degas: master of french art · australian print collections

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artonview
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N AT I O N A L G A L L E RY O F A U S T R A L I A
s u m m e r
ISSUE 56  SUMMER 2008–09
DEGAS: MASTER OF FRENCH ART  AUSTRALIAN PRINT COLLECTIONS
The National Gallery of Australia is an Australian Government Agency
Issue 56, summer 2008–09
published quarterly by
National Gallery of Australia
GPO Box 1150
Canberra ACT 2601
nga.gov.au
ISSN 1323-4552
Print Post Approved
pp255003/00078
2
Director’s foreword
5
Foundation and Development
exhibitions and displays
8
Jane Kinsman
© 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.
editor Eric Meredith
Degas: master of French art
16
Misty moderns: Australian Tonalists 1915–1950
Tracy Lock-Weir
20
Soft sculpture
Lisa McDonald
collection focus
22
Australian prints: four fabulous birthday acquisitions!
Sarina Noorduis-Fairfax
designer Kate Brennan, Kristin Thomas
photography Eleni Kypridis, Barry Le Lievre,
Brenton McGeachie, Steve Nebauer, John Tassie
acquisitions
rights and permissions Nick Nicholson
26
advertising Erica Seccombe
printed in Australia by Blue Star Print,
Canberra
enquires
Brenda L Croft
28
30
advertising
31
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
[email protected]
Frederick McCubbin At the falling of the year
Anne Gray
The editor, Artonview
National Gallery of Australia
GPO Box 1150
Canberra ACT 2601
[email protected]
Tel: (02) 6240 6587
Fax: (02) 6240 6427
[email protected]
Balang (Mick) Kubarkku’s bark paintings
Hilda Rix Nicholas Snow, Montmartre
Anne Gray
Juan Davila and Howard Arkely Interior with built in bar
Alexandra Walton
32
Kevin Gordon Sea urchin I
Robert Bell
33
Raphael & Co Worktable
Robert Bell
34
Heri Dono Flying angels
Melanie Eastburn
36
Solomon Islands Bonito fish
Crispin Howarth
(cover)
Edgar Degas
The dance class c 1873 (detail)
oil on canvas
47.6 x 62.2 cm
The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
William A Clark Collection, 1926
(back cover)
Edgar Degas
Ballet dancer with arms crossed c 1872
oil on canvas
61.3 x 50.5 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Bequest of John T Spaulding, 1948
Photograph © 2008 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
37
Travelling exhibitions
38
James Gleeson: an extraordinary journey
40
Faces in view
Director’s foreword
Michael Brand, Director,
J Paul Getty Museum, Los
Angeles, and Ron Radford,
Director, National Gallery
of Australia, Canberra, in
the Gallery’s Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander gallery
Escape the summer sun to the National Gallery of Australia
and experience the superb exhibition Degas: master of
French art. Among the most recognised names in late
nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century art, Degas
was highly influential in the development of modern art.
A painter, draftsman, sculptor, printmaker and photographer,
Degas’ impact on his contemporaries and successors was as
far-reaching and as broad as his art practice. Although he
is widely regarded as one of the first and most important
Impressionists, he found the term distasteful (sometimes to
the point of being anti-Impressionist). He preferred, instead,
to be seen as working in the tradition of Realism, from
which Impressionism had stemmed in the 1860s and 1870s.
His paintings of ballet dancers, the racetrack, café
culture, laundry women and prostitutes are no doubt
familiar; however, this exhibition delves further to uncover
the lesser-known Degas, whose highly innovative practice
was perhaps nowhere more evident than in his monotypes.
2 national gallery of australia
From the mid to late 1870s, his experiments with
monotypes heavily influenced the way he approached
other techniques and mediums as well as his subjects and
compositions. Similarly, his experiments in photography
in the 1890s led the way to later innovations. All this
is explored in the exhibition. An insightful publication
accompanies Degas: master of French art and includes
texts by the exhibition’s curator, Jane Kinsman, Senior
Curator, International Art, as well as a major essay by
Michael Pantazzi, a Degas authority and emeritus curator
of European art at the National Gallery of Canada.
This non-touring exhibition is the first ever Degas
exhibition to be held in Australia or, indeed, the Southern
Hemisphere so people must make every effort to visit
Canberra.
