Artonview 102 by National Gallery of Australia

Barbara Cleveland, Bodies in Time, 2016, single channel HD video, colour, sound, 13 mins 46 secs, ÂŠ Barbara Cleveland. Courtesy of the Artist and Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney | Singapore.

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CONTENTS

DIRECTOR’S WORD

EDITOR’S LETTER

ART CLASS

NEW ACQUISITIONS

10 #MUSEUMFROMHOME As we remained closed due to COVID-19, staff quickly adapted to running the institution while working from home. 12

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED The Vincent family became an Instagram sensation when they recreated Blue poles in LEGO as part of the #BetweenArtandQuarantine challenge.

STUDIO SPOTLIGHT In a new series, we visit an artist in their studio and discover how space influences their creative process and inspires them.

APPLAUSE Artist Angelica Mesiti, who spent the lockdown in her home studio in Paris, reflects on connection in isolation.

STUTTER During a time of social distancing, we asked poet Evelyn Araluen to respond to artist Pixy Liao’s intimate photographic work.

HEART IN THE DARKNESS Bill Henson, who released new works of a pre-pandemic Rome during lockdown, talks isolation and artistic process.

CREATION IN ISOLATION From embracing TikTok and producing art on toilet paper to virtual galleries, how some Australian artists responded to the pandemic.

WHEN VIRTUAL BECOMES REALITY Jess Johnson, in New York, and Simon Ward, in New Zealand, collaborated virtually during lockdown.

COVID ON COUNTRY Coronavirus has left an economic, social and emotional impact on vulnerable Indigenous communities and their arts centres.

LOANS IN LOCKDOWN What happens when an artwork on loan is temporarily stranded in lockdown?

OUT OF THE BLUE While the National Gallery was temporarily closed, an unprecedented conservation project began behind the scenes on Blue poles.

POLES APART The journey of Blue poles from New York City to Canberra.

VALE JAMES MOLLISON, AO

A CHAPTER IN PRINT Retiring Senior Curator Roger Butler reflects on helping founding Director James Mollison form the print collection.

GARDEN OF TREASURES The history and highlights of our Sculpture Garden.

PARTNERSHIPS The Sydney Morning Herald and Archie Rose Distilling Co.

THE ART OF GIVING Directors of the National Gallery’s Foundation Board, Penelope Seidler and Andrew Lu, on supporting the Know My Name initiative.

DIRECTOR’S CHOICE A personal highlight from the collection by Nick Mitzevich.

Page 24: Creation in isolation

Page 30: Covid on Country

Page 54: Garden of treasures

Cover: Senior Conservator David Wise at work on Jackson Pollock’s Blue poles 1952 in situ during the lockdown. Photo by Sam Cooper Opposite: A vintage NGA membership poster circa 1982

WINTER 2020

DIRECTOR’S WORD

Gooroo Burri, The new decade has already proved to be a testing time for us all. In just a few months we have dealt with the bushfires, the smoke, the hail, and then COVID-19 arrived and the world completely changed. Here at the National Gallery of Australia we had to close in March for the first time in our history. Seeing the black parsilk covers draped over the collection brought a sense of sadness as the art went into temporary hibernation and we realised we would not have visitors enjoying our galleries for several weeks. But it also represented a positive time, a moment for us to pause and reflect. Even though the majority of our staff have worked from their homes around the country it has been an extraordinary time of collaboration and working together. Running the National Gallery remotely has not been easy, but I have been so proud of how our staff adapted. We held weekly all-staff Skype meetings – with a record 180 people dialling in one week. Like the rest of the world, video conferencing became our new norm: by May we had participated in 26,543 Skype sessions and in 1728 organised conferences with a total of 90,812 minutes (or over 1513 hours) of talk time. This unprecedented pandemic meant we had to pivot our thinking as an institution. While our doors were physically closed we tailored our exhibitions and content to the digital space: our curators spoke about their favourite works in the collection from their homes, our Learning team transformed our onsite programs to digital excursions, and we created fantastic virtual tours of our galleries. Then there were the amusing social media challenges – the Vincent family’s take on Jackson Pollock’s Blue poles 1952 in LEGO for the #BetweenArtandQuarantine challenge became our most engaged social media post of all time. It was wonderful to see people continue having a dialogue about their favourite works of art. It’s been energising for us at the National Gallery – I love walking around our galleries and seeing how people respond to works of art, and now that’s been transported to the digital space. People haven’t left their beloved galleries behind – they are bringing art into their homes and using it as an inspiration to be creative. Not everything came to a standstill on site. The Body Electric was installed and is ready for visitors, and we took advantage of the closure to embark on an ambitious conservation project of Blue poles. This is the

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first time since Pollock’s painting was acquired in 1974 that we have been able to spend an extended amount time with the work and analyse it in situ while not on public view. Visiting Blue poles a few weeks ago when the conservation project began took me back to when I saw the painting for the first time. I was a university student clutching my well-worn copy of Robert Hughes’s The Shock of the New, and when I stood in front of the work everything changed; the picture came alive and jumped off the walls. This is the most ambitious conservation we have undertaken of the work and I hope you enjoy the rich living archive we have created on our new site Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles: Action Reaction (nga.gov.au/bluepoles), which includes everything you need to know about the work, its history and its connection to Australia. I encourage you to share your personal memories through our social media campaign #MyBluePoles. Before the closure we were able to launch the Know My Name national art event which showcased the works of 45 artists who identify as women in the national collection on over 3000 sites across Australia. It was such an exciting moment for us and shows that our art can touch the hearts and minds of Australians outside the Gallery walls, which in

Works in Gallery spaces were covered during the closure. Opposite: Director Nick Mitzevich in his office in front of Rosemary Laing’s Jim 2010. Purchased with funds from the Australia Exhibition Patrons Club 2013 © Rosemary Laing

these times is more important than ever. I would like to thank our Know My Name national art event partners oOh!media for making that happen. The Know My Name exhibition has been rescheduled for later this year.  I was one of the small skeleton staff who continued to work on site (abiding by social distancing). Above my desk is Rosemary Laing’s Jim 2010, and I sat with it during the closure. Though the work turns the world upside down, it brings me a great sense of optimism and reminds me that we all have the ability to turn the world back around.  I want to thank our partners, donors and members for your support during this testing time. This period has been a great testament to the power of art. I have been reminded how art has a place in everyone’s life – it galvanises community and gives us hope. Nick Mitzevich I acknowledge and pay my respect to the Traditional Custodians of the Canberra region, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples and their Elders past and present.

WINTER 2020

EDITOR’S LETTER

WINTER 102

The National Gallery of Australia acknowledges and pays its respect to the Traditional Custodians of the Canberra region, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples and their Elders past and present.

Artonview may contain names and images of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Editor Sophie Tedmanson Designer Kirsty Morrison Rights and permissions Ellie Misios

My first day at the National Gallery was the day

To be up close with this masterpiece was an

we closed because of the coronavirus lockdown.

extraordinary experience and I hope you enjoy

To start this exciting new role during a global

our exclusive behind the scenes insight.

pandemic was surreal to say the least, and after

to take the helm of this esteemed publication.

colleagues in person.

While editing this, my first issue, I tried to stay connected during lockdown by taking

lounge rooms of myself and designer Kirsty

regular runs past the Gallery and getting to

Morrison, the pair of us sending files back

know different works in the Sculpture Garden.

and forth daily and having endless production

I celebrated the end of my first week by visiting

conferences over Skype. Despite the challenges

one of my favourites, Bert Flugelman’s Cones,

of working remotely we forged ahead because

1982. The setting sun was sparkling on the

we wanted to continue to share the national

stainless steel and, combined with the chorus of

collection with you, to bring you hope, inspire

birdsong and breeze swaying through the gum

ideas and a way to escape through art during

trees, it was a completely captivating scene.

this difficult period.

It literally took my breath away and for that

We also wanted to support our industry

moment I was totally immersed in art, nature

which has been hit hard by this pandemic.

and memory. Flugelman has had a presence

We commissioned artist Angelica Mesiti, in

throughout my life – I grew up in Adelaide

lockdown in Paris, to write an essay about

where his sculptures dominated the main

connection; poet Evelyn Araluen responds to

shopping mall and the Festival Centre,

Pixy Liao’s work from The Body Electric about

key playgrounds to my childhood in the 80s.

the physical embrace; and Bill Henson discusses two new works – hauntingly beautiful images of a pre-pandemic Rome – that he released during isolation. We talked with several artists about how lockdown affected their creativity, and curator Kelli Cole provides an insight into the impact it had on Indigenous communities and their arts centres. We have also introduced two new regular columns: Studio Spotlight and Director’s Choice, which I hope you will enjoy. I was lucky enough to have a first-hand experience of watching the Blue poles conservation project, visiting conservator David Wise every week to capture our cover story.

For me personally it is an absolute honour

eight weeks I have still not met many of my This issue was produced entirely from the

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Contributors Celeste Aldahn, Jaklyn Babington, Jennifer Barrett, Tina Baum, Alanna Bishop, Roger Butler, Kelli Cole, Sam Cooper, Deborah Hart, Samantha Jones, Shaune Lakin, Keren Nicholson, Sarina Noordhuis-Fairfax, Elspeth Pitt, Maryanne Voyazis, Lucina Ward

That’s what I love about art; it can stop you

Advertising enquiries ArtonviewAdvertising@nga.gov.au Enquiries Artonview.Editor@nga.gov.au nga.gov.au/artonview © National Galley of Australia 2020 PO Box 1150, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia +61 (0)2 6240 6411 | nga.gov.au

Published quarterly. Copyright of works of art is held by the artists or their estates. Every effort has been made to identify copyright holders but omissions may occur. Views expressed by writers are not necessarily those of the National Gallery of Australia. ISSN 1323-4552 ISSN 2208-6218 (Online) Printed by Adams Print, on FSC certified paper using vegetable-based inks, FSC-C110099 * Copyright Agency, 2020

in your tracks, evoke a feeling or a memory, and make you see the world in a different light. For those of you who have suffered during this difficult time we send you our heartfelt best wishes. I hope we all emerge from this with the ability to reset our thinking and make positive changes in the world, especially through art. Sophie Tedmanson Artonview.Editor@nga.gov.au @sophieted Photo by Sam Cooper. Editor’s photo features Bert Flugelman, Cones 1982, polished stainless steel, commissioned 1976, purchased 1982 *© Bert Flugelman

CONTRIBUTORS

ART CLASS From virtual art classes to specially-commissioned activity sheets and live Instagram Q & As between curators and collection artists, the Gallery used innovative ways to educate and connect with audiences during lockdown. By Celeste Aldahn.

ANGELICA MESITI Angelica Mesiti’s videos are portraits that consider how communities are formed through shared movement and communication. The artist represented Australia at the 58th Venice Biennale with the threechannel video installation ASSEMBLY 2019, which was acquired for the national collection. Read Paris-based Mesiti’s essay about the importance of connection during a time of isolation on page 16.

EVELYN ARALUEN Evelyn Araluen is an award-winning poet, researcher and educator working with Indigenous literatures at the University of Sydney and represented by the Red Room Poetry organisation. She is a co-coordinator of Black Rhymes Aboriginal Poetry Night celebrating local First Nations voices in Redfern. Born, raised and writing on Dharug country, she is a descendant of the Bundjalung nation. Read Evelyn’s poem Stutter, a response to a work by Pixy Liao from The Body Electric, on page 18.

JANE ALBERT Journalist Jane Albert has spent the past two decades writing about arts and culture for publications including The Weekend Australian, Good Weekend and Vogue Australia. Jane wrote Loans in Lockdown on page 34. “I had no idea the pandemic would effect so many artworks, worldwide,” she says. “And was fascinated (and relieved) to hear of the strict regulations in place to ensure they’re all being appropriately looked after until it’s safe for them to be returned.”

Art IRL digital programs Audiences enjoyed a glimpse into the life

Artist activity sheets The Gallery commissioned a series of activity

of artists and industry professionals, as Art IRL

sheets in collaboration with artists from across

– the Gallery’s program for young audiences –

the country. These sheets enabled audiences

hosted weekly intimate Q & A sessions live on

to create art from home during the lockdown

Instagram. Led by the Gallery’s Teen Council,

with simple everyday materials. The innovative

the in-conversations provided insights into

initiative – which will continue in the coming

career pathways while highlighting ideas at the

months – was developed by the Gallery’s

heart of the national collection. Interviewees

Programs and Learning team who worked

included artist Abdul Abdullah and Gallery

closely with artists including Daniel Boyd

curator Anja Loughhead. According to Teen

(above), Jenny Kee, Julie Rrap and Noŋgirrŋa

Council representative Sophie: “Talking with

Marawili.

professionals, especially young experts, is a very real way to demystify the industry.” During the April school holidays, Art IRL

The Gallery also created a new online suite of activities for 0-5 year olds. Art Family includes a set-by step instructional video

also held Online Art Labs. These included AR

and an associated activity sheet. This series is

Face Filters with digital artist Jess Herrington

inspired by works in the collection by artists

(above, inspired by Jess Johnson and Simon

such as Andy Warhol, Cordula Ebatarinja, Grace

Ward’s immersive work of art Terminus)

Crowley, Sidney Nolan and Sonia Delaunay.

and a session with Wiradjuri-Scottish digital

 Celeste Aldahn is Teen Programmer,

artist and illustrator April Phillips. Twenty

Curatorial and Education

participants joined the virtual classroom NOELLE FAULKNER Noelle Faulkner interviewed Australian artists about how they were affected by COVID-19 for Creation in Isolation on page 24. Noelle specialises in writing “with a wider cultural lean” from art to music, travel, automotive and futurist ideas. “Galleries are a place of worship for me and artists have shaped the way I think about a lot of things,” she says. “The way art surpasses language to timelessly communicate and provoke ideas is a dragon I am forever chasing as a writer.”

chaired by April and received a crash-course in digital art and creative critique. Last month audiences from around Australia also tuned in as Art IRL went live with

Follow: @nationalgallery.artirl @nationalgallery.learning nga.gov.au/learn/artfromhome

an after-hours digital event featuring a feed of music and performance by young creatives and a suite of free Online Art Labs inspired by the national collection.

