from 12 December 2009 to 28 March
2010, before travelling to the final venue, the Bendigo
Art Gallery, where it will be on display from 24 April
to 25 July 2010. We thank the R.M.Williams team
for their energy and commitment to the project and
the much-valued partnership between our organisations.
We also extend our heartfelt gratitude to
long-term supporter of the Gallery, the Hon Mrs Ashley
Dawson-Damer for being the Exhibition Benefactor.
Australian Government Visions of Australia
We acknowledge and thank the Department of the
Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, through
Visions of Australia, an Australian Government program
supporting touring exhibitions by providing funding
assistance for the development and touring of Australian
cultural material across Australia, and through the Visual
Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian
Government and state and territory governments.
Visions of Australia has funded the National Gallery
of Australia’s Travelling Exhibition Program’s 2010 New
Releases: In the Japanese manner: Australian prints
1900–1940, Robert Dowling: Tasmanian son of Empire
and Australian street stencils.
Council Circle
We welcome the following companies into the Council
Circle: Channel NINE, JCDecaux, Qantas, The Yulgilbar
Foundation, Accor Hotel Group (Novotel Canberra)
and Champagne Pol Roger. We would also like to
thank the following Council Circle Members for their
continued support: National Australia Bank, Wesfarmers,
The Canberra Times, WIN Television, The Mantra on
Northbourne and The Brassey Hotel of Canberra.
Corporate Members Program
We would like to welcome Yalumba Wines and Casella
Wines into the Corporate Members Program for 2009–10.
Thank you to Eckersley’s Art & Craft, as a sponsor of the
Gallery’s annual family day event The Big Draw, which was
held at the Gallery on Sunday 20 September.
National Australia Bank Art Education
and Access Partnership
We thank and acknowledge the vision and leadership
shown by the NAB in entering this partnership with the
National Gallery of Australia, which is one of the most
significant partnerships of its kind today.
artonview summer 2009–10 11
As an organisation, the NAB is renowned for its
commitment to supporting Australian communities and
helping people reach their creative potential. Its focus
aligns itself closely with the Gallery’s own mandate,
which is to inspire and enhance all Australians’ lives
through the promotion of, and provision of access to,
the national collection and the visual arts. This partnership
will see NAB’s programs further developed at the Gallery,
and its outreach activities increased around the country.
The partnership will improve access to high-quality
and inspiring teacher and student resources for schools
and communities around Australia and will provide
programs that will reach remote and disadvantaged
schools and students. It will also support the activities
of over 3000 school groups (80 000 school children
per annum) that visit the National Gallery of Australia in
Canberra each year.
The NAB’s partnership with the Gallery will also provide
the opportunity to build and strengthen current access and
community programs such as Art and Alzheimers, Carers’
Art Appreciation and Viewings, Auslan sign-interpreted
tours, descriptive and disability tours and art tours for
refugees for whom a visit to a gallery or museum is often a
transformative experience.
We are deeply grateful to the NAB for its generous
support, and look forward to the far-reaching outcomes
that the partnership will deliver.
Wesfarmers Arts Indigenous Fellowship
We thank Cox Inall Ridgeway for the energy and
professionalism they are investing in the Consultation
Program for the Wesfarmers Arts Indigenous Fellowship.
Consultation workshops have been conducted around
the country in Adelaide, Alice Springs, Broome, Cairns,
Canberra, Darwin, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
They have drawn together many people working across
different sectors—visual arts, education and government,
Indigenous and non-Indigenous—and encouraged
vigorous and insightful discussion, analysis and input.
A full report from the consultation process will be
completed and launched in the first half of 2010.
Wesfarmers Arts continues to support and contribute
to the project with tremendous generosity and energy.
We also thank them particularly for providing a location
and forum for the Perth consultation workshop.
American Friends of the National Gallery of Australia
The opening week celebrations of the Australian
Indigenous Art Triennial: Culture Warriors incorporated a
lunch on Thursday 10 September 2009, held in honour
of the American Friends of the National Gallery of
Australia, Inc at the Australian Ambassador’s residence in
Washington, DC. The work of its directors, Advisory Council
and Board, both past and present, was acknowledged and
highlighted by Rupert Myer AM, Chairman of the National
Gallery of Australia, Mr Dennis Richardson AO, Ambassador
to the United States, and the Hon Peter Garrett AM, MP,
Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts.
The American Friends of the National Gallery of
Australia, Inc welcomed its new Chairman, Philip Colbran,
and Vice President, Ian Phillips, to its Board of Directors,
which includes Dr Lee MacCormick Edwards, Dr Helen
Ibbotson Jessup, Kate Flynn, Judith Ogden Thomson and
Susan Talbot at its 2009 Annual General Meeting.
We acknowledge and thank the outgoing Chairman,
Philip Jessup Jr, and Director, Diane Ackerman, for their
leadership and longstanding contribution to the work of
the American Friends during their time on its Board of
Directors. We look forward to their continuing association
as members of the American Friends Advisory Board.
We would like to thank all our partners and corporate
members. If you would like more information about
Sponsorship at the National Gallery of Australia, please
contact Frances Corkhill on + 61 2 6240 6740 or
frances.corkhill@nga.gov.au. For information about
Development at the National Gallery of Australia,
please contact Belinda Cotton on + 61 2 6240 6556 or
belinda.cotton@nga.gov.au.
Exhibition Benefactor the Hon Mrs Ashley Dawson-Damer, Ken Cowley AO, Chairman of R.M.Williams, The Bush Outfitter, and Maureen Cowley at the opening of McCubbin: Last Impressions 1907–17 on 13 August 2009.
12 national gallery of australia
Culture Warriors storm Washington
travelling exhibition
After a highly successful Australian tour, during which it
was seen by over a quarter of a million people, Australian
Indigenous Art Triennial: Culture Warriors opened at the
American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center,
Washington, DC. Travelling overseas, the exhibition forms
part of the Embassy of Australia in Washington’s Australia
Presents program, which was developed to celebrate the
talent and creative excellence of Australian performing and
visual artists.
Culture Warriors first opened at the National Gallery of
Australia in October 2007 to commemorate the Gallery’s
25th anniversary. Those who viewed the exhibition will
recall a vivid and diverse survey of contemporary Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander art practice, with a variety of
media ranging from weaving, bark painting and sculpture
to painting, video and installation by 30 Indigenous
Australian artists hailing from every state and territory,
living and working in remote, rural and urban areas.
Culture Warriors pays specific tribute to a core
group of senior artists: Jean Baptiste Apuatimi, Phillip
Gudthaykudthay, John Mawurndjul, Wamud Namok AO
and Arthur Koo’ekka Pambegan Jr. The work of these
artists is firmly grounded in custom and culture and—in
spite of the many innovations of material, form and style
that they have generated—is regarded as ‘traditional’ by
many viewers. Apuatimi and Pambegan Jr travelled from
their ancestral homelands to be among the eight exhibition
artists who were present in Washington to celebrate the
opening of Culture Warriors. At the other end of the
spectrum of artists that went to Washington, Christian
Bumbarra Thompson, a young member of the Bidjara
people of Queensland and now resident in Amsterdam,
(from left to right) Dr Brenda L Croft,
exhibition curator, Arthur Koo’ekka Pambegan Jr, Mavis Ngallametta, the Hon Peter Garrett AM,
MP, Minister for the Environment, Heritage
and the Arts, Ricky Maynard, Gordon Hookey,
Daniel Boyd, Christopher Pease, Judy Watson and Jean Baptiste Apuatimi at the official opening of Culture Warriors in Washington, DC, 10
September 2009. Photograph: Jeff Watts,
courtesy American University
artonview summer 2009–10 13
is a quintessentially international contemporary artist.
Speaking to the ABC, Thompson described the experience
of the exhibition as ‘a great opportunity for the world to
see such a dynamic collection of work and gain an insight
into the complex nature of Aboriginal identity and how it is
in this contemporary age’.
The exhibition was officially opened on the evening
of Thursday 10 September by the Hon Peter Garrett AM,
MP, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts.
The launch was attended by nearly 400 people, including
members of the United States Congress, diplomats and
members of the American Friends of the National Gallery
of Australia (AFNGA).
Minister Garrett commended the important cultural
exchange between Australia and the United States of
America which Culture Warriors represents, as well as the
significant degree of co-operation that this undertaking
involved. Without generous corporate sponsorship and
Government support, the exhibition could not have
travelled to the United States of America. The significant
partnerships that were forged between the Embassy of
Australia in Washington, the Australian International Cultural
Council, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,
the American University and the National Gallery of
Australia will create an enduring legacy of international
cooperation and cultural exchange. The contributions of
the Australia Council for the Arts and the Queensalnd
Arts Marketing and Export Agency were invaluable in
allowing the participation of exhibition artists in the
launch events. Artists attending the events included Jean
Baptiste Apuatimi, Daniel Boyd, Gordon Hookey, Ricky
Maynard, Arthur Koo’ekka Pambegan Jr, Christopher
Australian Indigenous Art Triennial: Culture Warriors at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC. Image courtesy Geoff Chesman, ImagelinkPhoto
(clockwise from top left) Christopher Pease with his New Water
Dreaming, Wrong side of the Hay and Target at the media launch, 8 September 2009.
