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ISSUE No.51 SPRING 2007
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N AT I O N A L G A L L E RY O F A U S T R A L I A
Richard Bell Australian art it’s an Aboriginal thing 2006 synthetic polymer paint on canvas Acquired 2006 TarraWarra Museum of Art collection courtesy the artist and Bellas Milani Gallery
13 October 2007 – 10 February 2008 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra CELEBRATING¬ ¬YEARS
A National Gallery of Australia Travelling Exhibition
The National Gallery of Australia is an Australian Government agency
nga.gov.au/NIAT07
Sculpture Gallery • ROBERT Rauschenberg • Ocean to Outback
OC E A N to OUTBACK
Australian landscape painting 1850 –1950 The National Gallery of Australia’s 25th Anniversary Travelling Exhibition
1 September 2007 – 27 January 2008 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Proudly supported by the National Gallery of Australia Council Exhibition Fund
CELEBRATING¬ ¬YEARS Russell Drysdale Emus in a landscape 1950 (detail) oil on canvas National Gallery of Australia, Canberra © Estate of Russell Drysdale
nga.gov.au/Rauschenberg
This exhibition is supported by the Embassy of the United States of America
Robert Rauschenberg Publicon – Station I from the Publicons series enamel on wood, collaged laminated silk and cotton, gold leafed paddle, light bulb, perspex, enamel on polished aluminium National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1979 © Robert Rauschenberg Licensed by VAGA and VISCOPY, Australia, 2007
The National Gallery of Australia is an Australian Government agency
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Director’s foreword
Publisher National Gallery of Australia nga.gov.au
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Development office
Editor Jeanie Watson
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A new gallery for sculpture: wood, stone, metal, glass
Designer MA@D Communication
14 Pacific arts in the Gallery
Photography Eleni Kypridis Barry Le Lievre Brenton McGeachie Steve Nebauer John Tassie
20 The ‘big guns’ of Culture Warriors
Designed and produced in Australia by the National Gallery of Australia Printed in Australia by Pirion Printers, Canberra artonview issn 1323-4552 Published quarterly: Issue no. 51, Spring 2007 © National Gallery of Australia Print Post Approved pp255003/00078 All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited. The opinions expressed in artonview are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher.
26 Robert Rauschenberg 1967–1978 34 Black robe, white mist: art of the Japanese Buddhist nun Rengetsu 40 Ocean to Outback: Australian landscape painting 1850–1950 48 Collection focus: Ricketts photography collection 54 New acquisitions 66 Drawn in 68 Faces in view 70 Travelling exhibitions
Submissions and correspondence should be addressed to: The editor, artonview National Gallery of Australia GPO Box 1150 Canberra ACT 2601 artonview.editor@nga.gov.au Advertising (02) 6240 6587 facsimile (02) 6240 6427 artonview.advertising@nga.gov.au RRP: $8.60 includes GST Free to members of the National Gallery of Australia For further information on National Gallery of Australia Membership contact: Coordinator, Membership GPO Box 1150 Canberra ACT 2601 (02) 6240 6504 membership@nga.gov.au
front cover: Giorgio de Chirico La Mort d’un esprit [Death of a spirit] 1916 oil on canvas 36.0 x 33.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased with the assistance of Harold and Bevelly Mitchell, Rupert and Annabel Myer and the NGA Foundation © Giorgio de Chirico Licensed by VISCOPY, Australia, 2007
direc tor’s foreword
Director Ron Radford with Senator the Hon. George Brandis SC, Minister for the Arts and Sport, who opened the successful George W Lambert exhibition (closes 16 September 2007)
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Activity around the Gallery this year has been building up towards the twenty-fifth anniversary on 12, 13 and 14 October. It will culminate in a gala weekend of celebrations, including the launch of the National Indigenous Art Triennial and an open day welcoming people to help recognise a quarter of a century of art and inspiration. The Gallery’s twenty-fifth anniversary year is a celebration of our magnificent past and more recent acquisitions, our excellent exhibitions and programs, the recent refurbishment and radical refocusing of our collection displays and, of course, the commencement of our building redevelopment. Stage one has recently begun. I am pleased to announce four very significant new acquisitions in celebration of our twenty-fifth anniversary. La Mort d’un esprit [Death of a spirit] 1916 is an early work by Giorgio de Chirico, an important Metaphysical artist who had a profound effect on Surrealism. This is the Gallery’s first early European modernist painting acquired in fifteen years. We have been searching for a work of this kind for some time and it is especially valuable for us to find one produced in Europe at a crucial period during the First World War. It is one of only two de Chirico works held in the country and the only early one. We acknowledge the financial assistance of Harold and Bevelly Mitchell and Rupert and Annabel Myer along with the Gallery’s
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Foundation for this major acquisition. It is featured on the cover of this issue of artonview. The second important acquisition, mentioned briefly in the last issue of the magazine, is Max Ernst’s Habakuk 1934/1970. The giant black creature presides over the National Australia Bank Sculpture Gallery, its four-and-ahalf-metre form appearing to change as you approach it. The knife-thin head, the eyes on stalks and the flowerpotlike body seem to rotate in a cylinder. The Gallery holds Ernst’s private collection of Indigenous art, which was so influential on Surrealism. Habakuk is a significant example of his work as a Surrealist artist and by far his largest work. The National Australia Bank generously helped us purchase the sculpture for the collection. The third major acquisition is from India and is the Gallery’s earliest image of the Buddha. The superb and imposing early Indian sculpture is a cornerstone for the Gallery’s ability to introduce visitors to the development of Buddhist art in India and beyond. The bold red sandstone seated Buddha from the second century Kushan centre of Mathura sits marvellously – physically and art historically – between the aniconic symbolism of our rare Amaravati marble panel depicting the life of the Buddha and the recently purchased large Gandharan Head of a bodhisattva with its strong Hellenic influence. We are enormously grateful for the generous assistance of Council member Roslyn Packer in this purchase. The fourth important acquisition is Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri’s Warlugulong 1977, a seminal work by this pioneer of Papunya Tula painting of Central Australia. Although the Gallery holds the largest Aboriginal art collection, we have lacked a significant work by Clifford Possum. Warlugulong will be on permanent display in our main Central Desert room of the new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander wing. A more detailed essay about this work will appear in the next issue of artonview along with the announcement of other significant twenty-fifth anniversary acquisitions. The new Pacific Arts Gallery is now open to the public and features a number of spectacular works collected in the late 1960s and early 1970s alongside some recent acquisitions. Highlights include an imposing carved house post figure from the Sawos people, near the Sepik River, New Guinea, purchased in 1969. Conservation has recently removed a layer of dirt to reveal an orange, yellow and black painted face design. All too often the names of the spirits associated with traditional art from the Pacific were
neglected. However, this is a very rare instance when a work can be re-associated with its identity. We have been fortunate to learn more about this particular piece through an original photograph held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art which has the personal name of the figure written on the reverse: ‘Mogulapan’. Another particularly noteworthy work in the Pacific Arts Gallery is the figure of a man wearing a distinctly western hat yet also wearing Indigenous adornments. This figure, a recent acquisition from the Anthony Forge collection, is the only known portrait of an Australian undertaken by a New Guinean artist during the early twentieth century. Also featured is a refined and masterful stone pestle that exhibits a rare clarity of form for a daily utensil from any culture in the world. It comes from a little known prehistoric culture in New Guinea and is very likely to be 3500 years old, produced during the same era as the Gallery’s iconic Ambum stone which is also on display. Both stoneworks from New Guinea are the most ancient works in the Gallery’s large collection. The inaugural National Indigenous Art Triennial opens in October with the title Culture Warriors. This innovative exhibition, very generously sponsored by BHP Billiton, will be a permanent event in the Australian and international art calendar. Works selected for the Triennial have been
created within the past three years and provide a highly considered snapshot of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander contemporary art practice. The exhibition features the work of thirty-one artists and encompasses a wide range of media including painting on canvas and bark, sculpture, textiles, weaving, new media, photo-media, printmaking, and installation work. Spring sees the opening of Robert Rauschenberg, our latest temporary exhibition in the Orde Poynton Gallery. Robert Rauschenberg entered the New York art world in 1950 at a time when Abstract Expressionism was at its peak. Working outside the restrictions imposed by media, style and convention, he adopted a unique experimental methodology that paved the way for a number of subsequent movements, including Pop Art. His invention of ‘combines’ and unique photo-collage and image transfer practices made him one of the most influential figures of the postwar period. This exhibition is supported by the Embassy of the United States of America. Another new exhibition is Black robe, white mist: art of the Japanese Buddhist nun Rengetsu. The tragic life of Rengetsu (1791–1875), whose name translates as Lotus Moon, inspired extraordinary creativity. One of a very few successful professional female artists of nineteenth-century Japan, Rengetsu was primarily a poet and calligrapher artonview
Rupert Myer AM, Chairman of the National Gallery of Australia Council, Steven Münchenberg, National Australia Bank, and Director Ron Radford contemplate the new acquisition, Max Ernst’s Habakuk, purchased with the assistance of the National Australia Bank
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but also excelled in pottery and scroll painting. Largely drawn from international private collections, Black robe, white mist shows contemplative works of paper and clay inscribed with Rengetsu’s elegant poetry and understated calligraphy. Her work reflects the beauty of the imperfect and unconventional. This is the first time a major museum exhibition on her work has been staged outside Japan. The major travelling exhibition for the Gallery’s twentyfifth anniversary year, Ocean to Outback: Australian landscapes 1850–1950, has been curated by me specifically for the smaller galleries around Australia. Concentrating on the dynamic century of Australian landscape painting from the colonial 1850s and gold rush era to the period immediately following the Second World War, the exhibition features many of the Gallery’s treasured Australian landscapes alongside some fine but lesser known works from the national collection which have been especially cleaned and appropriately reframed for the exhibition. Ocean to Outback is truly national, travelling to and including images of every state and territory – from urban and suburban landscapes to outback and coastal views. The exhibition, sponsored by RM Williams, is accompanied by a substantial and very accessible fully illustrated catalogue. Internationally, as part of the Gallery’s anniversary celebrations, an exhibition of Australian art will be displayed at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, USA, in October. The show, Andy and Oz: parallel visions, curated by Tom Sokolowski, Director of the Andy Warhol Museum and Deborah Hart, Senior Curator, Australian Painting and Sculpture (after 1920), coincides with a festival of Australian culture, and focuses on the work of Australian artists whose art has affinities with renowned American artist Andy Warhol. The Australian artists cross several generations and include works from the 1970s through to the present day. Artists such as Martin Sharp, Richard Larter, Tracey Moffatt, Juan Davila, Fiona Hall, Christian Thompson and Tim Horn will be featured. The works in the exhibition will be drawn predominantly from the Gallery’s collection. Some parallels between these artists’ works and Andy Warhol’s art are immediately apparent, while others are totally unexpected and surprising. This exciting event will provide a greater awareness of significant Australian art and artists internationally. We are grateful to Ann Lewis AM, Henry Gillespie and Penelope Seidler for their generous support of the exhibition.
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Finally, I am pleased to announce the release of Printed images by Australian artists 1885–1955 by Roger Butler, the second volume in our series of publications on the history of printing in Australia. It is as splendid as the first volume, Printed images in colonial Australia 1801–1901. The third volume, which deals with contemporary printmaking, will be released later this year. The celebrations for our twenty-fifth year won’t stop in October! Keep an eye out for more twenty-fifth anniversary events and major acquisitions throughout the year.
Ron Radford
credit lines The following donations have been received as part of the National Gallery of Australia’s Twenty-fifth Anniversary Gift Program. Donations Aranday Foundation Myer Foundation Rotary Belconnen Sheila Bignell Roslynne Bracher John Calvert-Jones AM and Janet Calvert-Jones Patrick Corrigan AM David Craddock The Curran Family Foundation Ferris Family Foundation Jane Flecknoe Henry Gillespie June P Gordon Rolf Harris AM OBE MBE Maree Heffernan His Excellency Major General Michael Jeffery AC CVO MC Lou Klepac Ann Lewis AM Robert and Susie Maple-Brown Harold Mitchell AO and Bevelly Mitchell Charles Nodrum Roslyn Packer AO Jennifer Prescott and John Prescott AC Maxine Rochester Penelope Seidler Morna E Vellacott The National Gallery of Australia Foundation would like to thank the family, friends and colleagues of Philippa Winn (NGA Educator 1996–2005) who have contributed to the Philippa Winn Memorial Acquisition. Gifts and Bequests From the collection of Sir Francis Aglen (1869–1932). Given in memory of his daughter and their mother, Mrs Marion Hutton, by Peronelle Windeyer, Margaret Hutton, Jeremy Hutton and John Hutton Gift of Allan Behm and Rhyan Bloor Gift of Sue and Ian Bernadt Gift of Christopher and Philip Constable in memory of their mother Esther Constable Gift of Antony de Jong, grandson of the artist on behalf of The Duldig Studio Gift of the artist, Ruth Faerber Gift of Sara Kelly Gift of Mrs Ineke Kolder-Wicks Gift of Corbett Lyon and Yeuji Lyon Collection of Australian Contemporary Art, Melbourne Gift of Colonel NH Marshall, in memory of Prue Marshall Gift of the artist, Tracey Moffatt The Poynton Bequest Gift of Kenneth Tyler and Marabeth Cohen-Tyler in memory of Harry Seidler Gift of Dr Beverley Wood
Masterpieces for the Nation Fund 2007 In memory of Pixie Parsons (nee Roper) David Adams Ross Adamson Robert Albert AO Peter and Gillian Alderson Robert C Allmark Bill Anderson Susan Armitage Stuart Babbage Belinda Barrett Peter Boxall AO and Karen Chester Dr Berenice-Eve Calf Diana Colman in memory of her husband James Austin Colman Joan Daley OAM Winifred Davson MBE Maxwell Dickens Rosemary Dunn Tony Eastaway Peter Eddington and Joy Williams Brian Fitzpatrick Dr R and Mrs A Fleming Bill Galloway in memory of Ann Maria Paget Neilma Gantner Pauline M Griffin Aileen Hall Bill Hamilton Cheryl Hannah Natasha Hardy Karina Harris and Neil Hobbs John Harrison Ann Healey in memory of her husband David Healey Elizabeth Heard Shirley Hemmings Janet D Hine Rev Theodora Hobbs Joanne Glory Hooper Rev Bill Huff-Johnston and Rosemary Huff-Johnston Elspeth Humphries Dr Anthea Hyslop Fr WGA Jack Chris Johnson and Ann Parkinson Pamela V Kenny Dr Peter Kenny King O’Malley’s Sir Richard Kingsland AO CBE DFC Robyn Lance Paul and Beryl Legge Wilkinson Judith MacIntyre Jennifer J Manton Simon McGill Diana McRobbie in memory of her sister-in-law, Andrea Gibson McRobbie Joyce McRobbie in memory of her daughter-in-law, Andrea Gibson McRobbie Eveline Milne Joananne Mulholland and David Rivers
W Newbigin Susan S Rogers Roslyn Russell, Museum Services Heather G Shakespeare George and Irene Skilton EJ Smith Wendy Smith Barry Smith-Roberts Ann Somers Prof. Ken and Maggie Taylor H Neil Truscott AM Chris van Reesch Snr Diana Walder OAM Joy Warren OAM, Director, Solander Gallery The Hon. E Gough Whitlam AC QC Y Wildash Muriel Wilkinson Tessa and Simon Wooldridge We would also like to thank the numerous anonymous donors who have donated to the Masterpieces for the Nation Fund 2007. Grants Australia Council for the Arts through the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Board, Visual Arts Board and Community Partnerships & Market Development (International) Board Australia–Japan Foundation Australian Government through Visions of Australia Japan Foundation (Tokyo) Arts NT through the Northern Territory Government’s Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts Queensland Government (Australia), through the Queensland Indigenous Arts Marketing and Export Agency (QIAMEA) Arts Partnership Program of Department of Premier and Cabinet Sponsorship NAB BHP Billiton ActewAGL Qantas Embassy of the United States of America Hindmarsh R.M.Williams, The Bush Outfitter Yalumba O’Leary Walker Wines Lambert Vineyards Casella Wines Forrest Inn and Apartments Gordon Darling Foundation Saville Park Suites WIN Television artonview
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development of fice
The National Gallery of Australia acknowledges and thanks the government and corporate supporters involved in our major twenty-fifth anniversary exhibitions, acquisitions and education and public programs.