Left: AR face filters by Jess Jerrington inspired by Jess Johnson and Simon Ward’s Terminus Right: Artist Daniel Boyd and young creatives at work on his Artist Activity sheet. An interpretive response to Daniel Boyd’s Artist Activity

WINTER 2020

New Acquisitions

eX de Medici The wreckers 2019 Viewed in the light of the devastating pandemic, The wreckers has a startling prescience. Extending across almost six metres of chaos, this powerful allegorical statement was initiated by an impending sense of global calamity. eX de Medici’s miniaturist technique and technical virtuosity draws from her experience as a tattooist. Subverting the conservative medium of watercolour, she applied her detailed brushwork to this large-scale coded interrogation of entwined power and trauma. Over 12 months the artist painstakingly constructed a violent tableau from archived images of vehicle, drone and plane wreckage. With a backdrop of warring flags, the anarchic sprawl is approached through samples of local vegetation and petrol-station flowers. Unfurling along the base is a damning list of ‘the worst people responsible for doing the worst things in the world’. The wreckers is a formidable act of endurance.  By Dr Sarina Noordhuis-Fairfax, Curator, Australian Prints and Drawings

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Sanné Mestrom Me & You 2018 Sanné Mestrom speaks to the life of images, exploring how they repeat and recur, grow resonant and endure. Described as ‘gently counter-canon’, her work mimics and subtly undermines the language of modernism, including the sculpture of Constantin Brancusi and his Mlle Pogany 1912/1913. In speaking of the lives of images, Mestrom also touches on the lives of people, and she considers how each inflects the other. She says: ‘In many cases those closest to us are the most difficult for us to see: we are merely mirrors to each other. This indistinction is important to me, because we are so dependent on those closest to us for definition. Without the mirror of another we may cease to exist.’ Me & You will feature in the forthcoming exhibition Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now.  By Elspeth Pitt, Curator Australian Painting & Sculpture (20, 21 centuries)

Janet Fieldhouse Kalaw Lagaw Ya/Meriam Mir peoples Skin Deep Journey 2019 Janet Fieldhouse combines her Torres Strait Islander cultural knowledge and memory with the non-traditional medium of ceramics. Acknowledging both her matrilineal connections to Badu (Mulgrave), Muau (Moa), Kirri (Hammond) and Erub (Darnley) Islands and South Sea Islander heritage and her father’s European lineage, her practice centres on identity, family and community. In this work the chocolate brown twolegged form is topped with a woven raffia and coconut fibre closed bag that reflects an abstract, 3D view of traditional scarification and tattoos. Deliberately balancing these components further skews the visual plane, challenges the imagination of the viewer and encourages a different interpretation thus opening up a deeper engagement with the cultural knowledge Fieldhouse reveals. Through her remarkable use of ceramics and combination of materials, Fieldhouse ensures that knowledge of culture, history and her identity remains strong. These works form part of a new direction in her practice using different mediums, technique, construction and presentation.  By Tina Baum, Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art

eX de Medici, The wreckers 2019, watercolour on paper, 115 x 596cm, purchased 2020 © eX de Medici Sanné Mestrom, Me & You 2018, approx. 230 x 65 x 65 cm, cast bronze, purchased 2019 © Sanné Mestrom. Courtesy of the Artist and Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney | Singapore Janet Fieldhouse, Kalaw Lagaw Ya/Meriam Mir peoples, Skin Deep Journey 2019, buff raku trachyte, chocolate brown, mid-red, raffia, coconut fibre, 52 x 40 x 30 cm, purchased 2019 © Janet Fieldhouse, courtesy of Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne

WINTER 2020

#MuseumFromHome As the National Gallery remained closed to the public due to COVID-19, staff quickly adapted to running the institution while working from home, writes Keren Nicholson.

On a Friday in March, many Gallery staff loaded

Annie O’Hehir Curator of Photography

Wayne Duroux

the contents of our desks onto trolleys, departed through the staff entrance and headed home

I’ve worked at the NGA for … too long possibly!

to set up our new temporary offices: on dining

I’ve worked at the NGA since … January 2019.

I worked in the Library years ago which I loved.

tables, in lounge rooms, on balconies. Some

I wanted to work for the NGA because …

I used to come to the Gallery in the early days.

I wanted to be part of an organisation that is

Seeing a Diane Arbus photo for the first time,

highly respected and to undertake a role that is

it blew my socks off.

challenging.

My daily #WFH routines are … I am keeping

My daily #WFH routines are … not that

regular working hours a bit more successfully than

different. I am actually still on site at the Gallery

I might have thought. I wander around the garden

to undertake essential work. My work entails

then get straight to work. I have more time for

ensuring that the Gallery is maintained and

doing things I like — yoga and my Zen Chi machine.

ready to accept visitors and those staff who have

behind our closed doors – to keep the national

My COVID-19 isolation buddies are … the

been working from home upon re-opening.

collection secure, to conduct major conservation

Gallery’s Exhibitions Designer Jing and her

I’m currently working on … reviewing the slate

treatments on works that rarely come off display

husband Kevin are staying with me while their

and concrete areas that surround the building

and to continue to build new public spaces for

house is getting built. Their Cavalier King Charles

and Sculpture Garden to ensure they are clean

you to enjoy in the future.

Spaniel McKinley is here too. We think he might

and safe for access when the Gallery reopens.

be needing some ‘me time’. Last night he slept in

The pandemic has taught me … not being able

borrowed library books, and those of us who were really on our game borrowed office chairs. The IT department became our new best friends. Since then the Gallery has been (mostly) delivered to you from our homes in various parts of the country, including Canberra, Sydney, Adelaide and Darwin. Some staff remained; essential personnel continued to work

We adapted to a new normal: we shifted exhibitions to online, we educated our children while managing full-time work, and we physically worked alongside

to a dog all day to hug and talk to is excellent.

our families and of course our beloved pets.

The pandemic has taught me … that our need

Importantly, for all of us, we know that these times

to control the world doesn’t always work out.

will change us. We are both challenged and

The knowledge that so many people are suffering

enlightened – we’ve stretched our communication

in so many ways is confronting. Hopefully, it is the

muscles, our work processes are altered forever and

beginning of a big change in how we are on this

our relationships have been tested.

planet so that we can heal it and ourselves.

Here, five staff talk about their experience.  Keren Nicholson is the Social Media Manager

the loungeroom by himself. Having access

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General Maintenance Officer

to visit family members in person and the effect of the social isolation rules in regards to funerals and weddings has impacted on me. When this is over, I’m looking forward to… visiting my family members, and those who are elderly and vulnerable.

Maryanne Voyazis Head of Development, Executive Director NGA Foundation

Simon Underschultz Special Collections Officer, Research Library and Archives

Ellie Misios rights and permissions officer

I’ve worked at the NGA for … approximately

I’ve worked at the NGA for … seven years.

my dream job because it aligns with my Masters

200 years! I started in the shop in 1997 during

I wanted to work for the NGA because … I wanted

in Cultural Heritage & Museum Studies, as well

Rembrandt: A Genius and his Impact. I ducked

a job in the GLAM sector (Galleries Libraries

as my personal ethics around supporting the

out to work at the Embassy in Washington DC

Archives Museums).

economic and legal rights of artists and creators.

and returned to the Gallery in 2007.

I’ve worked at the NGA for … 18 months. It is

My daily #WFH routines are … stepping around

My daily #WFH routines are … I like to wake up

My daily #WFH routines are … I love to get up

my dog, Shadow, on my way down the hall is the

early and start my working day before anyone

in time to go for a walk to see the world waking

only traffic I face now. I’ve learned to navigate

else is online! I’ve also been taking a selfie in my

up. Then it’s home to get ready for the day,

the world of Skype meetings and video calls. My

‘work outfit’ each day to make a photo essay of

including getting our little 6-year-old Olympia

partner and I have lunch on the front lawn — lovely

my time working from home. My housemate Ings

sorted – with fingers firmly crossed that there

weather in Canberra this time of year — and I get

is studying her Masters, so I have a desk buddy

will be some level of learning that HAS to be

through the afternoon one cup of tea at a time.

which is great. When I go back to the office I’m

My favourite part of #WFH is … being close to

going to miss our chai in the sunshine after lunch

an improvement on the previous day. A cup of coffee signals the start of my workday at 9am. From then on, it’s a jumble of Skype meetings and home learning activities. I am incredibly grateful for my mother-in-law and Zoom. My COVID-19 isolation buddies are … Olympia and my husband Fred – a deeply talented songwriter and storyteller who moonlights as a diplomat. Yesterday, he was outside doing weights and squats, using Olympia as a 20kg koala on his back to increase resistance. A delightful memory to take away from this time. I could not hope for better isolation buddies. The pandemic has taught me … that kindness matters. Generosity matters. I got a thumbs up as

my partner, and my dog Shadow. It’s also a good

and our stroll around the wicking beds.

excuse to get through a backlog of work that’s

My COVID-19 isolation buddies are … Ings and

been piling up over the years.

my partner Ray. We share a cute 60’s brick house

My COVID-19 isolation buddies are … I’m lucky

that Ray and I bought last year. We also have our

to have my own workspace—a lovely office with natural light and a big colourful work of abstract art hung above my desk to gaze up at. My partner’s

beloved hens Greg Steele, Becky and Lil Wain. Our tjanpi papa (dog, pictured) by Margaret Smith was a farewell gift from Ray’s last workplace, and she

working in the room behind me, but other than

keeps me company in the studio during the day.

Shadow’s snoring and the odd conference call, it’s

The pandemic has taught me … that there’s

pretty quiet.

still a lot for us to learn. I’m actually grateful that

The pandemic has taught me … how important it

there has been an opportunity for the people

is for us to look out for each other.

in power across the globe to see how fragile the

One of my favourite works in the collection is …

dominating systems are, and that our reliance

I attempted a run yesterday and felt so

The origin of the Milky Way 1964 by Janet

encouraged. I love to see the kindness and

Dawson. It is no secret that I love abstract art and

compassion that people are showing to one

this work is a sublime example. I could just sit

another. I hope this is one of those lessons we can

and stare at it all day. It reminds me of Hilma af

all carry forward.

Klint’s works. They are portals into another plane of existence.

upon unsustainable practices is flawed. One of my favourite works in the collection is… Albert Namatjira (Western Aranda people), Sunset in Orminston Gorge 1939. The luminescence in this work gets me every time. It’s so peaceful and powerful at the same time.

WINTER 2020

Challenge accepted The Vincent family from Cooma, NSW, became an Instagram sensation when they recreated Jackson Pollock’s Blue poles in LEGO as part of the #BetweenArtandQuarantine challenge.

Karen Vincent at home with sons Noah, 10, and Tobey, 7, and dog Bonnie.

How long have your family been members of the NGA? I’ve been a member for most of my life. My father first bought me a membership when I was a teenager when he realised that I had a strong interest in the arts. The boys and I have had a family membership for the last couple of years, but I’ve been bringing them since they were babies. What is your favourite work in the national collection? I have a soft spot for early Australian art. John Glover is a favourite, any of the Heidelberg School artists, Margaret Preston and Thea Proctor. The boys love James Turrell’s Skyspace. And we all like spending time in the Sculpture Garden and having a hot chocolate in the café. Why did you choose to recreate Blue poles with LEGO? I’d seen a couple of other people overseas using LEGO as a medium for recreating abstract and contemporary works. The boys are both LEGO fanatics and we have A LOT of LEGO! I knew we’d have to utilise such an impressive collection somehow and it seemed like an inventive way to capture the chaotic and iconic paint splatters. Talk us through the process, who was involved and how long did it take? Noah and I sorted through our LEGO collection and found the pieces that matched the colour scheme and Tobey made the poles. It took about 45 minutes to find the pieces and build the poles, 20 seconds to tip it Jackson Pollock Blue poles 1952, oil, enamel, aluminium paint, glass on canvas, purchased 1973 *© Pollock-Krasner Foundation

out onto the floor, à la Jackson Pollock, 30 seconds for Tobey to arrange his poles on top and a few minutes to snap a couple of photos. Then the recreation was scooped back up and returned to our LEGO collection. How has art helped you during the pandemic lockdown? Art has kept us motivated during this time. We’ve been inspired to revisit old favourites and to learn about new works. It has given us all a rare opportunity to visit our bookcase full of art books and meander through the pages looking

Join the challenge: @nationalgalleryaus

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for our next project. We’ve posted our recreations online (Facebook and Instagram) and kept our friends and family entertained.

The #BetweenArtandQuarantine social media challenge began as a way to engage audiences at home with global art institutions during lockdown. The results took on a life of their own.

Here are the rules: 1. Choose your favourite artwork from the Collection. 2. Find three things lying around your house. 3. Recreate the painting with these attributes.

All works of art National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

2. Grace Crowley, Absract painting 1947, oil on cardboard, purchased 1959; as interpreted by Sarah Earle © The Estate of Grace Crowley

3. Audrey Flack, Jolie madame [Pretty woman] 1973, oil on canvas, purchased 1978 © Audrey Flack; as interpreted by Karen and John Macdonald

5. Sidney Nolan, Ned Kelly 1946 (detail), enamel paint on composition board, gift of Sunday Reed 1977 © National Gallery of Australia; as interpreted by Emmy and Phoebe Yager

6. Bert Flugelman, Cones 1982, polished stainless steel, commissioned 1976, purchased 1982 *© Bert Flugelman; as interpreted byJosie Borgia

1. Antony Gormley, Angel of the North 1966, cast iron, Gift of James and Jacqui Erskine 2009 © the artist; as interpreted by Leonie Andrews 4. Joan Miró, Paysage [Lansdcape] 1927, oil on canvas, purchased 1983 *© Successió Miró; as interpreted by Kirsty Young

WINTER 2020

PORTRAITS BY JENNI CARTER AND MARIA STOLJAR

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Studio Spotlight

For over 16 years my studio space comprised of four adjoining rooms in an old nineteenth-century school master’s cottage in Newtown in Sydney’s inner-west. Sitting on the boundary of a public school, the studio had damp and tired walls and I kept working up against the edge of the space, trying to overcome the lack of light and ventilation. Its compression encouraged an intensity of focus, yet it meant I could

In a new series, we visit an artist in their studio and discover how space influences their inspiration and creative process. This month: Aida Tomescu

only work on one canvas at a time. By mid-2015 the paintings began demanding more openness. New content triggered a richer palette and an extended scale and what my work was telling me was: ‘move... now!’ Timing was tight, the move dramatic. Stepping into a new space in January 2018 filled me with anticipation. I was ready to re-establish a working rhythm. Evenings found me sitting on the floor, boxes still unpacked, taking in the scale of my new studio. I soon started on a series of small white works, restricting the palette. The space suggests greater clarity. The ceiling is high and the large windows bring in warm light that my Hoya plants welcome as much as I. The paintings are growing in scale, perhaps less in response to the larger studio and more in response to the content that has been increasingly evident. Working in a larger volume allows for more patience and reflection, for continuity and synchronicity between thinking and doing. Though I still work mostly on one canvas at a time, I view works in concert with each other and on occasion diptychs and triptychs become apparent. This physical and conceptual coherence allows me to conceive paintings with the breadth and depth they demand. This year in early March, after 28 years of not going to New York, I picked my moment, disembarking as the pandemic curve began to rise. Largely unaware of the unfolding calamity, I sheltered in museums with my favourite painters – Mondrian, Popova, Malevich, Giotto and Vermeer – happily caught in layers of their thinking, the rigour of doing and resolving. Now safely back in Sydney and post-quarantine I am very much aware that the privacy and solitude that the studio offers is chosen, not imposed. There is anticipation in the isolation, the chance to start again, to generate more energy and to begin doing what it is that I love, in search for new content. The paintings are still on the way. There is a sense of a lot to do.  In conversation with Deborah Hart, Head of Australian Art.

