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Contents
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Iconic Notes News and views
76 Australian National Maritime Museum Japanese Flapper Lands on Australian Shores
National Gallery of Australia Australia on show in London
78 Melbourne Museum Designing 007
Western Australian Museum Aurelio Costarella & Frock Stars
84 Art Gallery of New South Wales America: painting a nation
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National Film and Sound Archive Film Australia Collection
90 Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory Sophistication and Elegance
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Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne Gigi Scaria: Dust
96 Australian War Memorial “From your dead soldier son�
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Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne Jericho to Jerusalem
102 National Archives of Australia Delving into archival treasures
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South Australian Museum Preserving stories through high definition images
108 Australian Centre for Contemporary Art Contemporary Commissions
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Queensland Gallery of Modern Art California Dreaming
114 Australian Museum Tyrannosaurs: Dinosaurs with a difference
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National Gallery of Victoria The Art of Deco
120 Queensland Museum Network Six stories from the Network
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National Museum of Australia Old Masters
126 National Gallery of Australia The brilliant cultures of Peru
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National Library of Australia Mapping Our World
132 Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Back, bigger, better
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Art Gallery of South Australia Realms of Wonder
136 Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Illumination: the art of Philip Wolfhagen
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Art Gallery of South Australia 2014 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Dark Heart
138 ICONIC Society Social photographs
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Art Gallery of Western Australia Van Gogh, Dali and Beyond; The World Reimagined
144 ICON Stockists Where to buy ICON Magazine
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Australian National Maritime Museum Vikings Are Here
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Iconic Notes
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The Depraved Pursuit of a Possum, 2013 (detail) by Tessa Farmer (b. 1978) Sculptural installation comprising freeze-dried possum, bones, crabs, seashells, sea sponge, insects, arachnids, plant roots, hedgehog spines, wasp nest Dimensions variable
Marea Gazzard 1966 by Judy Cassab (b. 1920) oil on canvas Collection: National Portait Gallery, Canberra Gift of Marea Gazzard 2005 Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program
Commissioned by MONA for The Red Queen Courtesy of the artist Photo Credit: MONA/Rémi Chauvin Image Courtesy MONA Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
The artist’s diary Judy Cassab is among Australia’s most successful portrait painters. Since arriving in Sydney from Europe in 1951, she has created numerous portraits - those commissioned by corporate leaders and social luminaries along with personal and intimate portrayals of family and friends - which collectively have resulted in a distinct and comprehensive record of Australian society and culture throughout the second half of the 20th century. The artist’s diary profiles six decades of Cassab’s work, from the early portrait commissions of the 1950s to later paintings that have helped confirm her eminent place in the canon of Australian portraiture. The artist’s diary 21 November 2013 - 10 March 2014 National Portrait Gallery, Canberra www.portrait.gov.au
Editorial submissions ICON Magazine accepts editorial submissions for consideration in the Iconic Notes section. All submissions must be accompanied by a copyright approved high resolution image. Send your submission to: editorial@iconmagazine.com.au
A natural mixture of power and futility The Red Queen is a character from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass. She’s a sinister mixture of power and futility: even as she doles out orders willy-nilly, she seems to lock herself in a weird and lonely prison of words. More curiously, the Queen is driven, by abstract forces, to run in order to keep pace with the world around her. However fast she goes, she never seems ‘to pass anything’, and ‘the trees and the other things around’ her don’t change their place at all. ‘”[Do] all the things move along with us?” wonders Alice. We’re co-opting the Queen for our own purposes in this exhibition at Mona. But she’s been corrupted already of course, by scientists working in the field of evolutionary biology. That notion - that one might run and run, with neither goal nor end - is one key to twenty-first century thinking about how species evolve, in brutal harmony, with their environment. We’re not used to thinking of it like that. We like to imagine we are struggling ever-forward to some end-point - personal, collective, universal - that will atone for our suffering and
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make our joys mean something. Evolution has no such agenda, nothing in mind for us, as it molds us to the shape of our environment. When you look at it like this, and surrender the assumption of progress, all of a sudden our words and deeds - like the Red Queen’s mean nothing and everything at once; rich and strange nonsense indeed. How does art fit into this? It is a behaviour, a practice, that congeals humanity like the fat in a fry-pan; it clarifies and distills, evaporates the excess, until we can see (just for a moment) into the base of ourselves. And perhaps -- let us phrase it as a question. Is human-ness nothing but a set of such behaviours? The answer, we hope and aim, will remain elusive; there will be no lessons learnt or taught, only contagious inquiry into the messy machinery of human nature. The Red Queen Until 21 April 2014 Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart www.mona.net.au
Front Cover Story – National Gallery of Australia
Margaret Preston Flying over the Shoalhaven River 1942 oil on canvas National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1973 © Margaret Rose Preston Estate.