Culture Warriors: National Indigenous Art Triennial The inaugural National Indigenous Art Triennial features a range of contemporary Australian Indigenous art practice and pays tribute to a key group of dedicated and important artists – in particular those whose respective careers span the four decades since the 1967 Referendum (Aboriginals). In recognition of the national significance of the exhibition, the following organisations have provided their support, along with that of principal sponsor BHP Billiton. Visions of Australia Visions of Australia is an Australian Government program supporting touring exhibitions by providing funding assistance for the development and touring of Australian cultural material across Australia. The National Gallery of Australia is very proud of its longstanding relationship with Visions of Australia which has seen fifteen travelling exhibitions visit 110 venues throughout regional, remote and metropolitan Australia over a period of twelve years. Culture Warriors: National Indigenous Art Triennial has been granted funds under Round 4 of the Contemporary Touring Initiative through Visions of Australia, an Australian Government program, and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian Government and state and territory governments. Australia Council for the Arts The Australia Council for the Arts, through its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Board, Visual Arts Board and Community Partnerships and Market Development (International) Board, has generously provided funding support. Arts NT Arts NT, through the Northern Territory Government’s Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts, has provided support to artists and writers with cultural links to the Northern Territory to travel to Canberra for the opening of the exhibition and to participate in associated education and public programs. Queensland Indigenous Art Marketing Export Agency The exhibition has been generously supported by the Queensland Government (Australia), through the Queensland Indigenous Arts Marketing and Export Agency 6
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(QIAMEA) Arts Partnership Program of Department of Premier and Cabinet. The exhibition and the accompanying catalogue include ten Indigenous artists and five writers with cultural links to Queensland.
Ocean to Outback: Australian landscape painting 1850–1950 This bold and generous twenty-fifth anniversary initiative aims to ensure that people across Australia have access to the treasures of the national collection. The exhibition will travel to Tamworth, Hobart, Mount Gambier, Ballarat, Perth, Cairns, Alice Springs, Newcastle and Canberra. R.M.Williams, The Bush Outfitter We welcome R.M.Williams, The Bush Outfitter as a valued sponsor of the Gallery’s twenty-fifth anniversary travelling exhibition, Ocean to Outback: Australian landscape painting 1850–1950. This is a historic partnership between two iconic Australian organisations that will see fifty-eight important landscape paintings travel 18,500 km over a nineteen-month period to every state and territory in the country. It is a project that goes to the heart of the Gallery’s mandate of being truly national and the generous support of R.M.Williams (celebrating their seventy-fifth anniversary) has ensured that people in regional, remote and metropolitan Australia will have access to the treasures of their national collection. Visions of Australia In Round 28, Visions of Australia also granted funds to tour Ocean to Outback. The National Gallery of Australia Council Exhibitions Fund The fund has generously sponsored the national tour of Ocean to Outback.
Black robe, white mist: art of the Japanese Buddhist nun Rengetsu Australia–Japan Foundation and Japan Foundation (Tokyo) The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through the Australia–Japan Foundation and the Japan Foundation
(Tokyo) through its Japan Foundation Exhibitions Abroad Support Program have both generously contributed funds to the exhibition and publication, Black robe, white mist: art of the Japanese Buddhist nun Rengetsu. Their support ensures that the work of this important nineteenth-century Japanese artist will reach a new and broader Australian audience.
Andy and Oz: Parallel Visions This exhibition is a collaborative project between the
Philippa Winn Memorial Acquisition Friends, family and colleagues of Philippa Winn, National Gallery Educator (1996–2005), have been very generous in their donation of funds to acquire a work of art for the national collection. Philippa was greatly admired and respected as an educator and for her ability to present and develop creative education and public programs at the Gallery.
(left to right) The Hon. Mark Vaile MP, Deputy Prime Minister, Leader of the Nationals and Minister for Transport and Regional Services; Rupert Myer AM (Chairman of NGA Council) and Ken Cowley AO, Chairman of R.M.Williams, The Bush Outfitter at the media launch of Ocean to Outback: Australian landscape painting 1850– 1950, the National Gallery of Australia’s 25th Anniversary Travelling Exhibition
Corporate Members Program
National Gallery of Australia and The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, USA, that will be the National
We are grateful to and thank the following for their
Gallery’s twenty-fifth anniversary international exhibition.
continued corporate support: Casella Wines Pty Limited,
The work of four generations of Australian artists who
The Brassey of Canberra, The Forrest Inn and Apartments
have been inspired by the famous artist, Andy Warhol, will
and Saville Park Suites. We formally welcome Lambert
be brought together and exhibited at The Andy Warhol
Wines, Yalumba Wines, O’Leary Walker Wines, and JQ Pty
Museum as part of the Australia Festival in Pittsburgh this
Limited to the Corporate Members program and thank
October. We are grateful to Qantas, which has generously
them for their generous support of the National Gallery’s
provided sponsorship to this exhibition, with support from
Twenty-fifth Anniversary Program and the Decorative Arts
Ann Lewis AM, Penelope Seidler and Henry Gillespie.
and Design Fund respectively.
Robert Rauschenberg 1967–1978
Twenty-fifth Anniversary Gift Program and
We welcome the generous support of the Embassy of
Masterpieces for the Nation Fund 2007
the United States of America towards the exhibition,
Our thanks go to all the donors who have generously
Robert Rauschenberg 1967–1978, which draws together
donated to both the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Gift Program
works from the Gallery’s rich collection of prints and
and the Masterpieces for the Nation Fund for 2007.
multiples and features the artist’s innovative printmaking
For further information please contact the NGA
processes from the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s.
Foundation Office on (02) 6240 6454. artonview
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national australia bank sculpture galler y
A new gallery for sculpture: wood, stone, metal, glass
Constantin Brancusi L’Oiseau dans l’espace [Bird in space] 1931–36 white marble, limestone ‘collar’, sandstone base overall 318.1 x 42.5 (diameter) cm and L’Oiseau dans l’espace [Bird in space] c.1931–36 black marble, white marble ‘collar’, sandstone base overall 328.4 x 51.4 (diameter) cm Purchased 1973
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On the evening of 22 May 2007 the National Gallery of Australia opened its new sculpture gallery, generously sponsored by the National Australia Bank. A range of works by American, European, Australian and Indigenous artists are on show. When the Gallery opened in October 1982, this impressive space originally showed sculpture from the modern collection. It again features masterpieces including Brancusi’s two Birds in space placed in a calm reflecting pool. The architects have created a beautiful and generous space, where light falls softly onto the works of art. Every season and every time of day is marked by changing light, which alters our perceptions of the sculptures. Made from traditional materials, often in unconventional ways, the works on show are created by carving and casting, assembled from found objects or even manufactured by industrial processes. Donald Judd’s untitled brass boxes of 1974, for example, replicate the exact geometry and uniformity of modern factory products. Their shiny, regulated march across the floor reflects and refracts their surroundings, which include the feet of visitors and the beautiful smoky grey tiles of the renewed slate flooring.
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Rocks and mirror square II 1971 unites a clean, crisp construction of factory-made mirrored glass with rough, hard rocks picked up in the countryside by the artist. Robert Smithson’s installation – which like Judd’s is placed directly onto the floor – hugs the ground, striving to merge into it and levitate at the same time. In his Suspended stone wallpiece 1976, Ken Unsworth uses river stones, made round through erosion over time, each tied up with thin wire. The rocks form a semicircle above the floor, which seems to defy the laws of physics. Stone becomes lighter than air. The most common manifestation of wood on show in the gallery is not carved, but roughly hewn or found objects, painted rather than raw or varnished. Louise Bourgeois made her sculpture originally between 1941 and 1948, and covered it with red and black paint. She talked of its genesis: as children, she and her brother hid under a table and watched their parents’ legs as they walked to and fro. The work’s meaning changed in 1979 when Bourgeois repainted it salmon pink and renamed it C.O.Y.O.T.E. after the prostitutes’ rights campaign ‘Call off your old tired ethics’.
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(left to right) Jannis Kounellis Untitled 1990 (detail) three steel panels, clothes and beams each 200.0 x 181.0 x 25.0 cm Purchased 1992; Louise Bourgeois C.O.Y.O.T.E. 1941–48 painted wood 137.4 x 214.5 x 28.9 cm Purchased 1981; Robert Klippel No. 757 painted wood construction 1988–89 painted wood 253.0 x 171.0 x 146.0 cm Purchased 1989; Donald Judd Untitled 1974 brass each 101.6 x 101.6 x 101.6 cm Purchased 1975; Anselm Kiefer La Vie secrète des plantes [The secret life of plants] 2002 lead, oil, chalk, pigment 195.0 x 300.0 (diameter) cm Purchased 2003; Robert Smithson Rocks and mirror square II 1971 basalt rocks and mirrors 36.0 x 220.0 x 220.0 cm Purchased 1977; Anselm Kiefer Abendland [Twilight of the West] 1989 lead sheet, synthetic polymer paint, ash, plaster, cement, earth, varnish on canvas and wood 400.0 x 380.0 x 12.0 cm Purchased 1989
Both Robert Klippel and Rosalie Gascoigne collected and re-used wooden objects. Klippel plays with architectonic elements in No. 757 Painted wood construction 1988–89 to create a new reality, based on manufactured things but now useful only as art. The weatherbeaten panels of Gascoigne’s Plenty 1986 are made of recycled box slats. The installation shines on a dull grey concrete wall, its golden hues and title perhaps implying fields of wheat or blond grass stretching out before our eyes. The earliest work on display is Elie Nadelman’s Horse c. 1911–15, which seems to gallop into the gallery. The animal’s sturdy body, carved from white plaster, balances on its absurdly delicate thoroughbred legs. The modernist sculptor’s impulse to pure form is taken to its ultimate abstract end in Brancusi’s black marble and white marble Birds in space of 1931–36. They embody the idea of flight, an upward striving which separates the earthbound from the free. Purchased from the sculptor by the Maharajah of Indore, the works were originally meant to be installed in a pavilion designed by Brancusi. Their current placement on simple geometric sandstone bases in a silent pool is based on a similar idea of contemplation and reflection.
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Combining stone and metal is unusual, because of possible contradictions between the methods of carving or casting employed by the sculptor. Anthony Caro’s Duccio variations no. 7 2000 is a promised gift from Ken Tyler and Maribeth Cohen through the American Friends of the Australian National Gallery. When Caro was invited to respond to a painting in the collection of the National Gallery, London, he made seven works in different materials. Each was based on Duccio’s Annunciation 1311, but responds to the painter’s depiction of architecture rather than the traditional subject. Here Caro assembles a new altarpiece with pieces of golden sandstone and found metal objects, painted gunmetal grey-blue. Max Ernst’s giant bronze Habakuk is a major new acquisition, purchased with the help of the National Australia Bank. It is a curious figure, conjuring up thoughts of birds, or reptiles, even partly machine or human. Ernst was a major Surrealist sculptor: this is a large version of an original work which he made in plaster in 1934, and reworked later that decade. A small edition in this size was authorised by the artist in 1970. His alter-ego was a birdman called Loplop. Habakuk’s body was created from casts of flowerpots, stacked on top of and inside one another.
Ernst then added a head, consisting of a giant tilted bill and eyes. At the foot of the figure is a third eye, and the plinth also bears a negative impression of another. Together these stand for inward and outward vision, forming a veiled reference to the biblical prophet Habakuk, for whom the sculpture is named. An untitled triptych by Jannis Kounellis from 1990 combines hard-grade steel panels with I-beams used in building construction and pieces of men’s clothing. It serves as a contemporary crucifixion, implying Christ’s absent body, as well as the Trinity, by a man’s coat, jacket and trousers. The three parts also refer to conventional medieval and Renaissance iconography, the painted altarpiece with two wings around a central panel. The clothes provoke a more recent memory, that of the great post-war artist Joseph Beuys, whose use of men’s jackets, as well as felt and fat, haunts contemporary art. References to the natural world include a new sculpture by Glen Farmer Illortaminni, Jongijongini [Egret] 2005–06. Bronze is an unusual choice of material for a Tiwi artist, but the bird’s essentialised form, as with Brancusi’s birds and Nadelman’s horse, is conveyed by combining intense observation with artistic simplification. Maria Fernanda
Cardoso uses the remains of real starfish in her installation Woven water: submarine landscape II 2003, where delicate, porous white skeletons float above the viewer, suspended on almost-invisible wires. Bronwyn Oliver weaves a similarly fragile web in Clasp 2006 and Garland 2006, but her medium is metal. Originally taken from the earth, the wire is forged and remade into forms analogous to nature’s. The only artist with two objects in the Sculpture Gallery is Anselm Kiefer, a German who now lives in France. Kiefer’s artistic practice centres on encounters with his country’s history and universal moral choices. His magisterial Twilight of the West 1990 combines embossed lead sheeting with oil paint and plaster below, depicting railway tracks leading into a desolate landscape. References include the soft, poisonous and alchemical metal lead, the impression of a manhole cover representing the sun, the Nazis’ use of trains to transport people to death camps, while the German title ‘Abendland’ implies the sun setting on civilisation. In his massive book The secret life of plants 2002, Kiefer obscures the possibility of anyone reading this tome inscribed with oil paint, chalk and pigments. The sculpture has a secret life of its own. As Shaun Lakin artonview
(left to right) Klippel No. 757 painted wood construction 1988–89; Kounellis Untitled 1990; Max Ernst Habakuk 1934/70, cast 1995–98 bronze 449.9 x 162.9 x 162.9 cm Purchased with the assistance of the National Australia Bank; Ken Unsworth Suspended stone wallpiece 1976 river stones, steel wire 215.0 x 140.0 x 104.5 cm Purchased 1976; Anthony Caro Duccio variations no.7 2000 sandstone and steel 189.5 x 198.0 x 103.0 cm On loan from Kenneth Tyler and Marabeth Cohen-Tyler
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(opposite, left to right) Kiefer La Vie secrète des plantes [The secret life of plants] 2002; Smithson Rocks and mirror square II 1971; Kiefer Abendland [Twilight of the West] 1989
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(left to right) Brancusi Birds in space 1931–36; Cy Twombly Untitled 1987–2004 bronze, no. 4 from an edition of six 368.3 x 88.9 x 34.3 cm Purchased 2006 with the generous assistance of Roslyn Packer and members of the NGA Foundation: John Kaldor and Naomi Milgrom, Julie Kantor, Andrew Rogers; Kounellis Untitled 1990 (detail); Bourgeois C.O.Y.O.T.E. 1941–48
has remarked, it is named after a 1973 book by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird which investigates the physical, emotional and spiritual relations between plants, humans and the universe. Another contemporary artist who cogitates on questions of culture and history is the American Cy Twombly, who has lived and worked in Italy for the last fifty-five years. As well as paintings and drawings, Twombly makes sculptures. They are often assembled from industrial metal, plastic or wooden objects, then painted white and occasionally cast in bronze in small editions. Untitled 2005, one of an edition of six, has a unique patina, or surface treatment, of mottled pale grey-green. The patina has something of the quality of lichen covering gravestones in a shady cemetery, which is appropriate as it serves as a kind of memorial to a friend of the artist. Inscribed on the base are the words ‘In memory of Dominique Bozo’, who was head of the Pompidou Centre until his premature death in 1993. But ‘Victory’ is also written high on the work. It has a sail form, and a rectangular base, and stands the same height as a classical Greek sculpture in the Louvre, the Victory of Samothrace. She was the goddess of victory. The equivocal nature of death and memory is recalled when we consider that Admiral Nelson won the Battle of Trafalgar from his flagship – and was fatally wounded on board – the Victory. Returning sculpture to the grand, meditative space of the lower level, now known as the National Australia Bank Sculpture Gallery, hopefully restores the original intention of the National Gallery’s founders to showcase sculpture as a central part of the collection, and to display it as a powerful and extraordinary medium of modern art. a Christine Dixon Senior Curator, International Painting and Sculpture
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pacific ar t s galler y
Pacific arts in the Gallery
Raharuhi Rukupo Aotearoa [New Zealand], North Island, Manutuke, Rongowhakaata people Figure from a house post [poutokomanawa] c. 1825–1840 (detail) wood, natural pigments 79.7 x 26.5 x 20.2 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1981
14 national gallery of australia
The National Gallery has a long history in bringing the arts of the non-Western world to its visitors – from Indian miniature paintings to faïence figures from Ancient Egypt. However, until recently, the Pacific Arts collection remained perhaps the least known of the world’s many spheres of art to our visitors. With the opening of the new Pacific Arts Gallery in July, some of the finest Pacific artworks in Australia, dating from around 3500 years ago to the midtwentieth century, are now on display. The origins of the collection stem from 1968 when the first item – a wood sculpture of a Papua New Guinean woman wearing a rain cape – was purchased from a Sydney art dealer by acting chairperson for the Commonwealth Advisory Board, Sir William Dargie. In broad geographic terms, the Pacific Arts collection encompasses around one-third of the world’s surface and is divided into three main areas: Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia. Within each of these areas exist many unique cultures, some sustained by less than 100 people and each with their own artistic forms of expression. Melanesia is by far the most diverse area of the collection, with works from New Caledonia, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and the great landmass of Papua New Guinea where more than 800 languages are spoken. Given the diversity of Papua New Guinea’s Indigenous cultures, its proximity to Australia and the long and entwined history we share, it is not surprising that a greater portion of the collection is from Papua New Guinea. The next area of the Pacific Arts collection comes from Polynesia (meaning many islands), a vast triangular region of the Pacific with the three outermost points being New Zealand, Hawaii and remote Easter Island. Within the Polynesian triangle are the islands that fascinated eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century European society with notions of noble savages and idyllic paradises – Tahiti, the Cook Islands, the Austral Islands and the Marquesas Islands. The Gallery holds only a small collection from these islands yet each work is more than 150 years old. Notable among them is the very fine Poutokomanawa house post figure carved by the great carver-priest and warrior Raharuhi Rukupo in the early 1840s. The qualities of the collection’s sometimes sublime, sometimes aggressively confronting works can be appreciated through their sculptural value alone. However,
they are all the more impressive after reflecting upon how
unsaid ideas and concepts. The colours used in arts from
each work was created. Connections to the environment
the Pacific were sourced from a variety of natural resources
played a great part in sourcing raw materials for sculpture.