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Applause Australian artist Angelica Mesiti spent the COVID-19 lockdown in her home studio in Paris. Here, she reflects on connection in isolation.

Applause is not an action that is at its best in the singular. It’s much better

Europe - where residents applaud the healthcare workers and other

in a group when it relies on consensus. Then it is an affirmation and a

frontline essential service people from their apartment windows in a

reply. It says: ‘YES!! Thank you! And well done!’ to whoever its message is

show of solidarity, gratitude and encouragement. But I would have never

for. It also says: ‘I agree with you and let’s assertively agree that this thing

anticipated the effect of this nightly act.

is good’. It says: ‘I’m going to join you and give sound to my agreement,

In the first few days of confinement, when everything was full of

and when my sound joins with your sound we will be making it larger

uncertainty, anxiety and fear, this 8pm ritual of applause was a moment

and louder and stronger’.

of unexpected relief. At the end of a day of isolation, to open the windows

When more people join in making this sound a new effect begins,

and see neighbours - who we’d never seen before - wave at us and each

we become a collective in agreement and our sound swells then returns

other, and smile and share a collective moment, was like medicine. We

energy back to us. Because the energy is producing vibrations that are

didn’t speak; we relied on gesture and signals to affirm to each other we

now waving their way between us and entering our diaphragms, raising

were still there, connected in our shared isolation and knowing that gave

the hairs on our arms and bouncing off the walls of the buildings, this

us relief.

thing that is swelling takes on shape and form and becomes an entity and it has power and force. Every night at 8pm since the beginning of confinement (34 days at

It is a small act and it only lasts a few minutes each day, but it reinforces something essential that we didn’t know we needed. It gives us a way to give sound and action to our existence, to our physical self and

the time of writing) this is what happens on our street. You will have

our connectedness to each other. Even while we are closed away, staying

heard of the ritual that came into being seemingly spontaneously across

home, staying safe.

Angelica Mesiti, ASSEMBLY 2019, three-channel video installation. Stills and installation views. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 2019 A Know My Name project

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Â© PHOTOGRAPHY: BONNIE ELLIOT

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During a time of social distancing, we asked poet Evelyn Araluen to respond to artist Pixy Liaoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s intimate photographic work.

Pixy Liao, Some words are just between us 2010. Pigment inkjet print. Courtesy of the artist.

ď ŹThe Body Electric is a Know My Name exhibition supported by the Medich Foundation.

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Stutter Hold the body

By Evelyn Araluen

the baby the urge

to hold that stutters muscle that cradles warm air crush yours into mine to tell me what I’ll miss from the way you move through a room

give me proximity like a threat then give it again so I’ll remember it real good

I like best to find me suggestive like best the self

to let you move into what’s left

let it stutter

like it best when you can’t tell me anything your wanting me to want it’s best when I want into dark

what I don’t have to say aloud

there’s nothing to say but

breath

to bring to the room a mercy of limbs I came to give your hands a burden I came to your hands the cradle of wrist

it’ll look good for me to look good doing that like it best like that like I let you do like I mean it it’s best if we only remember through the body to build muscle around it before you go

the urge to reach you stutters my body and I speak from the choke of my throat don’t let us let the air know that this is our most vulnerable the crush of things the proximity that might kill

don’t let the room empty before I’ve built the muscle to remember

don’t go until I can like it like that

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HEART IN THE DARKNESS Bill Henson released new works of a pre-pandemic Rome during lockdown. He talks isolation and artistic process with Sophie Tedmanson.

You recently unveiled a series of new works on

and for both forming the cradle of the western

originated several years ago. Do you see them

Instagram, including one that was a decade in

mind. As for now, despite the common currency

differently in light of the current situation?

the making. Was it a coincidence these were

of virtue signaling and rampant tokenism,

finished during the COVID-19 crisis, or was

which I consider a form of public lying, the

their completion inspired in isolation?

sheer weight of history embodied in something

It was a partial coincidence although my project manager Lily, who manages the Instagram account, made the suggestion that we put up a

like the Pantheon also continues to out-stare history. It’s a mirror into which a hundred generations have looked, seen themselves and

As the politicians say, ‘never let a good disaster go to waste’. Strangely enough, although the current disaster hasn’t changed the way I see these pictures, it has no doubt heightened the sense of mortality we all share. This is always a good thing – so long as we take the time to

new work every day for a week. Normally she

listen to our feelings, ‘that great intelligence

selects a particular work and puts something

of the body’ as Nietzsche called it. I’m not

up every few weeks. I never know what it will be as I don’t have a personal Instagram account. At this time, however, as access to physical galleries has been curtailed, I thought it was an interesting idea. I spend a lot of time just

“There is a sense of isolation or insulation from the world that occurs when you

staring at my work and it can take years for me

work alone”

to understand how or why an image matters, remains interesting or perhaps even becomes compelling. It’s only through the process of working that the things that really matter are revealed to you and so those extended dates attached to particular pictures are not unusual for me. You captioned the Pantheon image (Untitled 2017-2020), with the quote: “Balance is more

sure if these pictures are part of my ‘long goodbye’ to Europe but I’ve always felt acutely the sweetness in a backward glance. Everyone carries their childhood around inside them for the rest of their lives. When you speak of ‘mood’ I think what we’re really talking about is feeling. We need to feel more because meaning comes from feeling, not the other

known who they were. Euro-centricity is one of my many sins but, let’s face it, technologically, we live in a ‘western world’. The Autumnal-looking morning light in Untitled 2015-2020 is stunning, can you tell us more about this work?

way round. To my mind what informs these pictures, however unsuccessfully, is longing: and longing, as the poets say, is much deeper than love. You were once quoted saying: “There is a sense of isolation or insulation from the world that occurs when you work alone”. Has the current

important than symmetry”. Tell us more about

This garden is on the Pincian hill and

climate of social distancing had any impact on

this composition and approach.

although within the boundaries of the ancient

you or your process?

I think that mere symmetry is not enough. We need balance and if you study the Pantheon, as I have for the last 40 years, you start to see an almost organic wholeness that is more a kind of balance, one that comes from centuries of cultural evolution. Airing this picture now was also my vote of confidence in a beleaguered liberal humanism, the age of enlightenment, 800 years of English common law, the individual being more important than

Sallustian garden, dates mainly from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There is a melancholy in these places especially with their tatty disintegrating follies most of which date from the nineteenth century Fin de Siecle. In this image there is a glimpse of the hydrochronometer installed in 1873. These gardens are a last gasp of the old European pleasure garden and an echo of a pre-industrial landscape.

Not really. Louise (Hearman, Henson’s partner and fellow artist) thinks I’ve been social distancing since birth. To my mind rather, these times can be an unexpected gift, an opportunity to be alone with one’s thoughts and a chance to focus more intently on the beauty and complexity of the world around us. I think the vulnerability one feels at such times might just bring us closer, make us more sensitive, to all sentient beings, to the mystery and beauty

the state, the innocence of the citizen until the

These images of Rome capture a mood that is

of animals and the appalling treatment they

state proves guilt and Greece (without a slave

so pertinent, especially given the devastating

receive at our hands, to the devastation wrought

economy) and Rome (with a slave economy)

impact of the pandemic on Italy, yet they

on the natural world and what kind of future

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this holds. Only a fool could believe that culture

in the twentieth century seems increasingly

is ever outside nature.

frought as the white noise of constant activity

COVID-19 has left an enormous impact on

makes contemplation, which relies on stillness

many industries. What long term impact do

and silence, as do objects for their power, less

you think this will have on how artists adapt

and less possible. I did recently revisit the

to change?

spellbinding Syberberg masterpiece Ludwig:

The nature of that impact would depend upon

Requiem For a Virgin King. Strange and

whether the artists were ‘issues-driven’ in

ambitious in the same way as is Fassbinder’s

which case everything gets to be new again –

Berlin Alexanderplatz.

that old treadmill – or whether they were more

Your work captures the light and dark

focused on the eternal and determining factors

of beauty in the world. Do you think our

of life on earth. What we feel about love, ageing, beauty, longing, fear, death and so on teaches us individually and collectively much more about our place in the world. Where and with whom have you been isolating? And what have you been watching / reading / listening to pass the time during this period? Louise and I both live and work in the same building so in many ways life here goes on relatively unchanged. To commute, I walk

relationship to landscape and the environment will change when we emerge from this period of slowing down in isolation? I would like to think we have had this unexpected opportunity to pause and reflect on the delicacy and beauty of nature, the weather – that most universal conditioner of life on earth as poet Peter Schjeldhal described it – the fading Autumn light at present and the teeming yet fragile life-forms other than ourselves.

downstairs into my studio and just start

How would you like to see the world change

working, or at least preparing to work. This

when we emerge from this?

might mean listening to Celibidache conducting Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 a couple of hundred times before I do anything to a picture. I never listen to music recreationally. It’s always a very deliberate thing and finding just what I need to hear can take weeks or months so there

We need to become more sensitive to those things I’ve described above. Empathy, which the best art animates in us all, is the key. When we put ourselves in the place of another sentient being we soon start to see the true

are long periods of silence too. I was feeling

consequences of our actions for what they

kinda 70s the other day and spent some time

are. Indeed, for me art is the highest form of

listening to how great a time capsule Karen

education because it is profoundly empathetic

Carpenter’s beautiful voice remains. I’ve been

and at it’s best it always recommends the truth.

dipping into three great writers recently: the

As Plato said, ‘beauty is the splendor of truth’.

sublime Violet Paget, long-dead and mostly out of print and two superb contemporary writers, Katie Roiphe, with whom I briefly

What are your plans for when we can get out of isolation? What are you working on next?

corresponded, and the indomitable Camille

Simply to be true to myself and to keep

Paglia. As I get older I find less interest in

working. As Oscar Wilde said ‘you should

moving images but objects become evermore

always try to be yourself because everyone

important. In fact, the fate of the (art) object

else is taken’. ■

Above: Bill Henson, Untitled 2015–20 CL SH849 N18 2015–20. Archival inkjet pigment print. © Bill Henson. Courtesy of Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney and Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne Page 20: Bill Henson, Untitled 2017–2020. © Bill Henson. Courtesy of Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney and Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne

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Above: Jelena Telecki, Toilet Paper Diaries 2020. Courtesy of Sarah Couttier Gallery Opposite: Works from Justine Varga’s Tachisme exhibition (L-R): Aggregate 2018–19, Visage 2018–19, Refraction 2018–19 *Courtesy of the artist and Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne

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Page 26: Stills from Giselle Stanborough’s TikTok account (@ThirstyTheory). Courtesy of the artist Page 27: Glenn Barkley, Plague potz 2020. Courtesy of the artist and Sullivan + Strumpf, Sydney

CREATION IN ISOLATION From embracing TikTok and producing art on toilet paper to exhibiting in virtual galleries, Noelle Faulkner explores how some Australian artists responded to the global pandemic.

“When things are in a state of flux, it’s

and travel bans escalated, the artist decided to

important to be able to reach out with

stay in Britain, where she has been based since

the internet became our personal gallery, and

something, with artwork for people to view,”

late last year.

digital media our new window to the world.

says Justine Varga. The Australian photographic artist is

“It is quite disappointing,” she admits. “I

As we adapted to a new norm of isolation,

Institutions, including the National Gallery,

was meant to present a full gallery installation

were forced to pivot and unite, opening

talking via FaceTime from Oxford, England, in

piece, not just framed works in the gallery. So

up online through #MuseumFromHome,

the middle of the COVID-19 lockdown period

there was another component that, without my

encouraging engagement through social

and from where she had to quickly adapt her

presence, was just not feasible.”

media-driven challenges such as the popular

exhibition plans when the pandemic shut down

The show, or at least the works that could

#BetweenArtandQuarantine, where people

the world. “I had such a lovely response, it was

be shown, shifted to online-only, seen through

have recreated famous works in their home;

quite moving – it shifted things for me, and I

Tolarno’s new digital viewing room and the

accessibility to art became literally a finger

hope in some small way with other people too.”

physical exhibition was postponed to an

tap away.

Just a few weeks before we speak, Varga’s

indefinite date, likely early next year. “I was

Conceptual artist Giselle Stanborough’s

show Tachisme was due to open at Tolarno

actually so surprised how uplifting it was to put

immersive performance work CINOPTICON

Galleries in Melbourne. She was supposed to

something positive out into the world,” says

– which centres on topics such as internet

return to Australia in early March, but as events

Varga. “Especially at this very moment.”

narcissism, surveillance and social media

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algorithms and which was to be held at

and what one wished to communicate to

Carriageworks in Sydney – was also transferred

of work, so even if artists wanted to create

future self. In this sense, diaries truly are time

to screen-only.

their own King Lear – after all, Shakespeare

souvenirs. They offer a glimpse of things that

supposedly produced a masterpiece in

were funny, sad, or perhaps downright bizarre.

couldn’t be timelier. Through her Instagram

quarantine – many creatives have found it

This was what really prompted me to start

and TikTok accounts @ThirstyTheory,

difficult beyond the anxieties that the pandemic

painting on toilet paper wraps – I wanted to

Stanborough made 15-second TikTok videos

has already presented.

leave a pictorial record that I can come back to

Ironically though, Stanborough’s work

in her home that amalgamate pop culture soundbites with intellectual commentary.