Photograph: Jeff Watts, courtesy American University
Dennis Richardson AO, Australian Ambassador to the United States of America,
at the media launch, 8 September 2009. Photograph: Jeff Watts, courtesy American University
Cameron McCarthy performing at the American University Museum at the
Katzen Arts Center, 10 Septemebr 2009. Image courtesy Geoff Chesman, ImagelinkPhoto
The Hon Peter Garrett AM, MP, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts,
at the official opening, 10 September 2009. Image courtesy Geoff Chesman, ImagelinkPhoto
artonview summer 2009–10 15
Pease, Christian Bumbarra Thompson and Judy Watson.
Guests at the opening were moved by Jean Baptiste
Apuatimi’s performance of her ceremonial Buffalo Dance
in front of her paintings, which she repeated for members
of the public on the afternoon of Saturday 12 September,
along with talks by artist Ricky Maynard and exhibition
curator Brenda L Croft and a performance by Christian
Bumbarra Thompson.
AFNGA members were also specially honoured by
a preview tour of the exhibition and a private luncheon
at the residence of the Australian Ambassador Dennis J
Richardson AO. After a quarter of a century of warm
support from AFNGA, giving a special preview of a National
Gallery of Australia exhibition on their home soil was a
welcome opportunity.
Rupert Myer AM, Chairman of the National Gallery
of Australia, reminded audiences that ‘the promotion
of our best art internationally and the development of
new audiences for our own visual culture are significant
elements of [the] National Gallery’s charter’. In Washington,
Culture Warriors will enable an influential and discerning
audience to experience the richness and diversity of
contemporary Australian Indigenous art in a unique and
powerful way. It will also open up fresh audiences for the
artists’ work and create new and lasting partnerships for
the National Gallery of Australia.
A fascinating aspect of the tour of Culture Warriors to
the United States of America has been the opportunity to
expand on what Americans understand about Australian
Indigenous art. The process of unpacking the many crates
that the show travelled in was one of constant wonder
for the American University Museum staff, each crate
containing a surprise, a challenge or a new favourite.
The Director of the American University Museum, Jack
Rasmussen, was observed standing in front of Gordon
Hookey’s Grog gott’im 2005, a large-scale and direct
modern allegory of the affect of alcohol dependence
on Indigenous communities. Rasmussen commented to
a museum benefactor that the exhibition ‘wasn’t quite
what we were expecting’. American museum-goers and
collectors are very aware of the Central and Western
Desert schools of painting but it was a delight to watch the
revelation of the vast diversity and extraordinary qualities of
contemporary Indigenous Australian art dawn on the faces
of visitors to the museum. The response to the exhibition
to date has been overwhelmingly positive. One of the great
strengths of Culture Warriors resides in its variety: some
works lull viewers with their allusions to tradition, others
issue an overt challenge to audience expectations. All of
them in some way refute conventional understanding
of Indigenous Australian art yet contribute to a deeper
appreciation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history,
culture and views.
Australian Indigenous Art Triennial: Culture Warriors is
proudly supported by principal sponsor BHP Billiton, airline
sponsor Qantas, and Australian Government sponsors
the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Visual
Arts and Craft Strategy/Visions of Australia/Contemporary
Touring Initiative, the Australia Council for the Arts,
the Queensland Government through the Queensland
Indigenous Arts Marketing and Export Agency, the
Northern Territory Government, the Government of
Western Australia’s Department of Culture and the Arts,
and Arts Victoria.
Bronwyn Campbell Assistant Manager, Travelling Exhibitions
Jean Baptiste Apuatimi’s performance at the opening of Culture Warriors in Washington, DC, 10 September 2009. Image courtesy Geoff Chesman, ImagelinkPhoto
16 national gallery of australia
exhibition
Masterpieces from Paris
Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and beyond
Post-Impressionism from the Musée d’Orsay
4 December 2009 – 5 April 2010 | Exhibition Galleries
Masterpieces from Paris brilliantly reveals how Post-Impressionism burst onto the cultural scene,
in France and farther afield, at the end of the nineteenth century. Among the 112 paintings
brought to Canberra this summer and autumn are some of the most heralded works of modern
art, reproduced in art books, posters and postcards, and always sought after for loan by other
museums. Normally, they are visited by millions of tourists in Paris every year in the cathedral of
nineteenth-century art, the Musée d’Orsay. Visitors will see the ways new generations of artists
competed with Impressionist and Salon painters, how the experimenters influenced each other,
and how explosive was the arrival of modern art throughout Europe.
Paul Gauguin Portrait of the artist with ‘The yellow Christ’ 1890–91 oil on canvas 38 x 46 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris purchased with the assistance of Philippe Meyer and patronage organised by the Nikkei newspaper, 1994 © RMN (Musée d’Orsay) / René-Gabriel Ojéda
Vincent van Gogh Eugène Boch or The poet 1888 oil on canvas 60 x 45 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris bequest of Eugène Boch, through the Société des Amis du Louvre, 1941 © RMN (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski
artonview summer 2009–10 17
artonview summer 2009–10 19
Georges Seurat Model standing, facing the front or Study for ‘The models’ 1886 oil on wood panel 26 x 15.7 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris gift of Philippe Meyer, 2000 © RMN (Musée d’Orsay) / Michèle Bellot
Model from the front 1887 oil on wood panel 25 x 16 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris purchased ex Félix Fénéon collection, 1947 © RMN (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski
(opposite) Claude Monet London, Parliament: sun through the fog 1904 oil on canvas 81 x 92 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris bequest of Count Isaac de Camondo, 1911 © Musée d’Orsay, Dist RMN / Patrice Schmidt
In Masterpieces from Paris, the most famous and
influential painters are represented by many works:
Vincent van Gogh by seven, Paul Gauguin by nine,
Paul Cézanne by eight, and Georges Seurat by eleven.
Paintings by van Gogh, Gauguin and Seurat have been
seen in Australia only rarely, and never in this depth
nor represented by such high-quality examples of their
art. There are also many paintings by Emile Bernard
(five), Pierre Bonnard (nine), Maurice Denis (ten), Claude
Monet (five) and Edouard Vuillard (eight), among others.
Works by these artists announced a break with
Impressionism, the revolutionary movement that took place
in France in the second half of the nineteenth century. By
the 1880s, however, artists were experimenting with even
more radical ideas, and their art is now classified under
the general heading of Post-Impressionism. Here we can
see such movements as Pointillism, Neo-Impressionism,
Synthetism, Symbolism, the School of Pont-Aven and
the Nabis.
The year 1886 marked the end of organised
Impressionism and the beginning of Post-Impressionism.
The eighth and final Impressionist exhibition held that year
was the end of an era and the triumphant announcement
of a new one. Monet’s responses to what he saw as the
crisis of Impressionism include venturing beyond observed
reality to what the contemporary critic Octave Mirbeau
identified as Monet’s genius; this was the artist’s ability to
extract from a particular place ‘at a glance, the essence
of form and colour and, I would also say, of intellectual life,
of thought … from this supreme moment of concentrated
harmony, where dream becomes reality’. Such genius
is made manifest in London, Parliament: sun through
the fog 1904.
A grand canvas by Seurat, A Sunday afternoon on the
island of La Grande Jatte 1884–86 was shown in the 1886
Impressionist exhibition, and with it the Neo-Impressionist
artist transformed the nature of Impressionism. Two studies
for the painting can be seen in Masterpieces from Paris.
Instead of the Impressionists’ concentration on momentary
effects of light, Seurat and his followers—Paul Signac,
Théo van Rysselberghe, Henri-Edmond Cross and others—
devised a science of colour. Their theories depended on
complementary hues—red and green, blue and orange,
yellow and violet—placed side by side in small marks. They
also borrowed from other traditions, such as stained glass,
cloisonné and Japanese woodblock prints, for example.
Neo-Impressionist painters, also known as Divisionists
and Pointillists, lit up their canvases with strokes or dots
artonview summer 2009–10 21
of pure colour laid side by side on light grounds. These
dots or dashes combine in a viewer’s eye, blending and
creating new effects as we perceive them. In Seurat’s Model
from the front 1887, the nude’s shimmering pearlescent
flesh is composed of white, pale orange, brown and blue
paintstrokes. Similarly, in Cross’s all-but-anonymous study
of his wife combing her hair, her wavy brown tresses are
made of circular dots of orange and green and purple,
among other colours.
The rebel Cézanne, born a year before Monet, and
participant in two Impressionist exhibitions, became the
overarching Post-Impressionist artist, influencing almost
all modern artists of the following generations. Cézanne
was awkward, touchy and misanthropic in his character,
but he was also bold and experimental, even audacious,
in his work. He was a master of still life, and Kitchen
table 1888–90 fulfils his own prophecy: ‘I shall astonish
Paris with an apple!’ Gauguin looked at Cézanne for his
vibrant Still-life with fan c 1889, using similar brushstrokes
to render the fruit and displaying some of the fictional
space in which the objects float. Gauguin owned several
paintings by Cézanne, thus increasing the circulation of
knowledge about the reclusive artist.