– plants, pounded shells, ochre and soot obtained by
For example, the tree trunk used for the impressive
burning fruits such as candlenut all contributed to the
Kanganaman village house post at the entrance to the
artists’ palette. An exception is the Lower Sepik Spirit mask
Pacific Arts Gallery would have been selected because the
which is highlighted with Reckitt’s laundry bluing dye. This
spirit that lived in the tree made itself ‘known’ to the artist.
interesting adaptation shows that artists were not afraid
Once the tree was chosen, the artist simply worked on the
to incorporate exotic materials. (Indeed the use of Western
natural shape of the wood to reveal the spirit’s true form.
materials may have been considered a way to imbue a work
with extra magical capabilities.) What seems to be a limited
The tools used by some artists are remarkable in
themselves – sharply ground edged stones (which in
range of natural resources did not dim the imagination of
themselves took considerable time to produce) acted as
the artist – the individuality, uniqueness and latent power
the cutting blades of adzes for hewing out the mass and
of each artwork can still be felt in works that have endured
volume of an object. Smaller pieces of worked shell and
many years of exposure to the tropical elements.
bone, even the sharp teeth from small mammals, were
employed to complete the finer details of a figure, mask or
Pacific artists and their communities. A prestigious object
sculpture. To achieve a pleasingly smooth surface required
such as a delicate Marquesan fan, Tahi, was made by
laborious rubbing with the tough edge of a boar tusk or
specialists known as tuhuna who focused on refining
the rough skin of rays, sharks and certain plant leaves with
the singular aspect of fan making in order to elevate the
abrasive properties.
production to an artform difficult for others to replicate.
Fans were made only on Tahuata Island and were exported
For Pacific art, colour can be equally as important
Lower Sepik people Papua New Guinea, Lower Sepik River area Spirit mask c. 1885–1920 wood, pigment, laundry dye 89.0 x 24.0 x 28.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1970 Te Fenua ‘Enata people French Polynesia, Marquesas Islands, Tahuata Island Fan [tahi’i] 1800–1850 wood, pandanus, coconut fibre National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1972
Specialisation in certain media was common for many
as form, and the application of colour was often a ritual
great distances across the Marquesas group. The finely
event in itself. Particular colours are known to be powerful
braided continuous cordage of the Hawaiian necklace,
visual communicators for different island cultures. Colour,
Lei niho palaoa, was once the preserve of artists who
when used within an important event or ceremony for
worked only with human hair – one of the most important
many communities, symbolically communicates otherwise
materials in Hawaii. Hair was highly regarded as being artonview
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charged with mana, a spiritual power, as it grows
that do not immediately conform to the Western eye.
directly from the head, which was considered the seat
In particular, the works from Melanesia hold great physical
of the human spirit. As with the Marquesan fan, this
complexity, an example of which is the spirit figure
necklace was a collaborative work and likely to have been
Maunwial whose vestigial limbs, bulbous head and intense
commissioned by a wealthy member of the community. An
colours are a synthesis of the concrete and the abstract.
artist skilled in working marine ivory would have produced the refined central hook-shaped pendant. These pendants have long been considered stylised fishhooks. They are also said to represent ‘the tongue of god’ in a protruding and aggressive manner. The pendant is fashioned from a whale tooth, indicating a connection to Kanaloa, the god of the sea, who provides a bounty of fish and seafood and whose
Maunwial and several other works have been displayed floating free of the wall, in much the same manner as they once were displayed in spirit houses suspended from the rafters by cords of fibre.
Recognition of Pacific arts has been a slow process due
to the blossoming of anthropology in the late nineteenth
waters surround all the Hawaiian Islands. These kinds of
and early twentieth century when the arts of Indigenous
connections between art and life in the Pacific were and
peoples were exhibited solely in museums and primarily as
are inseparable.
documents to one aspect of human history. Appreciation,
however, did grow through the esteem shown by
Many of the works in the Pacific Arts Gallery
were created to give younger generations a better
individuals in the Expressionist, Dadaist and Surrealist art
understanding of what it meant to be a member of
collectives, including Pablo Picasso, Max Pechstein, André
a community. Initiation on the Sepik River was often
Breton and Paul Éluard, whose passion was guided by an
part of the process of becoming an adult member of
aesthetic approach of pure contemplation and intuitive
the community. The initiate would undergo a period of
interpretation rather than any deeper understanding of
hardship and stressful rituals that culminated in a short-
the cultures of the Pacific. This appreciation blossomed
lived confrontation with a powerful spirit in the Haus tambaran (a place where spirits dwell). Pacific artists conceived works with the greatest possible visual force for the Haus tambaran in order to create a menacing reverence which viewers would clearly remember and cautiously regard all their lives, even if their glimpse was only fleeting. Artists depicted otherworldly beings, ancestors or spirits
during the mid-twentieth century, as seen in the history of the exquisite To-reri uno double figure from Lake Sentani that has been internationally acknowledged as one of the finest known works from the Pacific. For more than a decade, when works from the Pacific were making the slow transition from artefact to art, it stood in the gallery of
in forms that held a physical presence that conveyed the
Parisian art dealer Pierre Loeb, overlooked and unsold. The
ancestors’ will and underlined their mastery over the
beauty inherent in the sculpture did not change, but the
environment in which the community lived. For some
comprehension and susceptibility of the viewer did.
cultures, this environment was shaped by the deeds of
distant primordial ancestors and was demonstrated by
Pacific Arts collection in the late 1960s to today, this same
connections to natural features – lakes, mountains and
transitory process means visitors to the gallery will see the
coastlines. Animals such as crocodiles, hornbill birds,
masks and sculptures as more than curiosities or specimens
sago beetles, sea eagles, bonito fish and sharks were also
of ‘the other’. They are objects of potent visual force
incorporated into ancestral mythologies. These connections
that stand equally next to art from any period, culture or
were stressed to the young so they would never forget their association with the local environment.
Visitors to the Pacific Arts Gallery may be unsettled by
the convulsive nature and compositions of some sculptures
Hawaiian people United States of America, Hawaiian Islands Necklace [lei niho palaoa] 1820–1860 marine ivory, human hair, plant fibre National Gallery of Australia, Canberrra Purchased 1970
In the intervening years from the building of our
individual artist across the world.
a
Crispin Howarth Assistant Curator, Pacific Arts artonview
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19
exhibitions galleries
The ‘big guns’ of Culture Warriors 13 October 2007 – 10 February 2008
Jean Baptiste Apuatimi Tiwi people Yirrikapayi 2007 natural earth pigments on canvas 160.0 x 200.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Philip Gudthaykudthay Liyagalawumirr people Wagilag Sisters 2007 natural earth pigments and Liquitex Matte Binder on Belgian linen 172.0 x 120.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Through their art and culture, the artists in Culture
Warriors ensures that their work is seen and celebrated
Warriors: National Indigenous Art Triennial tell the stories
during their lifetime.
of their communities in an incredible diversity of ‘voices’ –
humble, venerated, spiritual, customary, poignant, satirical,
‘the big guns’, is a Tiwi elder whose traditional name is
political, innovative and overt. Among the thirty-one artists
Pulukatu (female buffalo) and dance Jarrangini (buffalo).
featured in the Triennial, a core group of dedicated and
Apuatimi began working as an artist alongside her
significant artists deserve singular focus. Jean Baptiste
husband, acclaimed Tiwi elder and artist, Declan Apuatimi
Apuatimi, Philip Gudthaykudthay, John Mawurndjul, Lofty
(1930–1985). Earlier this year, Jean talked with Angela Hill,
Jean Baptiste Apuatimi, the only female artist in
Bardayal Nadjamerrek and Arthur Koo’ekka Pambegan
Art Centre Co-ordinator at Tiwi Designs, about her art
Jr are fêted through major installations of their work in
and culture:
the exhibition, and through essay contributions in the
My name is Jean Baptiste Apuatimi. I am a painter.
accompanying exhibition publication. Colloquially referred
My husband Declan Karrilikiya Apuatimi taught me
to as ‘the big guns’, their respective careers span the four
how to paint. I love my painting, I love doing it ...
decades since the 1967 Referendum (Aboriginals). Culture
Now I am doing that. Painting makes me alive.1
20 national gallery of australia
Apuatimi learnt by assisting her husband with his art-making
John Mawurndjul is a member of the Kurulk clan of
and had her first solo exhibition in 1991. She has created
Kuninjku-speaking people of Western Arnhem Land. He is
a striking series of large canvases especially for Culture
without doubt the most renowned Kuninjku artist working
Warriors, which include figurative representations of tutini
today, with an international reputation and lauded as a
and pukumani objects, and body painting. A tiny figure, she
‘maestro’ by former French president Jacques Chirac at
nonetheless has a powerful presence, accompanied by a
the opening of the Australian Indigenous Art Commission
wicked sense of humour, declaring herself ‘a famous artist
for the newest Parisian museum, Musée du quai Branly,
now’, through her inclusion in Culture Warriors.
Philip Gudthaykudthay, one of the last conversant
in June 2006.
Liyagalawumirri speakers, was born c. 1925 and is a
My work and my rarrk (cross-hatching) have
senior custodian of the Wagilag creation narrative.
changed a lot since I started painting a long time
Gudthaykudthay’s totem is Burruwara, the native cat,
ago [late 1970s]. That was with my brother [Jimmy
which has seen him endowed with the nickname of
Njiminjuma] and together, we have changed the
‘Pussycat’. In 1983 Gudthaykudthay was the first Central
rarrk and started to paint in a new style. We are
Arnhem Land artist to have a solo show at a contemporary
new people … Now, I concentrate on painting
gallery, Garry Anderson Gallery in Sydney, making him
important places, my land, my djang [sacred places].
possibly the first Aboriginal artist in Australia to hold a
I paint the power of that land … I keep thinking, I
solo exhibition in a contemporary artspace.
keep finding new ways, new styles for my paintings.
I just can’t stop thinking about my paintings.
Although consistent in his artistic output, since being
awarded an artist fellowship from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Board in 2006, his creative well-
Mawurndjul’s representations of Mardayin and sites
spring has been replenished, and he has produced a
associated with his traditional country of Milmilngkan –
magnificent series of badurru (hollow logs) for Culture
on bark and hollow logs – have become increasingly
Warriors in his characteristically elegant and spare miny’tji
refined in his expert use of rarrk. Inspired by great classical
(clan body design) and rarrk (cross-hatching), quite
Kuninjku artists such as Peter Marralwanga (Mawurndjul’s
distinct from the larrakitj and lorrkon from Yirrkala and
wife, Kay, is Marralwanga’s daughter and an artist in her
Maningrida, respectively.
own right) along with Yirawala and his elder brother Jimmy
I’m botj [boss] here. Ramingining … Me, number
Njiminjuma, Mawurndjul’s artistic and cultural mastery
one painter … Right up from painting, Milingimbi,
was acknowledged when he was awarded the Clemenger
Ngangalala, Ramingining, Maningrida, now come
Contemporary Art Award in 2003, and honoured in the
here, Ramingining. Stop here. Number one painter
solo exhibition Rärrk: John Mawurndjul journey through
here. Bark, finish ‘im up here; canvas, finish ‘im up
time in Northern Australia at the Museum Tinguely, Basel,
here. Hollow log. All painting here. Me, number one.
in 2005. artonview
John Mawurndjul Kuninjku (Eastern Kunwinjku) people Billabong at Milmilngkan 2006 natural earth pigment on bark 200.0 x 47.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Arthur Koo’ekka Pambegan Jnr Wik Mungkan/Winchanam peoples Face painting 2006 natural earth pigments and hibiscus charcoal with synthetic polymer binder on canvas 56.0 x 168.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
spring 2007
23
Lofty Bardayal Nadjamerrek is rightly acknowledged
renown) who was among the first of the Wik-speaking
as one of the most learned elders of the Arnhem Land
people to live at Aurukun, a mission established by the
escarpment known as ‘Stone Country’, and is the last of
Moravians at Archer River in 1904.
the painters of the magnificent rock art galleries of the
I’d just say … I WON’T STOP DOING IT. This belong
region; his final work, a simple, dynamic kangaroo and
to all of us. We share it together … we share our
hunter in white ochre, was created in 2005. From the
culture and you sharing your culture. The culture,
Kundedjnjenghm people, Mok clan, Nadjamerrek was born
what you see in the carvings, in the body painting,
c. 1926 at Kukkulumurr, Western Arnhem Land, and, as his
what you see in the canvas, they more important,
name suggests, his elevated, graceful physique was often
because this is the way we are, not going to lose it.
seen traversing the length and breadth of Arnhem Land in his early adult years.
Pambegan Jnr is known for his wonderful sculptural
installations of ancestral stories, Bonefish Story Place and
Now residing at his outstation at Kabulwarnamyo,
Bardayal paints sparingly, passing on his traditions to his
Flying Fox Story Place. The distinctive art of Aurukun –
grandsons, who sit quietly watching him as he paints.
trademark body-paint design worn by performers in a set
Although his hand is now somewhat unsteady, his great
of horizontal stripes, alternating red, white and black2 –
skill as an ‘old-style’ rock art painter is evident in the
has also enjoyed a gradual move into the art market in the
stunning barks and works on paper which have been
past twenty-five years, with younger artists encouraged
secured for Culture Warriors. Bardayal may scrape back
by elders such as Pambegan Jnr. He is equally renowned
some of the ochre pigments on the bark canvases or
for his skill and acumen as a ceremonial dancer and leader.
paper sheets when dissatisfied with a particular line, but
Culture Warriors presents the first works on canvas by
the stature of his figures – creation beings and totemic
Pambegan Jnr alongside his installations.
animals – remains unchallenged. Whereas Mawurndjul
continually works on refining his sublime rarrk, filling the
inspirational artists and cultural activists, whose work and
entire surface of his canvas, Bardayal’s painting reflects
lives inspired the title of the inaugural National Indigenous
a fidelity to his cultural traditions, with the figurative elements reigning supreme.
Arthur Koo’ekka Pambegan Jnr is one of the most
respected Winchanam ceremonial elders in Aurukun, a community based on the western side of Cape York Peninsula in far north Queensland. Pambegan Jnr comes from a family of great standing in the community, learning his cultural traditions through his father, Arthur Koo’ekka Pambegan Snr (also an artist and cultural activist of great
Lofty Bardayal Nadjamerrek Kundedjnjenghm people Ngalyod I 2005 natural earth pigments on bark 45.0 x 134.0 cm on loan from Joseph Fekete and Annie Bartlett
It has been a great honour to work with such
Art Triennial.
a
Brenda L Croft Senior Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Curator, Culture Warriors: National Indigenous Art Triennial notes 1 From an essay with Angela Hill, ‘Jean Baptiste recorded this introduction in Tiwi at Nguiu, Bathurst Island, on 3 February 2007 which was transcribed and translated by Margaret Renee Kerinauia’. 2 Peter Sutton, essay for the exhibition catalogue accompanying Culture Warriors.