This is the case with Sydney-based artist Jelena Telecki, whose living room-cum-studio

if I ever feel nostalgic for these crazy times.” Of course, toilet paper speaks to much

relocation had a major effect on her practice.

of the panic buying consumer reaction and

voice that occurs on TikTok,” she says. “That

“I tried to work on a painting I was close to

fear caused by the pandemic. “Toilet paper

these roaming soundbites are completely de-

finishing before the move,” she says. “But soon

became a highly desired item,” she says. “TP

contextualised and then anonymised before

realised it was a lost battle … I brought in all my

now corresponded deviously to art items’

they re-enter the body of somebody else, like a

materials and surfaces, determined that nothing

categorisation as ‘luxury goods’ in the market –

poltergeist.”

will disrupt my focus and my working routine.

something I found entertaining and perhaps a

But I couldn’t stop tripping over materials,

little bit unsettling in the time when the future

spilling turps and stepping on paint.”

of art, artists and art industry, in general, has

“I am interested in the abstraction of the

For many artists, lockdown didn’t only mean they were unable to show, but that they were also unable to make, at least in the usual sense. In an interview with ABC’s The Art

Telecki was born in Yugoslavia and lived in Croatia and Serbia before arriving in Australia

never been bleaker.” Sydney ceramicist Glenn Barkley also set up

Show, artist and National Gallery Council

20 years ago. Her practice is often tinged

a downsized studio at home in the inner west

member Sally Smart highlighted the issues

with humour and wry social commentary,

suburb of Camperdown during the lockdown.

that some artists, particularly women, faced.

something she recently brought to Instagram

However, he was lucky as his second home

That includes burdens that traditionally fall

with her Toilet Paper Diaries – small painted

– the non-profit studio Kil.n.it Experimental

to women such as domestic duties, financial

works on the wrappers of Who Gives A Crap

Ceramics in Glebe, which also runs a kiln

hardship (some artists support themselves by

toilet paper rolls, created while in lockdown.

service for the clay community - managed to

“Toilet Paper Diaries was my solution

stay open by adapting its services to adhere to

working part time in other industries that have

Often, the home is not an ideal place

also been impacted, like hospitality), or the

to finding a way to work from home when

social distancing rules. After being asked by

problems that arise when faced with relegating

painting on a large scale, proper surface failed,”

one of his former workshop participants if he

a studio to home, especially when doubling as a

she says. “I was always drawn to the idea of

would make her a soap dish, Barkley began

classroom while home-schooling children.

diaries; in how they preserve a sense of time

crafting the small works, selling them as part

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of an online fundraiser to keep Kil.n.It alive,

points out that the arts community is currently

commit to spending 20 per cent of the profits

and encouraging the other artists-in-residence

living in economic fear, despite all that the arts

on a work from another maker.

to join in.

bring to culture: “Artists are the first people to

“They are also things I can make relatively

Of the role of art and the artists in a

be tapped to support the communities they live

pandemic, Barkley says makers need to keep

quickly,” he says, noting that he likes the

in,” he says. “But, in this time, I’m seeing the

making, both for their own mental stability and

function and pragmatic form of the dishes.

arts community support each other.”

as cultural historians.

The ceramicist has also been working on

Barkley highlights the Clay For Clay

“Writing, drawing, making what you can

a series of “plague pots”, that are easier for him

Community (@clayforclaycommunity) project,

and trying new things if you are unable to do

to move around in a makeshift environment.

set up by ceramicist Vipoo Srivilasa, which

the work you were doing before,” he offers. “Art

“I think they might be one body of work, a

encourages ceramicists and potters to sell work

can also document the time we live in; making

diary of this time,” he says.

using the #clayforclaycommunity on social

soap dishes wasn’t something I would have

media. For every five works an artist sells, they

seen myself doing.” ■

An independent curator and writer, Barkley

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When virtual becomes reality Artists Jess Johnson, in New York, and Simon Ward, in New Zealand, collaborating virtually during lockdown. They talk with Jaklyn Babington about digital engagement during the pandemic.

Jaklyn: You have both mostly resided in different locations and utilised alternative and virtual ways of collaborating, which makes for interesting work. The pandemic has launched a new era of digital engagement and I wonder if you have already participated in, or witnessed, this new surge of digital creativity? Simon: I’m quite interested in the music scene and the live streaming community has ballooned like crazy over this time. There’s a program called VR Chat where you can walk around as an avatar and go to different meeting rooms. I went to a rave there. They’re doing their raves every week and then putting all of their mixes up on SoundCloud. It’s called Club Cringe, if anyone wants to check it out. There’s also a boutique film theatre in New York that is called Spectacle. I think Soda Jerk are involved with it. They’ve got daily films that they show every day and Soda Jerk showed their film Terror Nullius. Everyone seems a lot more connected [digitally]. Jaklyn: Alternative spaces are fascinating right now, as our physical lives are compressed, the escapism that VR offers seems important. Are people using VR in a greater kind of capacity something that’s been taken away? Jess: In the last few weeks, I’ve delved into doing more of other people’s VR experiences and playing games in VR. I do think that impulse purely comes from a need to escape, escape my apartment, and escape the reality and all of that. Do you know Boneworks? There’s also a rhythm game set in this

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHARLIE RUBIN, 2019

as a means of providing a virtual experience of

slightly rave environment called Beat Saber.

a part in this science fiction story or futuristic

It’s incredibly popular in VR. It’s basically a

story, where people and their leaders need to

rhythm game where you’re just obliterating

come to grips with the new reality. They’re in

these beat blocks which come at you in time to

that story and they should play those roles.

an electronic music. I just wanted something to lose myself in and apparently, that’s very effective. It does seem quite dystopic and grim, though that it takes a global pandemic to push me towards what I’ve had available for the last few years. I remember me and Simon met up in VR a week or two ago and … at one point,

Jess: It feels like we’re in the middle of a story that is being written and that we have an active part, instead of being these voyeurs watching a story that’s being told to us. We’re all part of it and the ending hasn’t been written yet. I think that kind of feeling has come to me a little bit.

I pressed the wrong button and I ended up

Jaklyn: Artists have an amazing ability to

in an open cinema. There was a dozen or so

look at the world and assess and interpret its

avatars around me with people just watching

information for audiences in new kind of ways.

some Bill Murray movie in VR. It was this odd

I wonder how this situation and its urgent

sense of community … I was only in there for

issues has conceptually altered your work?

about 15 seconds before I got out, but there was

Jess: For me, [the lockdown] has allowed me to

something nice about it. And I’ve thought about going back in there to be in a simulated cinema, watching a movie with these other avatars of people around me doing the same thing.

step off the hamster wheel I feel I’ve been on for the last several years. I’ve fallen into a bit of a trap where I’m always creating work with an outcome in mind. With a lot of exhibitions and

Jaklyn: Do you have particular avatars that you

projects and commissions getting obliterated

use when you’re meeting up in VR spaces? Is it a

in one fell swoop, it does free you from making

work in progress, or a new character every time?

work with an outcome in mind. Getting to

Simon: Everyone sort of turns into a cyberpunk … [that’s] the choice that we tend to make, with robotic glasses or with mohawks or something like that. The last one I was trying to make was a sort of a ‘70s tech lord wizard kind of guy. It’s a new one every time. Keep it fresh. That program that I was talking about, it’s called VRCHAT, or Second Life, people have their avatar and they work on it constantly and build it up to be their personality and their representative. You can add different animations and different kind of effects to your character, like teaching yourself different dance moves and stuff like that. I don’t do that myself, but I know people put a lot of time into that sort of stuff. Jaklyn: It feels as though we have entered a science fiction narrative. How eerily familiar is this strange situation to you as artists, who have long been engaged with the production of parallel realities? Jess: Yes, the boundaries definitely feel a lot

make art that might reconnect to the universal. The universality of being human as opposed to being a professional artist within an art world. It’s something that I want to try to embrace somewhat … It’s a little bit of: be careful what you wish for though. It’s all I’ve been complaining about for a few years now - all of the administrative aspects of being an artist and the time that it takes to organise exhibitions, the emailing, writing grant proposals, and the collaborations as well … that all takes time away from drawing. All I want is more time to draw with no distractions. And then, you get handed that on a plate. But there’s a void that’s left from all of that and it’s like we all have to get comfortable with ourselves again. Jess Johnson and Simon Ward’s Terminus tour has been postponed due to COVID-19. The work was commissioned by the National Gallery with the assistance of The

Simon: I’d be really interested in knowing what

improve access to the national collection.

and Contagion … It does feel like we’re all playing

Above: Jess’s works in progress in her New York studio; Jess’s studio assistant, Ghost

acknowledges funding support for the Terminus tour from Visions of Australia, an

crisis happened. I went straight to World War Z

Opposite top right: NZ-based artist Simon Ward

Balnaves Foundation. The National Gallery

blurrier now than they did this time last year.

movies people were watching as soon as the

Opposite top left and below: Jess Johnson in her studio, New York

Australian Government program aiming to

 Jaklyn Babington is Senior Curator, Contemporary Art

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Covid on Country Coronavirus has left an economic, social and emotional impact on vulnerable Indigenous communities and their arts centres, writes Kelli Cole.

IMAGES Â© TJANPI DESERT WEAVERS AND RHETT HAMMERTON

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Left to right: Cynthia Nyungalya Burke and Dianne Ungukalpi Golding making wana dancing (stick) for Kungkarangkalpa (Seven Sisters) Sculptures, 2020 Opposite: Yvonne Lewis, Nancy Young and Linda Eddy from Irrunytju (WA) with their sculptures, 2017

In mid-March, three weeks into working on a commission for the

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to put in place several

National Gallery, the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY)

measures to support communities during the pandemic.

Women’s Council (NPYWC) in remote Western Australia announced

However living in a COVID-19 world, while essentially trying to

they had stopped travel for all non-essential services staff to remote

survive and live on Country, has proven difficult for many Indigenous

communities due to the threat of COVID-19. “We are extremely worried

people in regional and remote communities.

about our senior members of the community and their susceptibility to

Aboriginal-run Art Centres are the centre of community life and

the virus. They are our anchors and caretakers of this ancient culture,”

provide employment, education, cultural and language preservation,

an NPYWC statement read.

economic development, health benefits and community cohesion.

The next day my time on community abruptly ended and, with a

Across Australia art centres are now feeling the impact of having to close

heavy heart, I packed my bags and returned to Canberra. I had been in

their doors because of the pandemic. Despite lockdown restrictions

Warakurna, WA, working with the Tjanpi Desert Weavers, an Indigenous-

now gradually being lifted, what will come in the following months

governed and directed social enterprise of the NPYWC. The National

is economic difficulties, not only for individual artists but for their

Gallery commissioned the Tjanpi Desert Weavers to create an ambitious

communities as well.

collaborative installation, Kungkarangkalpa (Seven Sisters), as part of the Know My Name initiative to showcase Australian women artists. I worked side by side with the Tjanpi women as they worked on the

The Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre in Yirrkala, Northeast Arnhem Land – one of the most prosperous community-controlled art centres in the Northern Territory – is estimated to lose close to $1 million in revenue

sculptures, pulling on the weave, learning, laughing, speaking in their

due to the closure. This will not only affect the artists, but their families

language of Ngaanyatjarra. I grew up in Alice Springs and had heard

and the wider community.

enough of the language that I could pick out fragments of what they

Due to restrictions of movement it has also been hard for many

were saying; the words of the women rolled out like a beautiful song.

artists to continue their practice. “We usually go out on Country to collect

The pandemic restrictions did not stop the Tjanpi workshops. The artists

materials, especially with old ladies when they want to go out and collect

continued to stay safe and completed the commission in my absence.

bush dye. We take them out, we harvest bark. At the moment we haven’t

In late March, the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt,

been going out because we have the police roadblocks and we have to stay

declared that Aboriginal Australians were particularly vulnerable to

in our own communities, so we can’t go out to the ochre,” says Michelle

coronavirus due to higher rates of other health issues in the communities.

Woody, Tiwi artist who works at the Jilamara Arts & Crafts Association in

The national, State and Territory Governments worked together with

the Milikapiti community in the Tiwi Islands.

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To protect the Anangu people, the Anangu Pitjantjatjara

On a positive side to the COVID-19 lockdown, some artists took

Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in South Australia shut down their

advantage of empty arts centres and produced new paintings while in

communities and restricted entry. Anangu people were also directed

isolation, while others returned to their traditional homelands where

not to practice inma (cultural song and dance), due to social distancing

they continued to practice culture on Country.

restrictions, but they continue to have access and connections to their

The Tjanpi women used the closure to complete their sculptures for

land whilst teaching the younger generation about their culture and

the National Gallery commission, which will go on display in the coming

enduring belonging to Country.

months. The Tjanpi Desert Weavers’ model of practice differs from that

APY Arts Centre Collective (APYACC) member Sally Scales described Covid-19 as an “absolutely terrifying experience for Anangu”. “Social distancing, maintaining best practice hygiene, eating well –

of other art centre models predominant across remote Australia - from its initial setup, the philosophy of the Tjanpi Desert Weavers was for the artists to work from home and in their communities. This meant while

we don’t have that privilege,” said Sally. “Anangu families often have over

most art centres closed throughout Australia, the Tjanpi artists continued

15 family members from four generations living in their two-bedroom

to work from home, giving them the ability to support their families and

house, our stores are so expensive and there is so much more soft drink

ultimately benefit the whole community. During the crisis, the Tjanpi

than fresh food, there’s hardly any fresh or healthy food at all. We have

model was tested and proven to be a successful model for artists and their

been so full of anxiety hoping that COVID-19 doesn’t make it to APY.”

communities. ■

APYACC Director Nyunmiti Burton concurred: “Coronavirus has made one thing clear – the health of Aboriginal people is very different

The Tjanpi Desert Weavers commission, supported by Wesfarmers Arts,

to Non-Indigenous people in Australia. We have been very worried. We

will be exhibited at the National Gallery at a later date.

don’t have the equipment [or] staff needed to deal with a big problem and

For more information on the Know My Name initiative, visit:

we have so many big health problems every year on the Lands. People

nga.gov.au/exhibitions/knowmyname

talk about ‘Closing the Gap’ – Coronavirus has shown us exactly how big

 Kelli Cole is Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art

the gap is.”

nga.gov.au

IMAGES Â© TJANPI DESERT WEAVERS AND RHETT HAMMERTON

Cynthia Burke with her dog Tiny from Warakurna (WA) collecting Minarri grass, 2017 Opposite: Elizabeth Dunn, from Ernabella Arts, SA, painting during the lockdown

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COVID: LOANS IN LOCKDOWN

Loans in Lockdown What happens when an artwork on loan is temporarily stranded in lockdown? By Jane Albert.