Van Gogh’s great adventure with the drama of colour
can be seen in his portrait Eugène Boch 1888. The work
depicts his fellow artist and dreamer as ‘The poet’, which
the painting was also titled. Van Gogh wrote to his brother
Theo in September 1888 that he wanted to paint men and
women with ‘something of the eternal which the halo used
to symbolise’. For the portrait of Boch, he chooses a yellow-
gold for the figure and a deep, rich blue as the ground,
and replaces the conventional halo with stars, invoking
a limitless celestial night sky.
In his Portrait of the artist with ‘The yellow Christ’
1890–91, Gauguin presents one of the most interesting
and striking images of the artist as martyr. He portrays
himself three times: the central image as a brilliant man
misunderstood by society, flanked by his painting of the
suffering Christ and his distorted ceramic self-portrait, a
radical self-realisation. The painting stands as a testament
to the future, when the world would understand Gauguin’s
genius and regret the lack of appreciation and success in
his lifetime. It was made in Pont-Aven in Brittany, where
Bernard met Gauguin for the second time in 1888. Artists
sought renewal in the remote province, perceiving it to be a
magical Celtic realm of mysticism and pre-urban innocence.
Breton subjects, often traditionally dressed peasants in a
rural Arcadia, yet allowed original pictorial solutions such
as those Bernard devised in The harvest 1888. Striking
diagonal fields of colour, arbitrary divisions of the canvas
and denial of conventional perspective are some of the
tactics the painter employed.
It was also in Pont-Aven, in October 1888, that Gauguin
gave the student Paul Sérusier a painting lesson in the
Bois d’Amour on the bank of the Aven River. He inquired:
‘How do you see these trees? They are yellow. Well, then,
apply some yellow. That bluish shadow, paint it with pure
ultramarine blue. These red leaves? Try vermilion …’ The
resulting small painting, The Aven at the Bois d’Amour
1888, was taken back to Paris to the Académie Julian. It
was a revelation to the young painters there, especially
Bonnard, Denis, Paul Ranson and Vuillard, who were shortly
to form the artists’ group called the Nabis, perhaps because
of this painting. The work was nicknamed ‘The talisman’:
that is, a secret and magical object. Gauguin’s instructions to
Sérusier, to intensify colour and simplify forms, led to short,
square vertical brushstrokes, lengthened and continued as
flat patches of colour. The panel is now famous, regarded
as the earliest forerunner of abstraction, although it was
not exhibited during the artist’s lifetime.
As well as the rich colour and exotic themes of van
Gogh, Gauguin and the School of Pont-Aven, strongly
Emile Bernard The harvest (Breton landscape) 1888 oil on wood panel 56.5 x 45 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris purchased 1965 © RMN (Musée d’Orsay) / Jean-Gilles Berizzi, © Emile Bernard. ADAGP/Represented by Viscopy, 2009
(opposite) Paul Cézanne Kitchen table (Still-life with basket) 1888–90 oil on canvas 65 x 80 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris bequest of Auguste Pellerin, 1929 © RMN (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski
Paul Gauguin Still-life with fan c 1889 oil on canvas 50 x 61 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris transferred in application of the Peace Treaty with Japan, 1959 © RMN (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski
22 national gallery of australia
artonview summer 2009–10 23
Symbolist elements can be traced through paintings
by Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon and Pierre Puvis de
Chavannes. More intimate are the jewel-like domestic
interiors and figures by the Nabis painters, especially
Bonnard, Denis, Sérusier and Vuillard. Portraits of friends
and family members, nude studies and schemes to
decorate rooms were common subjects. The Nabis, who
named themselves after the Hebrew and Arabic words
for ‘prophet’, were inhabitants of the city and rarely
ventured into rural France. Félix Vallotton paints a bird’s
eye view of a little boy playing in the park, The ball 1899,
which communicates the quintessential experience of
a lone child in an urban park, watched over from afar
by two women.
Part of the Nabis project was an attempt to expand
their art from easel painting to include large wall paintings,
screens, posters and the decorative arts. The exhibition
contains large decorative panels by Nabis artists, especially
examples by Vuillard, Bonnard and Denis. The Muses 1893
shows Denis’s successful intertwining of outlined figures—
the nine (or is it ten?) female figures symbolising the arts.
Forms are outlined with sinuous lines, pinks and browns
contrast with greens and blacks, while beautiful patterns
decorate the whole. The floor of the forest would make a
wonderful carpet!
A surprising and disruptive final note is sounded by
Henri Rousseau’s grand painting War c 1894. With its
emotive and critical subject and flat application of paint
to two-dimensional shapes, War is different in its pictorial
language from other Post-Impressionist works. But rank
outsiders always exist in any field of endeavour, and the
artist brilliantly communicates his message of death and
despair. Essentially modern elements—experiment, flatness,
shock—are part of Rousseau’s vocabulary. As the painter
stated to Pablo Picasso in 1908: ‘we are the two greatest
painters of the era, you in the Egyptian genre, I in the
modern genre’.
The various Post-Impressionist aesthetic adventures,
it becomes clear, were the basis for the development of
Fauvism, Cubism, Expressionism, and even Abstraction into
the twentieth century. When we look at these paintings by
van Gogh, Seurat, Gauguin, Denis, Cézanne and others—
their bold colours, new theories, novel designs and complex
geometries—we experience the vibrant, changing world of
the Post-Impressionists.
Christine Dixon Senior Curator, International Painting and Sculpture
The book Masterpieces from Paris, published in conjunction with the exhibition, is available at the NGA Shop for $39.95 and at selected bookstores nationally for RRP $49.95.
Henri Rousseau War c 1894 oil on canvas 114 x 195 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris purchased 1946 © RMN (Musée d’Orsay) / All rights reserved
(opposite) Maurice Denis The Muses 1893 oil on canvas 171.5 x 137.5 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris purchased 1932 © RMN (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski, © Maurice Denis. ADAGP/Represented by Viscopy, 2009
24 national gallery of australia
exhibition
Celebrating two outstanding sculptors
Bert Flugelman and Inge King
Over the autumn and winter months the National Gallery
of Australia hosted ‘a season of sculpture’, with numerous
artists presenting lively and informative talks about
their works. Among the most memorable presentations
were those given by two of Australia’s renowned senior
sculptors, Inge King and Bert Flugelman. Both artists have
made major contributions to the art of this country. This
is evident in their many public commissions that grace our
cityscapes and gardens, including the National Gallery of
Australia’s Sculpture Garden, and in their wider sculptural
practice over several decades.
Both King and Flugelman were born in Europe and both
were adventurous exponents of contemporary art from
the 1950s. Born in Berlin in 1918, King described herself
as ‘an ancient sculptor’. ‘My career has spanned the best
part of seventy years. So I’ve been fortunate.’ She recalled
that she had a traditional training, just prior to the Second
World War and on and off during the war years. Among
the key works of this period, Warsaw 1943, in the Gallery’s
collection, was made around the time when the horrors
of the concentration camps were becoming more widely
known.
While this early work is overtly figurative, it was not
long before King’s works moved more emphatically towards
an abstract way of working. Among the inspirational
sculptors for her in the 1940s was Henry Moore but it was
really the time that King spent in New York in 1949 and
1950 that provided a turning point. ‘Just being in New
York was fantastic after the dreariness of the war years in
Europe. I saw Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Jackson
Pollock. I became infatuated by Abstract Expressionism.’ In
relation to her own work, she became deeply interested in
steel sculpture, which was just starting to develop.
Inge King recalled in her talk that, although she had
received a scholarship to go to America, her Australian-
born husband, the renowned printmaker Grahame King,
was not able to get a working visa. When she arrived
in Australia in 1951 it was something of a shock to the
system: ‘It was a bit like a can of flat beer’. She was
nevertheless committed to making the most of her new
life. ‘It was a new country for me and I really did want to
make a go of it. I also had a very supportive husband.’
Sculpture was her chosen path, but it was not until the
1960s that she was able to dedicate herself to her work.
Once she started again, King found the landscape was
a key source of inspiration. ‘It was really the Australian
landscape that fired my imagination ... It is a difficult
landscape. No matter how large your sculpture is, it doesn’t
mean anything. It can disappear. The only way to work with
the landscape is to make sculpture of great simplicity and
clarity of form, expressing inner strength and high tension.’
This approach is evident in many of King’s mature
works, including her impressive Temple gate 1976–77
in the Gallery’s Sculpture Garden. The work was in part
inspired by a visit the artist made to Japan in 1974,
especially the archways, known as Torii, in front of Shinto
shrines. After the germination of the idea over two
years, King had evolved a dramatic sculpture in her own
distinctive visual language. The work had come to the
attention of the Gallery’s founding director, James Mollison,
who had seen it in an exhibition at Realities Gallery in
Melbourne. Although Temple gate was not a commission,
it works remarkably well in its site in the Sculpture Garden.
It has its own strong presence while at the same time
interacting beautifully with the landscape through
the archway and through the open circle cut within a
circle above.