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25
orde poynton galler y
Robert Rauschenberg 1967–1978 1 September 2007 – 27 January 2008
Beauty is now underfoot wherever we take the trouble to look. John Cage, avant-garde composer, 19611
Artist Robert Rauschenberg in 1953 Photo by Allan Grant, Life Magazine © Time Warner Inc/Robert Rauschenberg/VAGA, New York/DACS, London Booster 1967 from the Booster and seven studies series 1967 colour lithograph, screenprint 183.0 x 89.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1973
Robert Rauschenberg has had an extensive impact on late twentieth-century visual culture. His work has been of central influence in many of the significant developments of post-war American art and has provided countless blueprints for artistic innovation by younger generations. Rauschenberg’s radical approach to his artistic practice was always sensational, with the artist producing works so experimental that they eluded definition and categorisation. The National Gallery of Australia holds an important collection of Rauschenberg’s works. These works exemplify the artist’s striking transition in subject matter and material during the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s – a shift from the imagery of American popular culture to a focus on the handmade and unique combinations of natural and found materials. Many of the works exhibited in Robert Rauschenberg 1967–1978 reveal the artist’s overarching aim to ‘drag ordinary materials into the art world for a direct confrontation’.2 It has been Rauschenberg’s perpetual mix of art with life that has ensured that his work appears as innovative today as it was forty years ago. The legendary Bauhaus figure, Josef Albers, was the head of fine art at Black Mountain College, North Carolina, when Rauschenberg enrolled in 1948. Under the supervision of the strict disciplinarian, Rauschenberg learnt about the essential qualities, or unique spirit, within all kinds of materials. Rauschenberg said of their studentteacher relationship, that Albers was ‘a beautiful teacher and an impossible person. He didn’t teach you how to “do art”. The focus was on the development of your own personal sense of looking. Years later … I’m still learning from what he taught me. What he taught me had to do with the whole visual world’.3
26 national gallery of australia
Storyline I from the Reels (B+C) series 1968 colour lithograph 54.6 x 43.3 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1973
Storyline III from the Reels (B+C) series 1968 colour lithograph 54.6 x 44.6 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1973
It was also at Black Mountain College that Rauschenberg
Despite his ‘prankster’ reputation, Rauschenberg
came into contact with several other key art world figures
was highly self-disciplined and determined to challenge
who had a vital and long-lasting impact upon his thinking
himself. In 1951, Rauschenberg completed a series of white
and artistic pursuits. The artists Ben Shahn, Robert
paintings, which were in contrast, followed by a series of
Motherwell, Willem de Kooning, Jack Tworkov, Franz Kline
black paintings. By limiting himself to a monochromatic
and Aaron Sisskind were all teaching at Black Mountain.
palette, Rauschenberg performed an artistic exorcism,
However, the most significant influence on the young
rendering the restrictions imposed by media, style and
artist was the celebrated avant-garde composer John
convention obsolete so that there were no psychological
Cage. Rauschenberg and Cage developed a relationship of reciprocal inspiration – a connection that provided both the artist and the composer with the daring that was required in the creation of their most innovative works.
In contrast to the environment of Black Mountain
College, the New York avant-garde art scene in 1949 was dominated by Abstract Expressionism. The artistic giants Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock had established themselves as the most innovative of the Abstract Expressionists. Discussions focused on the inner emotional state of the individual artist as expressed in highly charged painted gestures. The more free-thinking Rauschenberg, however, worked outside these confines,
boundaries to what he could do from that point onwards. Only after such self-imposed regulation was Rauschenberg prepared for what he was to attempt next. In a radical transgression of artistic conventions, Rauschenberg began to fuse vertical, wall-mounted painterly works with horizontal, floor-based sculptural elements, usually in the form of found objects. His fusion of the two-dimensional picture plane and the three-dimensional object is now of legendary status. It was the invention of a new ‘species’ of art, which Rauschenberg termed ‘Combines’.
Rauschenberg developed his own unique style by
combining gestural mark-making with its antithesis –
adopting a methodology that sought to reunite art with
mechanically reproduced imagery. It was this remarkable
everyday life, an ideology that was in complete opposition
clash of visual elements in Rauschenberg’s art that provided
to the central tenets of Abstract Expressionism. Early in his
a major aesthetic fracture – a departure from the heroic
career, Rauschenberg created controversy within the New
painterly gestures of Abstract Expressionism and a move
York art scene with a series of ‘artistic pranks’, including
towards the adoption of popular culture as subject matter.
his infamous erasure of a Willem de Kooning drawing. This
This radical schism, however, would not have occurred had
rebellious act of destroying an established artist’s work
it not been for Jasper Johns, with whom Rauschenberg
gained him instant notoriety and secured Rauschenberg
had a long and intense partnership, beginning in 1954.
the position of New York’s enfant terrible.
Rauschenberg and Johns lived above one another in the
28 national gallery of australia
same building, visiting each other every day and setting
artistic challenges for each other. Rauschenberg has said
Horsefeathers thirteen, is a striking example of the artist’s
of his partnership with Johns that, ‘He and I were each
innate talent in constructing compositions of detailed
other’s first critics … Jasper and I literally traded ideas.
sophistication. Mass media action images, such as running
He would say, “I’ve got a terrific idea for you” and then I
races, horse-riding and rowing, are mixed with more
would have to find one for him’. The Rauschenberg–Johns
generalised subjects that blend the natural environment
relationship was one of the great creative relationships of
with the manufactured environment. Each image is
the twentieth century. It propelled them both in radically
poised on the precarious dynamic moment and, in this
new directions and contributed to the development of the
way, Rauschenberg succeeds in investing his works with a
Pop Art movement.
simultaneous sense of movement and suspense. There is no
4
Rauschenberg’s series of dense collage works,
Rauschenberg’s modus operandi has always been
hierarchy of images – the path of visual exploration for each
collage – the combination of disparate elements within a
composition is of our own choosing, despite the occasional
single composition. He has been a cultural archaeologist –
(and humorous) directional arrow. The Horsefeathers
a master of collecting, editing and assembling the imagery
thirteen series is a visual experiment in the ‘random order’
of society, the environment, life and time. He insists that
of experience.5 By presenting us with a series of signs
there is no personal narrative embedded within his work,
that encourage multiple complex readings, the artist has
but rather that his imagery is arranged through a series of
attempted a collaboration with the specific memories,
rapidly made associations based upon intuition.
associations and thought processes of the individual viewer.
artonview
Albino cactus (scale) 1977 from the scale series 1977–81 ink transfer on silk, synthetic polymer paint on composition board, mirrorised synthetic polymer film, electric light, wood, rubber tyre 88.7 x 442.1 x 122.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1978
spring 2007
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Publicon – Station IV from the Publicons series 1978 enamel on wood construction, collaged laminated silk and cotton, bicycle wheel, fluorescent light fixture, perspex, enamel on polished aluminium open 154.8 x 146.2 x 29.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1979
While the images and objects selected for inclusion
combination of two-dimensional photographic imagery
within the artist’s compositions may not be personally
and three-dimensional found objects can be considered a
symbolic, they do reveal much about the American social
late ‘Combine’ work.
events and political issues of the cultural period in which
they were created. The garishly coloured Reels (B + C)
into Rauschenberg’s artistic expression, but it cannot be
series appropriate the film stills from the 1967 Bonnie and
completely detached from its life spirit. The Duchampian
Clyde movie, starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty,
displacement of the found object from life, and its
and expose Rauschenberg’s fascination with celebrity and
subsequent transference to art, creates something akin to a
the entertainment industry. In a similar fashion, the photo-
split personality; that is, all found objects bring with them a
collage work Signs operates as a succinct visual summary
history and/or pre-function which the artist allows to seep
of the cultural and political events of the 1960s, depicting
into the composition. Thus, in a collaborative encounter
the tragic musician Janis Joplin, the assassination of
with his material, Rauschenberg becomes a choreographer
John F Kennedy, America’s race riots and the Vietnam War.
of the historical meaning and value of the found object.
Rauschenberg has always been an artist-activist, skilled
in employing art to raise individual awareness of social,
backdrop of Albino cactus (scale) have been printed via a
environmental and political issues.
solvent-transfer process – a technique that Rauschenberg
began to experiment with in 1959. However, the look of
Rauschenberg’s work from the 1950s and 1960s can
A ‘found’ tyre in Albino cactus (scale) is incorporated
The images collaged along the material panel
also be seen as a presentation of the street culture of the
Albino cactus (scale) also recalls Rauschenberg’s many
urban environment. During this period, Rauschenberg lived
screenprinted paintings, first explored by the artist in 1962.
in New York and regularly walked the streets in order to
(It was at the same time that Andy Warhol also adopted
collect the ‘surprises’ that the city had left for him. Many
the screenprinting technique and the two artists traded
of these found objects were incorporated into his artwork,
ideas about the method.) The solvent transfer process and
the most famous of which is a stuffed goat (Monogram
screenprinting technique liberated Rauschenberg’s work.
1953–59). The Gallery’s Albino cactus (scale) with its
With both forms of printmaking, the artist discovered ways
30 national gallery of australia
in which he could quickly and repetitively transfer his found imagery to the canvas of his paintings and Combines. Rauschenberg believed that the printmaking technique of lithography was old-fashioned and is notorious for having stated that ‘the second half of the twentieth century is no time to start writing on rocks’. Ironically, it is Rauschenberg who became a significant figure in the resurrection of American printmaking that occurred during the 1960s. He has subsequently worked with many leading print workshops to create more than 800 published editions. Printmaking is a technique that was perfectly suited to his methodology of layering found images and one which gave him total control over the size and scale of each component image. It was through printmaking that Rauschenberg was able to once again blur the distinctions between media and perfectly unite his obsessive use of the photographic image with painterly techniques. One of the most successful of Rauschenberg’s collaborations has been with the Gemini GEL print workshop – a printmaking partnership that has permanently changed the terrain of American printmaking. The artist’s highly experimental approach to print processes comes to the fore in the colour lithograph and screenprint Booster, created in 1967. For Booster, Rauschenberg decided to
use a life-sized X-ray portrait of himself combined with an astrological chart, magazine images of athletes, the image of a chair and the images of two power drills. Printer Kenneth Tyler was a masterful facilitator for Rauschenberg’s ambitious project and the collaboration radically altered the aesthetic possibilities of planographic printmaking. Rauschenberg and Tyler pushed beyond what had previously been done by combining lithography and screenprinting in a new type of ‘hybrid’ print. The rules governing the size of lithographic printmaking were also ignored, and at the time of its creation Booster stood as the largest and most technically sophisticated print ever produced. Today, Booster remains one of the most significant prints of the twentieth century, a watershed that catapulted printmaking into a new era of experimentation. Rauschenberg’s collaborations with printmakers and print workshops have often not resembled traditional prints at all. In his typical mix of techniques and processes, the artist has radically re-interpreted the traditional notion of what constitutes a print. Seizing upon the notion of multiplicity, inherent in the printed form, Rauschenberg has frequently applied it to sculpture to create multiple sculptural works that are editioned, just as a traditional print can be editioned. His three-dimensional Publicon artonview
Cardbird III from the Cardbird series 1971 photo-lithograph, screenprint, corrugated cardboard, tape 98.0 x 90.6 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1973
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station multiples are seven physical expressions of the clash
Donald Judd. By selecting the most mundane of materials,
of art and religion and a reference to Christ’s fourteen
Rauschenberg once again succeeds in a glamorous
stations of the cross. Early in his life Rauschenberg was very
makeover of the most ordinary of objects. This is an
involved in the Church and wanted to become a preacher.
exploration of a new order of materials, a radical scrambling
His decision was reversed, however, when he was told
of the material hierarchy of modernism.
that the Church would not tolerate dancing (an activity
that Rauschenberg was particularly good at). Just like this
focus required him to travel to several countries where he
clash of religion and culture in life, the Publicon stations
entered into significant collaborations with local artists
represent a similar clash of visual elements in art. They are austere containers that unfold to display intricately collaged, bright fabrics and electrical components. Akin to the individual steps that make up a choreographed dance, the works are adjustable through various configurations. As box-like containers, the Publicon stations also reveal the influence of Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Cornell. Rauschenberg closely studied the works of the two masters and repetitively referenced them in his own work.
A fundamental shift in subject and material occurred
in Rauschenberg’s work from the 1960s to the 1970s. In the 1960s he relied heavily upon American visual
During the 1970s, Rauschenberg’s new international
and craftspeople. The first was in 1973 with the medieval paper mill Richard de Bas in Ambert, France. Once again, Rauschenberg imposed a disciplined stripping back of his art materials – this time it was not to do with colour but with the notion of the handmade. In particular, the artist wanted to engage with handmade paper as one of the most ancient of artistic traditions. The resulting series, Pages and fuses, is a group of paper pulp works where the Pages are formed from natural pulp and shaped into paper pieces that incorporate twine or scraps of fabric. In contrast, the Fuses are vivid pulp pieces dyed with bright pigments. It was precisely this innovative experiment with paper pulp that sparked a renewed interest in handmade
culture whereas in the 1970s Rauschenberg embraced
paper, which inspired major paper works by artists such as
an international perspective. The works from the 1970s
Ellsworth Kelly, David Hockney and Helen Frankenthaler.
also reflect the artist’s incessant experimentation with
new materials. Where the 1960s were dominated by
in the creation of theatre costumes and stage sets. In 1974,
repetitive mass media imagery, the 1970s reveal a focus
however, his interest in the inherent properties of natural
on natural fibres, a simplification of the artist’s materials to
materials led him to experiment with the combination
incorporate fabric, cardboard and other natural elements
of fabric and printmaking. The Hoarfrost editions series,
such as mud, rope and handmade paper. The catalyst for
created at Gemini GEL, is named after the thin layer
this dramatic change in both subject matter and material
of ice that forms on cold surfaces and was inspired by
can be explained by a change in Rauschenberg’s physical
Rauschenberg’s observation of printmakers using ‘large
environment – his decision to move from New York City
sheets of gauze … to wipe stones and presses … and hung
to Captiva Island, Florida, had a profound effect on the
about the room to dry … how they float in the air, veiling
appearance of his work.
machinery, prints tacked to walls, furniture’.7 The imagery
With no city to offer up its detritus, the artist turned
to the things that surrounded him in his new environment and the move had yielded numerous cardboard boxes. Rauschenberg has suggested that his choice of cardboard as a new material was the result of ‘a desire … to work in a material of waste and softness. Something yielding with its only message a collection of lines imprinted like a friendly joke. A silent discussion of their history exposed by their new shapes’.6 The Cardbird series of 1971 is a tongue-in-cheek visual joke, a printed mimic of cardboard constructions. The labour intensive process involved in the creation of the series remains invisible to the viewer – the
Throughout his career, Rauschenberg worked with fabric
of the Hoarfrost editions was drawn from the Sunday Los Angeles Times and printed onto layers of silk, muslin and cheesecloth. The artist has exploited the transparent layering of material in order to suspend the image within the work itself, enabling the viewer to both look at and look through the work – to see both the positive space and the negative space in conjunction with the environment behind the work. Everyday objects, such as paper bags, are in sophisticated contrast with the ghostly imprinted imagery and the delicate fabric folds and layers.
Rauschenberg’s quest for continued international
involvement took him to Ahmadabad, India, to work in a paper mill that had been established as an ashram for
artist created a prototype cardboard construction which
untouchables. Rauschenberg was immediately struck by
was then photographed and the image transferred to a
the contrast between the rich paper mill owners and the
lithographic press and printed before a final lamination
absolute poverty of the mill workers. The artist’s specific
onto cardboard backing. The extreme complexity of
environment once again provided him with materials
construction belies the banality of the series and, in this
and in 1975 he set about making the Bones and unions
way, Rauschenberg references both Pop’s Brillo boxes by
series. For the Bones, the collaborative team wove strips of
Andy Warhol and Minimalist boxes, such as those by
bamboo with handmade paper embedded with segments
32 national gallery of australia
of brightly coloured Indian saris. In the creation of the
clippings, paper, fabric and mud to electric lightbulbs and
Unions, Rauschenberg sought to incorporate the mud
old tyres. In this way, Rauschenberg has imbued his art
that was used by the villagers to build their homes. He
with the visual ‘poetry of infinite possibilities’.8
achieved this by concocting a rag-mud mixture consisting of paper pulp, fenugreek powder, ground tamarind seed, chalk powder, gum powder and copper sulphate mixed with water, all of which was then kiln fired. For Rauschenberg, the striking contrast between the sensuous colour of the saris against the aromatic and earthy aesthetic of the rag-mud encapsulated the manifest social and cultural contrasts of India.
In all of his artistic pursuits, Rauschenberg has been
an enthusiast for collaboration, working with numerous artists, composers, papermakers and printmakers. His joy in creating works of art within a reciprocal exchange has also extended to his materials. By looking beyond the apparent ordinariness of everyday experience, Rauschenberg celebrates the life spirit of all things, realising the unique qualities of everything from individual colours, mass media
a
Jaklyn Babington Curator, International Prints and Drawings This exhibition is supported by the Embassy of the United States of America
Preview from the Hoarfrost editions series 1974 lithograph and screenprint transferred to a collage of paper bags, silk chiffon, silk taffeta 175.3 x 204.5 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1976
notes 1 John Cage, ‘On Robert Rauschenberg, artist, and his work’ (first published in Metro, Milan, 1961); republished in Silence, 4th edition, The M.I.T Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England, 1970, p. 98. 2 Walter Hopps, ‘Introduction: Rauschenberg’s art of fusion’ in Walter Hopps and Susan Davidson, Robert Rauschenberg: a retrospective, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, 1997, p. 29. 3 Calvin Tomkins, Off the wall: the art world of our time, Doubleday & co., New York, 1980, p. 32. 4 Tomkins, p. 118. 5 Robert Rauschenberg, ‘Random order’, Location, New York, Volume 1 Spring 1963, pp. 27–31. 6 Robert Rauschenberg, ‘Note: Cardbirds’ in Rauschenberg: Cardbirds, promotional brochure, Gemini G.E.L, Los Angeles, 1971, n.p. 7 Ruth Fine, ‘Writing on rocks, rubbing on silk, layering on paper’ in Walter Hopps and Susan Davidson, Robert Rauschenberg: a retrospective, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, 1997, p. 384. 8 Cage, p.103.