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fter many years of negotiation and then planning, Australia: land and landscape has opened in London in September. The exhibition is displayed at the Royal Academy of Art, London’s premium temporary exhibition venue, and is the largest historical survey exhibition ever staged outside Australia, covering Australian art from 1880 to the
present day. It is restricted to landscapes because the Australian landscape—the land, sea, cities and sunshine—is what pre-eminently defines our country for many people and because land or country is central to Australian Indigenous art. It is an exhibition of around two hundred works, some of the finest in Australian art, selected from public collections around the country and a few in Britain. Half the works are from the National
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Gallery of Australia, the largest and most balanced collection of Australian art. It demonstrates the creativeness of our artists as well as provide an image of Australian history and way of life. A patron of natural history, Sir Joseph Banks was enthralled by the unknown curiosities he saw on the east coast of Australia during his scientific tour of the South Seas with Captain Cook in the eighteenth cen-
Western Australian Museum
3.Tiggy wears Camelot couture jacket and woollen breeches.Winter 2005. Simone wears Wuthering Heights top - winter 2005 - with multi-panel vest and urchin skirt - summer 2005/06.
But Australian Fashion Week is more than just a fashion show – as an event it challenged and changed the way the Australian fashion industry was viewed by the rest of the world. Australian fashion industry was viewed by the rest of the world. Established in 1995 at a time when Australian designers had few opportunities to showcase their collections and the local industry was struggling in the wake of lowered import tariffs and competition from Asia, entrepreneur Simon P. Lock took the audacious step of establishing an Australian Fashion Week event to place the industry front and center on the international stage - alongside the established shows in Milan, Paris, London, New York and Tokyo. Today, even with the natural expansion and contraction of this rather cut-throat industry, Australian designers are experiencing unprecedented demand for their work, both at home and abroad. Developed by Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum in conjunction with IMG Fashion which now owns Australian Fashion
Week, Frock Stars is an enticing behindthe-scenes look at the history, highlights, glamour, controversies and achievements of this event. Exhibited in the Museum’s temporary exhibition gallery, Frock Stars lets you experience what it’s like to be in the front row, enjoy the buzz of backstage, visit the VIP Lounge and explore the creative processes of putting together a collection through design studio and workroom displays. “On one level, Frock Stars is a fascinating look into the rarefied, glittering world of high fashion that few of us get to experience,” Mr. Coles said. “But it is the economic impact that Australian Fashion Week has had through its unrelenting focus on generating new domestic and export sales for Australian fashion that is the real revelation here.”