Inge King discussing her practice and her work
Wandering angel in the exhibition Reinventions.
artonview summer 2009–10 25
There are some uncanny parallels between this
monumental work and King’s much later smaller sculptures,
including Wandering angel 2000, acquired by the Gallery
in 2003. In this work the circle and wing-like forms recall
the shapes in her earlier work. It was not until the 1980s
that King had returned to working with the figure. Now,
all these years after her European figurative sculptures,
her work was very much informed by her experience
with abstraction over the years. This enabled her to be
increasingly inventive and to do things with the figure
that she had not done before. ‘I like to be spontaneous,
and to do that I begin by working on a smaller scale.’ The
inspiration for Wandering angel and related works came
from Paul Klee’s drawings of angels. In King’s series of
works around that theme there is a sense of liberation, of
taking flight, an idea that had long interested her. As she said:
Throughout my career I have been fascinated by flight.
This fascination made me abandon carving wood and
stone, for steel. Assemblage enabled me to let forms leap
into the air and thrust out sideways … [to] balance large
objects on small ones … or anchor shapes precariously
between two uprights (Temple Gate 1977) …
The inspiration for ‘Angels’ came from Paul Klee’s
drawings done late in his life. His angels are preoccupied
with death—he was suffering from a terminal illness.
My angels are an ode to life. Wings dominate in some, in
others they are part of the body jutting out into space. Some
are serious, others are humorous—the moor’s last laugh.
Among the most striking aspects of the presentations by
both King and Flugelman was their optimism and their
ongoing engagement with their sculptural practice. At 90
years of age King noted that her work is more optimistic
than it was earlier on; that when you have seen a lot, there
is an awareness of the importance of life and the need
to make the most of what you have. This is a sentiment
shared by Bert Flugelman who, at 86, is still brimming with
ideas for his work. In recent years, the Gallery acquired
Double spiral 2007, which reveals Flugelman’s capacity to
continue to create work that is dynamic and engaging;
precise in its geometry and inventive in its vital sense of
movement and varied surface textures.
Born in Vienna in 1923, Flugelman came to Australia
in 1938. In the ensuing years he experimented with a
wide range of sculptural techniques. One of his favourite
mantras in his formative years as a sculptor was that he
found it ‘boring to be too consistent’. By the late 1960s,
however, the restless experimentation abated and he began
to focus on finding a visual language that worked for him.
Inge King Wandering angel 2000 welded bronze 140 x 65 x 60 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra purchased 2003
Inge King Temple gate 1976–77 painted steel and aluminium 477 x 238 x 238 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra purchased 1977
26 national gallery of australia
Ultimately I find objects more exciting than ephemera.
This is a personal choice. I’m not legislating about what
you ought to like. There was so much going on that
I had to somehow condense it … Anything was fair
game. I did performances and installations and ultimately
I thought I had to pull it all together in some way. I
thought, ‘I will start at the beginning’. I did this by using
simple, irreducible geometric solids … the pyramid, cube,
tetrahedron, cone, sphere and so on. I had an exhibition
in 1972 where I made doubles of the spheres and cones,
end to end. The geometric forms and the discipline within
geometry itself taught me that within those parameters
you can be as inventive and creative as with anything else.
Having experimented with aluminium and fibreglass,
Flugelman soon found that he preferred stainless steel,
and he has worked with this medium ever since. As
well as discussing many major commissions, Flugelman
noted in his talk that he has from time to time enjoyed
challenging the boundaries of what constitutes a work of
art. A classic example of this was the burying of a large
sculpture Tetrahedra, made in 1970 and laid to rest in
Commonwealth Park in Canberra in 1975. Flugelman
recalled that he was asked to make an earthwork by
a former director of the Mildura Arts Centre, Tom
McCullough, who was working as a curator on an art and
science festival. ‘He asked if I would be interested in doing
an earthwork. Quick as a flash I said, “Yes, of course”.
He said, “We can let you have a bulldozer and a driver and
a site”.’ After some consideration Flugelman decided that
Tetrahedra, a work that had been on many journeys to
museums and sites around Australia, could be used.
The process was undertaken with great care.
As Flugelman recalled:
The bulldozer driver understood. After we had placed the
six tetrahedra carefully in the trench, just as we would in a
gallery, he gently filled in the trench making sure the work
wasn’t disturbed and making good the landscape. There
was nothing left except the curve of the hill and a sign
with photographs of the work.
Bert Flugelman with his work Cones in the
Sculpture Garden, May 2009
Bert Flugelman Double spiral with graffiti
2008 stainless steel
85 x 107 x 85 cm National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra purchased with the generous
assistance of Village Roadshow Limited, 2008
artonview summer 2009–10 27
Among the most fascinating images accompanying
Flugelman’s talk were those of the making of Cones
1978–82 for the Gallery’s Sculpture Garden. These images
took the audience on a journey from the design and
construction of an individual cone, through to the gradual
sanding and polishing of the seven main components to
attain an immaculate finish. He then showed how the
seven components needed cages built for them to travel
from Adelaide to Canberra and to be lifted into place.
Flugelman recalled:
Work began on the commission in 1978 and it had to be
finished in 1982, in time for the opening of the Gallery.
They were brought here from Adelaide on two enormous
low loaders and we had to arrange for a police escort …
It was a major undertaking but we got them here in time
before the Gallery opened.
It was remarkable to recall from the slides the nature of
the Sculpture Garden site, as image after image revealed
the magnificent Cones being installed in the then-bare
landscape, flanked by imposing buildings, with an open
vista to the lake. It was fascinating to see the contrast
of the original stark space with the established gardens
today, and the way the work has settled into the site.
Cones, stretching over more than 20 metres in length,
is undoubtedly one of Flugelman’s most successful
commissions. The precise clarity of the geometry is
balanced by its dynamic movement. With four of the seven
cones balancing on points and the other three held in
suspended animation, the work appears to defy gravity.
Adding to this sense of dynamism, the stainless steel
surface is continually changing with the altering reflections
of trees, ground, sky and the many people who visit and
interact with the work.
Flugelman noted in his talk that for him Cones
embodies what he had always dreamed of for his public
commissions; to create a work that is at once a source of
continual engagement and also something of permanence,
that will outlast us all. Both Flugelman and King have
achieved this in their works, and it was an honour to hear
these senior artists discuss aspects of their remarkable
journeys into sculpture over the past decades.
Deborah Hart Senior Curator, Australian Painting and Sculpture post 1920
note All quotes from the artists in this article are from discussions with the author and recordings of their talks at the National Gallery of Australia: Bert Flugelman in conversation with Deborah Hart for International Museums Day, 18 May 2009, and Inge King floortalk to coincide with the Reinventions: sculpture + assemblage exhibition, 30 June 2009.
Bert Flugelman Cones 1982 polished stainless steel 450 x 2050 x 450 cm (overall) National Gallery of Australia, Canberra commissioned 1976, purchased 1982
28 national gallery of australia
Kenneth Tyler Collection online
To those unfamiliar with printmaking, its technical
processes can seem mysterious. Especially in the workshops
of master printer Kenneth Tyler, where 500-tonne
printing presses were housed alongside antique Bavarian
lithography stones; where staff in white overalls and rubber
boots sprayed paper pulp from moving platforms above
works of art; and where traditional Japanese woodblock
and papermaking methods were employed in the same
rooms as photo-mechanical techniques, the engineering of
kinetic sculptures, and the making of vast, colourful mixed-
media prints in three dimensions.
The newly updated website for the Kenneth Tyler
Collection gives visitors a unique, behind-the-scenes look
at all these processes and more. Work began on the Tyler
Collection website in 2003, and it was officially launched
in October 2009. The site features over 70 artists and
Kenneth Tyler (left) and Roy Lichtenstein (right)
discussing Lichtenstein’s print Reflections on
Minerva, with paintings from the Reflections
series in the background at the artist’s studio in
Southampton, New York, USA, 1989.
Photograph: Jim McHugh
Anni Albers Josef Albers John Altoon Sam Amato Ed Baynard Per Inge Bjørlo Stanley Boxer Anthony Caro John Chamberlain William Crutchfield Allan D’Arcangelo Ronald Davis Willem De Kooning Mark Di Suvero
Kosso Eloul Jules Engel Sam Francis Helen Frankenthaler Alberto Giacometti Joe Goode Nancy Graves Richard Hamilton Hardy Hanson Michael Heizer Al Held David Hockney Paul Jenkins Jasper Johns Donald Judd Ellsworth Kelly Edward Kienholz RB Kitaj Piotr Kowalski Nicholas Krushenick Terence La Noue Roy Lichtenstein
Man Ray Richard Meier Joan Mitchell Malcolm Morley Robert Motherwell Bruce Nauman John Newman Kenneth Noland Hugh O’Donnell Claes Oldenburg George (Earl) Ortman Sam Posey Kenneth Price Patrick Procktor Joe Raffaele Robert Rauschenberg George Rickey James Rosenquist Edward Ruscha David Salle Arthur Secunda Maurice Sendak Richard Serra Ben Shahn Alan Shields Richard Smith TL Solien Keith Sonnier Steven Sorman
Frank Stella Donald Sultan Altoon Sultan Rikio Takahashi Masami Teraoka Wayne Thiebaud Gina Tomao Jack Tworkov John Walker Andy Warhol Charles White Robert Zakanitch
artonview summer 2009–10 31
presents an exciting visual history of printmakers working
from 1963 to 2002. Prominent figures in twentieth-century
American art, such as Josef Albers, Helen Frankenthaler,
David Hockney, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein and Frank
Stella, are included on the website. Some artists worked
with Tyler over several decades while others, such as Andy
Warhol and Donald Judd, collaborated with the printer on
a one-off basis.