To coincide with Degas: master of French art,
we are staging a very interesting exhibition of European
prints, Degas’ world: the rage for change, curated by
Mark Henshaw, Curator, International Prints, Drawings
and Illustrated Books. This exhibition, which opens
on 23 January, explores the prints of Degas’ major
contemporaries, their influence on him and his influence
on them. Together, these exhibitions provide an exciting
opportunity for visitors to expand their understanding
of the developments in art in Europe during a highly
innovative time.
Our exhibition Gods, ghosts and men, which showcases
the Gallery’s Pacific arts collection and has already
pleasantly surprised a large audience, continues until
11 January 2009 (see issue no 55 for more information).
The exhibition draws on our finest and most interesting
examples of sculpture and objects from Melanesia and
Polynesia, some of which are the finest of their kind in any
Australian public collection and many of which have not
been exhibited before. This is a rare display of traditional
art from the Pacific, and one not to be missed. It has been
curated by the Gallery’s Curator of Pacific Arts, Crispin
Howarth, who is now joined by our first Senior Curator of
Pacific Arts, Michael Gunn, recently arrived from the Saint
Louis Art Museum, Missouri, to take up the position.
The Art Gallery of South Australia’s exhibition Misty
moderns: Australian Tonalists 1915–1950, curated by
Tracy Lock-Weir, arrives in Canberra in February. It sheds
light on the often misunderstood early twentieth-century
art movement of Max Meldrum’s Australian Tonalism,
the theory behind it and its followers. The driving force
behind the Tonalist movement, Max Meldrum was seen in
some circles as divisive within the conventional art scene in
Melbourne at the time. Tracy Lock-Weir’s catalogue brings
this interesting and complex history into focus and, as well
as works by Medrum, includes excellent works by Clarice
Beckett, Colin Colahan, Percy Leason and many others.
This year the Gallery has added a number of major
Australian works to the national collection. We have
been fortunate to acquire another key work by Frederick
McCubbin—this time, an early work—At the falling of
the year 1886. This intimate sketch of the Australian
bush soon led McCubbin to his more famous figures-ina-landscape subjects such as Lost 1886. At the falling of
the year was last shown in 2007 in the popular exhibition
Australian Impressionism at the National Gallery of Victoria.
The acquisition has been generously funded by Terry and
Christine Campbell.
Australian painter Hilda Rix Nicholas’s magnificent
Snow, Montmartre c 1914 is another recent acquisition
and shows the influence of French Impressionism. In 1918,
after living in Europe for over a decade and developing an
international reputation, Rix Nicholas returned to Australia
and married a NSW grazier. She became the ‘Grand
Duchess’ of the Monaro district and could almost be
considered a Canberra artist.
Eighteen stunning bark paintings by the late Balang
(Mick) Kubarkku have joined the Gallery’s existing small
holdings by this artist. Kubarkku’s traditional yet distinctive
figures of ancestral beings are extraordinarily arresting. A
selection of these works is on display in the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander gallery on our entrance level.
This year, with the assistance of the Gordon Darling
Australia Pacific Print Fund, the Gallery acquired over 2000
prints from four of Australia’s major contemporary print
workshops: Larry Rawling Fine Art Prints, Cicada Press,
Franck Gohier and Viridian Press. These four collections,
spanning just over four decades, are significant additions to
the Gallery’s substantial holdings of Australian printmaking
and provide significant insights into the history and
development of contemporary Australian printmaking.
They include prints by major Australian artists such Bea
Maddock, Charles Blackman, Juan Davila, Brook Andrew,
Mike Parr, Aida Tomescu, Imants Tillers, Judith Wright,
Savanhdary Vongpoothorn, Rover Thomas, Queenie
Mckenzie, Paddy Carlton, Elisabeth Cummings, John Peart,
Reg Mombassa, Adam Cullen and Ben Quilty.
Much-needed behind-the-scenes facilities have been
added to the Gallery with the newly completed Stage 1A
of our current building project. The new space includes
new loading docks, staff entrance, registration space,
quarantine, mountcutting space and exhibition storage.
The larger Stage 1B—the new visitor entrance, gallery
shop, function hall and, most importantly, Australian
Indigenous galleries—is on track and will open in about
16 months.