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projec t galler y
Black robe, white mist: art of the Japanese Buddhist nun Rengetsu 8 September 2007 – 27 January 2008
Rengetsu’s memorial stone at Saihoji, near Jinkoin. The calligraphy was designed by Tomioka Tessai
Black robe, white mist celebrates the life and work of Otagaki Rengetsu or Lotus Moon (1791–1875). Featuring delicate ceramics, calligraphy and scroll painting, it is the first exhibition outside Japan to focus solely on the work of Rengetsu, who lived an exceptional life at a time of great social and political upheaval. Black robe, white mist brings together many objects never before exhibited, the majority of which are in private collections. Born the illegitimate daughter of a courtesan and a high-ranking samurai in a Kyoto pleasure district, Rengetsu died a Buddhist nun renowned as a poet, calligrapher, potter and painter. She was included in Heian jinbutsu shi, a list of prominent people in Kyoto, in 1838, 1852 and 1867, and even today she is one of the characters in Kyoto’s annual Jidai Matsuri or Festival of the Ages, which includes a parade of historical figures. Despite her fame, relatively little is known with certainty about Rengetsu and much that is believed about her owes more to fantasy and romantic conceptions of her character and astonishing beauty than to reality. She endured personal tragedy from early in her life and it was these experiences that led to her remarkably productive artistic career. Originally called Nobu, Rengetsu was adopted as a baby by Otagaki Hanzaemon Teruhisa, a lay priest at Chion’in, the major Pure Land Buddhist temple in Kyoto,
34 national gallery of australia
and his wife Nawa. Teruhisa and Nawa had five sons only one of whom, Katahisa, was still alive at the time of Rengetsu’s adoption. When she was eight or nine, Rengetsu went to live at Kameoka Castle where, as a ladyin-waiting, she received training in poetry, calligraphy, dance, needlework and martial arts. During the time Rengetsu was at Kameoka, Nawa and Katahisa both died. At the age of sixteen or seventeen Rengetsu returned to Kyoto and married Oka Tenzo. In keeping with custom, he was adopted into the Otagaki family and his name changed accordingly. He became Naoichi Mochihisa. Rengetsu’s first child, a son, was born soon after the marriage but lived only twenty days. The couple also had two daughters but they too died young, one at a few months and the other as a small child. In a rare occurrence for the time, Rengetsu eventually divorced the apparently depraved Mochihisa. Her second marriage was a happy match but ended tragically when her husband Ishikawa Jujiro (who became Hisatoshi upon adoption) died from tuberculosis. The pair had at least one daughter and possibly two. The night before his death, Rengetsu marked her intention never to remarry by cutting off her hair. Aged thirty-three, she soon became a nun, adopting Lotus Moon as her name. Teruhisa was ordained at the same time and, with Rengetsu’s remaining child, or children, they moved to a Chion’in
hermitage. Within a decade Teruhisa and the last of
and that every Kyoto household included at least one
Rengetsu’s children had died. The nun then left the temple
example, be it a tea vessel, sweets dish, sake flask or
to make her own way in the world.
cup, tanzaku poem sheet, or a painting with calligraphy.
In search of a means of support, she considered
Rengetsu’s work was so popular that even within her
teaching the board game gõ, which Teruhisa had taught
lifetime it was imitated and faked, a practice that has
her, or waka poetry, which she had studied at Kameoka.
continued intermittently to the present and which makes
(Waka poems have thirty-one syllables divided into five lines of five-seven-five-seven-seven syllables.) Although neither career was a success, Rengetsu’s verse did contribute to her later work. In her late forties or early fifties, Rengetsu began making tea ceramics. In describing her teapots, Rengetsu modestly wrote, ‘they were very humble and the shapes were unrefined. The poems I carved on them I wrote when I had a moment free. I never had much free time.’1
Rengetsu’s combination of pottery, poetry and
it difficult to confidently attribute many Rengetsustyle objects to the artist herself. In many ways this is unimportant as such things did not concern Rengetsu.
She is believed to have willingly helped others make
their ceramics and paintings more saleable by adding her calligraphy to them. In one story, a ceramics manufacturer asked Rengetsu to inscribe copies of her work because they couldn’t duplicate her calligraphy. She agreed, even presenting some originals so better copies could be made.
calligraphy, usually using Japanese kana rather than
To keep up with demand for her ceramics, Rengetsu also
Chinese kanji characters, was inspired. These simple,
worked with professional potters, including Isso (dates
often roughly made, objects proved enormously popular.
unknown) and Kuroda Koryo (1822–1895). Known as
Though doubtless an exaggeration, it has been said that
Rengetsu II, Kuroda had Rengetsu’s permission to sign his
Rengetsu made more than 50,000 works in her lifetime
work with her name and continued to do so after her death. artonview
The Makuzuan hermitage at Chion’in, Kyoto, where Rengetsu lived with her daughter/s and her adoptive father Teruhisa (opposite) Otagaki Rengetsu and Tomioka Tessai In this world hanging scroll [kakemono] c. 1855 ink on paper 92.0 x 20.0 cm overall National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Otagaki Rengetsu and Wada Gozan/Gesshin The goddess Amaterasu’s divine light hanging scroll [kakemono] 1864 (detail) ink on paper sheet 33.1 x 56.6 cm Museum DKM/Stiftung DKM, Duisburg, Germany Down to the Kamo river vase [hanaire] 1850–75 glazed ceramic, incising 29.3 x 3.5 x 3.5 cm Private collection, Basel
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With her work sought after and a reputation for beauty
Rengetsu’s poems also appear without illustration on
as well as generous acts of charity, the reclusive Rengetsu
tanzaku poem sheet and scrolls.
often moved several times a year to avoid unwanted
attention. She eventually settled at Jinkoin, a Shingon
had lived and worked in for a decade. She requested that
Buddhist temple outside Kyoto city, and stayed there
Tessai alone be contacted following her death, and it was
until the end of her life. Rengetsu’s time at the temple
her adored friend who designed the calligraphy on her
resulted in thousands of works, especially paintings and
unassuming memorial stone near Jinkoin. In her eighties,
calligraphies. In a poem about calligraphy that evokes
Rengetsu wrote her autobiography in waka and prose in
the feeling of her delicate, but powerful, rounded hand,
a letter to Tessai. It included the poem:
Rengetsu wrote: Taking up the brush just for the joy of it, writing on and on, leaving behind long lines of dancing letters. (translation John Stevens)2
At Jinkoin, Rengetsu often collaborated with Wada
Gozan/Gesshin (Moon Mind), who became a priest at the temple after the death of his wife. She also created
In 1875 Rengetsu died in the temple tearoom she
The day begins I’m busy with my crafts
and I have nothing to worry about. (translation Lee Johnson) 4
a
Melanie Eastburn Curator, Asian Art
artists, including the painters Mori Kansai (1814–1894)
Further information at nga.gov.au/Rengetsu
and Tomioka Tessai (1835–1924). Rengetsu and the much
notes 1 Lee Johnson, ‘The life and art of Otagaki Rengetsu’, Master of Arts thesis, University of Kansas, 1988, appendix 2. 2 John Stevens, Lotus Moon: the poetry of the Buddhist nun Rengetsu, Buffalo: White Pine Press, 2005, p. 98. 3 Patricia Fister, ‘Waka poet-painters in Kyoto’, in Japanese women artists: 1600–1900, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, New York: Lawrence, Harper & Row Publishers Inc., 1988, p.153 4 A translation of Rengetsu’s autobiography appears in Johnson, 1988, appendix 2.
painting of eggplants by Tessai and calligraphy by Rengetsu reads: ‘In this world there are certain forms which bring [welcome] thoughts to mind. The eggplant serves as a symbol of happiness’ (translation Patricia Fister).3
Fluttering merrily sake flask [tokkuri] 1870 glazed stoneware, incising 15.0 x 8.0 x 8.0 cm Museum DKM/Stiftung DKM, Duisburg, Germany
I pray to Buddha
The exhibition catalogue is available from the National Gallery of Australia Shop on 02 6240 6420
son. A scroll painting in the Gallery’s collection featuring a
(opposite) Let us consider ageing, teapot [kyusu] c. 1850 ceramic, incising 11.1 x 17.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
the day ends
collaborative works, gassaku, with a number of other
younger Tessai were very close and she thought of him as a
Set of five sencha tea cups 1873 glazed stoneware height: 4.5 cm each Private collection, Brussels
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travelling exhibition
Ocean to Outback: Australian landscape painting 1850–1950 4 August 2007 – 3 May 2009
… it is continually exciting, these curious and strange rhythms which one discovers in a vast landscape, the juxtaposition of figures, of objects, all these things are exciting. Add to that again the peculiarity of the particular land in which we live here, and you get a quality of strangeness that you do not find, I think, anywhere else. Russell Drysdale, 19601
From the white heat of our beaches to the red heart of
127 of the 220 convicts on board died.2 Survivors’ accounts
central Australia, Ocean to Outback: Australian landscape
said the ship’s crew fired their weapons at convicts who, in
painting 1850–1950 conveys the great beauty and diversity
a state of panic, attempted to break from their confines as
of the Australian continent. Curated by the National Gallery’s
the vessel went down.
Director Ron Radford, this major travelling exhibition is
a celebration of the Gallery’s twenty-fifth anniversary. It
broken George the Third dwarfed by the expanse. Waves
features treasured Australian landscape paintings from the
crash over the decks of the ship while a few figures in the
national collection and will travel to venues throughout each
foreground attempt to salvage cargo and supplies. This is
Australian state and territory until 2009.
Encompassing colonial through to modernist works, the
exhibition spans the great century of Australian landscape art. From 1850 to 1950 landscape was the most painted and celebrated theme in Australian art. As well as images which convey the geographical extremes of the continent, Ocean to Outback includes works that reflect significant Knut Bull The wreck of the ‘George the Third’ 1850 oil on canvas 84.5 x 123.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased with funds from the Nerissa Johnson Bequest 2001 Eugene von Guérard Schnapper Point from ‘Beleura’ 1870 oil on canvas 66.1 x 104.2 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra From the James Fairfax collection, gift of Bridgestar Pty Ltd 1995
events that transformed the social fabric of Australia – droughts and bushfires, the gold rushes, the Depression, and times of war.
The exhibition begins with a dramatic shipwreck scene
The painting is dominated by a huge sky, with the
a seascape that evokes trepidation and anxiety. The small figures contribute to the feeling of human vulnerability when challenged by the extremities of nature.
Australia’s finest late colonial landscape artist from
the period, Eugene von Guérard (1811–1901), painted images of Australia from the perspective of an observer, explorer and a resident. Von Guérard received numerous commissions for ‘homestead portraits’. These commissions were generally paintings of properties owned by graziers who were keen to display the results of their hard
off Tasmania’s east coast painted by convict artist Knut Bull
labours on the land. Schnapper Point from ‘Beleura’ 1870
(1811–1889). The wreck of the ‘George the Third’ 1850
was painted for James Butchart who owned Beleura
depicts the aftermath of the shipwreck in 1835 of the
homestead, built in 1863. Schnapper Point is located near
convict transport ship. Following a four-month voyage from
Mornington Peninsula on Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay
London and bound for Hobart, the 35-metre ship entered
(approximately forty kilometres from Melbourne). Von
D’Entrecasteaux Channel on the evening of 12 April 1835.
Guérard depicts the sweeping views from the property
Less than 200 kilometres from its destination, the ship
across the bay – an area that had become a popular
struck submerged rock and in the catastrophe that followed
holiday destination for Melbourne residents.
40 national gallery of australia
Thomas Baines Gouty stem tree, Adansonia Gregorii, 58 feet circumference, near a creek south-east of Stokes Range, Victoria River 1868 oil on canvas 45.2 x 66.5 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1973
Exploration of the Australian continent by Europeans
Melbourne continued to expand. Rail soon connected
was a risky and arduous pursuit. The professional
townships located close to the Blue Mountains and
explorer–artist Thomas Baines (1820–1875) was one of
Dandenong Ranges to Sydney and Melbourne. Tom Roberts
a group of eighteen people who formed the 1855 North
(1856–1931) and Arthur Streeton (1867–1943) used the
Australian Expedition party. The purpose of this expedition was to determine the existence of natural resources for settlement in far north-west Australia. Under the command of Augustus Charles Gregory the expedition lasted from
rail to travel to the outskirts of Melbourne where they established artists’ camps on the fringe of suburbia, first at Box Hill and later at Eaglemont.
August 1855 to November 1856, with the group reaching
the mouth of the Victoria River on the upper north-west
accompanied by Frederick McCubbin (1855–1917) and
coast of the Northern Territory on 15 September 1855.
Louis Abrahams (1852–1903). The artists set up camp on
land owned by a local farmer, David Houston.3 In A Sunday
Baines’s official role in the party was as artist and
Tom Roberts first visited Box Hill to paint in 1882,
storekeeper – he made hundreds of sketches, recorded
afternoon c. 1886 Roberts depicts an intimate picnic.
weather conditions and kept a detailed journal of daily
Framed by spindly gums and bathed in dappled light, a
life. Painted in London some thirteen years after the
young couple relax in the bush, the woman reading to her
expedition, Gouty stem tree, Adansonia Gregorii, 58 feet circumference, near a creek south-east of Stokes Range, Victoria River 1868 depicts the party campsite and an enormous water-yielding baobab tree. The artist
companion from a newspaper. At the time, a belief in the health benefits of country air was becoming popular with city dwellers, who sought recreational activities in the bush
has painted himself in the lower right-hand side, sitting
or by the ocean. Roberts’s observant eye depicts small
underneath a makeshift shelter sketching the tree.
details in this scene such as the trail of smoke from the
man’s pipe, the dark wine bottle on the crisp white cloth
While artists such as Thomas Baines recorded the far
reaches of Australia, the major settlements of Sydney and 42 national gallery of australia
and the light falling softly on the leaves of the eucalypts.
Arthur Streeton’s The selector’s hut (Whelan on the log) 1890 is an image that conveys the ‘pioneering spirit’ which underpinned the Australian nationalist attitude of the late nineteenth century. Streeton depicted iconic elements of the land – the ‘blue and gold’ of sky and earth, golden grass and shimmering light, a slender silhouetted gum tree, and a bush pioneer. He shows a man at rest from the toil of clearing the land and making his home. The man depicted is Jack Whelan, the caretaker of the Eaglemont estate where Streeton had been given permission to set up ‘camp’ in an old house in the summer of 1888. Early the next year he was joined by Charles Conder (1868–1909) and Tom Roberts. The camp provided the perfect working environment – a reasonably isolated bush location close to the city of Melbourne. Works by Australian Impressionists such as Roberts, Streeton and Conder showcase the national collection’s great holdings from this period. Alongside these are scenes of modern, misty Melbourne as captured by Clarice Beckett (1887–1935). Beckett’s lyrical and evocative landscapes remained largely unknown to Australian audiences during her lifetime. She was a dedicated artist who, despite dismissive reviews and few sales, continued to paint and exhibit regularly.