One highlight of the website is an ever-expanding
repository of over 3000 high-quality digital images of
original works of art in the National Gallery of Australia’s
collection. Experimental, abandoned and working proofs
are incorporated where possible, to give the viewer an
insight into the development of an image. Also available
on the site are hundreds of rare candid photographs of
artists at work in the different Tyler workshop locations,
as well their own studios. Because candid photography is
shot without the staged lighting, backdrops and poise of
professional photographic portraits, it captures the action
of the workshop in a spontaneous and unobtrusive way.
The result is like a glimpse into a private photo album,
and gives an understanding of the collaborative nature of
the printmaking process, characterised by many complex,
labour-intensive techniques—but also by happy accidents.
This rare collection of photographs was compiled over
decades by Ken and Marabeth Tyler and given exclusively
to the National Gallery of Australia in 2002, where it will
continue to be digitised and published online. The Tyler
website also preserves rare 16-mm film and sound footage
from these years that has been cleaned and copied in
digital format to ensure access for future generations. In
co-operation with the National Film and Sound Archive,
this audiovisual material will be harnessed progressively to
support future exhibitions.
Along with material from the Tyler Film, Sound and
Photography collection, the website showcases extensive
artist and exhibition chronologies; a comprehensive
technical glossary; electronic access to original print
prospectuses and publications; a virtual, three-dimensional
user-navigated exhibition tour; and over 40 photographic
essays that document the technical experimentation carried
out in the Tyler workshops.
Online visitors are invited to view this site—which has
been developed by Andrew Powrie, the Gallery’s online
manager—and to take a dynamic journey through the
decades-long creative collaboration behind some of the
most iconic images of twentieth-century American art.
Gwen Horsfield Curatorial Assistant, Kenneth Tyler Collection
View the Kenneth Tyler Collection website at nga.gov.au/tyler.
Roy Lichtenstein using an electric handtool to carve the woodblock for the black printing of his Reflections on Conversation, Tyler Graphics workshop, Mount Kisco, New York, 1990. Photograph: Jim McHugh
Roy Lichtenstein carving black woodblock element for his print Reflections on The Scream, with a detail of cartoon character baby Swee’pea, Tyler Graphics Ltd artists studio, Mount Kisco, New York, 1989. Photograph: Kenneth Tyler
(opposite) Roy Lichtenstein uses a hand gouge to carve the woodblock for his print Reflections on Crash, Tyler Graphics Ltd artists studio, Mount Kisco, New York, 1989. Photograph: Jim McHugh
32 national gallery of australia
acquisition
J Miller Marshall Fossicking for gold
English-born landscape artist J Miller Marshall arrived in
Australia in the late 1880s. It appears that he was initially
drawn to Victoria in search of gold but stayed for the art.
Miller Marshall had returned to England by the mid 1890s
and may have taken with him a number of works painted
in Australia.
Fossicking for gold c 1893 is a rare oil painting from
Miller Marshall’s time in Australia. It depicts a scene at the
Creswick goldfields near Ballarat in Victoria and is from
a period when a second large discovery of gold attracted
many fossickers into the area. Fossickers were miners
who searched through mined earth for any remaining
gold and, in this painting, Miller Marshall portrays two
fossickers at rest. One miner is standing with his shovel
astride his shoulder, while the other is seated smoking a
pipe; positioned beside him is the conspicuously empty
gold pan.
While it is probable that the figures in Miller Marshall’s
painting were based on models, he has successfully
conveyed a sense of a momentary break from the hard
work of labouring in the blistering heat of an Australian
summer’s day. Miller Marshall’s response to the colours
and qualities of the Australian light and landscape reveal
a glowing yet heavily mined earth, coloured with rich
yellows and ochres. And the roughly textured bark of the
two gum trees and scattered rocks in the foreground are
rendered in shades of smoky blues, pinks and greens.
For several weeks in January of 1893, Miller Marshall
and fellow artist Walter Withers ran plein-air painting
classes at Creswick. It is likely that Miller Marshall and
Withers worked side by side at this time, with Withers
painting a strikingly similar work, Fossickers 1893. This
work is also held by the National Gallery of Australia and
the comparison of the two paintings yields insights into
the differences between the artists’ handling of paint and
approach to composition.
J Miller Marshall Fossicking for gold 1893
oil on canvas 54.5 x 39 cm
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
gift of Jenny, David and Melissa Manton in memory of Jack
Manton, 2009
artonview summer 2009–10 33
Walter Withers Fossickers 1893 oil on canvas 67.7 x 49 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra gift of Mrs Alec de Bretteville, 1969
Percy Lindsay (attributed) Fossicking for gold 1893 oil on canvas 45.5 x 34 cm Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum purchased as a tribute to Miss BK Leviny, 2007
In addition, a third, unsigned work depicting the very
same scene is held in the collection of the Castlemaine
Art Gallery and Historical Museum. This work, also titled
Fossicking for gold 1893, was previously attributed to Miller
Marshall; however, it is now believed that this work may
have been painted by Percy Lindsay. A member of the
well-known Lindsay family, Percy grew up in Creswick and
is celebrated for his paintings of the surrounding area.
He and his brother Lionel were among the students who
Miller Marshall and Withers taught in the summer of 1893.
Little is known about Miller Marshall except that he was
a founding member of the Norwich Art Circle from 1885
until 1904 and was one of five children; his father was the
Norwich-based artist Peter Paul Marshall (1830–1900).
Miller Marshall is most recognised for his watercolours but
was also proficient in oil painting. He had a number of paintings
selected for exhibition at the Royal Academy in London.
Miller Marshall’s Fossicking for gold was recently gifted
to the national collection by Jenny, David and Melissa
Manton in memory of the late Jack Manton. This painting
is currently on public display at the National Gallery of
Australia, alongside the unsigned Fossicking for gold, on
loan from Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum,
and the Gallery’s Fossickers by Walter Withers.
Miriam Kelly Assistant Curator, Australian Painting and Sculpture
34 national gallery of australia
acquisition
John Skinner Prout Break of Day Plains, Tasmania
and The River Barwon, Victoria
Australia Illustrated was the most popular illustrated book
produced during the period of colonial expansion in the
late nineteenth century and was a clear demonstration
of Australia’s developing nationhood. Intended as a
comprehensive survey of the southern colonies, the
volumes were published in England between 1873
and 1876 by Edwin Carton Booth and were adorned with
steel engravings of landscape views by John Skinner Prout
and Nicholas Chevalier.
English watercolourist and drawing master John
Skinner Prout was born in 1805 in Plymouth, Devon, and
worked in Australia from 1840 to 1848. On returning to
London he took with him a number of sketchbooks and
many of his Australian watercolours, which later featured
in Australia Illustrated. The recently acquired Break of Day
Plains, Tasmania c 1845 and The River Barwon, Victoria
c 1847 were both subjects of engravings by E Brandard,
accompanying chapters on Tasmania and Victoria
respectively.
After sketching Sydney and its environs for over
three years, Prout moved to Hobart Town, Van Dieman’s
Land, in 1844, where he gained recognition as one of
the most progressive artists working in the colony. He
was instrumental in arranging the first art exhibitions
in Australia in 1845 and 1846, delivered a number of
subscription lectures on painting, and was a stimulating
influence on amateur artists through the sketching clubs
he formed.
Prout explored the rural and urban landscapes of
Hobart from May to December 1844, working on material
for the lithographs that appeared in volume one of
Tasmania Illustrated. It was during this period that Prout
became the centre of an extensive amateur sketching
culture based on the Bristol sketching club he had been a
part of from 1832 to 1837. Following the principles of plein
air painting, the Hobart Town club was formed in 1845
and included artists GTWB Boyes, Francis Simpkinson de
Wesselow, Louisa Anne Meredith, Ellen Burgess and Jeanie
Louisa Stewart Dunn, Bishop Nixon, colonial treasurer Peter
Gordon Fraser and architect William Porden Kay.
In December 1845, the club set out from Hobart Town
on an excursion up the east coast of Van Dieman’s Land
to St Mary’s Pass, the Fingal Valley and Launceston. Painted
during this trip, Prout’s wonderfully fresh watercolour
Break of Day Plains, Tasmania features a pastoral staffage
in the foreground, heightened with body colour, opening
out to the wide expanse of the Mt Nicholas Ranges and
the South Esk River. This view across the valley displays
Prout’s facility with the watercolour medium. He excelled in
this technique, favouring rapid sketches rather than highly
finished paintings, which resulted in a number of small
atmospheric works.
