2008.Q3 | artonview 55 Spring 2008

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N A T I O N A L G A L L E R Y O F A U S T R A L I A

ARTS OF THE PACIFIC · FREDERICK MCCUBBIN · EAST ASIAN GALLERY

The National Gallery of Australia is an Australian Government Agency

Issue 55, spring 2008

published quarterly by National Gallery of Australia GPO Box 1150 Canberra ACT 2601 nga.gov.au ISSN 1323-4552 Print Post Approved pp255003/00078

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Director’s foreword

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Foundation and Development

exhibitions and displays

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© National Gallery of Australia 2008 Copyright for reproductions of artworks is held by the artists or their estates. Apart from uses permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of Artonview may be reproduced, transmitted or copied without the prior permission of the National Gallery of Australia.

Enquires about permissions should be made in writing to the Rights and Permissions Officer.

The opinions expressed in Artonview are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher.

Crispin Howarth

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enquires The editor, Artonview National Gallery of Australia GPO Box 1150 Canberra ACT 2601 artonview.editor@nga.gov.au advertising Tel: (02) 6240 6587 Fax: (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: Coordinator, Membership GPO Box 1150 Canberra ACT 2601 Tel: (02) 6240 6504 membership@nga.gov.au

Home at last Joanna Krabman

conservation

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Painted by the sun: early Asia–Pacific photography Andrea Wise, Fiona Kemp and James Ward

advertising Erica Seccombe printed in Australia by Blue Star Print, Canberra

Gallery of East Asian art Robyn Maxwell

designer Kristin Thomas

rights and permissions Nick Nicholson

Degas: master of French art Jane Kinsman

editor Eric Meredith photography Eleni Kypridis, Barry Le Lievre, Brenton McGeachie, Steve Nebauer, John Tassie

Gods, ghosts and men: Pacific arts from the National Gallery of Australia

collection focus

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Costumes of the Ballets Russes Robert Bell

acquisitions

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Frederick McCubbin Violet and gold Anne Gray

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A magnificent gift of Albert Namatjira watercolours Sarina Noordhuis-Fairfax

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Owen Yalandja Yawk yawks Tina Baum

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Deborah Paauwe From the waist down Anne O’Hehir

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Bahau people Funerary figure Lucie Folan

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Larsen and Lewers Silver bowl Robert Bell

(cover) Frederick McCubbin Violet and gold 1911 (detail) oil on canvas 87.0 x 144.5 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased with the generous assistance of the Hon. Ashley DawsonDamer and John Wylie, AM, and Myriam Wylie 2008

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Travelling exhibitions

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Faces in view

Director’s foreword

As we near the close of our twenty-fifth anniversary year it is a good time to reflect on some of its high points.

Turner to Monet: the triumph of landscape presented, for the first time ever, outstanding Australian landscape paintings within the context of their contemporaries in Europe, America and elsewhere. The success of the exhibition, for which the Gallery was the only venue, can be measured in terms of the more than 180 000 visitors, the very high proportion of first-time visitors to the Gallery, the highest sale of catalogues per head ever and about thirty million dollars injected into the local economy.

More recently, we celebrated the career of Richard Larter, a Canberra artist of national repute, in a retrospective that covers five decades of his artistic practice.

On display in our Project Gallery, Orde Poynton Gallery and the Australian contemporary gallery, this vibrant exhibition finishes on 14 September.

Picture paradise: Asia–Pacific photography 1840s–1940s, which also opened in winter, presents about five hundred early photographs of the Asia–Pacific region, including Australia. It is the first historic photographic survey exhibition of our geographic region and reflects the new emphasis of the Gallery’s photographic collection on our region. In another of the many firsts associated with Picture paradise, this is the first time an institution has shown nineteenth-century photographs in a variety of appropriate period frames. Indeed, the framing systems were developed as part of the Gallery’s innovative reframing project covered in this issue.

During our silver anniversary year we have made many significant acquisitions for the national collection, many of them announced in earlier issues. We have already exceeded the target of twenty-five million dollars with the help of many generous donors. For example, the acquisition of Frederick McCubbin’s Violet and gold 1911 (on the cover of this issue) was made possible though the generous assistance of Ashley Dawson-Damer, and John Wylie, AM, and Myriam Wylie. Violet and gold is a brilliant painting celebrating the light and colour of the Australian bush at Mount Macedon on a spring morning. It is a wonderful addition to our collection of Australian federation landscapes and will be a feature of

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the exhibition of McCubbin’s later works, which we are planning for August next year.

The Gallery recently received a generous twentyfifth anniversary gift of a collection of Albert Namatjira watercolours from Gordon Darling, AC, CMG, and Marilyn Darling. These brilliant Indigenous paintings of the central Australian landscape are fine examples of Namatjira’s distinctive style, which was to inspire an entire Hermannsburg School. It would now be impossible for us to gather such a fine collection together ourselves.

In this issue of Artonview we also highlight the acquisitions of Owen Yalandja’s evocative yawk yawks, a gift of John and Janet Calvert-Jones; a new silverwork

by Helge Larsen and Darani Lewers, two of Australia’s most senior silversmiths; a playful work of contemporary Australian photographer Deborah Paauwe; and a stunning Indonesian funerary figure from Kalmentan, dating from the mid fourteenth century.

The National Gallery of Australia holds the nation’s largest and most valuable art collection, largely acquired over just three decades of collecting. To celebrate this significant achievement and the twenty-fifth anniversary of our opening we have published a handbook, Collection highlights, which illustrates some two hundred and fifty significant works from all parts of the Gallery’s collection. It is available for $24.95.

The new East Asian display in gallery 10 is the final reconfiguration of the permanent collections before completion of Stage One of our building redevelopment in early 2010. It features some highlights of our collection of Chinese and Japanese art such as the pair of sixfold screens of horses and trees by the shore from the Muromachi period (1392–1573) and the eighth-century Chinese tianlu and pixie earth spirit guardian figures, both of which are illustrated in Collection highlights. In this issue of Artonview, Robyn Maxwell, Senior Curator, Asian Art, has written an insightful piece on this new display.

Early in our collecting history, the Gallery acquired some outstanding works from the Pacific region, laying the foundations of our relatively small but significant Pacific Arts collection. We have recently revived this collection and the exhibition Gods, ghosts and men: Pacific arts from the

National Gallery of Australia will showcase some of the Gallery’s most rarely seen works along with some recent remarkable additions to this collecting area. This includes the early nineteenth-century Maori chieftain’s cloak (see Artonview issue no. 53). Curated by Crispin Howarth, Curator, Pacific Arts, the exhibition focuses on sculptural arts, old and new, including magnificent masks and figures.

This issue also features a collection focus article by Robert Bell, Senior Curator, Decorative Arts and Design, on the Gallery’s collection of Ballet Russes costumes and their connection to Australian history and culture. As highlighted in issue no. 54, this collection requires extensive conservation treatment in preparation for a major Ballets Russes centenary exhibition at the end of 2009.

In July, we celebrated NAIDOC Week. Canberra was the focus city for the 2008 NAIDOC Week celebrations and we were pleased to honour Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures with a program of events and a renewed

display in our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander gallery.

One highlight of the Gallery’s celebration was a concert of the enchanting voice and music of Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. We also celebrated the twenty-first birthday of The Aboriginal Memorial.

Although our silver anniversary ends where it began a year ago in October, we will continue to strive for excellence. The Gallery’s December blockbuster exhibition Degas: master of French art will be a highlight of the next issue and will be sure to please crowds during Canberra’s summer months.

Visitors observe the tenmetre-long Holterman panorama at the media launch for Picture paradise.

Ron Radford

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credit lines

Donations David A Adams American Friends of the National Gallery of Australia Australian Capital Equity Ross Adamson Antoinette L Albert Robert O Albert, AO Gillian Alderson Robert C Allmark William J Anderson Judith H Andrews Susan Armitage Sheila Bignell Susan Boden Parsons Sarah Brasch Margaret Brennan Jennifer Brown Berenice-Eve Calf Debbie Cameron Deborah Carroll Amanda Cattermole Vicki Clingan Diana V Colman Ann Cork Lyn Cummings Curran Family Foundation David R Curtis Ashley Dawson-Damer Jennifer Doyle-Bogicevic Doug England Pauline Everson R H Fleming Rosemary Foot, AO William P Galloway June P Gordon Pauline M Griffin, AM Warwick Hemsley William S Hamilton James Hanratty Natasha L Hardy John Harrison Elizabeth Healey Shirley Hemmings Neil Hobbs Theodora E Hobbs Laura Holt Keith H Hooper Reverend Bill Huff-Johnston 4 national gallery of australia

Claudia Hyles Father W G A Jack His Excellency Major General Michael Jeffery, AC, CVO, MC Judy Johnson Sara Kelly King O’Malley’s Sir Richard Kingsland, AO, CBE, DFC Joyce E Koch Robyn Lance Sandra K Lauffenburger Judith G Laver Stephen R Leeder, AO, MD Paul and Beryl Legge Wilkinson Penelope E Lilley Judith MacIntyre Macquarie Group Foundation Jennifer Manton Robert Maple-Brown Margaret J Mashford Patricia F McCormick Yoichi Minowa Harold Mitchell Foundation Shirley J O’Reilly Greg Paramor John V Parker Kim Paterson Jonathan Persse Mara Praznovszky Prescott Family Foundation Jason Prowd Ralph M Renard Anthony Rohead Jennifer J Rowland Roslyn Russell Kenneth Saxby Gisella Scheinberg, OAM Heather G Shakespeare, OAM Elizabeth J Smith Phyllis Somerville Elizabeth Tanner, AM Ken Taylor Noel C Tovey H N Truscott, AM Caroline Turner William Tyree, OBE Chris Van Reesch Snr Morna E Vellacott Vicki Vidor, OAM

Elizabeth G Ward Joy Warren, OAM Peter G Webster Joyce P West Jenine Westerburg Stephen Wild Yvonne Wildash I S Wilkey Ray Wilson, OAM Lady Joyce Wilson Robine Wilson Donna Woodhill Evelyn Young We would also like to thank the numerous anonymous donors who have donated to the National Gallery of Australia Foundation.

Gifts and Bequests The American Friends of the National Gallery of Australia Anne Atyeo Neville Black Gregor Cullen The family of the Late Peter Russell Gordon Darling, AC, CMG, and Marilyn Darling Gordon Darling Australia Pacific Print Fund Dr Anna Gray Linda Gregoriou Ross Griffith Wenda Gu Brent Harris Pauline Hunter Dale Jones-Evans Sara Kelly Derek Kreckler Leonie Lane John Loane Andrew Lu, OAM Marian Maguire John McPhee Bridget McDonnell Peggy Muttukumara John Neeson Nasser Palangi Mike Parr Ron Radford, AM Larry Rawling William Robinson The Rotary Collection of Australian Art Fund

Denis Savill Raphy Star Tom Trauer Theo Tremblay Robert Vanderstukken Ray Wilson, OAM, and James Agapitos, OAM Grants Australia Council for the Arts through the Showcasing the Best International Strategy, and through its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board, Visual Arts Board and Community Partnerships and Market Development (International) Board.

The Gordon Darling Foundation The San Diego Foundation Visions of Australia through its Contemporary Touring Initiative, an Australian Government program supporting touring exhibitions by providing funding assistance for the development and touring of Australian cultural material across Australia, and through the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian Government and state and territory governments Sponsorship BHP Billiton Brassey Hotel of Canberra Casella Wines Forrest Hotel and Apartments Mantra on Northbourne National Australia Bank Qantas R M Williams, The Bush Outfitter Sony Foundation Australia Yalumba Wines

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Foundation and Development As we come to the conclusion of our twenty-fifth anniversary year we are also approaching our target of $25 million – which is very exciting. The National Gallery of Australia’s Director Ron Radford, AM, Chair of the Council Rupert Myer, AM, and Chairman of the Foundation Charles Curran, AC, are thrilled with the support provided by Australians throughout the nation. We are confident we will make an announcement on our target in the next issue of Artonview (available in December).

Gordon Darling, AC, CMG, and Marilyn Darling recently gifted fifteen Albert Namatjira paintings and have pledged ten more. This extraordinary donation has assisted the Gallery to achieve our $25 million target. The Darlings have been long-term supporters of the Gallery. Gordon Darling’s vision to establish the Gordon Darling Australian and Pacific Print Fund is the reason that the Gallery has an unrivalled collection of Australian and Pacific prints.

Foundation directors have been extremely supportive of the Gallery’s Twenty-fifth Anniversary Gift Program.

Recently, Kerry Stokes, AC, kindly donated funds to our travelling exhibitions program, which provides regional areas with a range of stimulating exhibitions throughout the year. This year, as a result of our travelling exhibitions program, Ocean to Outback: Australian landscape painting 1850–1950, Grace Crowley: being modern, and Culture Warriors: National Indigenous Art Triennial have been viewed by audiences around Australia.