Beckett always painted outdoors, usually in the early morning or evening, around the bays and streets of her family home in the Melbourne beachside suburb of Beaumaris. She sought to convey the beauty of her local environment, be it through the afterglow of a bright sunset, the shimmering heat of a tarred road or headlights shining through misty rain. She excelled at depicting particular effects of nature, such as haze, rain, mist and smoke. Beaumaris seascape c. 1925 is a meditative image of a still sea, a tree-lined cliff and distant coastline. Beckett has paid close attention to the subtle effects of light and shade reflected in the water. The soft lilac and pink hues of the sea, coastline and sky dissolve into bands of colour. The subject is so tonally reduced it appears to be almost abstracted. Work by another female artist of the period, Elise Blumann (1897–1990), depicts a ferocious storm scene on Perth’s Swan River. Blumann painted the Swan and the native melaleuca trees of the region many times. Escaping the Nazi regime that devastated much of Europe, Germanborn Blumann came to Perth with her husband and two children in 1938. Educated at the Berlin Academy of Arts and the Royal Art School Berlin, Blumann was familiar artonview
Tom Roberts A Sunday afternoon c. 1886 oil on canvas 41.0 x 30.8 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1984 Arthur Streeton The selector’s hut (Whelan on the log) 1890 oil on canvas 76.7 x 51.2 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1961
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with the modern art of Europe. In Australia her modernist painting was unconventional, and she was regarded as a valued member of Perth’s artistic community. In Storm on the Swan 1946 Blumann uses broad sweeping gestures – strong horizontal and diagonal brushwork – to capture the power of a storm. Wind and rain beat against the limbs of the trees which appear to almost float in space. This dynamic and sensitive composition displays Blumann’s modern approach to her art and her desire to capture the ‘essential spirit’ of nature.4 Areas of the painting’s surface are blank, while others are scratched with the end of her brush to indicate sharp, fast rain. This is a vigorous, physical and quickly executed work, a powerful response to the speed in which a storm can approach and pass. Modernist experiments of colour theory by Roland Wakelin (1887–1971) and Roy de Maistre (1894–1968) are included in the exhibition. In de Maistre’s rarely exhibited Forest landscape c. 1920 he has adapted the subject of a felled tree to create a painting concerned with modernist principles of form, rhythm, symmetry and colour. Historically, the subject of the felled tree in the Australian bush has reflected artistic interests in rural industry, the natural grandeur of forests and, in some instances, an awareness of conservation issues related to loss and destruction. For de Maistre, tree trunks have been reduced to angular planes of colour and the composition is united
by vivid greens that portray the forest floor and foliage. De Maistre has explored a range of colour tones, using subtle shifts in greens, reds and browns throughout the painting. Forest landscape belongs to a period when de Maistre was interested in the broken colour approach of Cézanne and the relationship between colour and music. He had studied violin and viola at the Sydney Conservatorium, and art at the Royal Art Society of New South Wales and Julian Ashton Art School. Working with musician Adrian Verbrugghen he developed a colour music scale where the spectrum of colours related to notes of the major and minor musical scales. The colour music theory was further underscored by de Maistre’s interest in the psychological effects of colour and its relationship to the expression of emotional states. Quoting the English poet-performer and colour theorist Beatrice Irwin, de Maistre wrote that colour ‘brings the conscious realisation of the deepest underlying principles of nature … it constitutes the very song of life and is, as it were, the spiritual speech of every living thing’.5 A number of paintings in Ocean to Outback reveal how artists used the landscape as inspiration during difficult times of drought, depression or war. Works by Russell Drysdale (1912–1981) and Sidney Nolan (1917–1992) explore the drama and expressive possibilities inherent in the land. In 1944 Drysdale was commissioned by the Sydney Morning Herald to accompany journalist Keith Newman to western New South Wales to document
artonview
Elise Blumann Storm on the Swan 1946 oil on paper mounted on cardboard on composition board 57.0 x 67.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1978 Roy de Maistre Forest landscape c.1920 oil on cardboard 35.4 x 40.6 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1971 (opposite) Clarice Beckett Beaumaris seascape c.1925 oil on cardboard 50.0 x 49.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1971
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Russell Drysdale Emus in a landscape 1950 oil on canvas 101.6 x 127.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1970
the effects of the drought. This experience significantly changed the way he viewed the Australian landscape. The photographs and sketches he made on the trip informed much of his work in the following years. In Emus in a landscape 1950 Drysdale explores the strange and surreal qualities of the Australian outback. The native birds move quietly through the landscape, passing a precariously arranged structure of wood and corrugated iron. This sculptured mass of refuse represents the remains of a previous settlement. It could be an abandoned dwelling or a wrecked ship on a dried inland sea. Drysdale creates a sliding space between reality and imagination, fact and myth, and captures the vast space and timelessness of the outback. Between 1947 and 1950 Sidney Nolan spent months travelling through remote areas of Australia. Using money he had made from a successful exhibition of Queensland outback paintings held at the David Jones Gallery in Sydney in March 1949, Nolan, accompanied by his wife Cynthia and stepdaughter Jinx, travelled through Central Australia,
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the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia. This trip, from June to September 1949, inspired a body of work and a series of paintings that depict inland Australia from an aerial perspective. Inland Australia 1950 is an extraordinary aerial image of the ‘heart’ of the continent, possibly of the Durack Range. With the composition board lying flat on a table Nolan has pushed the paint around the surface of the work. In some areas the paint has been wiped back, exposing the white undercoat of the composition board. The undulating shapes and intense colour of the red earth evoke an ‘otherworldly’ sensation – a feeling of the land’s inherent grandeur, timelessness and mystery. Nolan described the work as ‘a composite impression of the country from the air’. Painted in his Sydney studio, he used photographs taken from the aeroplane as a visual aid. Inland Australia is an example of Nolan’s technique of fusing elements from existing locations with a landscape remembered from experience. Ocean to Outback: Australian landscape painting 1850–1950 includes images of the furthest points of
distance and geography across Australia. Created by some of our greatest landscape artists, these paintings reveal the compelling beauty, extreme conditions and qualities of the Australian environment that have made landscape painting a vital force in Australian culture. a
Tamworth Regional Gallery, Tamworth NSW, 4 August – 22 September 2007
Beatrice Gralton Associate Curator, Australian Painting and Sculpture
Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Ballarat Vic., 2 February – 30 March 2008
The exhibition catalogue is available from the National Gallery of Australia Shop on 02 6240 6420
Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Perth WA, 13 April – 1 June 2008
Further information at nga.gov.au/OceantoOutback
Cairns Regional Gallery, Cairns QLD, 21 June – 27 July 2008
notes 1 Russell Drysdale, interview by Hazel de Berg, 1960, Canberra: National Library of Australia, [deB 27]. 2 Michael Roe, An Imperial disaster: the wreck of George the Third, Hobart: Blubber Head Press, 2006, p. 12. 3 Leigh Astbury, ‘Memory and desire: Box Hill 1855–88’, in Terence Lane (ed.), Australian impressionism, Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 2007, p. 51. 4 John Scott & Richard Woldendorp, Landscapes of Western Australia, Claremont, Western Australia: Aeolian Press, 1986, p. 17. 5 Roy de Maistre, extract from lecture on ‘Colour in relation to painting’, in Colour in art, exhibition catalogue, The Art Salon, Penzance Chambers, Sydney, 1919.
Sidney Nolan Inland Australia 1950 oil and enamel paint on composition board 91.5 x 121.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1961
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart Tas., 5 October – 25 November 2007 Riddoch Art Gallery, Mt Gambier SA, 8 December 2007 – 20 January 2008
Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs NT, 9 August – 19 October 2008 Newcastle Region Art Gallery, Newcastle NSW, 8 November 2008 – 18 January 2009 Canberra Museum and Gallery, Canberra ACT, 31 January – 3 May 2009
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collec tion focus
Ricketts photography collection
Samuel Bourne Wanga Valley, view 1860s albumen silver photograph 29.0 x 24.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Since 1973 the Gallery’s photography collection has
daguerreotype was superseded by the alternative process
grown to include about 15,000 Australian and international
of photographs on paper from a negative on glass. The
works, with the latter category chiefly being by twentieth-
process appealed to the legions of mostly British men
century European and American photographers. An
stationed in India as part of the East India Company and
energetic program of acquiring South and Southeast Asian
other colonial ventures. It was a diversion and a way of
photographs began in 2006 after Director Ron Radford
conveying what India was like to families, friends and
initiated a more central role for art of the Asia–Pacific
investors. Photography also became for Indians a means
region. In February 2007 the Gallery acquired more than
of presenting themselves to the foreigners. Government
200 nineteenth-century photographs from India along with a small group of works from Burma (Myanmar) and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). These came from a collection assembled over thirty years in London by Howard and Jane Ricketts whose holdings and research have formed the basis of a number of pioneering survey shows of Indian photography. Chiefly dating from the 1850s to the 1880s, the photographs from the Ricketts collection acquired by the Gallery include individual photographs on paper and those in albums and illustrated books by the best-known British photographers who collectively made some of the earliest images in India,
bodies also soon adopted pioneering survey projects using photography to encompass and manage the huge physical and cultural diversity of India.
Among the earliest works in the Ricketts collection are
twenty-six views from 1858 of significant sites in the First War of Independence (also known as the Indian ‘Mutiny’). These were taken by Italian-born British professional photographer Felice Beato, who, having previously photographed in the Crimea and the Middle East, was the most experienced photographer to work in India. His
Burma and Ceylon.
images are the only known photographs of many of the
historic buildings in the conflict that were later demolished.
India was one of the first countries outside Europe
and America to take up photography. By January 1840
Beato went on to China in 1860 where he made pictures
a daguerreotype apparatus was for sale in Calcutta
of the Boxer rebellion (of which an album is also held by
(Kolkata). Despite the difficulties of photochemistry in
the Gallery) and then established a studio in Japan. Beato
a tropical climate, a number of daguerreotype studios
went to Burma in 1885 to document the Third Burma War.
existed in India. Surviving daguerreotypes from anywhere
He remained there developing studios which specialised in
in Asia, however, are scarce. From the mid-1850s the
photographs of ‘Burmese beauties’ and ‘native types’.
48 national gallery of australia
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Colin Murray Reversing station on the S.I.P. at Khandalla on the Bhue Ghats albumen silver photograph 18.8 x 30.4 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Charles T Scowen Sinhalese girl 1870s albumen silver photograph 28.0 x 22.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Large-scale albumen prints are the exemplary achievements of the nineteenth century; costly and technically demanding, only the best resourced photographers could undertake such mammoth prints. Those who did included military officers who had learned photography in India and came to be assigned on official monuments surveys or took on projects out of personal interest and ambition. In the Ricketts collection this type of survey work is represented by eleven large prints from 1855 to 1857 by Captain Thomas Biggs (1822–1905) of the Bombay Artillery and Dr William Pigou (1818–1858) of the Bombay Medical Service, which come from Architecture in Dharwar and Mysore, a three-volume photographically illustrated book by Anglo-Indian scholar Colonel Meadows Taylor published in London in 1866. Working from 1855 to 1857 Biggs and Pigou were the first designated ‘architectural photographers’ of sites in western India. Dr John Murray (1809–1898) of the Bengal Medical Establishment specialised in Mughal architecture of Agra, Fatehpur Sikri and Delhi and mastered the difficult process
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of mammoth plate paper negatives. The Gallery holds two of his dense but mezzotint-like prints, including one from his 1858 portfolio Agra and its vicinity. Bombay photographers William Johnson and William Henderson were among the earliest to make ethnographic studies in India in 1857. Johnson’s The oriental races and tribes, residents and visitors of Bombay (issued in two volumes in London from 1863 to 1866) was the first photographically illustrated ethnographical publication on India. Consumption of photography was by no means limited to foreigners’ interests; royalty and upper echelon administrators in India and elsewhere in Asia were keen to present images of themselves as presents in exchange for the many photographs sent to them by the crowned heads and statesmen of Europe. A small group of portraits of maharajas by unknown photographers in the Ricketts collection reveal the splendour of the royal courts. The largest individual holding and aesthetically the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the Ricketts collection is the group
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of sixty-four large prints by landscape photographer
photographer was Lala Deen Dayal (1844–1905), a civil
Samuel Bourne, an experienced landscape and portrait
engineer who became skilled as an amateur photographer
photographer in England active in societies and salons who
by the 1870s while working for Sir Henry Daly, the Agent
moved to India in 1862 and worked there until 1870 and
to the Governor General for Central India. Deen Dayal
returned in the 1880s. He was in partnership with Charles
set up on his own studio in 1885, becoming the most
Shepherd and later Colin Murray at various times. Bourne
prominent and acclaimed photographer of Princely India
made a series on the sites of the ‘Mutiny’ in 1864 but his
until his death in 1905.
renown comes from the distinctive elegant abstract design
of his landscape and wilderness views taken on extensive
Asia–Pacific region has revealed that while some
journeys to Simla, Kashmir and Himalayas in the 1860s,
photographers and eras are widely celebrated, others such
which won him medals in Britain.
as Charles Scowen in Ceylon and Beato in Burma are not
because their works are later than the colonial era of high
Photography in India was impossible without local
labourers. Bourne, for example, had some thirty porters and assistants on his Himalayan journeys. Indians were widely employed as assistants to foreign photographers but increasingly became photographers in their own right. In the 1870s a photographer at the Madras School of Industrial Art was employed by James Breeks to take photographs for his book An account of the primitive tribes and monuments of the Nilagiris, published in 1873. Current scholarly consensus is that the photographer was a local, C Lyahsawmy. The first high profile Indian-born
Unknown photographer Maharana’s elephant, Udaipur 1880s–90s albumen silver photograph 19.2 x 24.4 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (opposite) Charles Shepherd Khyber Pass 1860s albumen silver photograph 19.9 x 29.1 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Research into the spread of photography in the
adventures or ‘first’ views. The Gallery aims to bring to
Felice Beato The Mosque Picket on the ridge, Delhi 1858 albumen silver photograph 25.5 x 30.4 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
greater prominence many of these lesser-known bodies of work by pioneer photographers in the Asia–Pacific in the National Photography Festival exhibition from July until October 2008. The Gallery’s survey exhibition will showcase many works from the Ricketts collection and will be the first such survey of photographic art in the region.
a
Gael Newton Senior Curator, Photography artonview
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new acquisition International Painting and Sculpture
Max Ernst Habakuk
Max Ernst Habakuk 1934/1970 bronze 449.9 x 162.9 x 162.9 cm no. six of a planned edition of ten, cast 1995–1998 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased with the assistance of the National Australia Bank
Max Ernst was a towering figure in the revolutionary
to curse his enemies. These include the Chaldeans, and
artistic and literary movement of Surrealism, a sculptor,
interestingly, the makers of idols, that is, sculptors:
painter, graphic artist and inventor of frottage. His
What profiteth the graven image that the maker
monumental bronze Habakuk is a memorable and
thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a
outstanding statement of modern art. A dark, looming,
teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth
bird-like column, Habakuk is engaging and eccentric, yet at
therein, to make dumb idols?
the same time its huge size and shiny black patina make it seem severe, even ominous. The sculpture is a large version
of the original plaster executed by Ernst in 1934 and
he had no money to cast them in bronze. According to
reworked later in the 1930s.
Werner Spies in Max Ernst: sculptures, maisons, paysages,
Habakuk’s body was created from casts of flowerpots,
When Ernst first worked with plaster maquettes,
‘Ernst agreed, in 1970, that a monumental version of
stacked on top of and inside one another. Ernst then added
Habakuk should be carried out, expressing above all the
a head, consisting of a giant tilted bill and eyes, and a
still-remaining Dada refusal to accept formal purism, which
circular plinth. At the foot of the figure is a third eye, and
he had denigrated in Cologne [fifty years earlier] ...’ One
the plinth also bears a negative impression of one of the
cast of the larger version was made in 1970 for Düsseldorf,
eyes. These were cast from a desert stone found by Roland
and is now installed in the Grabbeplatz. The Gallery’s
Penrose, the English Surrealist collector, painter and poet,
cast is numbered ‘6’, part of the planned edition of ten
who gave it to Ernst in 1929. He called it Rose de sable, œil
authorised and plaster signed by Ernst in 1970, and cast
de sphinx [Rose of sand, eye of the sphinx].
by Susse Fondeur, Paris. Only four were realised. The large
plaster has been destroyed, so no more can be made.
Together, the eye and the impression on the plinth
represent inward and outward vision, and form a veiled reference to the biblical prophet Habakuk, after whom the sculpture is named. In his study, Max Ernst: sculpture, Jürgen Pech draws a parallel between Ernst’s perceived connection ‘between the soothsayer and visionary of the Bible and the visionary, transcendental aspects of his own work.’ The Book of Habakuk is one of the last, and shortest, books of the Old Testament. It is a song, a conversation between the prophet and God, in which Habakuk asks God
54 national gallery of australia
Its totemic form places Habakuk within the context of
Ernst’s own enthusiastic and discerning collecting of art from Africa, the Pacific and the Americas. These sculptures reflect his personal taste, acquired as they caught his eye and resonated with him aesthetically. Ninety-six works from his collection are held in the National Gallery of Australia. Christine Dixon and Bronwyn Campbell International Painting and Sculpture
new acquisition International Painting and Sculpture
Giorgio de Chirico Death of a spirit
Giorgio de Chirico La Mort d’un esprit [Death of a spirit] 1916 oil on canvas 36.0 x 33.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased with the assistance of Harold and Bevelly Mitchell, Rupert and Annabel Myer and the NGA Foundation
Giorgio de Chirico is an important figure in twentieth-
Death of a spirit features two French biscuits frontally
century art, renowned for his invention of Metaphysical
placed onto orange geometric receding planes, flanked
painting (pittura metafisica), which preceded Dada and
by a black disc and surrounded by yellow, red and green
Surrealism from about 1911 into the 1930s. The artist’s
forms. The elements crowd uneasily into an ambiguous
imaginative symbolic language – especially human figures
space, which reads as an interior, opening onto an
meshed with machines, often placed in incongruous
unsettling urban landscape. The tense composition and
settings such as classical or mechanical landscapes – is
bright, constrained palette animate this small and vigorous
seminal to modern art.
painting. Its content and style embody an extraordinary
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines
moment in modern painting when Cubism, Dada and
the nature of reality. For de Chirico, true reality was hidden
Abstraction collided in de Chirico’s new Metaphysics.
behind appearances. He invented a language of images
which represented human presence by placing everyday
Surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí and Max Ernst, as
objects such as statues, mannequins, set-squares and
Gale notes in the Grove Dictionary of art:
biscuits within a compressed and fictional space. The poet
The style of Metaphysical painting strongly influenced
On his arrival in Paris in 1922, Ernst’s painting
Guillaume Apollinaire named the style ‘metaphysical’ in 1913. According to the art historian Matthew Gale,
reflected the admiration of his poet friends for de
de Chirico thought that reality was ‘visible only to the
Chirico … the painters who became Surrealists after
“clearsighted” at enigmatic moments’.