Accompanied by Francis Simpkinson, in mid December
1846, Prout travelled to Port Phillip to paint and sketch
Melbourne and its surrounds for the lithographic folio
Views of Melbourne and Geelong. By early January, the
artists had moved on to Tallarook and Goulburn Valley,
returning to Melbourne via Geelong and the Barwon
Valley. In the deftly painted The Barwon River, Victoria,
Prout has positioned a couple in the foreground, looking
out over the river towards a homestead nestled in a rural
landscape. This quiet impression of everyday life is further
emphasised by the inclusion of two men fishing off a punt
on the river and the haze of smoke from the emerging
settlement of Geelong in the distance. Rather than the
more precise topographical views of Simpkinson, the largely
self-trained Prout preferred a lyrical vision of the landscape,
championing the right of the artist to interpret freely rather
than merely imitate. Capturing the valley’s cool light,
The Barwon River, Victoria is among the earliest depictions
of the region and certainly the earliest in the National
Gallery of Australia’s collection.
These two lively sketches depict a significant aspect
of Prout’s Australian oeuvre. Until now the National
Gallery of Australia only held the highly finished exhibition
watercolour, Aborigine stalking—Willoughby Falls, New
South Wales c 1850, completed after the artist’s return to
London in 1848.
Emma Colton Australian Prints and Drawings
John Skinner Prout Break of Day Plains,
Tasmania c 1845 watercolour 26 x 38 cm
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
purchased 2009
The River Barwon, Victoria
c 1847 watercolour
27.2 x 37.8 cm National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra purchased 2009
36 national gallery of australia
acquisition
Mawalan Marika The Milky Way
One of the most important Yolngu artists in the history of
bark painting, Mawalan Marika was born before the time
of early European invasion into what is now the Arnhem
Land region. He lived in country near Yirrkala in north-east
Arnhem Land, roughly 700 kilometres east of Darwin,
which has approximately 25 homeland centres within a
200-kilometre radius. The area itself is known as the Miwatj
region, which means ‘morning side’, and refers to the fact
that it is the most eastern part of the Top End of Australia.
Marika was a senior religious leader, not only of the
Rirratjingu clan but also of the Dhuwa moiety, as well
as a warrior, songman and dancer.
In 1935, the Methodist Overseas Mission sought to
establish a mission station at Yirrkala on Rirratjingu land.
Although he was strongly protective of traditional culture
and the Yolngu way of life, Mawalan supported the
missionaries and assisted in clearing the land for a school,
houses, roads and the mission farm.
Politically, he was a key figure in several historic
negotiations between the Yolngu people and the outside
community. From the 1940s, Marika assisted the Australian
anthropologists Charles P Mountford and Ronald and
Catherine Berndt with their research into Yolngu culture
and society and, in the late 1950s, he was commissioned
by Tony Tuckson and Stuart Scougall to make large bark
paintings for the Art Gallery of New South Wales. In 1962,
he played a leading role in producing painted panels
on Yolngu religious themes, which were installed in the
Yirrkala Church, contributing to the regional reconciliation
of two very different cultures—the English and the Yolngu.
In 1963, Marika was one of the signatories of the famous
Yirrkala Bark Petitions presented to Parliament to protest
the Commonwealth’s granting of mining rights. The historic
petitions were not only the first traditional documents
prepared by Indigenous Australians that were formally
recognised by the Australian Parliament but they were also
the first recognised native title claim.
Mawalan Marika was significant in establishing the
bark painting tradition of the Top End. He led the way
in producing traditional paintings on bark for sale to
outsiders and, with Narritjin Maymurru and Mungurrawuy
Yunupingu, they developed a narrative approach for their
paintings. This became characteristic of much Yirrkala
art of the 1960s to the 1980s, and this bark is a classic
example of that style. Marika taught bark painting to the
boys at the mission school and, in 1963, lived and worked
for two months in Sydney—he was one the first Yolngu
to travel that far south. He also played an important role
in encouraging Yolngu women to paint at a time when
women were not allowed to produce sacred paintings.
Marika was an influential figure at the head of one
of the most important artistic families to emerge from
Yirrkala to date. His brothers Mathaman and Dadaynga
‘Roy’ Marika, son Wandjuk Marika, daughters Dhuwarrwarr
and Banduk Marika and brother-in-law Mungurrawuy
Yunupingu are all celebrated artists.
This bark painting by Marika depicts Baru the crocodile,
an important creation ancestor for the Yolngu people.
The black vertical strip on the bark denotes the Milky Way,
which is regarded by many northern Aboriginal people
as a river in the night sky, teeming with fish and other
creatures. The origins of the creation of the Milky Way
vary from group to group. According to the chronicles
of the Rirratjingu and related Dhuwa clans, two brothers
were fishing in their bark canoe when it capsized in a
strong wind. One brother’s body washed up on shore; the
other’s sank. The crocodile Baru went looking for food and
smelled the body of the brother on the beach. The two
brothers and Baru then ascended into the night sky and
became constellations. A group of Possum ancestors who
were conducting a ceremony—playing didgeridoo and
clap sticks while women danced—saw the stars and they
too ascended into the heavens. The ancestral Native Cat,
the submerged canoe and the Scorpion, who was once a
man, also joined the others in the night sky. All became
constellations. Two bags of stars projecting from the Milky
Way in the upper left represent Djulpan, the belt of Orion:
the triangular bag is male, the elliptical one female.
This work by Mawalan Marika will be a feature work in
the new Indigenous Australian galleries that open next year
as part of the Stage 1 building project.
Chantelle Woods Assistant Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art
Mawalan Marika The Milky Way c 1965
natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark
177.5 x 63.5 cm National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra purchased 2009
38 national gallery of australia
acquisition
Devare & Co Prince Yeshwant Rao Holkar and his
sister Manorama Raje
This graceful portrait of Prince Yeshwant, the eldest child of
HH Maharaja Tukoji Rao 3rd of the Maratha state of Indore
in Central India, and his younger sister Manorama Raje is
an outstanding example of the distinctive genre of hand-
coloured royal portrait photography popular in India in the
early to mid twentieth century. The subtle colouring gives
substance and life to the rich silks and satin garments worn
by the young royals. The photograph was taken by court
photographer Gopinath Devare, most likely at his studio in
Bombay and perhaps prior to the prince going to Cheam
School in England in 1920.
The Holkar children’s portrait is more complex than the
standard royal portrait pose of a figure leaning up against
a plinth or seated at a table. Prince Yeshwant and sister
Manorama appear, instead, as if the photographer had
come upon them in the corner of an English-style drawing
room. The foreign setting might seem odd for a portrait
of Indian royalty but European antiques were fashionable
in the country’s palaces and photography studios; Indian
photographers also adopted poses, props and backdrops
from imported European portrait photographs. The
inspiration for the setting was most likely the relaxed
‘at home’ style of the aristocratic portraiture known as a
‘conversazione’, or conversation piece, which was in vogue
in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Prince Yeshwant acceded as Rao Holkar Bahadur,
14th Maharaja of Indore in 1926, but only assumed rule
from 1930, after further Western education in England.
He remained ruler of Indore until Indian Independence in
1947—Indore was then subsumed into the state of Madhya
Pradesh. After his schooling, the prince developed a dislike
of the British, although he maintained an appreciation for
other parts of Europe and later enjoyed American culture.
His second and third wives were American.
This high quality work by a twentieth-century Indian
photographer is important to the Gallery’s representation
of the history of photography in Asia and has connections
to other areas of the collection. Maharaja Yeshwant was
an enthusiast for modern European art, furniture and
architecture and had avant-garde photographer Man
Ray take his first honeymoon photographs in Paris with
Maharani Sanyogit Devi Holkar. As soon as he was installed
as ruler in 1930, Maharaja Yeshwant commissioned
Eckart Muthesius, a young German architect, to build
a new palace outside Indore. Called Manik Bagh (Jewel
Gardens) the palace had white streamlined international-
style architecture and was filled with modernist designer
furniture and works of art, including a number of pieces
by the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi.
In 1936, the Maharaja purchased three late versions
of Brancusi’s Bird in space—one in black marble, one in
white marble and one in bronze—and commissioned the
artist to design a ‘temple of meditation’ to house them in
the palace grounds. Brancusi had various designs, including
ones with a reflective water pool, and travelled to Indore
in 1937 to begin work. By then, however, the Maharaja
had apparently lost interest—he was possibly mourning
for the death of the Maharani—and the work on the
temple of meditation never began. The Maharaja’s pair
of marble ‘birds’ now reside in a different ‘temple of
meditation’, inside the National Gallery of Australia.
They were acquired from the Maharaja’s daughter in 1973.
The Gallery’s display of the two stunning sculptures reflects
some of Brancusi’s ideas for their installation in the Indore
Royal palace garden.
Gopinath Devare became official photographer of all
Indian States, and he and his associates at Devare & Co
were active as photographers of the Imperial Durbar in
1911. Devare was reputedly the first Indian to be awarded
Fellowship of the Royal Society of Photography in London.