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Aurelio Costarella: A 30 Year Retrospective and Frock Stars: Inside Australian Fashion Week were both launched at a spectacular Night of Fashion at the Western Australian Museum – Perth on Friday, November 1. Both exhibitions opened to the public on November 2, with Frock Stars on display until January 27, and Costarella closing a week later on February 2. Admission is free of charge. Further information: www.museum.wa.gov.au #COSTARELLA #FROCKSTARS Costarella Images Numbered 1 - 4 Creative Director: Paul O’Connor Photographer: Chantel Concei Models: Simone and Tiggy @ Vivien’s Hair: Barney Gleeson for Lee Preston Hairdressing Makeup: Hendra for MAC
The Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne
Terracotta bull figurine Jerusalem, Iron Age, c. 1000–500 BCE The University of Melbourne Art Collection Middle Eastern Studies Collection
Ceramic bowl with red slip and ring burnish Jerusalem, Cave 1, Iron Age (IA IIC–IIIA), c. 1000–500 BCE The University of Melbourne Art Collection Middle Eastern Studies Collection
Ceramic spindle whorl Jerusalem, Iron Age, c. 1000–500 BCE The University of Melbourne Art Collection Middle Eastern Studies Collection
Jericho to Jerusalem
Ceramic bowl with red slip and ring burnish Jerusalem, Cave 1, Iron Age (IA IIC–IIIA), c. 1000–500 BCE The University of Melbourne Art Collection Middle Eastern Studies Collection
An important collection of Bronze and Iron Age artefacts from the Jericho and Jerusalem excavations by one of the 20th Century’s most influential archaeologists, Dame Kathleen Mary Kenyon (1906–1978), will be on display at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne until 6 April 2014.
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ericho and Jerusalem are two of the oldest cities in the world; both sites are archaeologically, historically and culturally important. The exhibition features terracotta figurines, loom weights, spindle whorls and many pottery vessels from tombs at Jericho, excavated by British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon from 1952– 54, and from Kenyon’s 1967 excavations at Jerusalem. The domestic and cultic objects reveal insights into the daily life and death at these two ancient cities. The finds were allocated to the University of Melbourne as a teaching collection in return for the financial support for Kenyon’s excavations provided by the University’s Middle Eastern Studies department. Over 100 remarkable early ceramics will be on display from Kenyon’s excavations; including selected key items from several Bronze Age tombs at Jericho, and the large Iron Age deposit from Cave 1 in Jerusalem. Curator, Dr Andrew Jamieson, says as well
as presenting important archaeological objects from two of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited sites, the exhibition tells the story of Kenyon’s significant contribution to Near Eastern archaeology. “Dame Kathleen Kenyon made significant contributions in the field of stratigraphic excavation techniques which she perfected at Jericho. She also introduced innovative approaches in ceramic methodology. “Best known for her excavations at Jericho and Jerusalem, she helped train a whole generation of archaeologists, including Australian scholar Basil Hennessey, who went on to become Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Sydney. “Kathleen Kenyon’s work continues to resonate throughout the archaeological world. Her field methods and scientific techniques strengthened the discipline of archaeology. She is often credited with popularizing archaeology. ”, Dr Jamieson said. Throughout her career Kenyon published extensively on the topic of archaeology in the Holy Land; her publications include Digging up Jericho
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(1957), Archaeology in the Holy Land (1960), Excavations at Jericho (vol. 1, 1960; Vol. 2, 1965), Amorites and Canaanites (1966), Royal Cities of the Old Testament (1970), and Digging up Jerusalem (1974). The exhibition was officially opened on Tuesday 22 October by Associate Professor Louise Hitchcock of the University’s Classics and Archaeology programme. Associate Professor Hitchcock is currently co-directing an archaeological excavation in Israel at Tell es-Safi/Gath, which provides fieldwork and training opportunities for students at the University of Melbourne. The archaeological objects featured in the Jericho to Jerusalem exhibition from the University of Melbourne’s Classics and Archaeology Collection are supplemented with material from the holdings of the Australian Institute of Archaeology. The Australian Institute of Archaeology has been instrumental in providing this material for display in the Jericho to Jerusalem exhibition.
South Australian Museum
Volunteers digitising the Australian Aboriginal Material Culture collection.