The closure of Australia’s borders due to the outbreak of COVID-19 not

other galleries including the Musée Picasso in Paris, the Metropolitan

only had immediate wide-ranging consequences for the public; paintings

Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art, Washington,

on loan to and from international and domestic institutions were also

and The Tate in London; while others were borrowed from Australian

placed into lockdown.

galleries such as the National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery

For the National Gallery, which had to close the Canberra season of the Matisse & Picasso exhibition several weeks early due to the

of New South Wales. When loaning works of a certain value, the lending institutions

pandemic, this meant over 60 works by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso

would normally send at least one courier to supervise the deinstallation,

have remained in Canberra, painstakingly packed away long after they

packaging and crating, handling and condition report, after which

were due to be returned.

the works would be personally accompanied in passenger planes or

As this was an unprecedented situation, the National Gallery’s carefully complied risk management framework was implemented, and staff went to extraordinary lengths to adapt the usual packing and

freighters. Consignments are often split up if a number of valuable works are travelling together. However due to the pandemic travel restrictions, not only were

de-installation process to accommodate travel bans and include social

couriers unable to fly into Australia but there was uncertainty around

distancing measures where possible.

airlines when the exhibition was being packed up. “We do not like

According to Natalie Beattie, Head of Registration, each step is meticulously followed when the National Gallery is borrowing, installing, deinstalling and returning artworks; and similarly, when it is lending

uncertainty in our game, particularly when dealing with artworks of this calibre,” says Natalie. Instead, the National Gallery sought permission to pack up the works

works from our collection. “We make sure our works of art are handled as

without a lender representative present. Given their long-established

safely as possible all the way through the chain of freighting, unpacking,

relationships this was agreed, albeit with some provisions.

condition checking and installation,” she says. For Matisse & Picasso, 61 paintings and sculptures were loaned from

“The Museu de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand in Brazil was particularly concerned about the packing of their works because they

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need special tools and handling so we suggested we could try Skyping in

of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications.

real time, so we had a laptop on the floor to show our colleagues what was

“We immediately investigated what the lenders wanted to do and liaised

happening.” The Musée Picasso requested the pack up be filmed, given

with Government to see whether we could extend the static insurance

their works are considered national treasures.

period, because it’s onsite here for longer than anticipated,” Natalie says.

While it was not always possible to observe the 1.5m social distancing rules given deinstalling requires the paintings to be held at each corner, the team all wore masks and their customary gloves. “We had a minimal number of people and were doing it with full personal protection and regular sanitation cleansing,” Natalie says. Of course the National Gallery also has several works from its collection stranded in lockdown while on loan: including Francis Bacon’s Triptych 1970, which remains at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston where it travelled after being exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in Paris; and Claude Monet’s Meules, milieu du jour [Haystacks, midday] 1890, which is at the Museum Barberini near Berlin where it will remain until it can safely come home to Canberra. “We find out about the borrowing venue when we receive the loan

“Some of them decided they’d keep to their own policies, at their own cost, so that was very special.” The major retrospective of late 19th-century Australian artist Hugh Ramsay involved a large number of loans from private lenders and institutions who were unable to receive the paintings back, so they have also been safely crated and stored. Works from the collection that have been loaned domestically have been similarly caught up in lockdown, enjoying an extended holiday interstate as the borders closed. Sidney Nolan’s Ned Kelly series 1946–47 is in the middle of a regional tour, on loan at the Cairns Regional Gallery while the National Gallery’s other Monet, Nymphéas [Waterlilies] c1914–17, remains at the Queensland Art Gallery until it can come home to Canberra. “It’s another favourite but it’s being kept nice and safe,” assures Natalie.

request, whether they have the right climate control, security, the right level of staff expertise so when a situation like COVID-19 happens and suddenly the program is thrown into disarray we’re already at a place that has a really good practice. We’re not going to put anything in danger” says Natalie. Given the extraordinary value of the Matisse & Picasso artworks, the insurance premiums have now been extended following detailed discussions with the lending institutions and the Department

nga.gov.au

Page 34 and 35: Gallery staff install works for the Matisse & Picasso exhibition ahead of its opening last December.

nude on a red chair [Grand nu au fauteuil rouge] 1929, oil on canvas, Musée Picasso, Paris. *Succession Picasso.

Page 34: Pablo Picasso, Woman from Arles (Lee Miller) [L’Arlésienne (Lee Miller)] 1937, oil on canvas, private international collection. *©Succession Picasso.

Above: Claude Monet, Meules, milieu du jour [Haystacks, midday] 1890, oil on canvas, purchased 1979, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Page 35: Henri Matisse, Reclining nude I (Aurora) [Nu couché I (Aurore)] 1907, cast c# 1912, bronze, Room of Contemporary Art Fund, 1945, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo. *© Succession Matisse; Pablo Picasso, Large

Opposite: Sidney Nolan, The defence of Aaron Sherritt 1946, enamel paint on composition board, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Gift of Sunday Reed 1977 © National Gallery of Australia

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OUT OF THE BLUE While the National Gallery was temporarily closed due to COVID-19, an ambitious and unprecedented conservation project began behind the scenes on one of the most prominent works in the collection. By Sophie Tedmanson. Photographs by Sam Cooper.

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nga.gov.au

It is mid-Autumn in Canberra and the National Gallery is eerily quiet.

David. “But now we have the opportunity when there’s no visitors for

Like most public institutions across the country, the doors have been

an extended period to really get to grips with the surface and look at

temporarily closed for several weeks due to COVID-19.

this painting in depth using all of the tools available to us. We’re hoping,

Inside the building, the bustle of visitors and colour of creativity has

through this analysis and research, to find out exactly what is going on

been replaced by an unusual stillness. And there is darkness on the walls:

with this painting as it moves towards its 70th birthday (in 2022). There

the empty galleries are adorned with works draped in custom-made,

has been conservation work carried out in the past and there have been

individually labelled black covers protecting the art while not on display

some questions asked and answered but never with this breadth. We’ve

to visitors. This is not a Christo-style installation; this is art in the time

never had this opportunity to work with this painting for weeks on end.

of Coronavirus.

It’s a fantastic opportunity.”

Upstairs the international galleries on level 2 feel oddly cavernous. Where usually your eyes can feast on Andy Warhol’s Elvis 1963, David

few minutes later National Gallery Director Nick Mitzevich visits Blue poles to witness the start of this historic project. While the

Hockney’s A Bigger Grand Canyon 1998 or Constantin Brancusi’s Birds

majority of staff are working from home, the Director prefers to continue

in space 1931-1936, most of the collection is now hibernating.

running the institution from his office (while continuing to abide by

At one end of the Abstract Expressionist gallery, Senior Conservator of Paintings David Wise is standing in front of the largest black cover,

social distancing): “I feel more connected here,” he says. Nick confers with David, the pair taking a quiet moment with

protecting one of the most iconic works in the collection: Jackson

Blue poles. David points a torch at the canvas and the Director and the

Pollock’s Blue poles 1952. He gently lifts a corner of the parsilk covering

conservator discuss Pollock’s use of household paint. Both men have

and takes it off. As each portion of the canvas is revealed, it is as if Blue

seen this canvas many times before, but this is a chance to see it in a

poles has awakened, the vibrant hues popping as they hit the light.

new light.

David focuses a microscope and begins looking intently at a minute

Nick recalls that he was 18 and a university student “with a copy

intersection of colours on the canvas, the larger detail illuminated on

of Robert Hughes’ The Shock of the New tucked under my arm” when

the attached screen. To the right is a step ladder and to the left is a

he encountered Blue poles for the first time in real life.

table scattered with other conservation tools: brushes, a torch, a large transparency taken of the work in 1962. This is the beginning of the first in-depth research, analysis and

“This picture was larger than life, and I thought I knew a lot about Jackson Pollock … then I stood in front of the work and everything changed,” Nick says. “The picture came alive and jumped off the walls,

major conservation treatment of Blue poles since it was bought by

and all of the things I thought I knew about Jackson Pollock and Blue

the National Gallery in 1973. For a number of weeks while the Gallery

poles went out of the window. By standing in front of this painting I could

remains closed to the public, David will study and analyse one of

feel its power, I could feel Jackson Pollock’s expression and I could feel

Australia’s most famous works in situ. It is an ambitious project, a long

his desire to push art and make us think about this work of art that he

time in the planning and now being realised in part because of the

presented for us.

unprecedented closure. “My predecessors have, of course, examined the work but our time

“This is a painting that has transfixed a nation. And during our closure it’s the first time we can spend a rigorous amount of

with it has, by necessity, always been limited because it’s constantly on

time exploring the materiality, conserving and cleaning the work.

display – it’s an iconic work that visitors always want to see,” explains

It is the most significant conservation project that’s ever been mounted

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on Jackson Pollock’s Blue poles and I hope people come on the journey

the Gallery’s 20th anniversary celebrations, and for the Abstract

to explore this work of art.”

Expressionism show at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in 2016.

Blue poles – the last of Pollock’s monumental abstract paintings –

the other being Totem lesson 2 1945. Pollock was inspired by the work

New York art dealer Ben Heller by founding Director James Mollison in

of indigenous American artists, especially Navajo sand painting,

1973, nine years before the gallery opened its doors, caused a sensation.

and ideas about the subconscious: what art can be for people across

The price – A$1.3 million, then equal to US$2million – was a record for

all time and all places. Pollock had come to New York from the

the artist at the time. The acquisition needed the approval of then Prime

mid-west, adopted his cowboy persona, “the bravura of an outsider,

Minister Gough Whitlam who famously declared: “Buy it and disclose the

and challenged both the art world, and what painting can do” says

price”. The fact that it was a large abstract work by an American artist

Lucina. With Willem de Kooning, and alongside the other painters

also contributed to the heated public discourse.

known as the New York School who worked and drank together in

“It was a big deal, the National Gallery had not opened and people had very little sense of how the building and the collection would be,” says Senior Curator Lucina Ward. “So, the whole idea that a large

the 1940s and 50s, Pollock is known as “a founding member of Abstract Expressionism”. “When Pollock first started Blue poles he was in a down patch,

work, an abstract work, a work by an American artist should

but he was soon brought out of that and started working with extreme

become such a key early purchase in the collection, was really

energy on this extraordinarily large canvas,” says Lucina. “It’s important

quite shocking.”

to remember that he was not using traditional art materials but house

Blue poles has gone on to become one of the most significant

paints – synthetics and enamels – because they are more liquid. He could

paintings in the twentieth century and part of the fabric of Australia’s

work up the layers, achieve extraordinary movement and used the paint

cultural history. It remains one of the most popular works in the

to capture gesture.

national collection, a cultural pilgrimage destination of its very own.

Blue poles is one of two Pollock paintings in the national collection,

is deeply ingrained in the DNA of the National Gallery. Its purchase from

“And that’s part of what’s so incredibly important about

The public appetite for Blue poles means it is rarely off display. It has

Pollock’s work, about Abstract Expressionism and about Blue poles:

been lent only a handful of times over the past four decades: it toured

it’s that layering, that working, that manoeuvring of the paint,

Australia in 1974; to the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the

and we can see it in the paint surface of Blue poles just how far he pushed

Tate in London in 1998-99, to Melbourne’s NGV in 2003, part of

both his medium and the idea of painting.”

nga.gov.au

“The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through.” Jackson Pollock

Hans Namuth Jackson Pollock 1950, gelatin silver photograph National Gallery of Australia Gift of James Mollison 1987 Page 38: Senior Conservator David Wise analyses Blue poles in situ during the COVID-19 closure. Page 40: The paint in Blue poles is key to the conservation. Page 41: David and National Gallery Director Nick Mitzevich inspect the painting

Left: Microscopes and Infrared lights were used during analysis. Above: Jackson Pollock at work in his studio in 1950. Page 44: Detail of Blue poles as seen through UV lights. Page 46: Detail showing Jackson Pollock’s thumbprint

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nga.gov.au

Pollock’s use of household paint – which ages differently to traditional artists’ paints – and his famous dripping technique will form the basis of this project. Surface microscopes, ultraviolet and infra-red lights, and X-Ray will be used to examine the painting to determine and identify possible treatment. More in-depth analytical techniques will also be used to look at how the paint has been applied, how it has aged and any surface changes that have occurred since it was painted.

avid first came to the NGA in 1990, shortly after arriving in Australia, and recalls seeing Blue poles for the first time as

“breathtaking”. This project also brings full circle a two-decade personal connection to the painting for the conservator, who was involved in the preparations ahead of its tour to the Tate in 1999. “My work now is a continuation of that,” recalls David. “At the time we carried out a small amount of analysis, looking at the paint layers, but it was only limited in scope because we didn’t have much time with it. “So I’m really thrilled to be able to follow this up 20 years later and now take that work further, to be here working with Blue poles is such a joy.” The cultural significance of this work and subsequent pressure of this project is not lost on the conservator. “It’s an extremely important painting, so to actually be responsible for looking at it and treating it, there is naturally some pressure,” he acknowledges. “But as part of my job, through training and long experience working with paintings, you concentrate on the job at hand, concentrate on the painting as a work of art, and apply yourself to the task and the issues that are raised by the work itself. You try to divorce yourself from those external pressures, even though they are there. “The National Gallery collection is full of fantastic works, we deal with marvellous works every day – for example I had the pleasure of cleaning Monet’s Haystacks, midday 1890, before it went on loan recently. But every painting is a challenge; we treat every work with respect and each gets our full attention. “This one however is on a different scale because of the social pressures and the cultural significance, but ultimately it’s just a pleasure to actually deal with a work like this, to actually have the privilege to work so closely with such a painting is fantastic.” The end result of this conservation project remains unknown. For Lucina, this has been a fortuitous moment to take a deep look at one of the most prominent works in the national collection in the lead up to the 70th birthday of Blue poles in 2022. She says: “We have this opportunity now – turning a negative into a positive – to examine this canvas in detail, to learn more about how Pollock made the painting and indeed why the work is so important. We want to ensure Blue poles stays vibrant, powerful and passionate for another 70 years.” ■  For more details head to our website Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles: Action Reaction: nga.gov.au/bluepoles. Join the conversation: #MyBluePoles

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Poles apart: the journey of Blue poles from New York City to Canberra This page: Blue poles in former owner Ben Heller’s Central Park West apartment, New York, in the early 1970s. To extract the painting, one of the apartment’s windows was removed; using ropes and pullies, seven men delicately hoisted the load to ground level, where the street was blocked off, and into a van for its trip to Australia in 1974.

nga.gov.au

IMAGE COURTESY PATTI ADLER

Right: 1. Blue poles being loaded onto an RAAF plane during the national tour in 1974. 2. The painting was exhibited around the country before arriving in Canberra. 3. Installing the enormous work took many hands. 4. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by former Chairman Gordon Darling and founding Director James Mollison, inspects Blue poles at the National Gallery opening gala in 1982. 5.Jackson Pollock, Blue poles 1952, oil, enamel, aluminium paint, glass on canvas, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1973 *© Pollock-Krasner Foundation. Blue poles is one of the most famous works in the national collection.

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The National Gallery’s Australian art collection is now one of the best collections of Australian art. You started with the Commonwealth collection but nothing much else. It was a huge job. How did you approach building the collection?

Vale James Mollison AO 20 March 1931 – 19 January 2020 James Mollison, the founding Director of the National Gallery of Australia, spent more than two decades building, shaping and carefully nurturing the

I followed instructions from government – through the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board – to put together a definitive collection of Australian art. I have to qualify that; the then Art Advisory Board thought that Australian art comprised paintings mainly; sculpture got a small look in, prints and drawings were of no interest really, nor were the decorative arts. But they did ask me to put together the finest possible collection of Australian work for the Gallery that was then to open in 1976.

national collection. Among Australian art’s most admired figures, James

You were ahead of your time in recognising that prints and drawings,

will always be remembered for his foresight in acquiring Jackson Pollock’s

decorative arts and photography were an important part of the whole

Blue poles 1952 and his extensive input into architect Col Madigan’s

story. Had you had seen examples of this in collections elsewhere?

design of the building, among many other incredible achievements.