Council member John Calvert-Jones, AM, and his wife Janet Calvert-Jones generously donated funds to acquire the magnificent sculpture Ubirikubiri 2007, the remarkable work of art that featured at the entrance to the exhibition Culture Warriors (see Artonview no. 53 for more about Ubirikubiri).

Foundation Director Linda Gregoriou and Dale JonesEvans gifted Dirty manna by Mike Parr to the Gallery. This work greatly adds to the Australian Prints and Drawings collection.

Foundation Director Jennifer Prescott, through the Prescott Family Foundation, donated funds so that the Gallery was able to acquire the poignant sculpture Tusk 2007 by Ricky Swallow for the Australian Painting and Sculpture collection. Ricky Swallow is a young but renowned artist, and the Gallery is thrilled to have this important work in the national collection.

Foundation Director Sandy Benjamin, who is also the Chair of the Decorative Arts and Design Collection Development Fund, donated funds to the Foundation so

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that the Gallery was able to strengthen our collection of contemporary glass by purchasing Sea urchin I 2007 by Kevin Gordon. Ms Benjamin’s efforts in garnering support for the Gallery’s Decorative Arts and Design collection is highly appreciated.

The Decorative Arts and Design collection has been generously supported through donations made by Raphy Star. Most recently, he donated two glass works

by Brian Hirst, Cycladic series guardian II vase 1987 and Cycladic series vase 1988, which strengthen the Gallery’s contemporary glass collection.

Masterpieces for the Nation appeal 2008 The appeal is progressing very well and we are most grateful for the support provided from donors throughout the country. This year, donations are going towards the acquisition of two paintings: Doreen Reid Nakamarra’s Untitled 2007, which will be an important addition to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art collection, and Autumn moon festival [Sharad Purnima], a pichhavai for the Asian Art collection. If you would like to receive a brochure about this program, please contact the Foundation Office on (02) 6240 6454. Also, for more details on the Masterpieces for the Nation appeal 2008, see Artonview issue no. 54.

Bequest Program We are very excited about launching an official bequest program at the National Gallery of Australia. More details about this program will be available in the next issue of Artonview. If you are interested in being involved or would like more information please contact Annalisa Millar, Executive Director, National Gallery of Australia Foundation, on (02) 6240 6691.

2020 Summit Dinner at the National Gallery of Australia In an atmosphere charged with creative energy, we were delighted to welcome participants of the 2020 Summit to a champagne supper and private viewing of the exhibition Turner to Monet: the triumph of landscape.

The evening was hosted by Chair of the Council Rupert Myer, AM, and Director Ron Radford, AM, who were both delegates of the Creative Australia stream of the 2020 Summit. The Gallery was also represented at the Summit by Brenda L Croft, Senior Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, a delegate of the Indigenous Australia stream.

We would like to thank Champagne Pol Roger and Yalumba for their support of this evening. The mood was relaxed and jovial allowing informal discussion to continue into the night.

Corporate Members Program & Yalumba Rare and Fine Dinner Yalumba and the National Gallery of Australia’s Corporate Members Program held an evening of fine art, wine and dining on 27 May in conjunction with the exhibition Turner to Monet: the triumph of landscape. The evening was a great success with various Canberra businesspeople turning out to enjoy the exhibition and a delicious dinner with six of Yalumba’s finest wines to be tasted. A highlight was the guest speaker Jane Ferrari. Ms Ferrari is the internationally renowned Yalumba crusader. She is a born storyteller whose infectious enthusiasm and outstanding knowledge of wine ensured the evening was both informative and entertaining. We thank everyone who attended this premier event. Also a special thank you to Yalumba for providing rare and fine wines, entertainment and prizes on the night.

The Corporate Members Program offers businesses the opportunity to become involved in arts sponsorship at an entry point level. If you are interested in hearing more about the program please contact Frances Corkhill, Sponsorship and Development Officer, on (02) 6240 6740.

We are grateful to the following corporate members for their continued support: Mantra on Northbourne, The Brassey of Canberra, Forrest Hotel and Apartments, Casella Wines, Champagne Pol Roger and Yalumba.

Mr Rupert Myer, AM, Mr Ron Radford, AM, Mr Hugh Jackman, and The Hon. Peter Garrett, AM, MP, at the 2020 Summit Dinner at the National Gallery of Australia.

Mr Dan Bisa, Mrs Jo Bisa, Mrs Anna Bezos and Mr George Bezos, at the Corporate Members & Yalumba Rare and Fine Dinner at the National Gallery of Australia. (opposite) Mr Kerry Stokes, AC, and Mrs Christine Stokes, at the 2020 Summit Dinner.

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exhibition

Gods, ghosts and men: Pacific arts from the National Gallery of Australia 10 October 2008 – 11 January 2009 Orde Poynton Gallery and Project Gallery

Iatmul people Papua New Guinea, East Sepik Province, Tambanum village Gable mask from a haus tambaran 1920–50 wood, ochre, shell 124.0 x 100.0 x 50.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 2008

The Pacific covers one third of the Earth’s surface. It is the largest and deepest ocean on the planet; the landmass of Australia is dwarfed by its size and could fit into the Pacific Ocean at least twenty times.

Australia has strong connections to the Pacific through historical, political and geographical ties. We are the western border to this watery expanse in which many thousands of islands break the deep blue surface in chaotic patterns like stars in the sky until the Pacific is hemmed in again, to the west, by the eat coast of the Americas.

So large is the Pacific and vast the distance between island groups that each is distinctive in its own right for the array of animals, plants and the people that live there.

Many Pacific Island communities were and are connected to one another through trade and social links even when the distance between islands is considerable. Some cultures also developed in isolation, such as the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island. Papua New Guinea supports hundreds of distinct yet interconnected cultures but the country is still large enough for relatively isolated communities to have developed unique arts.

The National Gallery of Australia’s first Director, James Mollison, was instrumental in developing the Pacific Arts collection. With great foresight, he acquired many of the works in the exhibition Gods, ghosts and men: Pacific arts from the National Gallery of Australia. Being judiciously careful in his selection, Mollison acquired a number of the most iconic objects in the collection, including the Ambum stone, the Double figure from a housepost [To-reri uno] from Lake Sentani and, in 1985, Max Ernst’s private collection of non-western art – some of which is displayed in the exhibition. It was not until 2006 that the Gallery regained its focus on Pacific arts and, in the past two years, several works of great importance have been acquired, including a bridal veil from Papua New Guinea, a war club from the Marquesas Islands and the cloak of a Maori chief.

The Gallery holds collections of traditional and contemporary Pacific arts – the latter includes the largest collection of contemporary prints from Papua New Guinea in Australia. Both of these spheres of the Pacific

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Arts collection are radically different in many respects yet very similar in others. While the traditional arts consist of masks, shields and ancestral sculptures that (for the main part) are not still in use among Pacific communities, the artists working today sometimes draw on this heritage as a source of identity. The exhibition Gods, ghosts and men focuses firmly on the traditional sculptural arts as the recent travelling exhibition Imagining Papua New Guinea featured many great works from the contemporary collection. Discussions on the classification or divisions between art and artefact, traditional or contemporary may seem to be required but are not necessary; any culture that an artist works within is subject to change. It is the very nature of human cultures to change due to internal and external influences. For the Pacific region great changes were experienced for centuries prior to the introduction of Western expeditions in the eighteenth century.

The recognition of traditional Pacific arts as art rather than examples of material culture has a fairly short history, shorter than one might expect. During the late nineteenth century, the anthropological understanding was that unravelling the differing forms, motifs and designs would assist in delineating one tribal community from another; it was not an admiration of the aesthetic values of a work and its ability to affect the viewer.1 Such an appreciation for Pacific arts has, in part, a debt to the contemplation of African art by artists in the cubist and expressionist movements during the early 1900s.

The championing and occasional appropriation by artists, mainly in Europe, of what were seen to be the exotic arts of cultures living in distant lands did not address any real understanding of the Pacific arts or the people who created them. It was more the dynamic of the exotic tribal object being a touchstone or visual cue to connect with, or unlock an artist’s innate sense of primitivism.

By the 1920s, art from the Pacific struck a chord with members of the surrealist movement who were attracted by the less structured almost subconscious plasticity inherent to Melanesian art compared to the seeming rigidity of African masks and figures. Melanesian figurative

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Mathew Salle Papua New Guinea, New Ireland Bird and snake fighting [Turu] 2004 wood, ochres, shell 38.0 x 104.0 x 12.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 2008

Tigoana Solomon Islands Figure of a spirit being [Adaro] c. 1940 wood, patinas, shell 82.0 x 19.0 x 16.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 2008

sculpture, especially those of Papua New Guinea’s Sepik River region, often depict mythical beings with both animal and human attributes along with flowing surface designs that surrealist artists likened to having dream-like qualities – which fired their discussions and creativity in the arts. During the mid twentieth century in Australia, artists were introduced to and inspired by the Pacific arts in various situations beyond the large cluttered cases in museums. William Dobell and Guy Warren’s experiences in wartime New Guinea left lasting impressions, as it did for many Australians who served in the Pacific Islands during this time. Far removed from the Pacific itself, other artists working in Britain during the 1940s, such as James Gleeson and Robert Klippel, were exposed to a wealth of Pacific arts through their mutual friend, the ‘primitive’ art dealer William Ohly.

Pacific arts as an influence to artists from outside the Pacific has been well documented from a Western viewpoint, beginning with the activities of Robert Louis Stevenson and Paul Gauguin; however, interest in the motivations and actions of indigenous artists whose names are now lost is very much a later twentieth-century move in the study of Pacific arts.

A pioneer in observing Pacific arts to gain an indigenous viewpoint of the artistic process was Professor Anthony Forge of the Australian National University, whose seminal studies in the mid-to-late twentieth century of Abelam art still hold impact today.2 The National Gallery of Australia is very fortunate to have received a gift in memory of Forge.

The gift is formed of many works Forge purchased from the Abelam people and other communities during his work in Papua New Guinea.

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Several works from this gift are exhibited in Gods, ghosts and men along with works that Sir William Dargie collected directly from the communities and individuals during his expeditions to Papua New Guinea in the late 1960s. The Gallery is very lucky to have collections formed in ‘the field’ as information about the works is usually recorded. An important collection gathered in the late nineteenth century is the Fellows collection of Massim art.

This collection of art from south-eastern Papua New Guinea comprises of works made for or given to Reverend Samuel Fellows and his wife Sarah in recognition of the Kiriwinian people’s embrace of Christianity.

When viewing works in the exhibition Gods, ghosts and men, we are really looking at only the husks, the physical elements, of rituals and festive events – which are still remarkably moving even though they are now silent.

The dramatic spectacle of song, dance and the sense of immediacy the audience experienced when viewing masked performers cannot be contained and collected.

The bridal veil (ambusap) with its painstakingly applied shell decorations would have been a treasured item by its owner. The veil formed a major part of a series of adornments a bride would wear for the important event of entering her husband’s house for the first time. How the wearer of this particular veil (presumably the envy of other women in the community for wearing attractive finery) must have felt upon this occasion in her life we cannot guess at, yet the work itself, its flowing intricacy, conveys a sense of elegance befitting the event it was made for.

Religious beliefs for Pacific communities prior to the twentieth century were linked by the earnest need to connect with, placate, charm and control the influences

of spirits and the cosmic order though the use of magic and rituals.

For the majority of Melanesian cultures their spiritual beliefs could broadly be considered animist in the sense that all things are equal: humans are on an equal footing to every living thing in their environment and each object has a soul or spirit connected to it. In the Eastern Solomon Islands, people believed – and, in places, still believe – in water spirits that can manipulate the sea and travel on rainbows. These spirits are called adaro. The Gallery’s adaro figure has porpoise- or dolphin-like, which the water spirit can control. Where he steps, shoals of fish follow. The figure, carved by Tigoana, is not only a representation of an adaro spirit but can also be thought of as the adaro spirit itself; the sculpture is a vessel for the spirit to enter when called upon for assistance.

Another two works that, now silent, can only hint at their once pivotal and chaotic importance for their audience are the Susu masks from New Britain. These masks are not just striking in their appearance; while worn, they are the very spirits themselves – through performance, they become the manifestation of a particular spirit, if only for the briefest of moments.

To ‘activate’ a mask, a figure or other object and make it alive with the spirit it was intended to house involved convincing the spirit or ancestor to enter the work through invocation and ritual adherences. The use of magical ingredients play a major role in activating these vessels: special herbs, pieces of animal meat, powdered lime, shells, money and even bodily fluids are some of the symbolically offered ritual substances that could be spat or smeared on objects to energise the connections between worlds artonview spring 2008 11

to a spirit or an ancestor. In some instances, the process involved the application of colour as certain colours have magical importance and the act of painting a work would entice the desired spirit to take residence in the object.