The South Australian Museum values digital media in conserving the nation’s most important stories. Again, this project – supported by Newmont Asia Pacific and the Department for Manufacturing, Innovation, Trade Resources and Energy (DMITRE) - is an example of how partnerships bring dreams to reality. The Aboriginal Material Culture Collection held at the South Australian Museum is recognised as the world’s largest and most comprehensive, as it includes objects from all regions of Australia across history. These include many artefacts collected during the mid-19th century, as well as the Norman Barnett Tindale Collection archives, which were recently inscribed onto UNESCO’s Australian Memory of the World Register. For the first time, a digital record of every object will be made within the Museum’s Aboriginal Material Culture Collection. This will provide open, global access to the stories of Aboriginal Australians and give families a chance to know their ancestors’ histories. With tens of thousands of objects to record and photograph, it is an ambitious project with local, national and international significance. Museum Anthropologist Peter Sutton says “This important project is not just about spreading knowledge more effectively. It also
offers connection. Relatives and descendants of those who originally made so many of the artefacts will be able to see these works by family or group members and download images of them. They will be able to do this no matter how remotely they live from Adelaide.” Researchers and the general public will be able to search the digital database by object type, language group or region and view photos and object information online. The size and diversity of the collection represents a significant challenge for the enthusiastic team, which is tasked with recording everything from bark paintings and wood carvings to canoes, sound recordings and emu feather plumes. Project Officer Eleanor Adams is leading a team of Museum staff and volunteers to digitally photograph and database each item in the collection. “Our team of 20 volunteers provide a day of their time each week and help us to catalogue up to 40 objects each time. Pieces that are fragile or large – like weapons – take longer, as we need to take multiple photos and then piece them together,” she said. As part of the Museum’s commitment to sharing its collections, the digitisation project will help reinforce Australian Aboriginal identity in communities that have been frag-
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mented since European contact. Interaction with knowledgeable elders will undoubtedly result in new documentation for the collection, enhancing the long-term value of Australia’s cultural heritage. Through digital repatriation, the South Australian Museum can take images of objects back to communities as a record, while preserving valuable cultural materials for communities who are unable to protect the items themselves. The digitisation project will make collating and accessing the collection more efficient. Cultural sensitivities will continue to be respected throughout the digitisation project.The Collection contains culturally sensitive objects like ceremonial objects to which access is restricted.The Museum holds the license to software which will enable them to manage how sacred objects and information are shared to ensure cultural sensitivities are preserved at all times. The South Australian Museum is a trusted and respected guardian of Australia’s natural and cultural heritage. It is committed to working in partnership with Aboriginal communities and industry to preserve the story of Aboriginal Australia and share it with the world.
of the earth is surrounded by the sphere of the ocean, and is orientated with south at the top, appearing upside down to modern audiences.
One of the most important and famous maps of all time, the Fra Mauro was created by a Camaldolese monk on the island of Murano in the Venetian Lagoon. Then there’s the map that made the Pacific an ocean. Still known in the early 1600s as a group of seas, Dutch master mapmaker Hessel Gerritsz’s Mar Pacifico, Mar del Sur, on loan from the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, is the first map to show the full extent of the Pacific. This masterly painting brings together all the available information on the Pacific, from Ferdinand Magellan’s Cape Horn to the new discoveries on the north coast of Australia. This immense canvas is more artwork than map, showing all the dangers of ocean’s currents and wild winds – and sea monsters awaiting ships brave enough to make the crossing.
Fra Mauro (c.1390–1459) - Map of the world 1448-1453 Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana,Venice
Hessel Gerritsz (c. 1581–1632) - Map of the Pacific Ocean, 1622 Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, département des Cartes et Plans, SH, Arch. 30
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Jorgen Jorgenson A newly restored reconstruction of a late 9th century Gokstad ship berthed at the museum’s wharves.