The Gallery will be a hive of activity this holiday season
with the important Degas exhibition and other exhibitions,
new acquisitions, new displays and exciting public
programs.
Ron Radford, AM
artonview summer 2008–09 3
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Donations
Noel Birchall
Robert Brennan
Ruth Burgess
Kathy Davis
Winifred Davson, MBE
Dimity Davy
Anthony Eastaway
Peter Eddington and Joy Williams
David Franks
Louise and Robert Goldsmith
Aileen W Hall
Narelle Hillsdon
Elspeth Humphries
C and J Hurlstone
Dr Anthea Hyslop
Pamela V Kenny
Dr Peter Kenny
Valerie Kirk
Robyn Long
Robyn McAdam
Simon McGill
Dr Stephen McNamara
Stephen Miles
Joahanne Mulholland and David Rivers
Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, AC, DBE
Donald W Nairn
Prof Brian O’Keeffe, AO, and Bridget O’Keeffe, AM
Oliver Michael Pracy
Michael Proud
Judy Richmond
Dr Lyn Riddett
Alan and Helen Rose
Dr Michael Slee
Spectrum Consultancy Pty Ltd
Elizabeth G Ward
Peter Webster
Muriel Wilkinson
We would also like to thank the numerous anonymous
donors who have donated to the National Gallery of
Australia.
Gifts and Bequests
Barbara Tribe Foundation
Janelle Constable
Gordon Darling, AC, CMG, and Marilyn Darling
Sir William and Lady Deane and family
Lauraine Diggins
Robert Gilliland
Gordon Darling Australia Pacific Print Fund
Emmanuel Hirsh in memory of Etta Hirsh
Don and Janet Holt and family
Impress Printmakers Studio
Linda Malden
Bill Meldrum-Hannah
Dr Orde Poynton, AO, CMG
Ross Searle
Prof Bernard Smith
Diana Woollard
Graham World and family
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
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
ActewAGL
Adshel
Brassey Hotel of Canberra
BHP Billiton
Canberra Times
Casella Wines
Champagne Pol Roger
Eckersley’s Art & Craft
Forrest Hotel and Apartments
Mantra on Northbourne
National Australia Bank
Qantas
RM Williams, The Bush Outfitter
Sony Foundation Australia
Ticketek
Yalumba Wine
WIN Television
Foundation and Development
Twenty-fifth Anniversary Gift Program
Australia comes to the party!
On Wednesday 27 August 2008, the National Gallery
of Australia officially announced that it had raised
$25.722 million, exceeding the target of the Twenty-fifth
Anniversary Gift Program, which was to achieve $25 million
by the end of 2008.
Individuals and corporate sponsors from around
Australia contributed to the program, which was initiated
by the Foundation to commemorate 25 years since the
opening of the Gallery.
Major gifts were received from generous philanthropists
as well as hundreds of smaller donations to the
Masterpieces for the Nation Fund. Significant sponsorship
from BHP Billiton, National Australia Bank, ActewAGL,
Hindmarsh and RM Williams, The Bush Outfitter, have been
integral in achieving the target.
The Gallery’s Council members and Foundation
Directors have also been extremely supportive in assisting
the Foundation. Council members generously contributed
to major acquisitions and supported the National Gallery
of Australia Council Exhibitions Fund, which funded the
exhibitions Michael Riley: sights unseen and Imants Tillers:
one world, many visions, Ocean to Outback: Australian
landscape painting 1850–1950 and Picture paradise: Asia–
Pacific photography 1840s–1940s.
Important acquisitions that were made possible
through the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Gift Program include
Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri’s Warlugulong 1977, Frederick
McCubbin’s Violet and gold 1911, Giorgio de Chirico’s La
mort d’un esprit (Death of a spirit) 1916, Cy Twombly’s
Untitled 1987–2004, Max Ernst’s Habakuk 1934/1970
and a sandstone seated Buddha from the Kushan dynasty
in India.
Significant gifts included the Agapitos/Wilson collection
of Australian Surrealism, a collection of twenty-five Albert
Namatjira watercolours gifted by Gordon Darling, AC,
CMG, and Marilyn Darling, and the donation by Ben
Gascoigne, AO, and the Gascoigne family of Rosalie
Gascoigne’s Earth 1999.
The generous support of the Australian community
demonstrates the importance of philanthropy in assisting
the Gallery to acquire significant works for the enrichment
of the national collection.