Strict rules needed to be observed by the artist, including the abstention from eating certain foods or entering into sexual or social activity until the process of producing the work of art was completed. The idea of activating or breathing life into a mask or figure of an ancestor for it to be communed with, supplicated or implored to assist in some way was common across the Pacific although each community developed distinct approaches – from simple rituals to elaborate ceremonies – to procure the support of the ancestors, gods and spirits.

The exhibition includes several shields from Papua New Guinea and one from Awyu people of West Papua from the Max Ernst collection. Each shield is highly decorated; indeed, it is rare to encounter shields from Melanesia without carved or painted designs across their surfaces.

The meandering designs on the small leaf-shaped Awyu people shield may depict body adornments, geographical locations or even a rapidly moving river but, without solid information, the intent behind the motifs remains cryptographic while the imagery remains bold. Nonetheless, each shield’s design identified the community or clan of their owner and, through the strength of the designs, fear could be instilled into an opponent.

One of the contemporary works in the exhibition is a shield painted by Kaipel Ka. The shield is actually quite

old with a pecked design below its more recently painted surface. Ka has produced series of shields with identical designs for warring groups, maintaining the collective identity of the fight group in much the same way football colours are worn. The shield depicts two birds of paradise perched upon a skull with glaring eyes and below is the slogan ‘six 2 six’ which, in the Wahgi Valley area, is an invitation to party all night long; although, in this context, it has become an aggressive statement intended to unnerve the opponent – ‘we will fight you from dawn until dusk, six to six’.

Weapons across the Pacific were also embellished beyond their brutal function as bludgeoning clubs to a level where many communities, particularly in Polynesia, enlisted specialist carvers to produce beautifully balanced, immaculately finished weapons that played a great part in communicating the high esteem accorded to the owner.

The face-like business end of the U’u club from the Marquesas Islands is a superb example of the elaboration and care taken by specialist artists in producing war clubs.

The U’u club is immediately one of the most iconic works of art from the Pacific. It couples functionality with a delicate attention to detail; and those details have been adapted from the socially important temporal art of body decoration, tattoo.

Several of the Polynesian works exhibited relate in some way to their owners status and prestige, none more so than the objects that were once associated to those of high social rank. The stool No’oanga from the Cook Islands, with

Cook Islander people Cook Islands, Aitu Island Seat for a noble [No’oanga] 19th century wood 16.0 x 50.0 x 23.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 2007

(opposite) Kaipel Ka Papua New Guinea, Western Highlands Province, Banz Six to six shield 1990–95 wood, paint, wire, rattan 148.0 x 47.0 x 12.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1996

Awyu people Western New Guinea, Papua Province, Mappi or Ederah River Parrying shield 20th century wood, ochre, lime 95.5 x 27.0 x 8.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Max Ernst Collection, purchased 1985

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its four legs reminiscent of a crouching animal poised and ready to move, was the property of an ariki (a hereditary chieftain). It was used during meetings to ensure no-one else’s head was higher than that of the chief.

In pre-Christian Polynesian societies, the head was the most important part of the body as it has strong connections with mana, a spiritual quality that generates great respect. People and objects can both hold levels of mana. Older objects absorb mana though their long histories and connections with people and this mana can still sometimes be felt or sensed by people who identify particular works as part of their heritage.

A singularly magnificent work from the Pacific Arts collection is the Maori cloak Huaki – fibre arts are rare in Polynesia compared to objects produced in wood, stone and bone. Cloak-making was an art whose secrets where closely guarded by women who acquired the specialist skill and knowledge to work flax into such robes of splendour.

Huaki are the rarest of all cloaks from New Zealand and the Gallery’s example undoubtedly was owned by a leader of great importance, a person with strong mana whose majesty was visually communicated through wearing the huaki.

Gods, ghosts and men divulges the richness and diversity of this region but still barely scratches the surface of the National Gallery of Australia’s collection of over two thousand works from the Pacific. It reveals, however, the greatest works by artists who were recognised within their communities for their ability to create.

The names of many Pacific artists have been lost over time or were simply not recorded when a work was traded out of a community’s circles. However, this lack of knowledge regarding the names of the artists or the people who wore, danced, consulted or used these

works lends a certain enigmatic charisma. And it is these small but magical mysteries that can enhance our ability to contemplate and suspend our beliefs. In a similar vein to the Surrealists, who contemplated Pacific arts with far larger gaps in their understanding than we have today, we can make closer connections between the works and the ancestors and spirits that have been said to inhabit them.

We can imagine, for instance, that the housepost figure Mogulapan is actually the spirit of Mogulapan himself and that a mask is not just a mask but a spirit in physical form.

These intangible qualities affect our senses when assessing the aesthetics of the Pacific arts – particularly so with the expressive forms of Melanesian art – that set apart the sculptures of ancestors and spirit beings from so many of the other spheres of art within the National Gallery of Australia.

Currently inanimate, these objects were once – and, in some cases, possibly continue to be – more than superb works of art. They are the spiritually charged places, the lightening rods, where the ancestors themselves and otherworldly spirits could interact with and influence the human world. Although dormant, these charged works of art can speak for themselves.

Kamakaing Papua New Guinea, Tami Island, Wonam village Bowl in the form of a fish [Njul potipah] 20th century wood 14.0 x 8.3 x 24.5 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1969

(opposite) Iatmul people Papua New Guinea, East Sepik Province, Kanganaman village Orator’s stool [Kawa rigit] 1920–50 wood, ochre, shell 122.0 x 51.0 x 45.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 2008

Crispin Howarth Curator, Pacific Arts, and curator of Gods, ghosts and men Gods, ghosts and men: Pacific arts from the National Gallery of Australia is proudly supported by the National Gallery of Australia Council exhibitions fund. notes 1. A C Haddon, The decorative art of British New Guinea: a study in Papuan ethnography, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 1894. For the period in which it was produced, Haddon’s book remains an exemplary work dealing with a comparative analysis of the visual arts of British New Guinea.

2. Anthony Forge, ‘Style and meaning in Sepik art’, in A Forge (ed.), Primitive art and society, Oxford University Press, London, 1973, pp. 169–92.

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for thcoming exhibition

Degas: master of French art 12 December 2008 – 22 March 2009 Horses, ballerinas, laundresses are [Degas’] predilections and of all the things in the world which surround him seem to preoccupy him exclusively. But what truth there is in his draughtsmanship, and how astute is his understanding of colour.1 Jules-Antoine Castagnary, 1874 Edgar Degas The dance class began 1873, finished 1875–76 oil on canvas 85.0 x 75.0 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris

The exhibition Degas: master of French art spans the period from Edgar Degas’ early portraiture and historical subject matter to his late experimental paintings and photographs of the 1890s. It also examines the rich visual and literary sources that Degas drew upon in his early years.

A major theme of the exhibition is the transformation of Degas as an artist and his experimentation, which contributed to the developments of his singular style. It traces his development from finely crafted paintings to those that possess a brilliant palette and loose brushwork and concludes with radical works that include finger painting. This makes him an influential figure in the evolution of modern art – an artist whose work was both admired and collected by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.

One particular focus is on Degas’ work after he became an artist of modern life, when his art was increasingly exploratory in its composition and its execution. On 15 April 1874 he was one of a group of young artists who came together as the Société Anonyme des Artistes, Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs, etc. with the view to showing their work independent of the official Salon. The timing for their first exhibition was crucial. Degas, along with Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Berthe Morisot, Alfred Sisley and others, chose a date prior to the Paris Salon of the that year. In this way it could not be considered as just another Salon des Refusés – a display of rejects from the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, which was renowned for its conservatism.

Though the exhibiting group varied in their art style, all were keen to establish an art that related to their day rather than dressing up figures in fanciful costumes with fanciful themes of the past. What they wanted to do was establish a new art for a modern France. The artists arranged for the display of their work on the second floor of the large studios (formerly belonging to the photographer and balloonist Nadar) at 35 Boulevard des Capucines, close to the new opera house in Paris. In a review of the exhibition in Le Charivari on 25 April 1874, critic Louis Leroy

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pejoratively described the group as ‘Impressionists’. Many adopted the title as a badge of honour, although Degas found the term distasteful. It was also on this occasion that the critic Jules-Antoine Castagnary made his comments on Degas in the journal Le Siècle.

From this time Degas came to be known for his thoroughly modern French subject matter – the ballet, behind the scenes at the opera, the racecourse, the café-concert, milliners, laundresses, brothels and bathers.

Later, his art became more exploratory in its composition and its execution while taking on the appearance of greater intimacy and more informality. Unlike other artists associated with the Impressionists, Degas did not set out to capture a fleeting moment or to work en plein air. Despite the spontaneous appearance of his subjects, the art of Degas was carefully contrived and composed – the sense of liveliness achieved through a thoughtful pastiche. As his art evolved, it gained a new sense of spatial arrangement, moving away from mathematical perspective to a more radical, flattened space in some instances.

The exhibition Degas will explore other relevant themes such as the influence of French caricature, japonisme, literature and the theatre. Through modelling wax figures of horses, ballet dancers and bathers (later cast in bronze), Degas constantly searched for ways to depict movement and form. The relationship of his sculpture to his paintings and drawings will be examined in this exhibition.

Degas was a consummate painter, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor, who in his later years also undertook experiments in the new medium of photography. The exhibition Degas will include all these arts and their interrelationships.

Jane Kinsman Senior Curator, International Art, and curator of Degas note 1. Jules-Antoine Castagnary, ‘Exposition du Boulevard des Capucines: les Impressionnistes’, Le Siècle, 29 April 1874, p. 3; translated by Mark Henshaw.

display

Gallery of East Asian art

A pair of Tang dynasty Chinese Earth spirit guardian figures, pixie and tianlu, in front of Pine trees by the shore, a sixteenth-century Japanese screen given to the Gallery by Andrew and Hiroko Gwinnett and the National Gallery of Australia Foundation.

Demonstrating the creative skills of East Asian artists, past and present, works of art in the National Gallery of Australia’s reinstallation of the East Asian Gallery range from Neolithic ceramics to twentieth-century works on paper. The new and expanded permanent display in the intimate lower gallery adjacent to the National Australia Bank Sculpture Gallery is loosely arranged by regional and cultural themes. Although the national collection of works from China, Japan and Korea is not large, it covers a diversity of styles, forms and functions, in materials important to Asian artists.

Together, the displays illuminate significant forces behind the creation of great art in the region. They include early funerary vessels and lively tomb figures, Buddhist images from traditions as diverse as those of Mongolia and Japan, and works that demonstrate the close visual and scholarly connections that informed the art of the literati.

Also explored is the Japanese fascination with theatre and responses to urban modernism, especially through the ancient but enduring art of the print.

The oldest objects on display – incised, painted and glazed earthenware – were created to be buried with the dead. Beliefs that the fortunes of states and peoples depended on the appeasement of ancestral spirits, and the honouring of those immortals, resulted in elaborate funerary rituals accompanied by beautiful objects to usher the deceased into the afterlife. In China, dedication to ancestor worship led to the creation of an enormous range of grave goods modelled on the wealth and luxury that surrounded a ruler in life. These include representations of highly prized animals, particularly camels and thoroughbred horses, which were an important part of the deceased’s retinue. Such objects were buried with departed rulers to demonstrate status and fulfil needs in the afterlife.

Ceramics were an integral part of this tradition, initially as inexpensive substitutes for bronze and jade items, and later as important objects in their own right. A rich array of pottery images, including soldiers, courtiers and animals, have been found in tombs from as early as the Western Han period (206 BCE – 8 CE), although the custom reached its zenith during the Tang dynasty (618–907). One unusually large mortuary figure from the Han dynasty, with detachable head and saddle, depicts a breed of central

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Asian horse introduced into China. In contrast to domestic Mongolian ponies, the imported horses were prized for their strength and size. Known as ‘celestial horses’, objects such as this became a testament to the rank, wealth and social status of the deceased. Like many of the Chinese funerary objects in the Gallery’s collection, this is part of a generous gift from Hong Kong-based businessman and art patron T T Tsui.

While early ceramics were decorated with painted designs, one of the great achievements of the Chinese ceramic artisan, glazed decoration, completely transformed earthenware surfaces. Perhaps the most striking example is a huge pair of protective earth spirits that originally stood guard at the entrance to the tomb of a Chinese ruler.

Drawn from real and mythical animals and birds, each figure displays an amalgam of ferocious and threatening features. The glazed head of the lion-shaped, clawed pixie figure sprouts curving antlers and a flame-like mane, while the man-lion tianlu figure displays cloven hooves, enormous flared ears and a single spiralling horn. Its unglazed head would probably once have been painted. Coated in brilliant amber, green and straw sancai glazes – perfected by the Tang-dynasty potters – the guardian figures crouch expectantly on tall, rocky outcrops.