hibition are tangible symbols of female roles and power. Archaeological discoveries also show that goods such as silver, wax, fur, glass, pearls and even people were all traded in the Viking Age. Riches and luxury objects, cloth and precious metals traded or acquired from foreign countries reveal the Vikings were surprisingly stylish, wearing well-constructed clothing and shoes as well as beautifully designed jewellery such as neck rings, arm bands and brooches as well as superbly engraved pendants. Interactive digital stations allow visitors to try out different roles in Viking society, explore Viking mythology and understand what effect a great surge in ship building had on the environmental landscape. The exhibition also includes an eight metre replica Viking boat called Krampmacken, a reconstruction of a Viking boat found in Lake Tingstäde on Gotland, Sweden. And visitors can also step onboard the
Jorgen Jorgenson, a newly restored reconstruction of a late 9th century Gokstad ship berthed at the museum’s wharves. The National Maritime Museum is the only place to see the international blockbuster, before it tours to America, Canada and Europe. Proudly supported by major partner Viking Cruises, Vikings - Beyond the legend runs until 2 February 2014. Tickets are $27 adults, $16 child/concession, $70 family and can be pre-booked through Ticketek www.ticketek.com.au. The exhibition is a joint venture between and produced by The Swedish History Museum, Stockholm and MuseumsPartner Austria. The Australian National Maritime Museum, in Darling Harbour, is open from 9.30am to 5pm daily. All enquiries (02) 9298 3777 or visit www.anmm.gov. au/vikings.
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Valkyrie mount This silver mount of the mythological Valkyrie – Odin’s servants in Valhalla - is from Klinta, Köping, Öland, Sweden. Image courtesy Swedish History Museum.
SEAN CONNERY relaxes on the bumper of his Aston Martin DB5 during the filming of location scenes for ‘Goldfinger’ in the Swiss Alps. Copyright Notice - © 1964 Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation. All rights reserved.
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esigning 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style is set to dazzle Victorian audiences. For the first and only time in Australasia, this highly anticipated exhibition showcases the craft behind the man, and reveals the design history of the immortal Secret Service Agent 007. Bond has captured the popular imagination for half a century, from 1962’s Dr. No to 2012’s Skyfall. Designing 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style features more than 400 props, costumes, photographs and sets, sourced from film production company EON Production’s expansive archives. On display for the first time ever in Australia will be iconic vehicles and gadgets, such as the 1964 Aston Martin DB5 that returned to the screen in GoldenEye, Pierce Brosnan’s BMW motorcycle and state-of-theart Ericsson mobile phone from Tomorrow Never Dies, and the attaché case featured in From Russia With Love.
Following a highly successful premiere at London’s Barbican Centre, Designing 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style is now travelling the world, with Melbourne as its only Australasian destination – after Toronto and Shanghai. “Design is a key feature of the exhibition,” says Exhibition Manager Shane Salmon. “It’s all about how producers, directors and designers came up with the ‘look and feel’ of Bond. There are abundant drawings and sketches, concept designs of cars and helicopters, props, costumes, and sets. There are also large objects not to be missed, such as the Aston Martin – one of the most recognisable Bond vehicles.” “One of the first spaces visitors go into is called Gold Room, referencing the strong gold theme in Bond films. There’s a replica of the gold waistcoat from Goldfinger, the eponymous Golden Gun, and the BAFTA Award won by Skyfall for Outstanding British Film.
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Art Gallery of New South Wales
Henry Inman - No-Tin (Wind), a Chippewa Chief 1832–1833 oil on canvas, 77.5 x 65.4 cm - Los Angeles County Museum of Art Gift of the 2008 Collectors Committee - M.2008.58 Photo: Museum Associates/LACMA
When Thomas Moran visited the Grand Canyon in the 1870s, the way he went about making pictures shows how artistic conventions and national ambition connected. His curiosity matched the general public’s; Moran contracted to supply images for illustrated magazines and even railroad company. The government, too, had an interest in its new territories and Moran illustrated official exploration reports. But he wanted something more than a scientific painting recording topography and geology, something, he said, “that will produce a most decided sensation in Art Circles.” Moran’s solution was to combine field observations with painterly effects. By his own admission, Moran was willing to take liberties, to shift chunks of nature around the canvas to heighten the visual drama, to develop arbitrary forms in cloud and shadow that would amplify sublime effects. The
certainly, and a degree of reliance on imported cultural models, but also an informality in social relations that would shape the republic. Nineteenth century Americans mused constantly on their identity and their destiny as a nation. What was new about the New World and its new republic? Was American scenery up to the standards set by the European landscape?, asked James Fenimore Cooper, author of The last of the Mohicans. His double-edged response contrasted European history and American ambition: “As a whole, it must be admitted that Europe offers to the senses sublime views and certainly grander, than are to be found within our own borders, unless we resort to the Rocky Mountains, and the ranges in California and New Mexico.” Okay, you Europeans have some runs on the board but have you got one of these?