I grew up in Melbourne. The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) contains

We pay tribute to James with an extract from his conversation with Anne Gray, former Head of Australian Art, from the 2003 publication Building the Collection.

marvellous prints and drawings and a collection of decorative arts at least equal in quality to the collection of paintings. It never occurred to me that some things were better art than others because of their category. How did you persuade the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board of this? I waited. I can remember putting a proposal to the Board that we set aside $2,000 a year from which we would buy a comprehensive collection of Australian prints. For $100 you could get a Margaret Preston print or the rarest impression of Norman Lindsay. But they said, ‘No. We will do without prints and drawings in the collection. You get back to work and find us the paintings we want.’

Above: Founding Director James Mollison pictured in 1975 with Sidney Nolan’s Death of Sergeant Kennedy at Stringybark Creek, 1946, enamel on composition board, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, gift of Sunday Reed 1977 © National Gallery of Australia Photo with permission of The Canberra Times

nga.gov.au

Opposite (left to right): the founding Director holding a staff meeting at the former NGA facilities at Fyshwick; Mr Mollison and art critic Robert Hughes inspect Blue poles 1952 when it first arrived in Australia Page 50: Mr Mollison escorts Prince Charles around the National Gallery

So you just waited until the time was right? I was prepared to wait.

How did the Board find you? I’d known Daryl Lindsay from the time I was about 16 when I visited him to ask for a job. He was then Director of the NGV. When I was appointed to the Ballarat Art Gallery as Director in 1967, Daryl was overseeing the installation there of the sitting room from Creswick, the Lindsay family house. He offered me a job that I refused – six months in India with an exhibition of Australian art. The exhibition had already arrived and had been lost. The paintings were finally discovered on a dock, with all the useful timber from the crates taken.

to be aeroplane tickets around Australia available on a weekly basis.’ Heads nodded; so I added, ‘and it would be necessary to spend at least three months each year overseas’. Then I heard, ‘Well the government has access to two airlines, that wouldn’t be a problem.’ My heart thumped. I was asked, ‘What else?’ I had been collected by a Commonwealth car in Ballarat and taken to the airport, met by another in Canberra and taken to the meeting. I said, ‘I would need a car and driver at all times I was working.’ They nodded; so I added, ‘wherever I was in the world’. ‘We will send you back to the airport in a Commonwealth car’, they said. And I said, ‘No, I’ll walk.’ So I walked to the airport from East Block in a

Eventually a position was advertised. The job was to create an Australian

sort of dazed state, and immediately went home and told my folks what

collection in readiness for the Gallery opening and to look after

had happened. Dad said, ‘They seem to want you son.’

Australian exhibitions that went overseas. I was very busy and happy in Ballarat and never thought of applying. When it was found difficult to fill the position I was asked to go to Canberra to talk to the appointment committee. With no great sense of looking forward to it, I took the day off and went to Canberra to talk about the need to get somebody who knew what museums were, knew what art was and where to find it, knew what exhibitions were, knew how to put them together. To my surprise I was asked if I would like the job. I said no.

It took the best part of a year to create the position. I was appointed in October 1968. The Board quickly realised that it would be possible to present a very wide picture of art in Australia – starting with the Rex Nan Kivell collection at the National Library (which was then considered material for a future National Gallery) through to contemporary art. They also appreciated that I have never believed my likes and dislikes are important in terms of doing a job. If it’s there, and there at a sufficient level of interest and excellence, it should be represented. Some few

Bill Cumming - who was the Prime Minister’s Department officer on

months into the job I was thrown, because the Board asked me to gather

the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board – suggested we play a game of

together a collection of, say, 25 really contemporary works for them

‘What if’. ‘What would we need to pay you to get you to come and work

to look at. I showed them contemporary art as it was available at that

here?’ I said, ‘I’m not going to come to work in Canberra.’ He said again,

moment in Sydney. And they couldn’t look at it. What they were thinking

‘What would we need to pay you?’ I doubled the acceptable salary I was

of as contemporary were works by Boyd, Nolan, Tucker and Williams.

being paid at Ballarat. ‘That’s no problem’, he said. ‘What else would you

To me these were established artists - contemporary is something new,

need?’ And I said, ‘Well I’ve been talking to you about how collections are

something about which I don’t already know very much. At the end of the

formed and shown in museums, and the need to know about overseas

day the Board said, ‘There are 25 things here. Let Mr Mollison make up his

venues for exhibitions, the need to know what is in every Australian

mind which ten he’ll keep.’ Then they asked me to find the category of

collection. If you want something useful in Canberra there would have

works they really had in mind.

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What prompted Sunday Reed to give Nolan’s Ned Kelly paintings to the Gallery? They saw that it was the right place for them to be. The paintings were in the house at Heide, on show two or three at a time. The rest were in the crates in which they had travelled to Europe, stacked where cats and possums could pee on them. We had to rid them of the smell. The choice would have been giving them to Melbourne or giving them to Canberra? Knowing of your vision for Canberra they would have recognised how important it was for the series to go there, to be part of a national collection. I have trouble with my ‘vision for Canberra’. I was just working at a job that I had been asked to do. Right from the opening, Aboriginal art was given prominence, and it was an important step to integrate Indigenous art with works by other Australians. As soon as I realised that people did not want the Australian hang to represent the two streams of Australian art, I decided to make it obvious to them that they had to think about this very carefully. When did you develop your personal interest in Aboriginal art? So what did you do when they said to go and get those works?

curious about other beliefs, other times, other places, and I discovered

gain quick recognition it had to contain works that either had been

Fred McCarthy’s Australian Museum book on Aboriginal Decorative Art

reproduced or would be used as reproductions once they were in

in 1948. I was also looking at Aboriginal works in the stores of the State

the public domain. So I went through everything ever published on

Museum, and with an art school friend had tidied Baldwin Spencer’s

Australian art and we set about bringing that known material into

glass slides of his Central Desert trips that were then in a terrible muddle,

the collection. Then looking in the stores of the State collections I saw

and broken. I was 19 when I discovered that the Methodist Missionary

that these had been put together by people who were interested in the

Society had an upstairs sales outlet for Aboriginal things in Sydney quite

establishment figures in Australian art. The Canberra collection could

near the Town Hall. I think I bought the four shilling rather than the four

be made to look different by representing modernism throughout the

guinea items. I would come back from there with bark paintings.

country. So I went to the artists who had made history from the 1930s forward. They were still around in the 1960s – people in Sydney like Grace Crowley and Ralph Balson and, in Melbourne, Arthur Boyd and

There’s a story about you visiting Kakadu to expand the direction of the Aboriginal art collection.

Albert Tucker - and I began long negotiations with them to release

I spent untold hours talking with senior men, sitting on logs, telling them

works they had deliberately retained.

what they already knew – that is, that in Canberra we were not interested

You’ve a huge reputation for having trained and fostered and encouraged a lot of people. Who were your own mentors? Daryl was certainly one of them. The old-fashioned way in which I hang exhibitions comes from Daryl – a big painting in the middle and a pair either side. Lucy Swanton was a truly big influence on me. She showed me how to listen to artists, to be the recipient of their secrets - and their

From the time I was a youngster archaeology was an interest. I am truly

Two things happened. I realised that if the national collection were to

in just one bark painting. What we wanted from them was their story, their business. We should have the full representation of all the business to which the artist is the key, the holder of tradition. In due course artists came to be pleased that Canberra was the keeping place for their material; but to begin, the idea had to be discussed and agreed. Would you discuss your ideas on collection building?

unkindness if they wanted, or their anger, or whatever – but never to pass

Museum work to my mind is ‘target’, ‘work on it’, ‘next target’, ‘complete

this on. Rudy Komon also. The art world thought he never had an unkind

the first one’, ‘work on the second’, ‘next target identified’ – it goes on

word to say about anybody. And John Reed, at his successive Museums

forever. Every curator has plans for acquisitions and exhibitions years

of Modern Art. I didn’t know until John told me a couple of years before

ahead. Projects can always be delayed for something more ambitious.

Sunday died that she liked me. I always found her so curious. After I arrived

Work must progress on a week-by-week basis over many projects.

at the house she would appear from somewhere. She would sit with us,

You must also collect information that explains objects. I believe it is

characteristically with her shoulder towards me, and never say anything

absolutely essential that if the sketch for anything in the collection comes

very much. Then she would wander away. I do wish I had known that she

up, you must get it. You have to have the sketchbook; you have to have the

liked me because I could have let her see that I liked her back.

prints - things that complement. ■

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See the world through artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eyes and go behind-the-scenes at the National Gallery. Find connection and inspiration online.

Conservator David Wise analyses Jackson Pollockâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s iconic work Blue poles 1952

WINTER 2020

A CHAPTER IN PRINT After four decades, Senior Curator of Australian Prints and Drawings, Roger Butler AM will retire this month. Here, he reflects on helping founding Director James Mollison form the print collection.

I was curating an exhibition of linocuts in Melbourne in 1981 when I was asked to fly to Canberra to interview for the position of Curator of

to open and I joined a small group of curatorial staff who were all

Australian Prints at the yet to be opened National Gallery.

involved in cataloguing the collection and selecting works for the opening

I was collected at the airport by a Commonwealth car and driven

exhibitions. I threw myself into reviewing the collection which had been

to Fyshwick where the Gallery had its store in the Molonglo Mall. I was

assembled to date: I looked at every work and updated and corrected the

ushered into an informal office area where Director James Mollison and

existing records, which were all handwritten.

Senior Curator of Australian Art, Daniel Thomas, were poring over plans

I was pleased to see the Gallery already owned works by both Preston

for the new Gallery building. The first thing James asked me was: ‘Can

and Traill. I knew the Traill prints well as they had been exhibited in

you read plans?’. He then indicated where the Australian art displays

Melbourne by Jim Alexander at his Important Women Artists gallery in

would be and explained how prints would be an integral part of the hang

1977. Among the works the National Gallery acquired was one of her most

which would incorporate all media.

significant prints, Good night in the gully where the white gums grow,

What struck me most about James was his ambition for the National

1922. It is an audacious work; made at a time when etchings were usually

Gallery to become one of the great institutions of the world. The

small and dark, Traill’s print is large scale and has great luminosity. She

Australian collection was central to this vision and he was determined

demonstrated complete control of the aquatint process, a technique she

that the Gallery would become the centre for the display, interpretation

had learned with Frank Brangwyn in Bruges, Belgium and in London.

and study of Australian art. He envisaged the collection as authoritative,

It is the poetic nature of the image that attracts me. Three slender,

representing Aboriginal artists and artists working in all states and

light-toned eucalypts dominate the composition, their trunks extend

territories. He wanted senior curatorial staff with wide-ranging

beyond the top and bottom of the image, creating strong vertical accents

knowledge and specialisations. The Gallery was to be the leader in all

on a sloping hillside; behind them the darker scrub is silhouetted against

aspects of museology: curatorial, registration, education or conservation.

the fading light. The title may be a line from a poem.

James and I discussed the women artists who had been such a

Fred Williams was a member of the Gallery’s Council at the time this

prominent force in the Australian modernist art movement of the early

work was acquired, and one can recognise its relationship to his own

twentieth century, and the Director wanted to know which artists I

etchings of the Australian landscape. I can imagine him applying his test

thought the Gallery should represent in depth. I suggested Margaret

for whether or not a work was resolved, which was to ask: “How does it

Preston and Jessie Traill. Each in their own way had a distinctive view

look upside down?”.

of the landscape and vegetation, especially gum trees and native flowers. James was in a hurry to put ideas into action. He asked: ‘Can you start next week?’. I was taken aback, but replied: ‘What about the week after?’

My interview took place 18 months before the Gallery was scheduled

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An early purchase after the Gallery opened was a rare and exceptional colour stencil print produced by Margaret Preston when she was 78. At the time she was synthesizing the significant influences on her life

Left: Margaret Preston, Shoalhaven Gorge, NSW 1953, stencil, purchased 1983 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra *© Margaret Preston; Roger Butler and Andrew Sayers preparing for a Gallery Council meeting in 1985 Above: Jessie Traill, Good night in the gully where the white gums grow 1922, etching and aquatint, purchased 1997, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra *© Jessie Traill

and art. Shoalhaven Gorge, NSW, 1953 is a timeless depiction of the dramatic landscape with its steep cliffs, and the Shoalhaven River cutting

illuminate Australian culture, has been an extraordinary opportunity. As I prepare to bid farewell to the National Gallery during this strange

through the hills. The image brings together her profound interest in

period when we have been temporarily closed, I think back to when

Japanese art, Chinese art and Aboriginal art and unifies them.

I first saw the building nearly 40 years ago, and it was empty and quiet.

Establishing authoritative collections of works by such artists

The voids and concrete structural walls were magnificent in their un-

takes a great deal of time but the results are invaluable. Retrospective

hung state and it was obvious the architect saw the building as a work

exhibitions of the work of Preston and Traill were accompanied by major

of art in its own right.

publications, the catalogue raisonne The Prints of Margaret Preston in

I have seen many things over the past four decades, but what I have

1987, and Stars in the river: the prints of Jessie Traill in 2013. The three

loved most of all is seeing the galleries hung with amazing works and

volumes that outline the history of printmaking in Australia, Printed, are

filled with crowds captivated by what we have presented to them.

the culmination of nearly four decades of extensive research and draw their illustrations from the Gallery’s extraordinary collection. For me, being able to put together a collection which now numbers

 The Australian print collection has been the beneficiary of longstanding and generous support of the Gordon Darling Print Fund.

over 37,000 prints and which will forever help define, explain and

WINTER 2020

GARDEN OF TREASURES Lucina Ward explores the history and highlights of our art in landscape.

nga.gov.au

Winter, Spring, Summer ... a little-known fact about the National Gallery Sculpture Garden is that its layout is structured around the four seasons – but the Autumn section was never created. The original garden, designed by Howard Hughes and Associates and planted over 1981–82, stretches over three hectares from the Gallery’s north to Lake Burley Griffin. Its layout uses many of the design principles of Col Madigan’s architecture, creating synergy with the National Gallery building. Within the garden a series of distinctive environments complement the sculptures, from the axis path which stretches from the building to the lake, or the intimate ‘rooms’ created with foliage and filtered light. Fringed by deciduous trees along the shore, the local species of the Sculpture Garden give it a distinctly Australian flavour. The slatepaved forecourt area is the Winter Garden, while the casuarina forest and marsh pond comprise the Summer Garden — that is when the area near the lake with its spring-flowering banksia, hakeas and grevillias is best seen. On the southern side, where the new Australian Garden opened in 2010, the terraced lawns combine with layered plantings and waterways. Eventually, it is hoped, the gardens will merge to encircle the entire building.