He travelled to Indore in May 1930 to record the prince’s
investiture—the commemorative album opens with a tinted
studio portrait of Yeshwant in the same delicate style as
his earlier portrait.
Gael Newton Senior Curator, Photography
Devare & Co Gopinath Devare
photographer Prince Yeshwant Rao Holkar and his sister
Manorama Raje c 1918 watercolour on gelatin
silver photograph 36.7 x 26.6 cm
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
purchased 2009
40 national gallery of australia
acquisition
Walter Burley Griffin Desk chair for Newman College
The architect Walter Burley Griffin was born near Chicago
in 1876. He graduated in architecture from the University
of Illinois in 1899 and worked in the office of eminent
Chicago architect Frank Lloyd Wright from 1901 to
1906 before establishing his own practice in Chicago.
Stirred by the Federation movement in Australia, Griffin
developed an interest in town planning, and he entered
and won the 1912 competition for the design of the new
federal capital city of Australia, Canberra. He relocated to
Australia in 1914 to work on this project and later to run
his own architectural practice in Melbourne and Sydney.
He left Australia in 1935 to work in India, where he
died in 1937.
This chair is part of the furniture from Griffin’s second
largest project in Australia, the University of Melbourne’s
Newman College, which he designed in 1915. The
building’s character—an amalgam of meso-American and
southern European Gothic styles—was expressed through
strong, modern geometric detailing in stone and wood.
It was reflected in the plain, angular suites of furniture
designed by Griffin to provide a calm and integrated
environment for research and study. Several firms
produced this range of furniture for the project, using
unadorned Japanese oak with minimal plain brown leather
upholstery in the manner of American Arts and Crafts
furniture of the period.
This swivelling and tilting office chair was produced
by Melbourne church furniture specialists Fallshaw and
Sons (established in 1875). The chair’s uncompromising
form and functionality are rare qualities in Australian
design of the period. Its flat planes and slanted design
elements reveal a debt to Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1903
designs for office and library furniture, while its dynamic
angles show similarities in approach to Czech Cubist
furniture designs of 1912–14. In synthesising such diverse
influences, Griffin produced a suite of furniture unique
in Australian design.
Robert Bell Senior Curator, Decorative Arts and Design
Walter Burley Griffin Desk chair for Newman College
1917 Japanese oak, steel, iron,
leatherette 104 x 59 x 60 cm
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra purchased 2009
artonview summer 2009–10 41
acquisition
Erich Heckel White horses
Erich Heckel, EL Kirchner, Fritz Bleyl and Karl Schmidt-
Rottluff were the founding members of the German
Expressionist group Die Brücke (The Bridge). From 1905,
Die Brücke were determined to break new ground in
German art by rejecting academic conventions and
adopting the striking imagery and techniques that they
observed in the work of African and Pacific cultures.
The group radically revitalised the Germanic printmaking
tradition and their works stand today as some of the most
important print works ever produced.
Heckel created White horses (Weisse Pferde) in 1912,
a year after Die Brücke moved from Dresden to Berlin.
The relocation to a large city caused a dramatic change
in Heckel’s work as the artist reacted to the metropolis by
producing works that were introspective and melancholy.
In contrast, White horses depicts a combination of animals
and figures within an Arcadian landscape, giving the scene
a lyrical tone that is markedly divergent from the artist’s
other figurative works.
The woodcut shows two men leading two white
horses along a path. As they near a junction, a third figure
walks towards them. Heckel’s treatment of the landscape
is masterly: three trees bend towards the right side of the
image, buffeted by a breeze that is evoked by a rough
cutting of the wood. The irregular slope of the top edge
of the woodblock is also harnessed by Heckel as a visual
device to underscore this sense of energy and to heighten
the anticipation; a meeting of the three figures is imminent.
Perhaps the art historical events of 1912 are key to
Heckel’s uncharacteristic choice of subject. It was during
this year that Heckel met the leading artists of the Munich-
based artists group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), Franz
Marc and Wassily Kandinsky. Marc, in particular, viewed
the horse as a symbol of energy and strength and had
adopted this motif as the major theme in his work. The
unusual appearance of the horse in Heckel’s White horses,
in combination with the meeting of three figures, can be
interpreted as a momentary fusion of the ideas of two
revolutionary artist groups: Der Blaue Reiter and Die Brücke.
Jaklyn Babington Assistant Curator, International Prints and Drawings
Erich Heckel White horses (Weisse Pferde) 1912 woodcut image 30 x 31 cm sheet 68 x 53.3 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra The Poynton Bequest, 2009
1 2
3 4 5
6 7
faces in view
1 Ita Buttrose and daughter-in-law Adrianne Macdonald, with The lime tree 1917, at the opening of McCubbin: Last Impressions 1907–17, 13 August 2009.
2 Larissa, Joanna and Kristiane Pang at the McCubbin opening.
3 Sir Michael Parkinson with JM Crossland’s Portrait of Nannultera, a young Poonindie cricketer 1854.
4 Performers portray iconic Post-Impressionist figures at the Gallery’s Big Draw event, 20 September 2009.
5 A young girl draws the garden outside as part of Big Draw, 20 September 2009.
6 Margaret Cerabona and Barbara Blake, with Bush sawyers 1910, at the McCubbin opening.
7 Tina Baum, Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, Carly Lane, Curator, Indigenous Art, Art Gallery of Western Australia, and Franchesca Cubillo, Senior Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, at the media preview for Emerging Elders, 1 October 2009.
8 Visitors of all ages participate in the many Big Draw activities at the Gallery, 20 September 2009.
9 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd at the World Presidents Organisation dinner at the Gallery on 22 October 2009.
10 Deborah Hart, Senior Curator, Australian Painting and Sculpture post-1920, interviews artist John Olsen in a public forum, 17 September 2009, in association with Big Draw.
8
9
10
44 national gallery of australia
Travelling exhibitions summer 2009–10I
The National Gallery of Australia Travelling Exhibitions Program is generously supported
by Australian airExpress.
Exhibition venues and dates may be subject to change. Please contact the Gallery or venue before your visit. For more information on travelling exhibitions, telephone (02) 6240 6525 or send an email to travex@nga.gov.au.
McCubbin: Last Impressions 1907–17Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, WA,
11 December 2009 – 29 March 2010
Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, Vic, 24 April – 25 July 2010
Discover Frederick McCubbin’s rarely displayed later works and experience his
striking use of colour in the first McCubbin exhibition to be held in almost 20 years.
See this iconic Australian artist in a new light as he depicted a modern Australia
in cityscapes, sea views, landscapes and portraits. nga.gov.au/mccubbin
Proudly sponsored by R.M.Williams, Exhibition Benefactor the Hon Mrs Ashley Dawson-Damer and Media Partner ABC Local Radio
Robert Dowling: Tasmanian son of EmpireQueen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery, Launceston, Tas,
6 March – 25 April 2010
Robert Dowling holds a special place in the history of Australian art. He was the first
artist to be trained in Australia and was renowned for his paintings of pastoralists
and their properties, Indigenous people and biblical themes. This is the first major
exhibition of his oeuvre, including his much-lauded orientalist subjects. nga.gov.au
Supported by Visions of Australia, an Australian Government program supporting touring exhibitions by providing funding assistance for the development and touring of Australian cultural material across Australia. Also proudly supported by the National Gallery of Australia Council Exhibitions Fund.
Australian Indigenous Art Triennial: Culture WarriorsAmerican University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC,
USA, 8 September – 6 December 2009
Australian Indigenous Art Triennial: Culture Warriors presents the highly original and
accomplished work of 30 Indigenous Australian artists from every state and territory.
Featuring outstanding works in a variety of media, the exhibition draws inspiration
from the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Referendum (Aboriginals) and demonstrates
the breadth and calibre of contemporary Indigenous art practice. nga.gov.au/aiat
Proudly supported by principal sponsor BHP Billiton, airline sponsor Qantas, and Australian Government sponsors the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy/Visions of Australia/Contemporary Touring Initiative, the Australia Council for the Arts, the Queensland Government, the Northern Territory Government, the Government of Western Australia’s Department of Culture and the Arts and Arts Victoria.