Less imposing but equally superb is the fifth – sixth century duck-shaped earthenware vessel from Korea. A gift of a former Korean ambassador to Australia, it was also created as a funerary object. Ducks are thought to have been worshipped in the small southern Korean kingdom of Kaya (42–562), which is noted for its duck-shaped funerary vessels. Symbolising a plentiful food supply for the deceased in the afterlife, the vessels were naturalistically rendered, especially in the expressive details of the head and beak.

Buddhism was another important impetus for the creation of art in East Asia. Over time, the religion spread from India along the Silk Route to China, Korea and across the sea to Japan. As Buddhism developed and adapted to new cultures and circumstances, different philosophies and schools rose to prominence. Although the teachings of the earthly Buddha Shakyamuni formed the basis of the traditional sects of Theravada Buddhism, the Southern Buddhism still followed in Southeast Asia today, a second

View of the East Asian Gallery with a vibrant ikat-dyed man’s robe from Uzbekistan in the foreground.

movement, known as Mahayana, emerged in the first century. As its influence was mainly felt in Nepal, Tibet, China, Korea and Japan, it became known as Northern Buddhism.

The doctrinal expansion of Mahayana Buddhism was mirrored in its art. In a burst of creative energy fed by intense mystical and visionary experiences, pantheons of celestial Buddhas, saviours (bodhisattvas), saints and other divine beings inhabiting heavenly realms became the focus of prayer and devotion. Japanese Mahayana deities were among the most diverse, mixing forms belonging to Daoism, Confucianism and the native Shinto religion.

One of the great Buddhist sculptures in the collection is the Japanese thirteenth-century gilded lacquer image of Amida (Amitabha in Sanskrit). Regarded as one of the most compassionate figures in Buddhism, Amida the Buddha of Infinite Light was a popular figure in the Kamakura period (1185–1392) and is the principal deity of the Pure Land Buddhist sect in Japan. Followers believe that faith in Amida, as well as contemplating his image and chanting his name, will enable rebirth in the Pure Land, a Buddhist paradise in the west. The Gallery’s figure gazes down benevolently as he welcomes reborn souls. Sometimes considered an attendant of Amida is the Buddhist saviour known in Japan as Jizo Bosatsu. Jizo is a bodhisattva, a

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being who delays personal enlightenment to assist others.

In the Gallery’s Edo-period (1603–1868) image, Jizo is shown as a monk wearing monastic robes and with his head shaved. He holds the six-ringed staff of a mendicant and a sacred jewel, a symbol of spiritual wealth. A protector of travellers, samurai and fire fighters, Jizo is most widely worshipped as a guardian to mothers and children, particularly infants who are ill or have died.

In China, where Mahayana beliefs were similarly confronted by Confucian and Daoist philosophies, many local sects developed and Daoist immortals and Buddhist sages (lohan or arhat) appeared in both religious and folk art. The concept of the lohan spread from India, where there were originally sixteen in number, to China, where the group expanded to eighteen, and even to five hundred.

Now on display is a set of eighteen lohan from China, the most recognisable of which are Rahula, the son of Buddha, with a figure of Buddha emerging from his chest, and Pindola, with extremely long eyebrows. One side of a very large and opulent Satsuma jar, a late nineteenth-century export from Japan to Europe, also depicts three Buddhist sages (rakan in Japanese) modelled in high relief, while the lid is topped by a dancing hermit.

In Tibet, a particular form of Buddhism developed from both indigenous and Indian tantric doctrines. This form

was absorbed into a number of Chinese Mahayana sects.

With iconography similar to that found on Tibetan religious scrolls, a small Mongolian painting on display in the East Asian Gallery shows the dakini Dechen Gyalmo. Dakinis are female, demonic and quasi-divine beings in Hindu and Buddhist esoteric art. In tantric belief, voluptuous women are seen as the vessels of primary creative and spiritual power. This naked dakini is holding ritual symbols – a drum and a chopper – in her hands. She wears fine jewellery, a garland of flowers and a crown of skulls. The dakini stands on a lotus pedestal enclosed by a downward-pointed triangle, a magic and potent female symbol.

Ascetic schools of Buddhism, such as Zen (Chan in Chinese), also had enormous impact on the visual arts.

The Gallery is fortunate to own a sculpture by the famous Japanese Buddhist monk Enku. He entered a Buddhist monastery as a youth but during much of his life appears to have followed an ancient tradition of ascetic practice in the mountains. Such men were believed to have developed supernatural power and were often sought out to heal or to avert crises. Enku’s religious practice involved producing works of art and he is best known for thousands of sculptures, carved mainly with an axe, made as offerings, gifts or charms. Most of his sculptures are still located in Japanese villages and shrines. An inscription on the back of

the Gallery’s sculpture identifies it as Zenzai Doji, a youth who travelled the Buddhist world from one teacher to another seeking wisdom.

Resplendent in the new East Asian display is a rare example of a pair of Japanese painted and gold leaf screens from the sixteenth century. The folding screens demonstrate the meeting of function and beauty, an exquisite painting that serves as a utilitarian room divider. The evergreen pine tree (matsu) is a symbol of youth, longevity and dignity, and the subject of pine trees by the shore is a recurring theme in Japanese art. Possibly a narrative, the scene shows lively horses on the right screen and fast-moving fishing boats on the left, balanced by the tranquillity of the pines twisting across both screens. Because of conservation requirements, pairs of folding screens from the collection will be rotated on a regular basis.

Across Central and East Asia, boldly decorated costumes and textiles were created for court, ritual and theatre. The sultanates or khanates that arose along the famed Silk Road in the great trading towns of Bukhara, Khiva, Tashkent and Samarkand displayed their wealth in handsome apparel and furnishings. Men and women wore robes and coats of various cuts carefully constructed with imported linings and decorative tablet-woven ribbon trim. The cut of many flowing garments is similar for both

A Han dynasty Chinese funerary sculpture of reclining dog, a gift from T T Tsui, in front of works of art including an ancient Japanese pot and an Iranian ceramic male figure.

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sexes, although men’s garments include bulky outer coats worn over thinner robes. Complementing simple tailoring, the colours are rich and luminous and the designs bold and abstract. Motifs range from the geometric to ancient stylised tree and floral imagery also found on other art forms from Central Asia, such as jewellery and carpets.

In Japan, the theatre inspired artistic innovation and was a source of wonderful imagery. Woven from silk and gold foil paper, an ornate brocade outer-robe for a male actor in a Noh drama performance demonstrates the links between palace and theatre. Literally meaning ‘hunting cloak’, the awase kariginu robe developed from the informal jacket worn by Japanese male courtiers. During the Edo period, however, the awase kariginu became the most important outer garment for certain male characters in the Noh drama, and the costume worn by strong gods, ministers and the bird-like tengu demons. Those made for the stage are larger than the original form used for daily apparel, and additional padding and the small masks used in Noh theatre create an effect of size and bulk.

The theatre continued to be popular in modern Japan with many visual artists and their actor contemporaries creating bold images for a broader urban middle-class audience. In the East Asian Gallery, the ukiyo-e prints of Natori Shunsen (1886–1960) portray prominent actors in iconic roles drawn from popular new forms of kabuki theatre which dramatised well-known events and folk legends. Another consummate printmaker, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–1892), created extraordinary and often

disturbing prints of supernatural stories ranging from a homesick palm uprooting itself and walking out of a garden, to an ailing samurai confronted by his past victims in the form of giant skulls.

While social structures and hierarchies changed in twentieth-century East Asia, many ancient sources of imagery continued to inspire modern artists. Munakata Shiko (1903–1975) combined spontaneity and a sense of joyous discovery with stories and images familiar from the canons of Japanese Buddhism and Chinese Daoism. The woodcuts in his 1939–40 series Life of Prince Shotoku took figures from the legendary story of Prince Shotoku (574–622) who dedicated himself to public service and Buddhist teachings. Shotoku is remembered as the founding father of the Japanese state and as an ideal Buddhist king. In complete contrast, a late twentiethcentury print by Masami Teraoka (b. 1936) acknowledges both American Pop art and Japanese ukiyo-e woodblocks.

In Catfish envy 1993, the artist humorously sets subject matter typical of Edo-period prints in an American beach scenario to comment on current morals and attitudes in Japan and the West.

Together the vibrant and enormously varied displays in the refurbished gallery provide visitors with illuminating insights into the arts and histories of the diverse East Asian region.

A row of Chinese bone sages, lohans, which were a gift from Mr Louis Berthet and Mrs Suzette Bertolozzi. (opposite above) View of the East Asian Gallery featuring a Han dynasty Chinese watchtower, a gift from Andrew and Hiroko Gwinnett, beside the gilded Japanese screens Pine trees by the shore. (opposite below) View of the calligraphy on the back of a Japanese sculpture

by Enku, shown between a Japanese Noh robe and a series of actor portraits by Natori Shunsen. The prints were a gift from Jennifer Gordon.

Robyn Maxwell Senior Curator, Asian Art

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children’s exhibition

Home at last 13 September – 1 February 2009 Children’s Gallery

Elaine Russell Little orphans 2004 synthetic polymer paint on paper 97.0 x 78.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 2004

For young children, the home is the centre of their world and the focus of family life and, as they grow, they branch out into the wider world from this home base. The exhibition Home at last provides a child’s eye view of the Australian home across time, place and culture. It features a range of new and familiar media, techniques and objects by Australian artists in the National Gallery of Australia’s collection.

The home is a popular subject for artists, particularly their own home, which is easily accessible, relevant, known and loved. Grace Cossington Smith’s Interior with veranda doors 1954 captures the intimate, memory-filled spaces of her family home. One of the artist’s sketchbooks (an intimate, portable and affordable format for drawing in and around the home) is included in the exhibition.

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For many it is the relationships within the household that make a house a home. The prints, paintings and photographs in the exhibition explore every day moments of home and family life, including extended family, friends and much loved pets. Through the familiar process of photography, Robert McFarlane portrays a warm family gathering in Grandmother Lily McFarlane (nee Gelsthorpe Brimage) at a dinner for her 77th birthday at our family home at Downing Street, Brighton, Adelaide 1964.

Atmospheric light captures the faces of family watching and waiting in anticipation as the candles are lit.

Some artists comment on the place of the home in Australian society. Howard Arkley’s painting Floral exterior 1996 explores the Australian dream of the suburban home.

Inspired by advertising and magazines, Arkley imposes interior decoration on the exterior of the house. The stencil process is also used by Adrian Doyle, who presents a nostalgic Australian childhood memory in Boy on a clothes line 2003. Another Australian icon is introduced to the children in Margaret Dodd’s Holden with lipstick surfboards 1977 – a famous Australian family car with a twist.

Objects reveal the times and experiences of their maker.

Art is often made at home and for the home. Furniture and toys in the exhibition reveal the resourcefulness of artists who ‘make do’ and ‘make a bob’ by creating art from recycled materials in hard economic times. Chest of drawers c. 1920 from the Australian folk art collection is a delightful piece creatively assembled from kerosene tins and packing cases by an unknown South Australian artist.

The Indigenous Australian works of art in the exhibition show the artists’ close connections to home through their choice of materials and techniques and the function of their work. Golbordok (traditional bush honey collecting bag) 1989 is closely woven from pandanus fibre and embedded with wax to ingeniously prevent leakage. The bag was woven by Margaret Rinybuma and decorated with ochres by her husband Michael Gadjawala from Maningrida in Central Arnhem Land.

Elaine Russell’s painting Little orphans 2004 illustrates an episode from her childhood at Murrin Bridge Mission on the Lachlan River in central New South Wales in the 1940s and 1950s. In this scene she depicts herself being followed home from a swim in the pond by a family of ducklings.

The image alludes to a childhood spent growing up in a loving family, living in difficult circumstances. The painting is displayed alongside a work from the Frances Derham collection of child art, Mt Margaret Mission, Western Australia 1939 by thirteen-year-old Boongie Nindarngar.

The annotated drawing includes a photograph of the artist and is a map of his mission home, defining his world.

Leaving home and starting again in an unfamiliar place is an experience common to many Australians throughout history. Abraham Solomon’s painting Second class – the parting: thus part we rich in sorrow parting poor 1854 and David Moore’s photograph Migrants arriving in Sydney 1966 introduce children to the migration experience.

They reveal the mixed feelings associated with leaving the familiar and encountering the new.

Inside the homelike exhibition space, preschool and primary children are encouraged to take a fresh look at the familiar and imagine the experience of others by engaging with art. Children have the opportunity to make a creative response to the exhibition by drawing and building small

homes. Visitors can attempt to identify secret sounds and the works of art that match them, and can try to guess the functions of mystery objects. Many of the works evoke sensory associations and memories of the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and feel of the home environment. Take a journey through the exhibition with someone of a different age to yourself and talk about your diverse and shared experiences.

Howard Arkley Floral exterior 1996 synthetic polymer paint on canvas 174.5 x 134.5 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 2001

Joanna Krabman Educator, Family and School Programs, and curator of Home at last To coincide with the opening of the exhibition Home at last, the website Picture my world will go online. Relating to the concept of home, the website will feature local school projects and children’s responses to works of art in the exhibition.