Robyn Maxwell, Senior
Curator, Asian Art, with
guests at the launch of the
Masterpieces for the Nation
Fund 2008.
Helen Rose and Alan Rose,
AO, and Ms Shanthini
Naidoo, Assistant Director
Development, Marketing
and Commercial Operations,
National Gallery of Australia,
at the launch of the
Masterpieces for the Nation
Fund 2008.
Michelle Mortimer and
Jason Prowd, at the launch
of the Masterpieces for the
Nation Fund 2008.
To commemorate this significant occasion, the Director
also launched the first handbook on the collection of the
National Gallery of Australia, Collection highlights, which
features works from the Gallery’s various collecting areas.
Many of these works were gifted or bequeathed to the
Gallery, or purchased with assistance of donated funds. The
major works acquired as a result of the 25th Anniversary
Gift Program were all included in the handbook.
When you can see tangible examples of philanthropy
such as this, you realise the importance of the role of
benefactors in assisting the Gallery to build the national
collection. All gifts, large and small, make a difference,
assisting the Gallery to develop the national collection for
generations to come.
Masterpieces for the Nation Fund 2008
The annual Masterpieces for the Nation Fund began in
2003 and has steadily grown in support over the last
five years. Most of the donors to the first fund are still
contributing and the group keeps on expanding. It is an
excellent example of how many small donations can work
together to assist in purchasing significant works of art.
Three works, which were acquired as a result of the
Masterpieces for the Nation Fund, were included in the
Gallery’s handbook: Sydney Long’s Flamigoes c 1904, WC
Piguenit’s Near Liverpool c 1908 and the nineteenth-century
Indian work of art Festival of the Cattle (Gopashtami).
Masterpieces for the Nation Fund 2008 raised $64 360,
which has assisted the Gallery to purchase two works
for the national collection: an eighteenth-century Indian
pichhavai (shrine painting) and Doreen Reid Nakamarra’s
Untitled 2007.
Approximately seventy guests, who had donated
towards the fund in September this year, attended to
celebrate the acquisition of these works. The Director, Ron
Radford, gave a warm welcome and thanked all donors
who have consistently supported this program, and Robyn
Maxwell, Senior Curator, Asian Art, and Brenda Croft,
Senior Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art,
provided insights into these valuable works of art.
National Gallery of Australia Bequest Circle
We are in the process of establishing the National Gallery
of Australia Bequest Circle. The purpose of this group is to
unite a group of Gallery supporters who would like to leave
a bequest to the Gallery and would like to be involved in
the life of the Gallery.
If you would like to be involved in this inaugural group,
please contact Annalisa Millar, Executive Director, National
Gallery of Australia Foundation, on 61 2 6240 6691.
Degas: master of French art
ActewAGL (Principal Partner)
We extend our gratitude to ActewAGL, particularly their new
Chief Executive Officer Michael Costello, for their generous
support as the Principal Partner of Degas: master of French
art. Thank you also to Mark Sullivan, Managing Director of
Actew Corporation, John McKay, Chairman of ActewAGL,
for his support over many years, and Paul Walshe, Director
of Marketing and Corporate Affairs, and his team. Their
support for the exhibition is testimony to ActewAGL’s
corporate responsibility and commitment to supporting the
arts, locally and nationally. We are honoured that ActewAGL
have committed to sponsoring this landmark exhibition.
ActewAGL have been supporting the National Gallery
of Australia for over a decade and it is through the strength
of relationships like these that it is possible for us to provide
exhibitions of the highest calibre.
WIN Television
We are delighted to announce WIN Television as one of
the supporting exhibition sponsors for Degas: master of
French art. In addition to sponsoring Degas, we would
like to thank WIN Television for their commitment to the
exhibition Soft sculpture (National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra, 24 April – 19 July 2009). We thank Corey Pitt,
Station Manager, Natalie Tanchevski, Advertising Account
Executive, and the entire team at WIN Television.
The Canberra Times
We are also grateful to our other supporting sponsor,
The Canberra Times, for their contribution and support
of Degas: master of French art and for committing to
a partnership with the National Gallery of Australia to
promote and support other exhibitions and activities
throughout 2009. We thank Peter Fray, Editor, Ken Nichols,
General Manager, and Kylie Dennis, Group Advertising
Manager, and the team at The Canberra Times.