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Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
Kimberly Aboriginal Dance Group Photo: NGPhotographics
Fifty artworks from the MAGNT Telstra Collection, including works from this year’s winners, are now accessible to new audiences through an exciting collaboration with the Google Art Project. country and sings with the sinuous lines of waterlily stems and clean and refined crosshatching skilfully revealing part of the Wititj (Rainbow Serpent) story Wandjuk Marika Memorial 3D Award (also sponsored by Telstra) – Rhonda Sharpe (Northern Territory) for her work They Come From Nowhere which features soft-sculpture alien spirits – Sad, Worried, Frightened and Hopeful – telling a captivating story that resonates with the realities of town camp life Each of this year’s winning artists were presented their prizes at an Awards ceremony on the MAGNT lawns which featured performances by emerging Tiwi Island vocalists B2M, Kimberley Aboriginal Artist Dancers and Gary Lang NT Dance Company. The Awards ceremony clearly dem-
onstrated that NATSIAA continues to successfully recognise the important contribution made by Indigenous artists while also promoting appreciation and understanding of the quality and diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art from regional and urban based Indigenous artists throughout Australia, working in traditional and contemporary media. The Award was established by MAGNT as the National Aboriginal Art Award in 1984, with Telstra sponsoring the NATSIAAs as they are now known for the past 22 years. Telstra Chief Financial Officer Andrew Penn said that as part of this year’s 30th anniversary celebrations, 50 artworks from the MAGNT Telstra Collection, including works from this year’s winners, are now accessible to new audiences through an exciting collaboration with the Google
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Art Project. Mr Penn said the Google Art Project (www.googleartproject.com) has given people around the world access to more than 40,000 works selected from collections held in 261 museums worldwide including Tate Britain, Museum of Modern Art, The Van Gogh Museum, The National Gallery in London, the National Gallery of Australia and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. The Telstra 30th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award exhibition will be displayed at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory until Sunday, 10 November 2013. The 30th Telstra NATSIAA is supported by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.
his attitude to conscription after experiencing the war first hand, but he did not get the chance. Both he and Josiah were killed at the battle of Messines on 7 June 1917. Ernest was killed at VillersBretonneux on ANZAC Day the following year. With a further decrease in enlistments, Prime Minister Billy Hughes again called for a referendum to take place on 20 December 1917. Divisions in Australian society along religious, social and economic lines that had emerged during the first referendum campaign deepened even further in the second and led to a number of malicious acts being committed on both sides, by those who did and those who did not support conscription. One of the most iconic pieces of propaganda to come out of the conscription campaign was the anti-conscription leaflet The Blood Vote. This comprised a poem written by W.R. Winspear during the 1916 referendum and an illustration by Claude Marquet showing a guilt-stricken woman casting a Yes vote while a gleeful, almost demonic figure – possibly meant to be Billy Hughes – looks on.
The Blood Vote “Why is your face so white, Mother? Why do you choke for breath?” “O I have dreamt in the night, my son That I doomed a man to death.” “Why do you hide your hand, Mother? And crouch above it in dread?” “It beareth a dreadful branch, my son With the dead man’s blood ’tis red.
“The Blood Vote”, black and white photograph anti conscription leaflet, written by W R Winspear and drawn by Claude Marquet, RC00337, courtesy of the Australian War Memorial.
“I hear his widow cry in the night. I hear his children weep, And always within my sight, O God! The dead man’s blood doth leap.