People can add their own responses and more on the website. nga.gov.au/PictureMyWorld

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conser vation

Painted by the sun: early Asia–Pacific photography Picture paradise: Asia–Pacific photography 1840s–1940s 11 July – 9 November 2008 Exhibition Galleries

Bernard O Holtermann, commissioner Charles Bayliss, photographer Panorama of Sydney Harbour and suburbs from the north shore 1875 (detail) 23 albumen silver photographs 52.5 x 985.0 cm (overall) National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1982

The National Gallery of Australia’s exhibition Picture paradise surveys the first hundred years of photography in the Asia–Pacific region and features a rollcall of technical processes – from rare, early, delicate salted paper photographs printed in sunlight and jewel-like daguerreotypes formed over a noxious vat of hot mercury to more recent gelatin silver and pigment process prints.

The exhibition includes an unusual range of photographic formats other than the ubiquitous single framed print: ornately bound travel albums, elegantly cased images and spectacular panoramas such as the impressive ten-metrelong Holtermann panorama, Panorama of Sydney Harbour and suburbs from the north shore 1875. The images in Picture paradise predate the widespread application of commercial colour photographic processes. Visitors will see meticulously applied hand-colouring achieved with watercolour pigments, inks and early synthetic dyestuffs.

The exhibition celebrates the diversity of photographic ingenuity in its first century of development. In true entrepreneurial style, Bernhardt Otto Holtermann (1838–1885), a photographer and politician, began his life in Australia as a prospector. In 1875 he collaborated with Charles Bayliss (1850–1897) to produce the largest photographs the world had seen. In a purpose-built room

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in the tower of Holtermann’s Lavender Bay house, Bayliss used large-format cameras to photograph the harbour.

The Holtermann panorama comprises a mammoth plate format (52.5 x 42.8 cm), with twenty-three albumen print panels on a single cotton backing. It is acknowledged as being the finest surviving example of its kind. Although some of the images have faded edges – typical damage related to this process – the main concern for conservation was the work’s inherent structural weakness. While records indicate that Holtermann routinely transported selections of panoramic works on a single rolled canvas (1.5 x 24 metres) for ease of viewing and display, this panorama was bound in a concertina format which folded flat. Evidence suggests that the unusual concertinaed format may be a later intervention, implying that the marbled paper and bookcloth may be additions.

The final three panels, while attached to the Sydney panorama, are not part of it, but form a separate panorama depicting a gun placement at Middle Head in Sydney. The Middle Head images were originally attributed to Holtermann, but have since been reassigned to Bayliss.

While the panels in the Holtermann panorama are correctly bound in the portrait orientation, the panels in the second panorama form the complete image only when placed

in the landscape orientation and could not, therefore, be viewed as a complete image in the current format. In order to display the Holtermann panorama in its entirety, the second panorama needed to be folded behind and concealed in the mounting system. This complication, together with the extreme length and the inherent fragilities, posed the most serious problems for display.

In previous exhibitions, the panorama had only been partially displayed due to the size limitations of available showcases. On one occasion it had been supported on an angle in a custom-made frame – again, only partially displayed. For Picture paradise, however, the curator, Gael Newton, requested the entire panorama be displayed vertically. In the concertinaed format, this form of display was problematic to achieve as, due to the nature of the mounting, damage was caused each time the panorama was unfolded or re-folded.

The edges of many panels were creased and abraded from wear associated with repeated folding and unfolding of the binding. This action was complicated by the advanced deterioration of the cloth hinges, which had split in a number of areas, and further contributed to abrasion of the photographic emulsion surface.

A dramatic decision was taken jointly by the curator and Conservation to separate the panels. These were not joined directly to each other, but linked only with the cotton lining, making this choice easier. This alleviated much of the handling damage and immediately created more options for safe display. An added bonus was that the second panorama could be displayed, for the first time, with the images united in the correct orientation.

Once separated, it was necessary to carry out some surface cleaning recto and verso, to stabilise torn and creased edges and to infill and retouch areas of loss. The original paper lining and fabric were left intact. The final step in the treatment was to develop a safe system for display. The display strategy was based on edge lining each panel onto a separate rigid support to minimise handling, particularly during installation. Wide strips of Japanese paper were adhered to the cotton lining on the verso of each image using a synthetic adhesive to avoid introducing moisture.

Once each image was adhered to a rigid panel it was easily attached to the wall using Velcro. When the entire panorama had been installed on the wall, a large window mount and modular frame was constructed around it. The Gallery’s Conservation and Exhibition Design staff liased and planned extensively to address the many complications

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Paper conservators James Ward and Fiona Kemp unfold and examine the ten-metre-long Holtermann panorama. (opposite above) Installing the Holtermann panorama for the exhibition Picture paradise at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. (opposite below) Paper conservator Andrea Wise carefully patching a section of the Holtermann panorama.

of the project. The final frame comprised two long metal struts above and below the panorama to support the four two-metre-long acrylic glazing panels that slid into the struts from one side. A decorative, gold-painted wooden frame was placed over the top to complete the structure, which had been predrilled to avoid creating debris.

Another photographer working with oversized formats, J W Lindt, is represented by two characteristically imposing carbon prints depicting life in New Guinea, Mourners and dead house at Kalo, New Guinea 1885 and Moto water carrier, Port Moresby 1885. Carbon prints are not silver-based images but pigmented gelatin. The nature of the process allows the photographer latitude to develop richness and variety in the colour and topography of the gelatin layers. As both of these works were exposed to poor environmental conditions prior to being acquired by the Gallery, their substantial gelatin layers had become swollen, sticking to the interior of the glazing in their frames. Unfortunately, the glazing had been removed, taking with it some areas of image emulsion. Treatment involved ‘rescuing’ the detached emulsion and re-adhering it. Cleaning the surface of the print and final retouching

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using watercolours unified and enhanced the image. The original frames were also restored and provide appropriate historical context.

A variety of travel albums also feature in the exhibition.

Albums were compiled by early tourists to the Asia–Pacific region and by local commercial photographic studios.

The photographs in these albums were often annotated, providing insight into a particular photograph’s subject matter. Many albums are surprisingly large and heavy and have gilt cloth bindings appropriate to the period. More unusual are those that use different binding materials, such as Stafhell and Kleingrothe’s album Sumatra, which has an intricate cover finished in lacquer-ware inlaid with mother of pearl and ivory. During treatment by the Gallery’s conservation team, the albums in Picture paradise necessitated a cross-disciplinary approach, with book conservators addressing structural problems, objects conservators integrating missing areas of inlay and paper conservators undertaking minor treatments and providing appropriate display mechanisms.

Cased images such as daguerreotypes and ambrotypes require darkened spaces and precise lighting with

minimal reflection. These works epitomise the magical nature of early photography. Captured on either a metal (daguerreotype) or glass support (ambrotypes), they are small, highly detailed, often intimate portraits – and, occasionally, landscapes. Daguerreotypes, in particular, remain vulnerable to physical and chemical damage, so traditionally the photographic plate would be sealed and housed in a shallow, hinged case that opened like a book.

Commonly, cases were fabricated from leather-covered wood, papier-mâché or alternatively, moulded from an early type of thermoplastic (sawdust and shellac) and lined with silk or velvet. A metal mount, glass glazing and decorative, imitation-gold pinchbeck edging provided these works with extra protection against scratching and damage from pollutants. As each of the materials in this composite object have very different vulnerabilities and parameters for exhibition, cased photographic images require special consideration. Historically they were viewed in subdued light by the atmospherically appropriate light from a single candle. Conservation worked closely with the exhibition designers to create new modular showcases for these works, incorporating fibre-optic lighting to allow for their full appreciation.

‘Photography, like electricity, was one of the miraculous scientific discoveries of the 19th century. Its impact was immediate and profound.’1 Originally developed and used by scientists, photography was rapidly adopted by people in every strata of society, as a sublime documentary tool.

Acceptance of photography as a branch of the arts took longer. During the twentieth century, photographs as objects, and photographic technique as a form of legitimate artistic expression, have made only gradual ingress into museum and gallery art collections.

Similarly, the impact of photographic treatment and display in conservation has been one of continuing absorption and adaptation. Early photographers were endlessly inventive, constantly exploiting materials and techniques to suit the circumstances in which they found themselves. The extraordinary range of works in Picture paradise reminds the audience that an idiosyncratic approach was commonplace. Conservators of photographic images need to be equally creative and resourceful. The preparatory period for Picture paradise brought both satisfaction and delight as we rose to the challenges set by some of the world’s first photographic artists.

Fiona Kemp retouching J W Lindt’s Moto water carriers, Port Morseby. (opposite) J W Lindt Moto water carrier, Port Moresby 1885 carbon print 70.9 x 60.8 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

After treatment by the Paper Conservation.

Andrea Wise, Fiona Kemp and James Ward Paper Conservation The exhibition is presented in conjunction with Vivid, Australia’s inaugural National Photography Festival, which celebrates photography’s vital role in Australian life and history.

A book published in conjunction with the exhibition Picture paradise is available from the Gallery Shop. For further information, telephone (02) 6240 6420 or send an email to ecom@nga.gov.au. note 1. Shar Jones, J W Lindt: master photographer, Currey O’Neil Ross, South Yarra, 1985, p. 1.

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collec tion focus

Costumes of the Ballets Russes

Léon Bakst, designer Les Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev, producer Costume for The blue god in the Ballets Russes production of Le dieu bleu [The blue god] c. 1912 silk, metal, gelatin tunic length: 76.6 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1987

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The National Gallery of Australia has a renowned collection of costumes from the Ballets Russes (the Russian Ballet), which was founded by the flamboyant Russian arts producer Serge Diaghilev (1872–1929). By integrating design, music and dance, and encouraging the artistic experimentation and collaboration of painters, choreographers and composers, Diaghilev created the new art of modern ballet. From 1909 to 1929, his company Les Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev performed in Paris, throughout Europe (although never in Russia) and in North and South America.

Based in Paris from 1909, Diaghilev created opera and dance productions that brought the exoticism of Russian culture to a wider Western audience, and with it the work of Russian artists and designers such as Léon Bakst, Alexandre Benois, Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov; choreographers Michel Fokine and Léonide Massine; composers Igor Stravinsky, Alexander Borodin, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Nicholas Tcherepnin; and dancers such as Tamara Karsavina, Anna Pavlova, Adolph Bolm, Serge Lifar and Vaslav Nijinsky. Through the work of these artistic collaborators and performers Diaghilev was able to orchestrate and bring to life a new vision of the Slavic, oriental, baroque, romantic and later constructivist elements of Russian culture.

Diaghilev’s association with the wider world of the arts led to him commissioning artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, André Derain, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Georges Braque, José Maria Sert and Giorgio de Chirico to design costumes and scenery for a number of his productions. The costumes reveal aspects of these artists’ work as designers and provide insights into the nature of collaboration between the performing and visual arts.

Valuable works such as Léon Bakst’s The blue god costume worn by Nijinsky in Le dieu bleu in 1912, Henri Matisse’s design for Costume for a mourner in the 1920 production of Le chant du rossignol and Giorgio de Chirico’s Costume for a male guest in the 1929 production of Le bal are some of the many highlights of the collection.

The costumes designed and worn by Diaghilev’s designers and dancers from 1909 to 1929 form the main part of the Gallery’s Ballets Russes collection, and complementing these are costumes from some of the

productions of his successor Colonel Wassily de Basil, whose companies revived much of Diaghilev’s repertoire from 1932 to the late 1940s.

With Diaghilev’s untimely death in Venice in 1929, the Ballets Russes disbanded, and a diaspora of its dancers and choreographers formed new and influential dance companies in North America and Europe. In 1932 de Basil and René Blum formed a new company, Les Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, which de Basil took over as sole director in 1935. This company (under various names and business arrangements) toured to Australia in 1936, 1938–39 and 1939–40, creating a sensation with its repertoire of Diaghilev and newer productions and its integration of avant-garde design with innovative performance and music. The legacy of the Ballets Russes is its role in the introduction of modern dance in Australia, led by a number of the company’s dancers and choreographers who remained in Australia or returned to work here. This legacy is currently being examined during a four-year collaborative research project between the National Library of Australia, The Australian Ballet and the University of Adelaide, which will provide a further Australian dimension to the National Gallery of Australia’s collection.

Following the demise of de Basil’s company in 1951, its rich remaining stock of Diaghilev’s original costumes and those from de Basil’s earlier companies, maintained in Paris long after their arduous life on the stage, eventually found their way into several major museum collections during the 1960s and 1970s, including that of the then fledgling Australian National Gallery (now the National Gallery of Australia), which acquired a large group of Ballets Russes costumes in 1973 and again in 1976.1 The Gallery’s collection of Ballets Russes costumes is one of its major assets and is one of the world’s largest collections of this material. The last exhibition of these costumes, From Russia with love, was staged by the National Gallery of Australia in 1999. Selections from the collection, focusing on individual productions of the Ballets Russes, are regularly displayed in the International Art galleries to show their relationship to, and influence on other design and decorative arts of the early twentieth century.