Champagne Pol Roger and Yalumba Wines
We extend our appreciation to Champagne Pol Roger
and Yalumba Wines as the official wine sponsors of the
opening of Degas: master of French art and all associated
gala events. It is a great privilege to welcome Champagne
Pol Roger back as a sponsor of yet another great French
exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia. Champagne
Pol Roger’s unwavering dedication to their two essential
values of excellence and independence make it a perfect fit
with the distinctive art of Edgar Degas.
QANTAS Twenty-fifth anniversary lecture
On the evening of 7 August 2008, the National Gallery of
Australia and our long-term supporters QANTAS welcomed
Dr Michael Brand, Director, J Paul Getty Museum, Los
Angeles. As a former curator of Asian art at the Gallery, Dr
Brand discussed some of the key issues in the development
of Australia’s national collection over the past 25 years.
The evening was a great success with over 180 people
attending the lecture. We would like to thank QANTAS for
their continued support of the Gallery’s birthday lectures.
Council Circle
We welcome Mantra on Northbourne into the Council Circle.
Mantra has been a long-term preferred accommodation
supplier and supporter of the Gallery and are the official
accommodation sponsor for Degas.
We are also delighted to welcome the Brassey of Canberra
into the Council Circle. We are grateful to the Brassey for
their ongoing support of the Gallery, especially through their
sponsorship of the annual National Gallery of Australia and
Sony Foundation Australia Summer Art Scholarship.
Corporate Members Program
We would like to welcome Eckersley’s Art & Craft to the
Corporate Members Program as sponsors of the Gallery’s
Education and Public Programs activities. Eckersley’s
sponsored the Big Draw event held on 19 October. Big
Draw was a great success and we would like to thank
Eckersley’s for supplying art materials on the day.
We would like to thank all our sponsors and corporate
members. If you would like more information about
sponsorship at the National Gallery of Australia please
contact Frances Corkhill on 61 2 6240 6740.
Michael Costello, Chief
Executive Officer, ActewAGL,
at the sponsorship launch of
Degas: master of French art.
Director Ron Radford with
Michael Costello, Chief
Executive Officer, ActewAGL,
and Mark Sullivan, Managing
Director, Actew Corporation.
exhibition
Edgar Degas: master of French art
12 December 2008 – 22 March 2009 | Exhibitions Galleries
Edgar Degas
A cotton office in New Orleans
1873
oil on canvas
74 x 92 cm
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Pau
Edgar Degas
The dance class c 1873 (detail)
oil on canvas
47.6 x 62.2 cm
The Corcoran Gallery of Art,
Washington, DC
In late 1872, the French artist Edgar Degas (1834–1917)
left Paris. He travelled via England to the United States
of America to visit his relatives in New Orleans. One of
the results of his visit was his painting A cotton office in
New Orleans 1873, which is remarkable for its modern
interpretation of a group portrait.
It is one of extraordinary innovation, where the figures
are not posed in some formal arrangement before a velvet
backdrop, which was often the case at this time. Rather,
Degas chose to depicts his relatives and associates at work
in the family’s cotton office. The space is full of activity and
Degas’ framing of the figures, the office and its furniture
enliven his composition. The bustle of the office contrasts
with the inaction of his brothers—one leaning on a window
and the other reading a newspaper—both seeming to have
a relaxed attitude to their work.
On his return to Paris in 1873, Degas painted The
dance class, an ambitious and complex interpretation of
dancers at a ballet class. This is no glamorous portrayal of
the life of the dancer. By clever design and the clustering
of figures, Degas manages to evoke a real sense of what
it was like to be in the middle of a class: the pitter-patter
of the dancers’ feet as they make their way down a spiral
staircase to the left of the composition and the close-up
of several ungainly figures in the foreground on the other side of
the composition.
Edgar Degas
At the races in the countryside
(Carriage at the races) 1869
oil on canvas
36.5 x 55.9 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
1931 Purchase Fund
Photograph © 2008 Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston
Shortly after this, Degas began another investigation
of the same theme. The dance class, began 1873,
completed 1876, is a particularly complex arrangement of
individualised figures in a variety of poses. This could have
been a discordant grouping, but Degas has confidently
moulded the figures into an organic whole, creating an ebb
and flow of dancers with their gestures and their stances
echoing through the assembled troupe.