WINTER 2020

Winter Garden: highlights then and now Auguste Rodin is regarded as the father of modern sculpture and The burghers of Calais (above) is one of his best known works. The fourteenth-century burghers, six leading citizens of Calais in France, sacrificed themselves to Edward III of England to save the town. The figures convey the angst of their situation: taunt bodies, large expressive hands and gestures. As the artist intended, the

smaller, the materials are the same, and hint at

burghers are at level so the viewer can feel their

centuries of coal mining in England’s industrial

struggle, and see details such as the faces and

past. Angels can be a symbol of hope and this

the proffered key.

figure was cast from the artist’s body, with the

Emile Bourdelle’s Penelope (centre) watches over the pathway to the lake. Her husband Odysseus has left for the Trojan Wars and she keeps wait for him over 10 years. The sculptor took almost as long to complete the work, developing a series of studies before creating the final version. Penelope no longer holds a spindle — a reference to the unfinished

Spring Garden: highlights then and now The enormous curve of steel which is Clement Meadmore’s Virginia 1970 (above) defies gravity. The work is made from a thin shell of welded steel and is actually hollow; with upturned

tapestry, woven by day and unravelled at night,

ends, and only two points of contact with the

to avoid would-be suitors — but the sculpture’s

ground, it looks light and flexible, despite

mass, curve of the figure and texture of her robe

weighing over eight tonnes. The artist dedicated

convey a sense of her story.

this work to a fellow expat artist Virginia

Angel of the North (life-sized maquette,

Cuppaidge, whom he had met in New York,

right) is a 1:10 model of Antony Gormley’s most

and the sculpture was shipped from the United

discussed work: a 20-tonne figure that towers

States in four parts and reassembled here.

over a motorway near Gateshead in England’s north east. While the scale of the model here is

wings made separately on a wire frame.

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The black beams of Mark di Suvero’s Ik ook 1971–72 — the title is ‘me too’ in Dutch —

direct viewers to explore other parts of the Garden. The sculpture’s geometric forms are reminiscent of cranes on a building site or the heavy-duty machinery of a dockyard. Di Suvero creates tension and balance through sophisticated use of modern building materials and engineering techniques: he transforms I-beams and cables into gigantic calligraphic statement in three-dimensions. A group of tutini or Pukumani poles (below) inhabit one of the elevated ‘rooms’ of the Spring Garden. An important funerary ceremony of the Tiwi people, a Pukumani ceremony involves singing, dancing and making tutini from ironwood tree trunks. When originally made by the artists from Melville and Bathurst Islands, these were covered

part of the 2012 Biennale of Sydney, Domestic turf has found a new home in a clearing of eucalypts in the Spring Garden. Summer Garden: highlights then and now The sculptural traditions of Vanuatu emphasise the human figure as seen in these lali, or slitin traditional designs associated with the

drums (left), carved from dense hardwood.

Ancestors Purukaparli, Tapara and Bima who

Heads and facial features are rendered in

first brought death to the world. Deliberately

detail; the rounded body sections of the drums

allowed to age, they are then abandoned and

were originally painted. Drums of this type

left to return to the earth.

are used to perform rites for the ancestors.

The work of Canadian artist Cal Lane is

Commissioning a drum and overseeing its

seemingly full of inherent contradictions.

completion are a major achievement, reflecting

For Domestic turf 2012 she takes a standard

both the earthly and spiritual power of the

maritime shipping container and ‘carves’ it into

family within the village.

a gorgeous, fairy-tale-like abode adorned with

The polished stainless-steel surface of Bert

curlicues, flowers and a range of animals. The

Flugelman’s seven Cones 1982 reflect and distort

delicacy of Lane’s doilies contrasts with the

the ground, sky and surrounding vegetation.

machine quality of her readymade industrial

Viewers become participants, their reflections

form. Originally shown on Cockatoo Island as

elongated or made squat as they move around

WINTER 2020

the sculpture: the seven cones appear to join the dance, tilting and pirouetting across the clearing. Flugelman’s sculptures feature in many public spaces — and are sometimes concealed — in several Australian cities. One of the most haunting works of art in the Garden is Heads from the North by Dadang Christanto (above). Partially biographical, the work refers to the artist’s experiences of social and political injustices growing up in Indonesia. The 66 bronze heads remember the victims of violence following an unsuccessful military coup in 1965–66, including Dadang’s father. The artist was eight-years-old when his father disappeared and, when the heads were installed in 2004, he created a performance to pay his respects.

geometry of modern architecture and materials. Eran 2010 (top right), by artist and indigenous elder Thanakupi, was commissioned for the National Gallery and shows crocodiles, kangaroos, lizards, eggs and birds swarming across a silver globe. Described as being made from ‘the sands of country’, the bauxite-rich earth of Weipa in North Queensland, Eran is ‘river’ in the artist’s Thaynakwith language. On the grassed terraces of the Australian Garden is George Baldessin’s Pears – version number 2 1973 (below), an elegant and slightly

Gallery entrance and forecourt,

surreal still life. The oversized fruit seem

The Australian Garden and Fiona Hall

like a group of friends, leaning towards each

Fern Garden

other as if conversing, or sharing a joke. The

The grassed section near the main entrance is

pun within artist’s title, too, captures the

dominated by two geometric works of different

ideas central to still life and momento mori

styles and intentions. Barnett Newman’s Broken

traditions: denial, desire, eroticism, penitence

obelisk 1963/67 (below) is powerfully symbolic

and death. The Australian Garden is also home

and acutely political, one of the most recent

to Within without 2010 (right), a Skyspace by

additions to the Sculpture Garden. The work

James Turrell, another work which plays with

combines qualities of ancient forms with the

perception. Visitors enter via a long, sloping

walkway, and once inside the large pyramid, encounter a stupa of Victorian basalt set at the centre of a turquoise pool. Inside the stupa is the viewing chamber open to the sky and where, at dawn and dusk, a special light shows throughout the year, see nga.gov.au/turrell. Near the above-ground carpark on the Gallery’s eastern side, a wrought-iron gate leads to Fiona Hall’s Fern garden 1998 (above). This sheltered oasis, framed by 23-metre high bush-hammered concrete walls, features more than 50 tree ferns, Dicksonia Antarctica, planted as mature trees and now at least 200-yearsold. Hall’s garden, set out in a spiral with waterspouts and benches at key points, refers to the environment, and cycles of birth, life and death. ■  Lucina Ward is a Senior Curator

nga.gov.au

All works National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Suvero, courtesy of the artist / Spacetime C.C.

Page 56: Then and now: Auguste Rodin, Nude study for Jean d’Aire 1885–86 cast 1973, bronze. The burghers of Calais c 1885-86 cast 1974, bronze, purchased 1974; Emile Bourdelle, Penelope 1912, bronze, purchased 1976, Clement Meadmore, Virginia 1970, weathered steel, purchased 1973 *© Clement Meadmore; Antony Gormley, Angel of the North (life-size maquette) 1996, cast iron, Gift of James and Jacqui Erskine 2009 © Anthony Gormley

Page 55: (top to bottom) the garden was planted over 1981–82. Bert Flugelman, Cones 1982, polished stainless steel, commissioned 1976, purchased 1982 *© Bert Flugelman; Henry Moore, Hill arches 1973, bronze, purchased 1975, Reproduced by permission of the Henry Moore Foundation *© Henry Moore; Mark di Suvero, Ik ook 1971–72, painted steel, purchased 1979 © Mark di

Page 57: Then and now: Mark di Suvero, Ik ook

1971–72, painted steel, purchased 1979 © Courtesy of the artist and Spacetime C.C.; Bert Flugelman, Cones 1982, polished stainless steel, commissioned 1976, purchased 1982 *© Bert Flugelman; Willy Taso and Tofor Rengrengmal, Slit-drums from Malampa Province mid 20th-century, wood, purchased 1972, *Mickey Geranium Warlapinni, *Deaf Tommy Mungatopi, *Boniface Alimankinni, *John Baptiste Pupangamirr, *Alan Papaloura Papajua, Tutini c 1979, natural pigments on ironwood, purchased 1979

Opposite: Dadang Christanto, Heads of the North 2004, cast bronze, purchased 2004 © Dadang Christanto. Courtesy of Nancy Sever Gallery, Canberra Walkway to front entrance showing Thanakupi (Dhaynagwidh/Thaynakwith people), Eran 2010, aluminium, acquired through the Founding Donors’ Fund 2010, © the estate of the artist, licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd and Barnett Newman Broken obelisk 1963/1967/2005, weathering steel, gift of the Barnett Newman Foundation in honour of Dr Gerard

Vaughan AM 2018 *© The Barnett Newman Foundation; James Turrell, Within without 2010, Skyspace: lighting program, plaster and painted concrete, granite, marble; concrete and basalt stupa; water, earth, landscaping, purchased with the support of visitors to the Masterpieces from Paris exhibition 2010 *© James Turrell; George Baldessin, Pears - version number 2, 1973 corten steel: 7 forms, purchased 1973 *© George Baldessin; Fiona Hall, fern garden 1988, sculptures, tree ferns, river pebbles, granite, steel, concrete, copper wood mulch, water. Purchased with

the assistance of Friends of Tamsin and Deuchar Davy, in their memory, 1998 © Fiona Hall This page: Neil Dawson, Diamonds 2002, aluminium extrusion and mesh painted with synthetic polymer automotive paints, stainless steel fittings and cables Commissioned 2002. Purchased with the assistance of ActewAGL 2002

WINTER 2020

Partnerships Over the past decade The Sydney Morning Herald has supported major exhibitions at the National Gallery. Our media partnership taps into a shared passion for storytelling that educates, informs and entertains our collective communities. In the changing environment of COVID-19, we spoke with the Herald Editor, Lisa Davies, about how the newspaper has adapted.

Above: The Sydney Morning Herald Editor Lisa Davies (left) with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian in Sydney. Below: Lisa Davies is the third female editor in the 189-year history of the SMH

What have been your daily challenges - and

just in the queue for a coffee. You can find out a

who’ve worked in their areas of speciality for a

wins - in managing a newsroom during the

lot by just spontaneously stopping to chat. But

long period of time.

international COVID-19 crisis?

with everyone working remotely, I’ve instead

Putting out the Herald remotely has been a huge challenge, and I can’t speak highly enough of the resilience of all staff members who just one day had to adjust their working environment so drastically. Anyone who’s been in a newsroom approaching a newspaper deadline knows there’s always lots of noise - people rushing

tried to reach out to people more directly via a phone call to check-in. It’s impossible to talk to everyone that way, but it’s made me value that incidental connection, and the benefits of collaboration in the newsroom environment. rooms, we still want them to feel connected.

how institutions like the NGA are coping in lockdown and what they’re offering their audiences is important, but also finding ways ourselves to showcase artistic expression in all

of that is far easier in person. Instead, we’ve used

its possible forms. It might be a smaller section

a combination of phone calls and our internal

for a time, but Spectrum on Saturday and our

messaging platform Slack to get the job done

arts pages during the week are still the places

with surprisingly few dramas. We’ve also seen

we’re doing that as much as possible.

an enormous surge in our subscriber numbers,

What are you watching / reading / listening to

which is heartening. The Herald has been

that inspires you right now?

around for 189 years this year, so it’s gratifying

in times of crisis. What lessons as a leader will you take forward from this period? The importance of taking time to connect. I

You are only the third female (and youngest) editor in the history of the SMH, how has this shaped you as a leader? I started by giving people the respect they earned long before I was their boss, and being consultative. I’ve often been told I make quick

generally talk to reporters via text, WhatsApp,

and decisive decisions, which in the heat of a

Slack, email or a quick phone call to check a

major news story is a valuable skill to have. (My

detail or commission directly. But that is usually

gut instinct rarely lets me down!) But on bigger

balanced by face-to-face conversations around

decisions, perhaps related to strategy or editorial

the office, whether it be in the newsroom or

direction, I regularly seek input from those

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Arts and culture are such a crucial part of our offering in normal times, and that’s the case even more so now. Stories about

for last minute changes to copy or headlines. All

be such a valuable asset to so many Australians

times?

While reporters are filing from their lounge

around checking proofs and calling out asking

that our brand of trusted journalism continues to

What is the role of arts and cultural content in The Sydney Morning Herald during these

Confession: I actually spent the first month of lockdown watching the entire six seasons of Downton Abbey, which has been a nice escape although the household’s brush with the Spanish Flu in season one was rather timely! In another step back in time, I’m reading Hillary Mantel’s Wolf Hall - another thing I’d never found time to absorb. I’m also trying to slow down through yoga and mindfulness, and see the lessons we can learn from this enormous global event.

While Archie Rose Distilling Co. are internationally recognised for their range of gin, vodka and rye whisky, the company is equally passionate about the arts. As we enter our third year of partnership, Archie Rose is supporting our gender equity initiative Know My Name. In light of the pandemic, the company began producing hand sanitiser. Here, Head of Marketing at Archie Rose, Victoria Tulloch, discusses how they pivoted their business. Above: Archie Rose hand sanitiser (left) and the special edition Know My Name gin, in collaboration with the NGA. Below: Archie Rose Head of Marketing Victoria Tulloch

Archie Rose turned to manufacturing and

and many long days and nights we all feel very

importance of continuing to invest in the values

distributing hand sanitiser in response to

proud to have been able to make it happen and

that underpin your business, which in our case

pandemic with an overwhelming response.

a lot of our bar team are really enjoying getting

is innovation, quality and education, all things

How were you able to pivot so quickly to

to know another part of our business.

that helped us move quickly from spirits to

respond?

Amongst it all three weeks ago we received

sanitiser production.

Our switch from producing spirits to

the amazing news that our Rye Malt Whisky

You have championed the arts with several

hand sanitiser happened in line with the

had won the World’s Best Rye Whisky at the

collaborations. Why has art and design played a

government’s bar shutdown in March which

World Whiskies Masters, the most prestigious

key role in the Archie Rose story?

saw the Archie Rose Bar close for anything bar

whisky awards in the world. So that was

takeaway sales, impacting the jobs of our

another massive boost to morale.