Many of these costumes have been restored during the past twenty years by the Gallery’s textile conservators.

Their painstaking work continues on a group of costumes not previously exhibited due to their degraded condition.

The conservators’ long experience with the particular characteristics of the Ballets Russes designers’ materials and construction methods allows for the complex and sometimes seemingly impossible reconstruction of costumes that have had little care since they were last donned for performance. The conservators’ brief is to maintain the working and visual condition of costumes that

have been used, while repairing and replacing elements of their fabric that have been lost or damaged by insects or extended exposure to light.

Robert Bell Senior Curator, Decorative Arts and Design This renowned collection of Ballets Russes costumes will be shown in a major exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia from 14 December 2009 to 14 March 2010. This exhibition will celebrate the centenary of the first Paris performances of the Ballets Russes by Diaghilev, and the work of the many artists with whom he collaborated over a twenty-year period at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Henri Matisse, designer Les Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev, producer Costume for a mourner in the Ballets Russes production of Le chant du rossignol c. 1920 cotton and wool felt, cotton and silk velvet tunic length: 166.5 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1973

note 1. For accounts of the National Gallery of Australia’s collection of Ballets Russes costumes see: Roger Leong, From Russia with love: costumes for the Ballets Russes 1909–1933, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1998; and Christine Dixon, ‘Museum pieces? The Russian Ballet collection’, in Pauline Green (ed.), Building the collection, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2003, pp. 176–89.

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acquisition Australian Painting and Sculpture

Frederick McCubbin Violet and gold

Frederick McCubbin Violet and gold 1911 oil on canvas 87.0 x 144.5 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased with the generous assistance of the Hon. Ashley Dawson-Damer and John Wylie, AM, and Myriam Wylie 2008

Frederick McCubbin Violet and gold 1911 (detail)

The National Gallery of Australia’s recent acquisition Violet and gold 1911 is a brilliant light-filled work. We can see here how the artist focussed on light and colour rather than subject. In 2001, Ron Radford, then director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, wrote about this work as being ‘One of McCubbin’s most beautiful Macedon paintings’, remarking that ‘there is no narrative, only poetry’.1 Does this surprise you? Do you think of Frederick McCubbin as one of the great Australian Impressionists, alongside Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Charles Conder? Do you consider him to be an artist who had his heyday in the 1890s, painting images of the bush extolling the life of pioneers and the sadness of lost children? Do you regard him as playing a major role in the development of the Australian landscape, painting works that are part of the fabric of Australian culture? All of this is certainly true.

But do you also believe that his best days were over by the twentieth century, and that he carried on as the ‘good old Proff’, philosophising and teaching others? If so, you need to think again. Of course McCubbin was one of the great Australian Impressionists. However, as Australia became a federation and began to move into modern times, McCubbin just got better and better. While Roberts, Streeton and Conder did their best works in the 1880s and 1890s, McCubbin came into his own in the twentieth century, particularly after his first and only trip to Europe in 1907, when he spent five months abroad. During this visit he was inspired by the works of J M W Turner and Claude Monet, especially the late paintings of Turner, which were being shown for the first time at the Tate Gallery in London.2 McCubbin observed, ‘as Monet says, “Light is the chief sitter everywhere”.’3 Violet and gold amply demonstrates this.

In this work, McCubbin created an image of cattle drinking at a pool surrounded by tall trees; but, more than that, he depicted a beam of light reaching through the trees and onto the cattle. Light glows through the trees.

As Radford has observed: ‘Rays of dappled light flickering through the dark trees animate the surface of the painting with flecks of colour’.4 Indeed, the way he captured the light radiating through the trees and across the ground is miraculous.

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Violet and gold is an example of how, during the early years of the twentieth century, McCubbin changed his approach and began to paint pure images, focussing on nature, on light, the time of day and the season. He painted flickering light, hazed light, dazzling light – light in all its manifestations. As McCubbin wrote of Turner, he ‘realized the quality of light … no theatrical effect but mist and cloud and sea and land drenched in light … They glow with a tender brilliancy’.5 McCubbin also began to depict modern life and modern times: wharfs, factories and city streets. He started to portray his subjects using pure colour applied with a palette knife. And, he used paint in a most advanced and abstracted fashion, creating painterly surfaces. If you stand closely to Violet and gold (or look at the detail opposite), you will see what I mean. You will find portions of the picture in which McCubbin has almost splattered his paint over the coarse canvas. He animated the surface of the painting with flecks of colour. His free handling of paint and his layering of pure colours are remarkable.

McCubbin gave Violet and gold an abstract, poetic title – possibly a result of having looked at and admired James McNeill Whistler’s work in London in 1907.6 The title may have come from a line in a poem by the American poet Stephen Crane: ‘In little songs of carmine, violet, green and gold. A chorus of colors came over the water’.

But in giving it the abstract title of ‘Violet and gold’ he was, more importantly, suggesting that it was a painting about colour and paint and light rather than about cows. While he named other works ‘The coming of Spring’, ‘Afterglow’ (both National Gallery of Australia), ‘Winter’s morning’ and ‘Autumn morning’ (both National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne), emphasising the time of year or time of day, this is one of only a few works to which he gave a colour title.

Violet and gold was painted about one kilometre from McCubbin’s country retreat Fontainebleau at Mount Macedon, on the nearby property of Ard Chielle. McCubbin found this area inspirational and painted many images there that capture his interest in atmospheric effects. They derive from his deep knowledge and love of the place and his lived experience. Violet and gold is one of the most painterly and evocative of these works – full of pastoral charm and end-of-day ease.

Frederick McCubbin Hauling rails for a fence, Mount Macedon 1910 oil on canvas 71.5 x 101.5 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1964

The area below Mount Macedon where McCubbin painted Violet and gold was low-lying and swampy and full of tall gum trees. McCubbin was fascinated by the Australian eucalypt, and suggested that other Australian artists did not appreciate its qualities. He wrote: The subtle way in which it responds to varying effects of light and shadow was lost on them … the varieties in shades and colours, the Gum tree presented, from the violet grey tints of the stringy bark to the transparent sheen of the White Gum, upon which colours disport and change in a hundred subtle ways as they would upon a mirror. Yet our trees and our faded flora are such component parts of our Australian landscape.7

Some of McCubbin’s late works are among Australia’s finest Federation landscapes. ‘They glow with a tender brilliancy’ (as McCubbin described the work of Turner).8 The shimmering, dazzling light in Violet and gold shows how much McCubbin learnt from Turner. It has a rich painterly surface – which reflects the subtle harmonies of the Australian bush. And, as Turner often did, McCubbin makes the small shining orb of the sun the central, dominating force of the composition.

Among McCubbin’s late works are two other Macedon paintings in the Gallery’s collection, Hauling rails for a 36 national gallery of australia

fence, Mount Macedon 1910, which McCubbin painted one year before Violet and gold, and Afterglow 1912, painted one year afterwards. In comparing these works we can see that Violet and gold is the more daring and adventurous work. Whereas Violet and gold is a long, narrow canvas, the other two works are more rectangular.

And where in Violet and gold McCubbin focused on a thicket of trees, emphasising the denseness of the bush and hardly showing any sky, in both Hauling rails for a fence and Afterglow he adopted a more traditional composition, placing a clump of trees on one side and open sky on the other. In Violet and gold McCubbin used the reflections in the pool to add to the internality of the work – with the reflections an illusionist echo of the trees. In all three paintings he created dynamic compositions by contrasting the strong verticals of the tree trunks with diagonals: in Hauling rails for a fence and Afterglow, the diagonals are essentially those of the hillside, but in Violet and gold he used a more complex composition with the diagonal fall of the shaft of light coming down across the picture towards the right, contrasted with the dark shape of a jagged branch rising diagonally from the left.

The three paintings also show McCubbin’s interest in different times of day: Violet and gold capturing a low sun

shining through an early morning mist, Hauling rails for a fence portraying the middle of the day and Afterglow depicting the rosy afterglow of the setting sun. McCubbin did not just vary his compositions in painting these three subjects, but also his range of colours and his brush (or palette knife) strokes – each used to create a different atmospheric effect.

McCubbin played with the use of figures in each of the paintings, from the workers in Hauling rails for a fence to the animals in Violet and gold and to the classical nudes of Afterglow. However, the figures are not there to create a story so much as to give a sense of space to the composition. Although Violet and gold becomes flatter if we were to take out the cattle, it also becomes more obviously an adventurous paint-laden picture surface, showing nature experienced from within.

The generous support of Ashley Dawson-Damer and John Wylie and Myriam Wylie has made possible this major purchase of Violet and gold for the Gallery’s twenty-fifth anniversary year. They have helped us represent more strongly one of Australia’s most important artists at the turn of the century and, in doing so, have provided a great service to the Australian public.

The National Gallery of Australia will be holding an exhibition from 2 August to 27 November 2009 of Frederick McCubbin’s later paintings. Anne Gray would welcome being contacted by owners of works by McCubbin painted after 1907. email: anna.gray@nga.gov.au tel: +61 (0) 2 6240 6405

Frederick McCubbin Afterglow 1912 oil on canvas 91.5 x 117.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1970

notes 1. Ron Radford, Our country: Australian Federation landscapes 1900–1914, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2001, p. 84.

2. McCubbin did know of Turner’s work before visiting Europe. Indeed, he wrote to Tom Roberts on 8 January 1906, commenting that ‘I am painting a Turnerian gem …’; in Andrew McKenzie, Frederick McCubbin 1855–1917: ‘The Proff’ and his art, Mannagum Press, Lilydale, 1990, p. 243.

3. Frederick McCubbin, in James MacDonald, The art of Frederick McCubbin, Boolarong Publications, Brisbane, 1986, p. 84.

4. Radford, p. 84.

5. Frederick McCubbin, letter to Annie McCubbin, 19 July 1907, in McKenzie, p. 259.

6. Whistler was a leading proponent of the credo ‘art for art’s sake’. He famously titled many of his works ‘harmonies’ and ‘arrangements’, such as Arrangement in grey and black: the artist’s mother (Musée du Louvre, Paris).

7. McCubbin, in MacDonald, p. 84.

8. McCubbin, in McKenzie, p. 259.

Anne Gray Head of Australian Art artonview spring 2008 37

acquisition Australian Print s and Drawings

A magnificent gift of Albert Namatjira watercolours

Albert Namatjira Redbank Gorge, MacDonnell Ranges, Central Australia 1936–37 watercolour on paper 27.5 x 25.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Gift of Gordon and Marilyn Darling, celebrating the National Gallery of Australia’s 25th anniversary, 2008

The Finke River begins its 600-kilometre journey amid a stand of tea trees and river gums at Ormiston Gorge in Central Australia and continues as a string of waterholes that stretch towards the edge of the Simpson Desert. The riverbed carves its way through the MacDonnell Ranges at Glen Helen, curves around the whitewashed buildings of the Lutheran mission clustered at the base of Mount Hermannsburg, before heading southwards through the sandstone gullies of Palm Valley. This is the traditional territory of Western Arrernte artist Albert Namatjira, who translated the ancient beauty of his country through his tin box of watercolour paints. As an artist, he saw the desert landscape as filled with light and colour – from sap-stained

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trees to the translucent mauve of the distant ranges – as an Indigenous artist, he was aware of the physical presence of ancestral beings embodied in the giant ghost gums and in the forms of surrounding mountains and gorges.

It is this numinous quality that entranced Gordon and Marilyn Darling who, over the last twenty years, have formed an extraordinary collection of watercolours by Namatjira, from his early paintings of fleeing kangaroos to the mature landscapes of the 1950s. They are generously gifting the first fifteen of twenty-five paintings to the National Gallery of Australia to be displayed in The Gordon and Marilyn Darling Gallery of Hermannsburg Painting, which promises to be one of the highlights of the new

Indigenous galleries that form part of the Stage One building expansion. These works were previously lent to the National Gallery of Australia for the 2002 retrospective, Seeing the centre: the art of Albert Namatjira 1902–1959, curated by Alison French whose research was supported by the Gordon Darling Foundation. This landmark travelling exhibition brought together works from state galleries and private collections to provide a long overdue opportunity for the critical reappraisal of Namatjira’s works on paper.

Early interest in the art of the Central Desert area was centred on a group of artists based at the Lutheran Mission Station at Hermannsburg, or Ntaria, who came to be called The Hermannsburg School. At the forefront of this attention was Albert Namatjira, who was the first to become interested in the medium of watercolour after seeing several exhibitions by Rex Battarbee and John A Gardner, who regularly visited the mission during painting trips through South Australia and Central Australia.