In tandem with his exploration of the ballet theme,
Degas tackled another theme of modern life—the races.
At the races in the countryside (Carriage at the races) 1869
is an early example of a theme Degas returned to again
and again. The brilliant green colouring suggests the
influence that English scenes of horseracing had on the
artist in his early race scenes.
The composition is a transitionary one as it combines
a family portrait with the artist’s growing interest in
depicting horses and the racetrack. The family seated
in their carriage has been identified as the Valpinçons,
Degas’ close friends. Their son Henri is seated on the
knee of a wet nurse and the group is accompanied by
the family pet. The family, horses and carriage have
all been placed in the foreground to one side of the
painting, which provides a strong sense of movement
that is reinforced by the cropping of figures. However, the
motion of the horses racing in the background is not yet
adequately rendered—this was a pictorial problem Degas
would solve later in his artistic life. The painting is notable
for its clear colours and fine brushwork, reminiscent of
seventeenth-century Dutch masters.
Some eight years after painting this picture of the
Valpinçon family, Degas began The racecourse (Amateur
jockeys close to a carriage) 1876–87. This work took him
an agonising 11 years to complete and is a key work,
showing all the hallmarks of Degas’ signature style. The
composition is decidedly asymmetrical: while the races are
continuing in the background, the figures of race-goers
and the carriage are placed to the forefront and cropped to
emphasise movement. The structure is reminiscent of racing
imagery of Honoré Daumier’s (1808–1879) as seen in his
caricatures such as Nautical sports of 1856 (published in Le
Charivari on 14 May 1856) in which a crowd of race-goers
watch jockeys racing their horses in the rain.
At the races: before the start c 1880–92 is one of the
last in an important series of horizontal canvases that Degas
began in the early 1880s. The composition is characterised
by the depiction of horses and jockeys in a variety of
positions. The horizontal format that he uses here is one
that he favoured for many of his compositions, both of the
ballet and of horses, during this period. The high horizon
line, flattened sense of space and brilliant colours suggest
the influence of Japanese ukiyo-e woodcuts. Degas had
become interested in the art of Japan in the 1860s, early in
his career, and the style was to permeate his compositions
as he matured as an artist.
Over his working life, Degas turned his mind to many
different arts and became thoroughly accomplished in
several fields. He was a noted sculptor, though a self-taught
one, and worked in the tradition of the sculptor–painter.
His facility for making three-dimensional forms was clearly
evident in many of his sculptures.
Edgar Degas
The racecourse (Amateur
jockeys close to a carriage)
begun 1876, completed
1887
oil on canvas
66 x 81 cm
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Legacy of Count Isaac de
Camondo, 1911
© RMN / Hervé Lewandowski
Honoré Daumier
Nautical sports of 1856: Oh!
It’s amazing how fast they
can go … and without oars
from the series What’s on,
published in Le Charivari,
14 May 1856
lithograph
sheet 27.6 x 25.4 cm
Canberra
Purchased 1980
Edgar Degas
Little dancer aged fourteen
modelled 1880–81; cast
1920–21
bronze, gauze, and satin
97.8 x 41.3 x 34.9 cm
Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint
Louis
Funds given by Mrs Mark C
Steinberg
Edgar Degas
Bust of a café-concert singer
1877–79
charcoal on paper
47.3 x 30.5 cm
© RMN / Gérard Blot
Little dancer aged fourteen, modelled 1880–81,
appeared in the sixth Impressionist exhibition in 1881,
causing a sensation in the art world. This ‘little flower of
the gutter’, as commentator Jules Claretie described it at
the time, was a radical statement regarding the possibilities
of sculpture.1 It was as if Degas was throwing down the
gauntlet to the art world and the accepted conventions of
sculpture of his day. The original model was built of wax
tinted a skin colour, and Degas added to this the fabric
of her tutu, real hair bound by a silky ribbon, and ballet
shoes. Astonishingly, the sculpture was almost life-size
and far from idealised. The crude features of the dancer’s
physiognomy, based on those of his model the ballerina
Marie van Goethem, also caused controversy. The critic
Henry Trianon complained that Degas had chosen his
model ‘from among the most odiously ugly’ and achieved
a ‘standard of horror and bestiality’ not suitable for an
exhibition of art; rather, it belonged to one of ‘zoology,
anthropology, or physiology’.2
As a self-taught sculptor, in this provocative work,
Degas pushed the boundaries of scale, technique, use of
materials, subject matter, genre and style. Little dancer
aged fourteen both tantalised and unsettled contemporary
audiences. It goaded and intrigued. Subsequently, it has
continued to do so in the form of a bronze cast, which also
features the additions of a tutu in net and a ribbon binding
her hair.