Ernst almost all passed through a period of stylistic
debt to de Chirico, notably Salvador Dalí and Alberto
De Chirico studied art in Munich from 1905, moving to
Paris in 1911. There he met such Cubist and Fauvist artists
Giacometti (the leading creators of the Surrealist
as Picasso, Derain, Braque and Brancusi, and avant-garde
Object), René Magritte [and others].
writers such as Apollinaire. His first solo exhibition, largely unsuccessful, was held in Rome in 1919. Viewers found his paintings disturbing, especially the unusual treatment of space: claustrophobic interiors, unusual angles and cut-off planes, with deadpan representations of classical statues or tailor’s dummies lending an eerie quasi-human presence.
In 1914 de Chirico enlisted in the Italian army and was
sent to Ferrara. There he met Carrà and Papini, soon to be his colleagues in Metaphysical painting, and mixed with Futurist and Dada artists. By 1916 de Chirico concentrated on small, stifling still-life compositions, often featuring biscuits, set-squares, planks, maps, military insignia and flags. 56 national gallery of australia
De Chirico was also important to the Australian
painters James Cant and James Gleeson. Indeed, Cant almost certainly saw Death of a spirit in London. It was shown there twice while he lived there, first in 1937 at the Zwemmer Gallery in the exhibition Chirico–Picasso, and again at the London Gallery in Giorgio de Chirico 1911– 1917, in October–November 1938. Some of the costumes de Chirico designed for Diaghilev’s production of Le Bal in 1929 are held in the Gallery’s collection. Christine Dixon Senior Curator, International Painting and Sculpture
new acquisition A sian Ar t
Kushan Buddha
Kushan dynasty Mathura, India Seated Buddha 1st–2nd century red sandstone 129.5 x 101.6 x 30.5 cm Purchased with the generous assistance of Roslyn Packer 2007
This superb Indian sculpture has recently been added
anthropomorphic form, was established. This is a fine
to the permanent display of art from South Asia. The
early example of this key development in Asian art.
unusually large seated Buddha is not only a spectacular
Characteristic of the evolving, quintessentially Indian
example of early Indian sculpture, but also a key image
style of sculpture from Mathura, the torso of the Buddha
in understanding the development of Buddhist art
is robust and powerful, with a plump, gently smiling
throughout Asia. The sculpture has survived, largely intact,
face and wide-open eyes. He is shown with several of
from the second century of the Current Era.
the thirty-two marks (lakshanas) of a great man – the
During the first to third centuries a large part of
broad ‘chest of a lion’, the urna or tuft of hair between
northern and western India and Pakistan was ruled
the eyebrows (which in this case would once have been
by the powerful Kushan dynasty that originated in
embellished with a precious jewel), circles or wheels on
central Asia. The two great Kushan political centres – at
the soles of his feet, webbed fingers, folds of flesh at the
Gandhara and Mathura – each developed its own style of
neck, elongated earlobes and a topknot of hair. The last
monumental Buddhist art. Importantly, both were noted
of these is the ushnisha, or cranial protuberance, that
for their anthropomorphic depictions of the Buddha who
signifies Buddha’s spiritual advancement. In contrast to
had hitherto been represented by symbols such as his
the Gandharan images of Buddha and bodhisattvas clad
footprints, the empty throne, the bodhi tree and the wheel
in elaborate royal robes, Mathuran Buddhas are depicted
of law. These are the central focus of the Gallery’s fine
in almost diaphanous garments that cling to the body and
large marble Amaravati frieze from a stupa from eastern
accentuate the human form.
India, dated to roughly the same period.
his legs crossed, the upturned soles of his feet carved with
Mathura was a prosperous city and an ancient religious
and political capital that predated the rise of the Kushan dynasty. It was also a centre for stone carving to serve the temple complexes. A bold and distinctively Indian style of figurative sculpture developed at Mathura, in contrast to the strongly Hellenic but rather delicate figures of neighbouring Gandhara, which are superbly represented in the Gallery’s collection by a large grey-schist standing bodhisattva and the recently acquired head of a bodhisattva. In contrast, this sculpture is formed from the striking mottled-red Sikri sandstone typical of the Mathuran region of northern India.
Buddhism flourished in India at this time and it was
during the Kushan dynasty that the representation of the Buddha, with his characteristic features of a cranial protuberance and extended earlobes dressed in the monastic robe that would become the enduring iconography for the depiction of Buddha in 58 national gallery of australia
The Buddha is seated in the meditation posture with
two auspicious symbols in shallow relief – a discus (cakra) and a triratna. The cakra represents the wheel of Buddhist teachings, with the ‘turning of the wheel’ signifying the transmission of Buddhist teachings. Each of the Buddha’s toes is carved with a small swastika, another recurring symbol of Buddhism. The figure holds one hand, now missing, aloft in what would have been the fear-dispelling gesture (abhaya mudra), while his other hand is placed squarely on his left knee.
Installed in a niche in the new Indian Gallery, the
Seated Buddha provides visitors with new insights into the history of Asian art. We are grateful to Ros Packer, Chair of the Acquisitions Committee of the Gallery’s governing Council, for her timely donation that secured this masterpiece for the national collection. Robyn Maxwell Senior Curator, Asian Art
new acquisition Photography
Robyn Stacey Gorilla skull
Robyn Stacey Gorilla skull 2005 Type C colour photograph 100.0 x 162.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Robyn Stacey belongs to a generation of photomedia
grounded in popular culture with a slightly sixties Pop look,
artists who came to prominence in the 1980s. These
but presented a modern world made somewhat anxious
artists were unconcerned with, even suspicious of, the
and edgy. By contrast her work since the 1990s has made
claims to truth by various styles of personal documentary
use of science and the deathly quiet of a number of natural
photography dominant in art museums in the 1970s. They
history museum collections in which she worked during
spurned reportage photography and embraced visual
several residencies.
culture as a source rather than the ‘real’ world. The artists
of this movement (later called Postmodernism) happily
series which draws on collections at the Macleay Museum,
appropriated images from the past as well as popular
Sydney, and recalls the tradition of the Dutch genre of
culture, including the look of ‘old master’ paintings or
nature morte paintings in which the still-life objects provide
fifties and sixties magazines and television.
a moral lesson on the vanity of world. The reference to the
From her earliest series in the mid 1980s, Robyn Stacey
has created seductive and vibrantly coloured tableaux involving great technical expertise in synthesising multiple sources and motifs which has been greatly facilitated by the emergence of digital manipulation. Her earliest efforts are hand-coloured black-and-white prints; later works involve complex overlays. Stacey’s series works, such as Kiss kiss bang bang 1985 and All the sounds of fear 1990, were 60 national gallery of australia
Gorilla skull 2005 comes from Stacey’s Beau monde
gorilla (a threatened species symbolising humankind) and coral (a threatened wonder of Australia’s northern coast) alongside dead specimens under the microscope and an ominously placed geological hammer, combine to create an anxiety often found in her early works. Stacey’s art entertains and yet reminds us of dangers to the planet. Gael Newton Senior Curator, Photography
new acquisition Australian Painting and Sculpture
Howard Taylor Rainbow and supernumerary
Howard Taylor was an incessant observer of nature, concerned with recording perceived phenomena in nature. In 1976, largely influenced by his admiration of Constable, Taylor painted a group of paintings in a small format in which he focused on clouds and the skies. One of these is Rainbow and supernumerary 1976. He based the works on drawings in his sketchbook, where he made day–to-day observations, including details of weather, sunlight and shadow. Rainbows were a particular source of fascination. In Rainbow and supernumerary Taylor demonstrated his commitment to looking, his fascination with the natural world and his sensitivity to recording the transient effects of light. Taylor was born in Hamilton, Victoria, on 29 August 1918 and moved to Perth with his family in 1932. He served with the air force during the Second World War until his capture in 1940. In 1949 Taylor returned to Western Australia and settled in the Darling Ranges on the outskirts of Perth, where he became fascinated with the
bush landscape and forest forms which became central to his work. In 1967 he moved to Northcliffe in the heart of the tall-timber karri and jarrah forests of the south-west of Western Australia where he produced some of his most powerful, impeccably crafted evocations of nature. He died on 19 July 2001. As Daniel Thomas has remarked, ‘Howard Taylor was an Australian and his brilliant gifts and stunning vision was totally focused on the depiction of his beloved Australian bush. His vision, however, went far beyond the focus of any painter before him, in that none of them, irrespective of their unquestioned brilliance, ever interrogated and captured the complexity of structure, the ephemeral quality of its light and colour, or the rich and subtle patina of its living forms, as he did’.
Howard Taylor Rainbow and supernumerary 1976 oil on composition board 21.7 x 30.5 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Gift of Sue and Ian Bernadt 2007
Anne Gray Head of Australian Art
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new acquisition Australian Print s and Drawings
Roy Kennedy I’m never alone
Roy Kennedy Wiradjuri people I’m never alone 2005 etching, printed in black ink from one plate platemark 25.0 x 33.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Wiradjuri artist Roy Kennedy was born in the early 1930s
people lived on the mission during the Depression. Of
in Griffith in central New South Wales. Kennedy spent
I’m never alone he writes ‘all my lovely memories of my
his childhood on a government-run mission located on
mission are always there. Some are sad times and some are
the banks of the Murrumbidgee River, downstream from
good memories’. His family had been moved from nearby
Narrandera and Hay. As a young man he worked on farms in
stations to the mission many years before and the concept
the district and later moved to Sydney. In 1995 he enrolled
of relocation is a constant theme in his art. Of Mission boy
at the Eora Centre for Aboriginal Studies at the Sydney
dreams Kennedy recalls ‘from far back as I can remember
Institute of Technology where he pursued his interest in
I’ve always wondered when we would have our own home
printmaking. He was student and artist of the year at Eora in
and years on I’m still wondering’.
1999, and won a NAIDOC Week award that same year.
Kennedy’s etchings provide a graphic documentation
of his memories of the Aboriginal mission environment. Through his sure placement of key elements – the church, the police station, his own mission hut and recreation areas – a vivid and very personal picture emerges of how
62 national gallery of australia
The mission on which Kennedy spent his youth was
closed in 1941. His graphic etchings provide us with a historically acute and sensitive picture of mission life during this period. Mary-Lou Nugent Curatorial Assistant, Australia Prints and Drawings
new acquisition Australian Print s and Drawings
William Nicholas Lady and child
A ready market for portraiture arose with the spread of settlement and the rise of prosperity in colonial Australia. From the 1820s to the 1850s there were more professional portraitists working in both watercolour and oil in the colony than landscape artists. Watercolourist, etcher and lithographer William Nicholas (1807–1854) found acclaim after just ten years in Australia, with the Sydney Morning Herald of 27 July 1847 reporting: ‘His fame is now established in Sydney as the best portrait painter in watercolours in the colony, and the consequence is that there are more heads offered to him for decapitation than he is able to take off.’ Nicholas’s sensitively rendered untitled watercolour reflects the much sought-after English portrait style of the period. An exquisitely painted portrait, the faces in particular are superb examples of the stippling technique for which Nicholas was renowned. Further research may well reveal the identity of this fashionable, well-to-do young mother and her child, dressed in finely embroidered christening robe and bonnet. Even in the distant colonies, the quiet, demure aspects of women’s dress of the Victorian period dictated fashion. Watered silks in pastel tones were the height of fashion in the 1840s, and the woman’s gown of celestial blue typically has a high bodice with a low-waisted, V-shaped front panel trimmed with a white lace collar. The influence of medievalism is evident in the angular lines of the bodice with its reference to the Gothic arch. Showy, full sleeves slowly lost favour in the Victorian period and the dress has stylish, closely fitting sleeves with pleating at the elbow. By contrast, the skirt is full, to emphasise the narrow sculpted waistline. The hairstyle is also typical of contemporary fashion: centrally parted, held by combs, ringlets forward of the ears, and a plaited knot at the back. The gold brooch on her bodice, painted in a blend of ground gold leaf and gum arabic, is a delicate final touch.
William Nicholas not titled [Lady and child] c. 1847 watercolour, pencil and ground gold leaf and gum arabic on cardboard image 22.4 x 17.6 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Anne McDonald Curator, Australian Prints and Drawings
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new acquisition Decorative Ar t s and Design
Toots Zynsky Pennellata
Toots Zynsky Pennellata 2005 glass filet de verre 27.0 x 59.5 x 31.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
The ethereal quality of Toots Zynsky’s 2005 work,
known as Urban Glass), where she developed technical
Pennellata, is characteristic of the extraordinary glass
processes for the production of the fine glass threads, or
vessels that have placed her among the leading
‘canes’, used as a key element in the design of her glass
practitioners of contemporary studio glass. Its layered
works. Zynsky describes the technique of constructing
colours are animated by reflected and refracted light,
open vessel forms works entirely composed of these fused
each linear element inflecting the visual quality of the
and thermo-formed glass elements as ‘filet de verre’.
next as the viewer’s gaze moves from its outer to its inner
From 1983 to 1999, she worked from a studio base in
surfaces. Their shaded, drawing-like quality is the result
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, immersing herself in the
of a complex and demanding process of construction by
traditions of European glass, drawing inspiration and
which two layers of glass threads, in about sixty colours,
technical knowledge from Venetian glass in particular.
are assembled flat before being fused and formed into a
An interest in music also took her to West Africa, where
circular sheet of glass. This sheet is then mould-slumped
she participated in a recording project of West Ghanaian
in the kiln before final manipulation into the undulating, organic form that characterises all of Zynsky’s work.
Mary Ann (Toots) Zynsky was born in Boston,
Massachusetts, in 1951, and gained a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1973. After moving to New York in 1980, she founded and developed the second New York Experimental Glass Workshop (now 64 national gallery of australia
traditional music, an experience that exposed her to the vibrant colours and patterns of the region’s traditional art and design, influences that were interpreted in the complex colour orchestrations of her later work. Robert Bell Senior Curator, Decorative Arts and Design
new acquisition Decorative Ar t s and Design
Marion Mahony Griffin Window panel
Marion Mahony Griffin was born in the United States of
and delineated by his staff in Chicago from 1907 to 1912.
America in 1871 and died there in 1961. She graduated
While ‘leaded glass’ is used as a generic descriptor for
in Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of
such window panels, the glass elements of the work are
Technology in 1894, and became one of the world’s first
fixed together with zinc, allowing a more precise fit of the
registered women architects. In 1895, she joined the
complex geometrical elements of Wright’s designs. Such
Chicago practice of architect Frank Lloyd Wright where,
work was usually carried out to Wright’s specifications by
in addition to working as an architect, she became
the Linden Glass Company in Chicago. The design of this
Wright’s key delineator and developed his designs for
panel has been attributed to Marion Mahony Griffin and
architectural glass and other decorative arts and interior
it is a work closely associated with her and Walter Burley
design projects. A professional relationship with another of
Griffin during a critical time in their partnership with Frank
Wright’s staff, the architect Walter Burley Griffin became
Lloyd Wright. As it was a valued part of their personal
personal with their marriage in 1911. When Walter Burley
possessions in Australia, it is highly probable that the
Griffin won the competition for the design of Canberra, with an entry prepared jointly with Marion, she joined him in Australia, living and working in Canberra, Melbourne, and Castlecrag in Sydney from 1914 to 1937.