In 1936, Albert arranged to work as Battarbee’s cameleer on two month-long excursions to Palm Valley and the MacDonnell Ranges in exchange for painting lessons.

During these trips he quickly picked up the rudiments of perspective and technique, having shown himself to be a natural draftsman in his early pokerwork drawings of local plants and animals on mulga wood plaques, boomerangs and woomeras for the mission’s small craft industry. Battarbee was so impressed with his instinct for composition and colour that he chose three watercolours to display alongside his own at the Royal South Australian Society of Arts Gallery in 1937. The following year he organised a solo exhibition at the Fine Arts Society Gallery in Melbourne, for which Albert added his father’s tribal name, Namatjira, to his signature. His paintings sold out within three days, establishing a pattern of commercial patronage that continued throughout his exhibiting career.

This success and further painting expeditions by Namatjira and Battarbee inspired others at the mission to follow in his footsteps including the Pareroultja and Raberaba brothers, Walter Ebatarinja and Adolf Inkamala.

These camps could last for weeks, which allowed Namatjira to paint the ever-changing light over the course of a day or across the seasons. He journeyed by foot, camel and car to sites all around the MacDonnell Ranges and outside Western Arrernte country as far as Haast’s Bluff, Uluru and Mount Connor. When he had found a suitable vantage point, he would sit cross-legged with a sheet of paper tacked to a wooden board and a billy can of water and begin with a wash of sky. This combination of Namatjira’s direct experience of the land and his unerring eye for colour gives the viewer the full fierce blaze of ochre rock, the thirsty expanse of scrub-mottled plains and the purple shadows that spread like bruises in the folds of the ranges.

For many Indigenous artists, their sense of self is bound to the ancestral country that holds their Dreaming story.

For Albert Namatjira and his kinsfolk, this connection to the land was manifested through representational watercolours. After Namatjira’s death in 1959, the Hermannsburg School was largely overlooked, particularly following the emergence of the symbolic acrylic paintings of the Papunya Tula collective during the 1970s. It was not until the first retrospective of Namatjira’s painting was held in 1984 at the Araluen Arts Centre in Alice Springs that his vision of country was accepted and both realistic and symbolic approaches have now been recognised as different ways of depicting the creation stories embodied in the landscape. This has encouraged other Indigenous artists to tell their story through watercolour painting, and Namatjira’s artistic heritage continues through his descendents and those that he inspired.

Albert Namatjira Ghost gum 1945–53 watercolour over pencil on paper 42.0 x 32.2 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Gift of Gordon and Marilyn Darling, celebrating the National Gallery of Australia’s 25th anniversary, 2008

Sarina Noordhuis-Fairfax Curator, Australian Prints and Drawings artonview spring 2008 39

acquisition Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ar t

Owen Yalandja Yawk yawks

Owen Yalandja Yawkyawks 2007 natural earth pigments and PVA fixative on Kurrajong (Brachychiton diversifolius) (l–r) 280.0 x 16.7 cm (diam); 225.0 x 14.3 cm (diam); 240.0 x 15.8 cm (diam) National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Gift of Janet and John CalvertJones, 2008

The Kuninjku people in the Maningrida region of Central Arnhem Land believe that yawk yawks are mermaid-like manifestations of young female ancestors. They have slender undulating bodies, fine scales, forked tails, pointed breasts and long, almost featureless faces. If disturbed or frightened, the shadowy figures of these magnificent water creatures can be seen fleeing into the depths of Mirrayar billabong, an important yawk yawk site and sacred Yirritja moiety place. The Dangkorlo clan are custodians of this billabong.

Owen Yalandja, a Kuninjku (eastern Kunwinjku) artist and a senior member of the Dangkorlo clan, is a renowned sculptor and is well known for his carving and singing at yawk yawk ceremonies. He was born in 1962 and is the son of Kuninjku ceremonial leader, painter and carver Crusoe Kuningbal (1922–1984) and brother to Crusoe Kurddal (b.

1961). It wasn’t until the death of their father that Yalandja and Kurddal began carving mimih spirits. Their sculptures were similar to those of their father, but they produced the figures at a larger scale to better represent the size and form of mimih – tall, slender spirits that live in the rocky environment of the Arnhem Land plateau.

My father … taught me and my brother … how to carve.

He only did mimih spirit figures and when I first started as an artist I used to make mimih figures as well. Then, I decided to change and to start representing yawk yawk spirit figures.1

Yalandja began experimenting with the painted designs and use of colour and, while Kurddal continued carving mimih, Yalandja began carving yawk yawk. He would carve their bodies like those of the mimih – tall, very slender and often with intricate detail over their sometimes twisted bodies. Today, however, his yawk yawk sculptures are more distinct and refined from his mimih figures.

Yawk yawk is a bit the equivalent of a mermaid in balanda [white] culture. Yawk yawk is my Dreaming and she lives in the water at Barrihdjowkkeng near where I have set up my outstation. She has always been there. I often visit this place.

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I love making these sculptures and I have invented a way to represent the fish scales on her body. The colours I use have particular meanings [which are not public]. I make them either red or black. I am now teaching my kids to carve, just like my father did for us.

I make it [yawk yawk] according to my individual ideas …

My father used to decorate them with dots. A long time ago, he showed me how to do this. But this style is my own; no one else does them like this.2

Yalandja uses only kurrajong (Brachychiton diversifolius) wood, the same wood his father used, and natural earth pigments with PVA (polyvinyl acetate) fixatives to create the stunning designs on his figures. He selects unusual trunks that are thin and curvilinear, giving his figures a sinewy appearance and creating the impression of movement in the body and tail. The natural fork in the tree often provides the fork of the yawk yawk’s tail.

Yalandja is now passing on his knowledge by teaching his son Dustin Bonson to carve mimih spirits.

These three exquisite yawk yawk figures, along with three others, were first featured in the exhibition Culture Warriors: National Indigenous Art Triennial, which is currently on tour around Australia and will open and the Art Gallery of Western Australia, its second touring venue, on 20 September 2008. They were kindly gifted

by Janet and John Calvert-Jones and are fine additions to the National Gallery of Australia’s collection of six other stunning yawk yawks.

Tina Baum Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art note 1. Owen Yalandja, interview with Apolline Kohen, Cadell Outstation, Northern Territory, 4 February 2007.

2. Yalandja.

acquisition Australian Photography

Deborah Paauwe From the waist down

Deborah Paauwe From the waist down 1998 Type C colour photograph 75.0 x 75.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Gift of Paul Greenaway, OAM, 2008

When she was recently asked which art work of any ever made she would most like to live with, Deborah Paauwe chose the image Vale Street 1975 by the Australian photographer Carol Jerrems.1 On the face of it, an unexpected choice. With its defiantly bare-breasted female figure and her attendant satyr-like teenage boys, it has come to be regarded by many as a stridently feminist iconic image – somehow a more forthright and unromantic work than I would have expected. And yet Vale Street also has a pervading mystery, a sense of a story unfolding that remains unresolved and unknowable. It also has an intriguing atmosphere of vulnerability underneath the assertiveness: a suggestion that violence and brutality lie behind beautiful surfaces. This mixture is found in much of Paauwe’s imagery. From the waist down 1998, dating from early in her career, is particularly powerful in its subtlety, ambiguity and inscrutability.

Of Dutch and Chinese heritage, Paauwe was born in Pennsylvania in the United States of America and came to Adelaide in 1985 after an unusual childhood spent mostly travelling and living in South-east Asia with her BiblePresbyterian missionary parents and two older brothers. It is to her childhood in the 1970s that Paauwe most often turns for inspiration. Not a literal retelling so much, but more so her ability to access the feelings experienced at that time and to reconstruct that psychic landscape in her imagery. The body here is seen from the perspective of a child and the skirt blocks out what is behind. It is too close to the camera, crowding in on the viewer, the colour simplified and overblown. It is this ability to reconstruct memory with an emotive and dreamlike intensity that often gives her work its allure.

From the waist down is an image Paauwe recreated from looking through family photograph albums, tapping into that rich and fascinating area of photography concerned with questions of history and memory, both personal and cultural. In making the series Blue room, from which this image comes, Paauwe looked back to her own childhood and was also inspired by her mother’s adolescence in the 1950s, a time that seems to speak to Paauwe of a simpler and happier existence. Paauwe conjures up the 1950s through fashion references and by using a palette of bright, saturated colour. Given the

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rupture she experienced coming to a new country at the age of thirteen, her desire to recreate a perfect upbringing is not surprising: she has said that she felt that her childhood had been taken away from her.2 The photographs of Deborah Paauwe are concerned with exploring identity and how it is formed, particularly at that time in a girl’s life when she makes the transition from the world of childhood to adolescence – themes that have been more overtly explored as her oeuvre has developed.

Traditional feminine preoccupations are frequently explored. She revels, for instance, in the inclusion of her own collection of vintage clothes and fabrics. Her images frequently re-present rituals of play and dressing up, which are perhaps innocent to the girls themselves but not always to the eyes of others.

Paauwe may talk of the ingenuous nature of childhood play but she knows that is not how the images will necessarily be received; she knows that contemporary depictions of beautiful and sensual images of childhood are always fraught. That Paauwe, a woman, makes these images radically affects our reaction to the works, a strategy that other contemporary photo-media artists – most famously perhaps Sally Mann, Francesca Woodman, Nan Goldin and Cindy Sherman – have also played with to effective and, at times, controversial outcomes.

The sexual ambiguity in Paauwe’s work is calculated and subversive and one that engages with contemporary theoretical writing on the body. As writer Anne Marsh has said about her work: ‘Paauwe is teasing the gaze, underlining the voyeurism of the spectator, and thus planting trouble through the image’.3 Through isolating parts, the body is depersonalised and objectified. Much of Paauwe’s work operates in an arena of disjunction and loss: a beautiful world of nostalgia and longing in which danger and the unknown lurk beneath the surface.

Anne O’Hehir Curator, Photography notes 1. Deborah Paauwe, interview with Maria Zagala, ‘New work: Deborah Paauwe’, Art World, no. 2, April 2008, p. 110.

2. Wendy Walker, Deborah Paauwe: beautiful games, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2004, p. 8.

3. Anne Marsh, ‘Through a veil brightly: recent works by Deborah Paauwe’, Double Dutch, exhibition catalogue, Greenaway Art Gallery, April 2002, n.p.

acquisition A sian Ar t

Bahau people Funerary figure

Bahau people Kalimantan, Indonesia Funerary figure [hampatong] 1300–68 wood 114.0 x 18.0 x 18.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 2008

This striking wooden hampatong sculpture is the newest addition to the National Gallery of Australia’s growing collection of fine animist art from Southeast Asia. Although textiles from the animist cultures of the region are a renowned strength of the Asian art collection, the Gallery holds only a few outstanding examples of sculpture from peoples who have continued to follow ancient beliefs in the power of nature spirits and ancestors.

The term ‘hampatong’ refers to a wide range of figurative sculptures created by the various indigenous groups of Borneo collectively known as Dayak peoples.

Rather than one homogeneous society, Borneo is home to numerous communities with differing customs, languages and distinct art traditions. These include the Bahau of central Borneo, whose stylised figurative sculpture is among the most powerful in Dayak art. In traditional communities such as the Bahau, many people still hold strong beliefs in benevolent and malevolent supernatural forces, usually embodied by spirits of nature, natural phenomenon (such as disease) and the souls of deceased ancestors. Festivals and rituals, and the art associated with such activities, are strongly focussed on ensuring that these forces remain in balance to protect communities and encourage prosperity.

The form and function of hampatong vary between different Dayak groups, but they are generally carved from hardwood and include amulets and small figures for domestic use and large sculptures that are sometimes over two metres in height. The latter are placed near houses and village entrances, around agricultural fields and at funerary sites. Hampatong of all sizes are considered to have magical powers and may be used to predict future events and provide spiritual defence. Sculptures placed in fields usually remain in position until harvest time to strengthen the crop. Domestic images and hampatong placed close to communal houses often depict recently deceased ancestors and may have individualised human features in detailed carving. These sculptures provide a temporary home for the souls of the dead and are a personal expression of remembrance for deceased individuals. The ornate ancestor carvings also serve a protective spiritual function – they are a primary means of preventing disease from entering homes.

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Conversely, village guardians and funerary sculptures are designed to ward off powerful evil spirits and are therefore more stylised, with aggressive facial expressions and imposing proportions. While anthropomorphic figures, animals, demonic beings and birds may be represented, they display common iconographic devices used to represent hostility. Most notable of these are protruding tongues, sharp fangs and prominent, staring eyes. Images of this type are closely related to funerary sculptures created by various animist groups across Southeast Asia.