The young lady in the photograph from Jim’s wallet is believed to be Gladys Tapsell, whose address is listed in Jim’s notebook. She married his brother Les in July 1917 and later came to Australia as an English war bride. She sent Mrs Brill a letter published in a British newspaper from “A Little Mother”: it railed against pacifists and women not willing to sacrifice their sons for the greater good. The woman’s only child was in training and waiting to meet the age limit for the British Army. It included the poem:
“They put the dagger into my grasp. It seemed but a pencil then. I did not know it was a fiend a gasp For the priceless blood of men. “They gave me the ballot paper. The grim death warrant of doom, And I smugly sentenced the man to death In that dreadful little room.
Tommy Atkins to the front, He has gone to bear the brunt. Shall “stay-at-homes” do naught but snivel and but sigh? No, while your eyes are filling We are up and doing, willing To face the music with you - or to die!
“I put it inside the Box of Blood Nor thought of the man I’d slain. Till at midnight came like a ’whelming flood God’s word – and Brand of Cain.
Mrs Brill asked a local newspaper to print the letter, which they agreed to do on 14 December, less than a week before the referendum vote. Given the timing, in some people’s eyes this aligned Mrs Brill with the pro-conscription lobby. Although Mrs Brill never overtly expressed her opinion in the paper, this letter led her to being targeted by an unknown anti-conscriptionist from the nearby town of Delegate, who sent her a copy of The Blood Vote. In light of Mrs Brill’s experience of having just received the shell-damaged effects of her dead son just weeks earlier, being sent this leaflet would have been distressing enough, but this was only increased by the cruel note the sender scrawled on the back of the leaflet: “From your dead soldier son”. Mrs Brill’s experience highlights the anger and bitterness the two referenda created in Australian society at that time.
“O little son! O my little son! Pray God for your Mother’s soul That the scarlet stain may be white again In God’s great Judgement Roll.” A copy of The Blood Vote leaflet and some of the personal effects of another soldier, Jim Brill, are at the centre of the other conscription story told in the exhibition. Mrs Kitty Brill from Craigie in New South Wales had two sons who enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, Les and Jim. Les served on Gallipoli and the Western Front and was awarded the Military Medal for bravery; Jim also served on the Western Front and was killed on 14 March 1917 by a shell. Eight months after his death, in the middle of the 1917 conscription campaign, Mrs Brill received Jim’s effects, including his wallet and its contents that had been damaged by the shell that killed him.
ANZAC voices opens at the Australian War Memorial on 29 November 2013 and will be on display until 30 November 2014.
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MOCHE culture North coast 100–800 AD Bead in the form of an owl’s head gold and turquoise; 3.7 x 3.3 cm Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipán, Lambayeque © Photograph Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipán
The brilliant cultures of Peru
Gold and the Incas: lost worlds of Peru opens at the National Gallery of Australia on 6 December 2013 and is showing until 21 April 2014. WORDS Christine Dixon Senior Curator, International Painting and Sculpture, and curator of the exhibition, National Gallery of Australia
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WIN
Free tickets and accommodation The National Museum of Australia and Crowne Plaza Canberra would like to offer one ICON Magazine reader the chance to win an Old Masters: Australia’s Great Bark Artists tickets and accommodation package, which includes: • Two adult tickets to Old Masters: Australia’s Great Bark Artists at the National Museum of Australia
How to enter
Simply submit a photograph of a copy of ICON Magazine in an artistic or interesting context. The submission judged best will win the free tickets and accommodation prize. The winning entry will be published in March/April issue of ICON Magazine. Entries close 10 January 2014. See Terms and Conditions at www.iconmagazine.com.au
How to submit your photograph
• A copy of the Old Masters exhibition book • Overnight accommodation for two at Crowne Plaza Canberra in a Superior Room • Full buffet breakfast for two at Crowne Plaza Canberra’s Redsalt Restaurant
Old Masters on show from 6 December 2013 – 20 July 2014. For more information on the exhibition, please visit nma.gov.au
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