The Elaine and Jim Wolfensohn Gift
These suitcases thematically present a selection of art objects that may be borrowed free-of-charge for the
enjoyment of children and adults in regional, remote and metropolitan centres. nga.gov.au/wolfensohn
For further details and bookings telephone (02) 6240 6650 or email travex@nga.gov.au/wolfensohn.Blue case: technology
South East Arts, Bega, NSW, 8–26 February 2010
Country Arts SA, c/o Riddoch Art Gallery, Mt Gambier, SA, 3–31 March 2010
Red case: myths and rituals and Yellow case: form, space and design
Arts Access Victoria (Melbourne), 15 February – 13 April 2010
1888 Melbourne Cup
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Tas, 9 March – 7 April 2010
Emily O’Brien Hair chairs 2004, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (in Blue case: technology)
Frederick McCubbin The old slip,
Williamstown 1915 private collection
Richard Bell Australian art it’s an
Aboriginal thing 2006 TarraWarra Museum of
Art Collection acquired 2006
Image courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery
Robert Dowling Mrs Adolphus Sceales
with Black Jimmie on Merrang Station
1855–56 National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra purchased from the Founding
Donor Fund 1984
Acknowledgements (clockwise from top left): Maringka Baker Anmangunga 2006 Synthetic polymer paint on canvas 136.5 x 202.5 cm. Courtesy of Art Gallery of South Australia. Featured in Culture Warriors: National Indigenous Art Triennial developed and toured by the National Gallery of Australia. © Maringka Baker | Mavis Ganambarr Basket 2006 (detail) Pandanus fibre, natural dyes, fibre string 48 x 38.2 cm (diameter). Photo: Peter Eve | Belinda Winkler Swell Slipcast ceramic vessels, dimensions variable. Photo: Phil Kuruvita | The Ngurrara Canvas painted by Ngurrara artists and claimants coordinated by Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency, May 1997, 10 x 8 m | Anne Zahalka The Bathers 1989 type C photograph 74 x 90 cm
www.arts.gov.au/visions
Contemporary Touring InitiativeA wide range of Australian collecting institutions and other organisations can apply for funding to develop and tour contemporary Australian visual arts and craft exhibitions.
The program guidelines are now broader and we encourage eligible institutions and organisations to apply for funding.
Closing date: Check our website
The program guidelines and application form can be obtained from: www.arts.gov.au/visions
Email: visions.australia@environment.gov.au Phone: 02 6275 9519
The Contemporary Touring Initiative is managed by the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia Program.
Visions of AustraliaA national touring exhibitions program making high quality cultural exhibitions accessible to more Australians.
Closing dates for funding applications:
1 April for projects commencing on or after 1 September that year.
1 September for projects commencing on or after 1 February the following year.
Program guidelines and applications forms can be obtained from www.arts.gov.au/visions
Email: visions.australia@environment.gov.au Phone: 02 6275 9517
The Visions of Australia program is administered by the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.
The Contemporary Touring Initiative aims to:
Australian visual arts and craft;
through quality publications, education and public programs and fora held as part of the touring exhibition; and
between funded organisations and collecting institutions.
Funding is available to assist eligible organisations to develop and tour exhibitions of Australian Cultural Material across Australia.
‘Australian Cultural Material’ is material relevant to Australian culture due to its historical, scientific, artistic or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander significance which:
organisation.
46 national gallery of australia
Invite your friends and family to sample award-winning wines, fresh regional produce and spectacular views at a vineyard cafe or restaurant in the stunning rural surrounds of the ACT. Grab a Canberra District Wineries Guide, tour some of the region’s best wineries and enjoy delicious food matched with cool climate wines — but be sure to leave plenty of room in your car for gourmet treats!
For a copy of the Canberra Holiday Planner or the Canberra Gourmet Guide call 1300 554 114 or visitcanberra.com.au
tour some of the region’s best wineries and enjoy delicious food matched with cool climate wines — but be
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artonview_summer_food.indd 1 15/10/2009 10:37:30 AM
Invite your friends and family to sample award-winning wines, fresh regional produce and spectacular views at a vineyard cafe or restaurant in the stunning rural surrounds of the ACT. Grab a Canberra District Wineries Guide, tour some of the region’s best wineries and enjoy delicious food matched with cool climate wines — but be sure to leave plenty of room in your car for gourmet treats!
For a copy of the Canberra Holiday Planner or the Canberra Gourmet Guide call 1300 554 114 or visitcanberra.com.au
tour some of the region’s best wineries and enjoy delicious food matched with cool climate wines — but be
The Canberra
region is a great
destination for food
and wine lovers
Picture Picture Picture yourself in yourselfyourselfyourselfyourselfyourself in yourself in yourself in yourselfyourselfyourselfyourselfyourselfheaven!
Picture Picture yourselfyourselfyourselfyourselfyourselfyourselfyourselfyourselfyourselfyourselfyourselfheaven! heaven! heaven! heaven! heaven! heaven! heaven! heaven! heaven!
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artonview_summer_food.indd 1 15/10/2009 10:37:30 AM
Depuis 1849Excellence et Indépendance
Proud supporter of the National Gallery of Australia and official French Champagne Partner of the Post Impressionist: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay art exhibition.
PaintboxF I N E A R T
Create your own Masterpiece
Proudly sponsoringMcCubbin: Last Impressions
1907-1917
www.rmwilliams.com.au 1800 339 532
artonview summer 2009–10 49
50 national gallery of australia
MASTERPIECES FROM PARISVan Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne & beyond
POST-IMPRESSIONISM FROM THE MUSÉE D’ORSAY
C•A•N•B•E•R•R•A
B A R T O N
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Belmore Gardens and Macquarie Street, Barton ACT 2600
Telephone: 02 6273 3766 Facsimile: 02 6273 2791Toll Free Telephone:
Email: info@brassey.net.au Web: http: //www.brassey.net.au
National Gallery ofAustralia Package
Per night. Extra night $192.00.Subject to availablity. Extra person $25.00.
Includes Heritage room for two guests, full buffet breakfast for 2, two tickets to the Masterpieces from Paris exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia.
ggggggggggg$235.00
The
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Vincent van Gogh Van Gogh’s bedroom at Arles
1889 Musée d’Orsay, Paris
© RMN (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski
4 DEC 2009 – 5 APR 2010 • CANBERRA ONLY
MAST
The Canberra Times is the leading source for news, the arts and lifestyle and home to Canberra’s premier arts magazine, Panorama. Every week, The Canberra Times tantalises readers with the Food&Wine lift-out.
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Conveniently close to both Manuka and Kingston shopping villages. Only three km from the National Gallery of Australia
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Vincent van Gogh Starry night 1888 Musée d'Orsay, Paris © RMN (Musée d'Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski
KINGSTON
16 Eyre St Kingstoncsa@kingstonterrace.com.auwww.kingstonterrace.com.au
Call 1800 655 754(02) 6239-9411
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artonview summer 2009–10 53
On view at
The Silk Road Gallery
Open 10 am to 4 pm every day19 Kennedy Street, Kingston(10 mins walk from National Gallery of Australia)Phone 6295 0192www.silkroadgallery.com.au
The Art of...
Seating
Tea
Porcelain
Cypress Cabinet, Zhejiang province, China, late 1700s
Storage
For free, confidential appraisals by our art specialists please contact:
Sydney 02 8344 5404 / Litsa Veldekis 0411 030 416
Melbourne 03 9832 8700 / Tim Abdallah 0411 079 252
WWW.MENZIESARTBRANDS.COM
MENZIESARTBRANDS
GARRY SHEAD Young Prince 2003 Sold March 2006$204,000 (including buyer’s premium) Private collection, SydneyENTRIES INVITED
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artonview summer 2009–10 55
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4 DECEMBER 2009 – 5 APRIL 2010 CANBERRA ONLY
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This is a sensational package. Spend the night in one of our newly refurbished standard rooms enjoying Foxtel, high speed broadband access, mini bar and tea and coffee making facilities. Away from the noise of traffic, but still close enough to the centre of Canberra to really enjoy all Canberra has to offer. Then enjoy a scrumptious continental buffet style breakfast in our new breakfast bar looking out at the surrounding mountains. We will also provide 2 adult passes to The National Gallery of Australia’s current exhibition Masterpieces from Paris.
Vincent van Gogh Starry night (La nuit étoilée) 1888 oil on canvas Musée d’Orsay, Paris© RMN (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski
3 December 2009 – 5 May 2010Love touches us all. Discover stories of love and longing in time of war. Explore the emotions felt by couples – the pain of separation, the grief of loss and the great joy of reunion.
Free entryOpen daily 10 am – 5 pm(Closed Christmas Day)www.awm.gov.au
FACING ASIAHISTORIES AND LEGACIES OF ASIAN STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY
National Gallery of Australia, CanberraSaturday 21–Sunday 22 August 2010
A symposium on early Asian photographers and their studio practices and cross-cultural photographic exchanges in the Asia—Pacific region.
Presented by the Research School of Humanities, Australian National University and the National Gallery of Australia.
Call for papers Abstracts required by 24 February 2010. For details see rsh.anu.edu.au/events/2010/facingasia or contact Dr Luke Gartlan, University of St Andrews, e: lg321@st-andrews.ac.uk, or Ms Gael Newton, National Gallery of Australia, e: gaelnewton@nga.gov.au
A shop like no other! From Friday 4 December, the National Gallery of
Australia Shop will be filled with a range of gifts perfect for Christmas and beyond.
Don’t miss out on treasures inspired by the Masterpieces from Paris exhibition and the sumptuous exhibition catalogue as well as
a diverse range of fabulous books for adults and children.
National Gallery of Australia Shop | Parkes Place, Canberra ACT 2600
T (02) 6240 6420 | E ecom@nga.gov.au
Emerging Eldershonouring our senior Indigenous artists from the national collection
Until 14 June 2010CANBERRA ONLY NGA.GOV.AU
Harry Tjutjuna Wangka Tjukurpa (Spiderman) 2007 (detail), National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 2008
The National Gallery of Australia is an Australian Government Agency
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