The ballet, opera and races were not the only subjects
that Degas entertained in his search for subjects of modern
life. The café-concert was another favourite theme. The
combination of musical entertainment at a café seemed
to tap the Parisian soul and cater to low-brow tastes. As
commentator André Chadourne put it:
The particular attractions of this sort of entertainment
which are very well suited to the needs of a thrifty republic
should be noted: it is within reach of the most restricted
budget; it requires neither etiquette nor elegance in attire
or appearance, and appeals most to partisans of those
special delights enjoyed between a pipe and a tankard.3
Many café-concerts sprung up in the centre of Paris—at
establishments such as the Alcazar, Eldorado, Le Bataclan
and Café des Ambassadeurs—and gained notoriety. The
singer depicted in Degas’ charcoal drawing Bust of a
café-concert singer 1877–79 is shown with her mouth
wide open, as if in full voice, and with hand raised in an
emphatic and dramatic gesture—no doubt performing
songs that deal with ‘matters below the belt’, as the
witty Gustave Coquiot commented.4 This was a favourite
composition to which Degas would return.
Degas readily embraced the process of making
monotypes in the second half of the 1870s. He called
monotypes his plats du jour and described the ways of
making them as his ‘cuisine’. In particular, his figurative
monotypes are of an intensely intimate nature and
relate to a seamier side of Parisian life such as the
brothels. One such work is Prostitute seated in an
armchair 1876–77. Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) admired
and collected some of these scenes of prostitutes. For
an artist who took pride in his lack of spontaneity, the
process of making monotypes allowed Degas to develop
his powers of observation and provided an almost
instantaneous means of experimentation—in line, form,
brushwork and composition. Making monotypes was an
important outlet for Degas’ ideas, and it enhanced and
influenced his future art practice.
During the summer of 1895, and continuing the
following year, he became obsessed with another process
of making art—photography. Degas’ photographic
subjects range from portraits, interiors and women
bathing to the occasional landscape. As with many of his
monotypes, this was an excursion into black and white
and, despite his keen interest in colour, Degas found the
experience a welcome one. His compositions became
more complex during this intense, albeit brief, period.
He would photograph friends and associates in rooms,
taking particular care with their placement: adjusting the
stance and gestures and compositional relationships of
the sitters, rearranging furniture and works of art, and
setting up reflections of figures in mirrors—a motif he
adopted from the art of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
(1780–1867) and Diego Velázquez (1599–1660).
Degas preferred to stage his photographic sessions
in the evenings, using artificial light rather than natural
daylight. Lamps, wall lights and chandeliers were
placed to serve as props and as a means of diffusing
or spotlighting his scenes, or augmenting reflections
in mirrors such as in Portrait in front of a mirror of the
artist Henry Lerolle and his two daughters, Yvonne and
Christine 1895–96. Degas carefully composed his sitters,
the photographs often being taken after dinner. He
was close friends with the author Ludovic and Louise
Halévy and would frequently invite them and their
children, Daniel and Elie, to dine with him. Daniel Halévy
(1872–1962) has described the regimented nature of
these sittings:
Edgar Degas
At the races: before the start
c 1880–92
oil on canvas
40 x 89 cm
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,
Richmond
Collection of Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon
Photograph: Katherine Wetzel
© Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,
Richmond, Virginia
Degas raised his voice, became dictatorial, gave orders that
a lamp be brought into the little salon and that anyone
who wasn’t going to pose should leave. The duty of the
evening began. We had to obey Degas’s fierce will, his
artist’s ferocity.5
In Dancers, pink and green c 1890, Degas has populated
the painting with many of his favourite figures of
dancers, which he had developed over the years. One
ballerina, barely seen, adjusts her bodice. Two more,
with their backs turned to the viewer, adjust their hair
or the shoulder straps of their tutus. A fourth stands
with her hands on her hips staring down at her feet. In
the foreground, another peers up at the boxes at the
opera from behind the stage. In the far distance are the
ill-defined forms of two more dancers on stage. Some
of the figures are almost fused with the backdrop of
the scenery—a view of woodlands with tall trees and
abundant foliage.