Funerary rites are of central importance in the cultures of Borneo, and the hampatong sculptures play an important role as spiritually charged objects providing protection and are a means of communicating with the realm of the ancestors. Textiles, jewellery and ritual utensils are also essential tools in the precisely orchestrated funeral ceremonies. Secondary burials, where bones are exhumed after a period of time to be ritually purified, are considered to be of particular cultural significance. These mortuary rituals traditionally include codified mourning practices, offerings and animal sacrifices. Their main purpose is to honour the dead, allowing the soul to journey safely to the afterlife, thus guaranteeing that it does not become an evil and bothersome spirit.

Recent radiocarbon testing reveals that the Gallery’s hampatong was created in the early to mid fourteenth century. Remarkably well preserved for its age, especially considering the typical effects of a tropical environment, it is likely to have been situated in a burial cave or under a large shrine structure for centuries. A rare and elegant animist sculpture, the Gallery’s hampatong is over a metre in height, and has an angular, stylised body. The large, round eyes, sunken cheeks and open mouth with bared teeth suggest that it originally served as a protective village guardian or a grave-marker. The frightening geometric facial imagery is characteristic of sculpture created by the Bahau people of east Kalimantan in Indonesian Borneo.

Lucie Folan Assistant Curator, Asian Art

artonview spring 2008 45

acquisition Australian Decorative Ar t s and Design

Larsen and Lewers Silver bowl

Helge Larsen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1929, and trained in the Danish silversmithing apprenticeship system and at the College of Art and Design in Copenhagen from 1949 to 1955. He furthered his work and studies at the University of Colorado in Denver in the United States of America from 1955 to 1957. He then returned to Copenhagen to establish his own jewellery business, Sølvform, where he employed Australian jeweller Darani Lewers from 1959 to 1960. In 1961 he migrated

Helge Larsen and Darani Lewers Bowl 2008 sterling silver 12.2 x 39.0 x 28.0 cm Purchased 2008 with funds from the Meredith Hinchliffe Fund

The fluid and austere form of this large bowl shows the continuing influence in Australia of the sculptural organic design that characterised the form of Scandinavian jewellery and metalwork from the 1950s. Helge Larsen, Danish-born and trained in this tradition, was instrumental in the establishment of these principles in Australia and, with Darani Lewers, has developed jewellery and metalwork that expresses a highly individual interpretation of the built and natural Australian environment.

The genesis of the design of this bowl can be seen in Larsen and Lewers’s silver objects from the early 1980s in the National Gallery of Australia’s collection, many of which draw from the study of the details and materials of Australian vernacular design and architecture. The sweeping form of this bowl, the largest work made by these artists, is a technical tour de force that has been achieved by raising (hammering, planishing and polishing) the shape from a single sheet of sterling silver. Its apparent weightlessness and asymmetrical folded form suggest the lightness and effortlessness of origami and the directness of functional tinware, yet its weight, solidity and surface colour link it to the functional and technical traditions and visual language of silver hollowware. The artists have paid particular attention to the way that reflected light emphasises the undulating and attenuated form of the object, leading the eye from its inner to its outer surfaces.

46 national gallery of australia

to Australia, married Lewers and set up a workshop partnership with her in Sydney. He was appointed as the founding Head of Jewellery and Silversmithing at the Sydney College of the Arts in 1977, becoming an Associate Professor and its Head of School from 1991 until his retirement to full-time private studio practice in 1994. In recognition of his work in craft education, he received an Australia Council Emeritus Award in 1999.

Darani Lewers, the daughter of artists Gerald and Margo Lewers, was born in 1936. She trained at East Sydney Technical College and in the studio of Estonian jeweller Niina Ratsep in 1958 before moving to Denmark to work with Helge Larsen from 1959 to 1960. She was awarded an Order of Australia in 1982 for her contribution to the Australian contemporary crafts movement.

Larsen and Lewers have worked in partnership on major commissions, metalwork and jewellery since 1961, mounting thirty-nine solo exhibitions in Australia and nine in Europe, and contributing to twenty-one international jewellery and metalwork exhibitions.

This new work from two of Australia’s most senior silversmiths celebrates their fiftieth year of practice. It joins other silver hollowware works in the collection from established Australian silversmiths, adding strength to the Gallery’s holdings of Australian metalwork, both historical and contemporary. Its acquisition was funded from the Meredith Hinchliffe Fund, which focuses on contemporary Australian craft, and it is a major new Australian contemporary decorative arts and design acquisition in the Gallery’s silver anniversary year.

Robert Bell Senior Curator, Decorative Arts and Design

Travelling exhibitions spring 2008 Exhibition venues and dates may be subject to change. Please contact the Gallery or venue before your visit.

For more information on travelling exhibitions, telephone (02) 6240 6525 or send an email to travex@nga.gov.au.

Maringka Baker Kuru Ala 2007 (detail) synthetic polymer paint on canvas 153.5 x 200.0 cm National Gallery of Australia © Maringka Baker

Culture Warriors: National Indigenous Art Triennial

Grace Crowley: being modern

Proudly supported by BHP Billiton; the Australia Council for the Arts through its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Board, Visual Art Board and Community Partnerships and Market Development (International) Board; 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; the Queensland Government through the Queensland Indigenous Arts Marketing and Export Agency; and Australian air Express

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 twentieth-century art. This is the first exhibition of Grace Crowley’s work since 1975 and includes important works from public and private collections. Spanning the 1920s through to the 1960s, the exhibition traces her remarkable artistic journey from painter of atmospheric Australian landscapes to her extraordinary late abstracts. nga.gov.au/Crowley

Grace Crowley Abstract painting 1947 (detail) oil on cardboard 60.7 x 83.3 cm National Gallery of Australia

Culture Warriors, the inaugural National Indigenous Art Triennial, presents the highly original and accomplished work of thirty Indigenous Australian artists from every state and territory.

Featuring outstanding works in a variety of media, Culture Warriors draws inspiration from the fortieth anniversary of the 1967 Referendum (Aboriginals) and demonstrates the breadth and calibre of contemporary Indigenous art practice in Australia. nga.gov.au/NIAT07 Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, WA, 20 September – 23 November 2008

Ocean to Outback: Australian landscape painting 1850–1950 The National Gallery of Australia’s 25th Anniversary Travelling Exhibition

Arthur Streeton The selector’s hut (Whelan on the log) 1890 (detail) oil on canvas 76.7 x 51.2 cm National Gallery of Australia

Supported by Visions of Australia, an Australian Government Program supporting touring exhibitions by providing funding assistance for the development and touring of Australian cultural material across Australia. The exhibition is also proudly sponsored by R.M.Williams The Bush Outfitter and the National Gallery of Australia Council Exhibitions Fund To mark the 25th anniversary of the National Gallery of Australia, Director Ron Radford, AM, curated this national touring exhibition of treasured works from the national collection. 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 Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, NT, 9 August – 19 October 2008 Newcastle Region Art Gallery, Newcastle, NSW, 8 November 2008 – 1 February 2009

Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, WA, 14 June – 21 September 2008 Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Tas., 2 October – 23 November 2008

War: the prints of Otto Dix Otto Dix’s Der Krieg cycle, a collection of 51 etchings, is regarded as one of the great masterpieces of the twentieth century. Modelled on Goya’s equally famous and equally devastating Los Desastres de la guerra [The disasters of war], the portfolio captures Dix’s horror of and fascination with the experience of war. nga.gov.au/Dix Otto Dix Ration carriers near Pilkem 1924 (detail) plate 43 from the portfolio War etching, aquatint 24.8 x 29.8 cm National Gallery of Australia The Poynton Bequest 2003 © Otto Dix. Licensed by VISCOPY, Australia, 2008

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 22 August – 26 October 2008 Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Qld, 7 November 2008 – 1 February 2009

The Elaine and Jim Wolfensohn Gift Travelling Exhibitions

Seated Ganesha Sri Lanka 9th–10th century (detail) bronze 10.0 x 6.8 x 4.4 cm in Red case: myths and rituals The Elaine and Jim Wolfensohn Gift

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-ofcharge for the enjoyment of children and adults in regional, remote and metropolitan centres. nga.gov.au/Wolfensohn For further details and bookings telephone (02) 6240 6589 or email travex@nga.gov.au.

Red case: myths and rituals and Yellow case: form, space and design Colin McCahon

Inverell Shire Library, Inverell, NSW, 1–26 September 2008 Gympie Regional Gallery, Gympie, Qld, 1–28 October 2008 Young District Arts Council, Young, NSW, 3 November – 16 December 2008

A National Gallery of Australia Focus Exhibition

Colin McCahon Crucifixion: the apple branch 1950 (detail) oil on canvas 89.0 x 117.0 cm Purchased with funds from the Sir Otto and Lady Margaret Frankel Bequest 2004

This exhibition showcases the National Gallery of Australia’s holdings of one of the Australasian region’s most renowned and respected artists – Colin McCahon. It includes paintings and works on paper spanning the period from the 1950s to early 1980s.

The exhibition’s tour of Australia and New Zealand is significant as it coincides with the thirtieth anniversary of the New Zealand Government’s gift to Australia in 1978 of the iconic work Victory over death 2 1970, which has become a destination work for the Gallery. nga.gov.au/McCahon Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand, 5 July – 19 October 2008

Blue case: technology Karl Millard Lizard grinder 2000 (detail) brass, bronze, copper, sterling silver, money metal, Peugeot mechanism, stainless steel screws 10.0 x 8.0 x 23.5 cm in Blue case: technology The Elaine and Jim Wolfensohn Gift

South West Arts, Hay, NSW, 4 August – 22 September 2008 Coomoora Primary School, Coomoora, Vic., 6 October – 3 November 2008 The 1888 Melbourne Cup The Western Australian Museum, Kalgoorlie, WA, 1 September – 10 October 2008 The Western Australian Museum, Perth, WA, 20 October – 26 November 2008

The National Gallery of Australia Travelling Exhibitions Program is generously supported by Australian airExpress.

artonview spring 2008 47

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faces in view 1. Children participating in the Gallery’s Character clues workshop.

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2. Janet Meanie and Lyn Gascoigne at the opening celebrations for Picture paradise.

3. A child hold up her mask at Character clues workshop.

4. Laila Shouha and her mother Luiza Urbanik at the opening celebrations for Richard Larter.

5. Rhys Muldoon, Belinda Cotton and Hugh Jackman at the 2020 Summit Dinner at the National Gallery of Australia.

6. Chantelle Woods, Assistant Curator, with Visiting Indigenous curators from Canada: (l–r) Steven Loft, Ryan Rice, Bonnie Devine, Jim Logan, David Garneau, Michelle LaVallee, Ramses Calderon.

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7. Peter Boreham, Sarah Bryan and Penny Boyer at the opening celebrations for Picture paradise.

8. Richard Nipperess, Ong Niennatfrakul, LinLin Kearney, Selena Kearney and Chris Lilley at the special Members’ opening for Richard Larter.

9. Bill Henson opening the Gallery’s exhibition Picture paradise.

10. The Siam Thai Dance Troupe performing at the opening of Picture paradise.

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14 11/ Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu 12. performing in the James O Fairfax

Theatre at the National Gallery of

Australia during NAIDOC Week.

13. David Foxwell, Ruth Foxwell and David Patterson at the opening celebrations for Picture paradise.

14. Stefan Fuchs, Alexander Chapman, Mark Huck and Frances Corkhill, Sponsorship and Development Officer, at the opening celebrations for Richard Larter.

15. Helen Eager, Richard Larter, Christopher Hodges and exhibition curator Deborah Hart at the opening celebrations for Richard Larter. artonview spring 2008 49

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Emily Kame Kngwarreye

Utopia

The genius of Emily Kame Kngwarreye

Her name is spoken in the same breath as Modigliani and Monet, yet she never saw their work.

Her work is seen in major galleries around the world, yet she never left Australia.

Direct from Tokyo, the National Museum’s highly acclaimed international exhibition of paintings by one of Australia’s greatest contemporary artists is on show at one Australian venue only.

22 August – 12 October 2008 Tickets at www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions

Untitled 1993 (detail) © Emily Kame Kngwarreye Collection of Phillip and Jenny Lawrence Licensed by Viscopy 08

50 national gallery of australia

Exhibition costs apply. Open 9 am – 5 pm daily (closed Christmas Day) Lawson Crescent Acton Peninsula Canberra ACT 2600 Freecall 1800 026 132 www.nma.gov.au The National Museum of Australia is an Australian Government Agency

clockwise from top left

JEFFREY SMART

Sunbathers at Construction Site SOLD NOVEMBER 2007 $600,000

COLIN M C CAHON

Clouds 5 SOLD NOVEMBER 2007 $360,000

JOHN BRACK

Up in the Air (Small Version) SOLD NOVEMBER 2007 $288,000

ROSALIE GASCOIGNE News Break SOLD AUGUST 2007 $300,000

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artonview  spring 2008   51

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JEFFREY SMART First Study for The Directors 1977 oil on canvas on board 19.0 x 45.5 cm SOLD DM June 2006 $84,000 (including buyer’s premium)

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