Culture and collaboration gives us the opportunity to bring our spirits and the Archie

15 permanent and casual bar team. As a

Rose story to life in very unique and beautiful

distillery we were already lucky to have the

ways. At its core distilling spirits is a science –

required federal licences, approvals and access

but art, creativity, innovation – and of course

to raw materials and expertise so with hand

drinks! – are elements that take our products

sanitiser in short supply and with the wider

from being just technically incredible to

Archie Rose team keen to look at how we could

something that people can really connect with.

re-deploy our bar team ASAP we moved into

What are the key things about National

immediate sanitiser production. We launched

Gallery’s Know My Name initiative that inspired

our first batch of 4500 x 500ml hand sanitiser

your support?

on 23 March which sold out within hours. We’re proud to have produced 101,959 x 500ml equivalent bottles since. In pivoting this way you have not only bolstered

What lessons will the business take forward from this period? We’re really thankful for the support we’ve

We’re proud to have built relationships with various cultural partners that push boundaries and innovate creatively, and Know My Name is a shining example of what we can do to

much-needed health supplies but also managed

received from suppliers, customers and the

support our partners. We’re proud that Know

to save jobs. How has this affected your team

government, and most importantly for people’s

My Name’s values of inclusion and progression

morale?

patience as we navigated the transition from

mirror our own, and so we’re thrilled to

being a spirits and hospitality business to

support the initiative with a new Tailored Gin

of. We’ve now been lucky to add 12 new people

producing hand sanitiser. People’s support

emblazoned with #KNOWMYNAME on the

from the hospitality team to the bottling line

of Archie Rose, together with the resilience

label, in order to throw some serious spirit

which together with our 15 bar staff takes the

and positivity of our team, is something that

behind this important message.

team to 27. So whilst it’s been a massive effort

will continue to drive us – and also shows the

It’s been a really incredible thing to be part

WINTER 2020

The art of giving As Directors of the National Gallery’s Foundation Board, Penelope Seidler and Andrew Lu have generously joined a collective of donors who have supported the Know My Name initiative.

Among the many acquisitions and programs you have supported, you are a generous donor to our Know My Name initiative. What motivated you to be part of this important collective of donors? I was pleased to support Know My Name to increase the prominence of women artists, particularly indigenous artists. The popular perception of the artist is a male, few women are ever in the top ten of the public’s top ten artists. Let’s hope Know My Name can reverse this perception! What is your favourite work of art in the NGA collection, and what does this work mean to you?

PENELOPE SEIDLER AM

I confess that my favourite work at NGA is a gift I made in memory of [late husband] Harry, the Theo van Doesburg Space-time construction #3, 1923; this De Stijl work hung in our house for several years. Harry had admired the work since he saw it at the Museum of Modern Art in 1946; we were excited to be able to purchase it in the 1990s. The NGA’s collection is the appropriate Gallery in Australia to house this seminal work of art as it joined a significant international European collection; I get a special thrill whenever I see it and know it will be treasured.

Penelope Seidler, an architect and visionary arts patron, was a Member of the NGA’s Governing Council from 1984 to 1990 and has been a Director of the Foundation Board since 2000. As a mark of her global art interests, Penelope has sat on the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art in New York since 1973. An inspiring supporter of artists, Penelope notably featured in the major film work Inverso Mundus by Russian artist collective AES+F that was displayed as part of the Gallery’s Hyper Real exhibition in 2017. What inspires you to continue your engagement with the Gallery as a member of its fundraising board? I was involved with the NGA before its opening; I visited the collection at Fyshwick when the art was stored waiting for the building to open. I was at the opening gala and have felt part of the Gallery ever since. I was a member of Council during the 80’s and I have continued my association as a member of the Foundation Board! I enjoy the breadth of collection, the amazing research facilities and the professionalism of the curators. I have been able to contribute and donate to the collection and hope to be able to continue; I am so pleased that its unique collection can be shared by us all.

nga.gov.au

Above: National Gallery Director Nick Mitzevich with Foundation Board Director Penelope Seidler Left: Theo Van Doesburg, Space-time construction #3 1923, drawing, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Penelope Seidler AM in memory of Harry Seidler AC in 2010 Right: Foundation Board Director Dr Andrew Lu

DR ANDREW LU OAM Andrew Lu worked as a lawyer in Canberra prior to moving, together with his husband Geoffrey, to Perth. Andrew has been a Director of the National Gallery’s Foundation Board since 2011 and is a Life Governor of the Foundation and member of the National Gallery’s Bequest Circle. A partner of law firm HBA Legal, Andrew is a committed supporter of contemporary artists and is passionate about music and promotes good governance in the arts. Andrew regularly returns to Canberra to participate in Board meetings and enjoy the National Gallery’s artistic program. What inspires you to continue your engagement with Australia’s National Gallery as a member of its fundraising board? I came to Australia from overseas as a student, so the art in public collections taught me about Australian society, its history, and its place in the world. My first exposure to Indigenous Australians was through their artistic responses to the big issues. This is quite rightly home to the stories of our nation and region. Through touring exhibitions, publications in many forms, and public programmes, the NGA team works diligently to share Australia’s artistic inheritance in an inclusive way. The national collection should be a source of pride for all Australians, but philanthropic support enables the NGA to extend its reach and impact. Moving from Sydney to live for a decade in Canberra gave me the honour of engaging directly with the collection and the team who support it. I have learned much from NGA catalogues, the digital archive, and from drinking in the art. I often walked from my office in the Parliamentary Triangle through the Gallery’s sculpture garden at lunchtime. Returning to the Gallery feels like visiting a friend, and it is good to be able to support a friend.

Among the many acquisitions and programs you have supported, you are a generous donor to our Know My Name initiative. Please tell us what motivated you to be part of this important collective of donors. I grew up with the Chinese saying that ‘women hold up half the sky’, so have always acknowledged the importance of gender equality. Many of the artworks that I live with at home are by outstanding Australian women artists including Joanna Lamb, Gosia Wlodarczak, Jude Rae, Elaine Lane, Rosemary Madigan, Leeanne Crisp and Judy Watson. Theirs are works of quality, artistic integrity, and innovation so their names should be better known. The value of diversity with a focus on quality cannot be overstated. The Foundation Board committed to advance the case for greater representation and acknowledgment of our women artists in a practical way. I am proud to make a tangible contribution to a program of national significance that tackles this issue through education. I encourage others who wish to lead with purpose to honour the women they respect through giving collectively and generously to Know My Name. What is your favourite work of art in the National Gallery’s collection, and what does this work mean to you? It’s hard to go past Jackson Pollock’s Blue poles, 1952. It is a national treasure. It’s probably the only Abstract Expressionist artwork that every Australian can name, and it is always arresting to behold. Its accession represented connoisseurship with vision and ambition. Its acquisition caused a scandal, but t has since proven itself a prudent investment in the cultural life of the nation.

 Know My Name is an initiative that embodies the Gallery’s determination to focus on gender equity across all areas of our operations, including acquisitions, collection displays and special exhibitions. Donations at all levels are welcome and bring us closer to realising our ambitions. For more information on how to contribute, visit: nga.gov.au/giving

WINTER 2020

Donors The National Gallery gratefully acknowledges the support of its many private donors and recognises here all donations made between October 2019 – March 2020. A comprehensive list of all donors in this Financial Year will be included in the Foundation Annual Report. Supporter in Focus The Neilson Foundation has regularly and generously supported the National Gallery of Australia since 2016. Annual grants from the Foundation have been gratefully received and used to present remarkable exhibitions including Monet: Impression Sunrise in 2019 and Cartier: The Exhibition in 2018. Recently, the Neilson Foundation has supported the Know My Name project. The National Gallery is immensely grateful for the ongoing support of The Neilson Foundation, and to all supporters for their gifts that enable us to move forward purposefully in the pursuit of our ambitions.

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Fund Julian Goldenberg and Neta Saint Óscar Pampín Cabanas Art Education Fund Ronald Ramsey Asian Art Fund Maureen Chan Australian Artists Film Fund Philip Bacon AM Damian Roche and Justine Roche Ezekiel Solomon AM Cézanne Watercolour and Drawing Fund Michael Wright and Robyn Wright Conservation Fund Janet Hall Donations to support the National Gallery Maria Magda Damo Janet Lapworth National Gallery of Australia Voluntary Guides Neilson Foundation Read Taylor Price and Zoe Phillips Price Brodie Taylor Education Fund Jan Whyte Exhibition Patrons: Botticelli to Van Gogh Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London Maurice Cashmere Penelope Seidler AM Exhibition Patrons: XU ZHEN®: ETERNITY VS EVOLUTION Dr Judith Neilson AM White Rabbit Collection, Sydney

Foundation Board Publishing Fund

James Fairfax Theatre Fund

Berg Family Foundation Anthony Berg AM Roslyn Packer AC Ray Wilson OAM

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Gala Fund 2020 The Honourable Richard Alston AO Philip Bacon AM Julian Beaumont OAM and Annie Beaumont Berg Family Foundation Anthony Berg AM and Carol Berg Sir Ron Brierley Andrew Buchanan PSM and Kate Buchanan Robyn Burke and Graham Burke AO Burton Taylor Foundation Robert Cadona Andrew Cameron AM and Cathy Cameron Terry Campbell AO Maurice Cashmere Sue Cato Dr Andrew Clouston Marilyn Darling AC Tim Fairfax AC and Gina Fairfax Michael Gannon and Helen Gannon Kerry Gardner AM Julian Goldenberg and Neta Saint Richard Griffin AM and Jay Griffin Bill Hayward and Alison Hayward Sue Hewitt Sam Hill-Smith Meredith Hinchliffe John Hindmarsh AM and Rosanna Hindmarsh OAM Neil Hobbs and Karina Harris Jo Horgan and Peter Wetenhall Mark Hughes Wayne Kratzmann Paul Lindwall and Dr Joanne Frederiksen Andrew Lu OAM Anthony Maple-Brown and Suzanne Maple-Brown Susan Maple-Brown AM Dr Michael Martin and Elizabeth Popovski Fiona Martin-Weber and Tom Hayward Robert Meller Jan Minchin Baillieu Myer AC and Sarah Myer Rupert Myer AO and Annabel Myer Geoffrey Pack and Leigh Pack Roslyn Packer AC Kenneth Reed AM Gary Sands Diane Smith-Gander AO Jane Smyth OAM and Dr Rick Smyth Ezekiel Solomon AM Ryan Stokes and Claire Stokes Sullivan Strumpf Fine Art The Aranday Foundation Urban Art Projects Sally White OAM and Geoffrey White OAM Ray Wilson OAM

John T Reid Outreach Programs John T Reid Charitable Trusts Kenneth Tyler Print Fund American Friends of the National Gallery of Australia, with the generous assistance of Kenneth Tyler AO and Marabeth Cohen-Tyler Know My Name Fund American Friends of the National Gallery of Australia, with the generous assistance of Geoffrey Pack and Leigh Pack Lenore Adamson Judith Avery Kate Clark Penny Clive AO Sue Dyer and Steve Dyer Gandel Philanthropy Liz Hilton Colin Hindmarsh and Barbara Hindmarsh Mark Hughes The Keir Foundation Annette Lock Andrew Lu OAM and Dr Geoffrey Lancaster AM Anthony Medich and Juliana Medich Penelope Seidler AM Grace Sinclair Ryan Stokes and Claire Stokes Neilson Foundation Emeritus Professor Barbara van Ernst AM Wendy Webb Rhonda White AO Ray Wilson OAM Kerry Gardner AM Members Acquisition Fund 2018-19 Isabelle Arnaud Wendy E Cobcroft Greg Cornwell AM and Margaret Cornwell Julia Ermert Gillian Gould Dr David Pfanner and Dr Ruth Pfanner Colin Rea Penelope Seidler AM Alison Smith Jan Santos Robert and Eugenie Bell Decorative Arts and Design Fund Maxine Armitage in memory of Valita Muldins Michael Bogle and Peta Landman Rotary Fund Rotary Club of Belconnen Sculpture Garden Fund

Gifts of works of art

Jane Smyth OAM and Dr Rick Smyth

David Dridan OAM Richard Gate Dr Pamela Faye McGrath

Travelling Exhibitions Fund Mary Ann Gamutan Treasure a Textile Fund Dr Maxine Rochester

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WINTER 2020

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Director’s Choice: Foggy wake in a desert A personal highlight from the collection by Nick Mitzevich.

Outside of art, my other passion is nature and growing things in my

realise that it was a sculpture – I just thought it was a Canberra winter.

garden. So Fujiko Nakaya’s Foggy wake in a desert: An ecosphere 1976/82

But I was mesmerised and tantalised by the fog. I loved that it felt special

– better known as the fog sculpture – has special personal resonance

without realising it was art, and then when I realised it was art it made

for me.

it more special.

Even though it is manufactured, the fog sculpture feels like a living

When I met the artist Fujiko Nakaya over afternoon tea in my office

organism because it has an amazing life cycle. For a short period every

on International Women’s Day in 2019, it was the first time she had seen

day it comes to life in our Sculpture Garden, the fine mist slowly rolling

her work installed in the Garden. Fujiko is now 87-years-old and she was

across the path and over the pond, on a sunny day invariably dancing

touched to see it so beautifully sited in the National Gallery. She referred

through rays of sunlight streaming between the trees.

to the sculpture as her daughter, and the meeting as a family reunion.

What I love about this sculpture is that it makes me a part of it: when

Fujiko told me she was glad she hadn’t seen it until then because all

I stand in the middle of the fog I can feel it, touch it, experience it, be

the trees had time to grow and provide the beautiful backdrop to her

completely enveloped in it; it makes me feel alive. It is the same feeling

sculpture, she appreciated the years it took to make the sculpture feel at

I get when I stand in nature.

home in the Garden.

I remember this work specifically from one of my first visits to the Gallery because I took a walk through the Garden and didn’t initially

The fog sculpture brings together my love of nature and art, that is why it is one of my favourite works.

WINTER 2020

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Artonview 102

Articles inside

THE ART OF GIVING Directors of the National Gallery’s Foundation Board

PARTNERSHIPS

GARDEN OF TREASURES The history and highlights of our Sculpture Garden

A CHAPTER IN PRINT Retiring Senior Curator Roger Butler reflects on helping founding Director James Mollison form the print collection

VALE JAMES MOLLISON, AO

POLES APART

LOANS IN LOCKDOWN What happens when an artwork on loan is temporarily stranded in lockdown?

COVID ON COUNTRY Coronavirus has left an economic, social and emotional impact on vulnerable Indigenous communities and their arts centres

OUT OF THE BLUE

WHEN VIRTUAL BECOMES REALITY Jess Johnson, in New York, and Simon Ward, in New Zealand, collaborated virtually during lockdown

CREATION IN ISOLATION From embracing TikTok and producing art on toilet paper to virtual galleries, how some Australian artists responded to the pandemic

NEW ACQUISITIONS

DIRECTOR’S WORD

HEART IN THE DARKNESS Bill Henson, who released new works of a pre-pandemic Rome during lockdown, talks isolation and artistic process

#MUSEUMFROMHOME

ART CLASS

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED The Vincent family became an Instagram

EDITOR’S LETTER

APPLAUSE Artist Angelica Mesiti, who spent the lockdown in her home studio in Paris, reflects on connection in isolation