This coloured and iridised glass window panel, with a
geometric border design around a clear glass centre panel, is similar to designs for window panels designed by Wright
Marion Mahony Griffin, in association with Walter Burley Griffin and Frank Lloyd Wright Window panel c. 1910 glass, zinc cames, wood frame 45.0 x 45.0 x 4.5 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Griffins intended to use the panel in one of their projects in Australia, or to use it as a model for further works and a demonstration of their design approach to architectural decoration. Robert Bell Senior Curator, Decorative Arts and Design artonview
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children’s galler y
Drawn in 14 July – 25 November 2007
Mike Brown Half lady on chair 1975 pen on paper sheet 26.0 x 26.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Sidney Nolan Bushranger head with red and yellow mask 1947 charcoal, enamel 31.4 x 25.2 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
A dot becomes a line and then a form; each drawing
in his drawing MN at Papunya 1987. This drawing uses
unfolds from a single mark. It is the finished drawing that
tone rather than line to hint at a figure in the landscape.
shows how this simple beginning can be transformed.
Johnson’s airy technique suggests the heat of central
More than any other medium, drawing is accessible
Australia, and the Indigenous artist working in the open is
to everyone. Sketching a map, doodling while on the
shown as part of the country, rather than separate from his
telephone, even writing can be considered drawing.
surroundings.
Design, animation, architecture, mathematics and the
sciences all use drawing. Individual observations are
and looking in. Drawing can also link directly to memory
interpreted through drawing by both the maker and
and imagination. The charcoal drawings of Sidney Nolan’s
their audience. It is a means to record experience,
rugged band of bushrangers, including Bushranger head
whether literally or imaginatively. Children draw, and so
with red and yellow mask 1947, display an uncertainty
did Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein. For all three,
and vulnerability through their smudged and broken lines.
drawing is a means for experimentation and exploration.
In these drawings Nolan is not only examining these men
Drawn in, an exhibition for children, highlights figure
as individuals with thoughts and feelings, he is also using
Drawing examines the act of looking – looking out
drawing by many Australian artists. The drawings selected
them to think about the bushranger as an expression of
include portraits, self-portraits, figures in landscapes and
Australian identity.
imaginary forms. Even within this relatively narrow range of
subjects, the materials and techniques used by each artist show the diversity of drawing.
Children will be able to see that drawing is not one
thing. It can be about replicating the world around them, it can be about the creative power of mark making and it can be about the process itself, how each mark predetermines the ones that follow. Some drawings focus on line, some on tone, some use colour and some incorporate all of these elements. The vertical black pen lines used by Richard Larter in his drawing, Untitled, portrait of a woman with a scarf 1975, are confident and bold. This work demonstrates Larter’s unique use of line, for the balance he creates between his marks and the page forms the portrait. Another artist in the exhibition who plays with the arrangement of positive and negative space is Tim Johnson 66 national gallery of australia
Drawing is a wonderful activity used with skill and
humour by a range of Australian artists in this exhibition. Drawing can be neat or messy, cool or hot and it can be about concrete and abstract ideas. Drawn in invites children and their parents to participate in various drawing activities in the exhibition space. An easel and mirror allow visitors to observe and draw themselves, tables provide materials for drawing in response to music, free drawing with pencil and paper and the mechanical etch-a-sketch which makes a continuous line as two dials are rotated. The exhibition will give children and their parents the confidence to see that when it comes to drawing, there is no right way to do it. Adriane Boag Educator, Youth and Community Programs
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1 Anna Gray, curator, and Daniel Thomas AM at the opening of the exhibition, George W Lambert retrospective: heroes and icons 2 Sir Richard Kingsland AO CBE DFC and Lady Kathleen Kingsland at the opening of the exhibition, George W Lambert retrospective: heroes and icons 3 John Mackay, ActewAGL, and Colette Mackay at the opening of the exhibition, George W Lambert retrospective: heroes and icons 4 Brian and Lesley Oakes at 17 exhibition, George W Lambert retrospective: heroes and icons the Members’ opening of the 5 Geoffrey King OAM and Rae King at the Members’ opening of the exhibition, George W Lambert retrospective: heroes and icons 6,7,8 Children participating in a shell workshop with Marilyn Russell (pictured) and Esme Timbery during NAIDOC Week 9 Children at the National Australia Bank Sculpture Gallery open day 10 Performance by Emma Bossard and Jane Ryan in response to Brancusi’s Birds in space; part of the National Australia Bank Sculpture Gallery open day 11 Family attending the tour of the Aboriginal memorial during NAIDOC Week 12 Jean Baptiste Apuatimi, Angela Hill, Philip Gudthaykudthay, Peter Mingululu, Belinda Scott, Arthur Pambegan Jr, Luke Kawangka, Daniel Boyd and Brenda L Croft at the announcement of the National Indigenous Art Triennial 13 Rupert Myer AM at the announcement of the National Indigenous Art Triennial 14 Arthur Pambegan Jr at the announcement of the National Indigenous Art Triennial 15 Peter Mingululu and Belinda Scott at the announcement of the National Indigenous Art Triennial 16 His Excellency Mr Robert McCallum Jr, United States Ambassador to Australia and Mrs Mary McCallum with Director Ron Radford AM 17 Jean Baptiste Apuatimi performing at the announcement of the National Indigenous Art Triennial
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travelling exhibitions spring 20 07 An artist abroad: the prints of James McNeill Whistler James McNeill Whistler was a key figure in the European art world of the 19th century. Influenced by the French Realists, the Dutch, Venetian and Japanese masters, Whistler’s prints are sublime visions of people and the places they inhabit. nga.gov.au/Whistler James McNeill Whistler Portrait of Whistler 1859 (detail) etching and drypoint National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery, Launceston Tas., 1 September – 4 November 2007 Stage fright: the art of theatre
Grace Crowley Abstract painting 1947 (detail) oil on cardboard National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide SA, 27 July – 28 October 2007
In partnership with Australian Theatre for Young People Supported by Visions of Australia, an Australian Government Program supporting touring exhibitions by providing funding assistance for the development and touring of cultural material across Australia
Loundon Sainthill Costume design for the ugly sister from Cinderella 1958 (detail) gouache, pencil and watercolour on paper National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Stage fright: the art of theatre raises the curtain on the world of theatre and dance through works of art, interactives and a program of workshops conducted by educators from the National Gallery and Australian Theatre for Young People. Worlds from mythology, fairytales and fantasy characters intended for the ballet, opera and stage are shown in exquisitely rendered finished drawings alongside others that have been quickly executed capturing the essence of an idea, posture, movement or character. nga.gov.au/StageFright
Ocean to Outback: Australian landscape painting 1850–1950 The National Gallery of Australia’s 25th Anniversary Travelling Exhibition Supported by Visions of Australia, an Australian Government Program supporting touring exhibitions by providing funding assistance for the development and touring of cultural material across Australia Russell Drysdale Emus in a landscape 1950 (detail) oil on canvas National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1970
Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, Booragul NSW, 14 September – 28 October 2007 Michael Riley: sights unseen Supported by Visions of Australia, an Australian Government Program supporting touring exhibitions by providing funding assistance for the development and touring of cultural material across Australia
Michael riley untitled from the series cloud [cow] 2000 (detail) printed 2005 chromogenic pigment photograph National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Courtesy of the Michael Riley Foundation and Viscopy, Australia
Mathias Kauage Independence Celebration I 1975 (detail) stencil National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Colin McCahon Crucifixion: the apple branch 1950 (detail) oil on canvas National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased with funds from the Sir Otto and Lady Margaret Frankel Bequest 2004.
Imagining Papua New Guinea: screenprints from the national collection This exhibition of screenprints from the national collection celebrates Papua New Guinea’s independence and surveys its rich history of printmaking. Artists whose works are in the exhibition include Timothy Akis, Mathias Kauage, David Lasisi, John Man and Martin Morububuna. nga.gov.au/Imagining
To mark the Gallery’s 25th anniversary, this exhibition of treasured works from the National Collection has been curated by Director Ron Radford for a national tour. Every Australian state and territory is represented through the works of iconic artists such as Clarice Beckett, Arthur Boyd, Grace Cossington Smith, Russell Drysdale, Hans Heysen, Max Meldrum, Sidney Nolan, Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Eugene von Guérard. nga.gov.au/OceantoOutback
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart Tas., 5 October – 25 November 2007
Sri Lanka Seated Ganesha 9th–10th century (detail) from Red case: myths and rituals National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
The Elaine & Jim Wolfensohn Gift Travelling Exhibitions Three suitcases of works of art: Red case: myths and rituals includes works that reflect the spiritual beliefs of different cultures; Yellow case: form, space, design reflects a range of art making processes; and Blue case: technology. These suitcases thematically present a selection of art and design objects that may be borrowed free-of-charge for the enjoyment of children and adults in regional, remote and metropolitan centres. For further details and bookings telephone 02 6240 6432 or email Travex@nga.gov.au. nga.gov.au/Wolfensohn Red case: myths and rituals and Yellow case: form, space and design Caloundra Regional Art Gallery, Caloundra Qld, 16 July – 21 September 2007 Blue case: technology Manning Regional Art Gallery, Taree NSW, 9 July – 30 September 2007
Noosa Regional Gallery, Noosa Qld, 9 November – 5 December 2007 Colin McCahon A focus exhibition showcasing the Gallery’s holdings of one of the Australasian region’s most renowned and respected artists – Colin McCahon (1919–1987). The exhibition includes paintings and works on paper spanning the period from the 1950s to early 1980s. It is significant that the exhibition’s tour of Australia and New Zealand coincides with the 30th anniversary of the New Zealand government gifting to Australia in 1978 the iconic work Victory over death 2 1970. nga.gov.au/McCahon
Proudly sponsored by R.M.Williams, The Bush Outfitter and the National Gallery of Australia Council Exhibitions Fund
Tamworth Regional Gallery, Tamworth NSW, 3 August – 22 September 2007
Michael Riley (1960–2004) was one of the most important contemporary Indigenous visual artists of the past two decades. His contribution to the contemporary Indigenous and broader Australian visual arts industry was substantial and his film and video work challenged non-Indigenous perceptions of Indigenous experience, particularly among the most disenfranchised communities in the eastern region of Australia. nga.gov.au/Riley Museum of Brisbane, Brisbane Qld, 27 July – 18 November 2007
Grace Crowley: being modern One of the leading figures in the development of modernism in Australia, Grace Crowley’s life and art intersected with some of the major movements of 20th century art. This will be the first exhibition of Grace Crowley’s work since 1975 and will include important works from public and private collections. Spanning the 1920s through to the 1960s, the exhibition will trace her remarkable artistic journey from painter of atmospheric Australian landscapes to her extraordinary late abstracts. nga.gov.au/Crowley
The 1888 Melbourne Cup Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Windsor NSW, 20 July – 16 September 2007
Karl Lawrence Millard Lizard grinder 2000 (detail) brass, bronze, copper, sterling silver, money metal, Peugeot mechanism, stainless steel screws National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Exhibition venues and dates are subject to change. Please contact the gallery or venue before your visit. For more information please phone +61 2 6240 6556 or email travex@nga.gov.au
Dell Gallery@QCA, Brisbane Qld, 19 September – 28 October 2007 The National Gallery of Australia Travelling Exhibitions Program is generously supported by Australian airExpress.
a new star is born Vibrant. Dynamic. Inspiring. Unique. It’s what made the National Gallery of Australia one of the world’s great art institutions and it’s why we’re shaping a new direction with the National Australia Bank Sculpture Gallery. Create a new direction for yourself and enjoy the new star of the Sculpture Gallery. NAB is proud to partner with the National Gallery of Australia to bring you the National Australia Bank Sculpture Gallery.
Max Ernst, Habakuk, -, bronze. Purchased with the assistance of National Australia Bank Collection: National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. ©Max Ernst. Licensed by VISCOPY, Australia, .
03Art on view ad.indd 1
28/6/07 10:51:49 AM
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View one of the many exhibitions on display at the National Gallery and enjoy apartment facilities or relax and be pampered by traditional hotel services at Saville. Gallery Packages start from
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Includes overnight accomodation and breakfast for two. Special car parking rate of $5.00 per day and 25% discount off food when dining in Zipp Restaurant in conjunction with this package. *Subject to availability and conditions apply.Valid to 14 September 2007.
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Open Garden & Gallery Southern Highlands
28th October - 4th November, 2007 10am - 4pm
Blue Pond by John Kirton
An exciting collection by: John Kirton Margie Mullins Nadine Harvey Libby Hobbs Margaret Shepherd Jenny Stewart Cindy Pryma Jean Griffin Patrice Cooke Melinda Haylock Martial Cosyn Vanessa Forbes
The Burrows Tugalong Road Canyonleigh NSW 2577 Take the Illwarra Hwy exit from the Hume Highway and follow the signs to Canyonleigh. Entry to garden $5.00 - supporting NSW Rural Fire Service.
This exquisite ten acre garden, often likened to the garden of French impressionist Claude Monet in Giverny, France and which HighLife Magazine described as a “Highlands’ Garden Oasis with a Touch of Monet”, will be open to the public for the first time this year. The Burrows is a roaming garden transformed from bare paddocks at Canyonleigh. Situated on the south-western edge of the Southern Highlands, half way between Sydney and Canberra, The Burrows has been part of the Australian Open Garden scheme and has been featured in a number of magazines. Also open will be The Kirton Gallery, a private art gallery housed in a restored hay shed adjacent to the garden.
THE LEADING AUSTRALIAN OWNED ART AUCTIONEERS AND VALUERS
Final Entries Invited Major Fine Art Auction SYDNEY 5+6 December 2007 Entries close 24 October 2007 For confidential appraisals by our art specialists, please contact:
Melbourne 03 9822 1911 Sydney 02 8344 5404
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74 national gallery of australia
Robert Klippel NO. 251 1985-86 1970, 87.0 cm height.
C • A • N•B •E •R•R•A
B A R T O N
celebrating 25 years
LAMBERT, George The red shawl (Olave Cunninghame Graham) 1913 oil on canvas 96.70 (H) x 76.00 (W) cm Gallery of New South Art Wales, Sydney, purchased in 1934 Sydney photograph: Jenni Carter
The Brassey of Canberra Celebrating our 80th birthday
National Gallery of Australia Package
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$
per night. Based on Twin share/double and includes full buffet breakfast for 2 people, admission to the National Gallery including George Lambert Exhibition and entry for 2 at Old Parliament House. $30.00 extra person per night. Valid until 16th September 2007.
The Brassey of Canberra Belmore Gardens and Macquarie Street, Barton ACT 2600 Telephone: 02 6273 3766 Facsimile: 02 6273 2791 Toll Free Telephone: 1800 659 191 Email: info@brassey.net.au http: //www.brassey.net.au
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artonview
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Richard BELL (1953) Kamilaroi/Kooma/Jiman/Gurang Gurang peoples Australian Art It’s an Aboriginal thing, 2006 (detail) synthetic polymer paint on canvas Collection: TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria Courtesy the artist and Bellas Milani Gallery
INDIGENOUS HERITAGE MANY STORIES, MANY FORMS The deep wealth of Indigenous art, music and dance enriches all Australians. BHP Billiton values our Indigenous heritage, traditional and contemporary. Through our offices and operations across Australia, many of which are located within rural and remote areas, we have long-standing relationships with Indigenous communities. We have a long history of supporting Indigenous cross-cultural programs in Australia and we continue to look for ways that we can help contribute to the communities in which we operate or have a presence, so that we can leave a lasting, positive legacy within our communities. BHP Billiton are immensely proud to be associated with the National Gallery of Australia and their landmark event, the inaugural National Indigenous Art Triennial, CULTURE WARRIORS. May the Indigenous stories in all their forms be seen and heard forever.
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OC E A N to OUTBACK
Australian landscape painting 1850 –1950 The National Gallery of Australia’s 25th Anniversary Travelling Exhibition
1 September 2007 – 27 January 2008 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Proudly supported by the National Gallery of Australia Council Exhibition Fund
CELEBRATING¬ ¬YEARS Russell Drysdale Emus in a landscape 1950 (detail) oil on canvas National Gallery of Australia, Canberra © Estate of Russell Drysdale
nga.gov.au/Rauschenberg
This exhibition is supported by the Embassy of the United States of America
Robert Rauschenberg Publicon – Station I from the Publicons series enamel on wood, collaged laminated silk and cotton, gold leafed paddle, light bulb, perspex, enamel on polished aluminium National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1979 © Robert Rauschenberg Licensed by VAGA and VISCOPY, Australia, 2007
The National Gallery of Australia is an Australian Government agency
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ISSUE No.51 SPRING 2007
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Richard Bell Australian art it’s an Aboriginal thing 2006 synthetic polymer paint on canvas Acquired 2006 TarraWarra Museum of Art collection courtesy the artist and Bellas Milani Gallery
13 October 2007 – 10 February 2008 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra CELEBRATING¬ ¬YEARS
A National Gallery of Australia Travelling Exhibition
The National Gallery of Australia is an Australian Government agency
nga.gov.au/NIAT07
Sculpture Gallery • ROBERT Rauschenberg • Ocean to Outback