The thin shadowy figure of the man in a top hat and
tails is barely perceptible behind the pole. He is one of
the caddish ‘Lions’ from the Jockey Club who used to
lurk backstage, seeking out the young ballerinas. The
figure references Degas’ 1870s monotypes inspired by
Ludovic Halévy’s stories of the Cardinal family—Monsieur
and Madame Cardinal and their daughters Pauline and
Virginie—and their unsavoury encounters backstage at
the Paris Opéra.
Though this work uses many favourite figures and views
that could be found in Degas’ earlier art, it also signals his
growing interest, in the 1890s, of almost abstracted forms,
and his radical application of paint and a new, vivid palette.
It shows the influence of his monotypes and photography
and anticipates the beginning of modernism and the art of
the twentieth century.
Jane Kinsman
Senior Curator, International Art, and curator of Degas
In conjunction with the exhibition, the book Degas: the
uncontested master is available from the nga shop. For further
information, telephone (02) 6240 6420 or send an email to
[email protected].
The exhibition Degas’ world: the rage for change, an exhibition of
European prints by Degas’ contemporaries, will also be on display
from 23 January to 3 May 2009 in the Orde Poynton Gallery. It
demonstrates how artists at the end of the nineteenth century
altered the direction of art, moving away from the tradition of
the Paris Salon towards art that was revolutionary, independent
and modern.
notes
1. Jules Claretie, La vie à Paris: 1881, Victor Harvard, Paris, 1881,
pp 148–57.
2. Henry Trianon, Le Constitutionnel, 24 April 1881, quoted in Fronia E
Wissman, ‘Realists among the Impressionists’, in Charles S Moffett,
Ruth Berson and Barbara Lee Williams et al, The new painting:
Impressionism 1874–1886, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Art,
Washington, 1986, p 362.
3. André Chadourne, Les café-concerts, E Dentu, 1889, p 2.
4. Gustave Coquiot, Les cafés-concerts, Librairie de l’art, Paris, 1896.
5. Daniel Halévy, My friend Degas, trans and ed Mina Curtiss, Wesleyan
University Press, Middletown, 1964 (1960), p 82.
Edgar Degas
Prostitute seated in an
armchair 1876–77
monotype in black ink on
white wove paper, heightened
with brush and ink
plate-mark 15.8 x 11.4 cm
Canberra
Purchased 1980
Edgar Degas
Portrait in front of a mirror of
the artist Henry Lerolle and his
two daughters, Yvonne and
Christine 1895–96 (detail)
gelatin silver photograph
taken from a glass negative
and enlarged
29.0 x 36.2 cm
© RMN / Hervé Lewandowski
(opposite)
Edgar Degas
Dancers, pink and green c 1890
oil on canvas
82.2 x 75.6 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York
HO Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of
Mrs HO Havemeyer, 1929
Image © The Metropolitan Museum
of Art
exhibition
Misty moderns: Australian Tonalists 1915–1950
21 February – 26 April 2009 | Project Gallery
Clarice Beckett
Taxi rank c 1931
oil on canvas on board
58.5 x 51 cm
Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth
formerly Orica Collection
Photograph: Jenni Carter
Max Meldrum
The three trees c 1917
oil on board
35.5 x 25.5 cm
Private collection
© estate of the artist
Misty moderns: Australian Tonalists 1915–1950 is the
first exhibition of its kind ever assembled, and showcases
the previously unexplored riches of the Australian
Tonalist painting movement, which flourished during the
twentieth-century interwar period. Remarkably, despite
the fact that some of Australia’s greatest twentiethcentury artists, such as Max Meldrum, Clarice Beckett,
Lloyd Rees, Roy de Maistre and Elioth Gruner, variously
explored the gentle atmospheric effects of Tonalism,
it became maligned over time and developed into one
of the most misunderstood and most underestimated
movements in Australian art.
There are many complex reasons that have contributed
to Tonalism’s marginalisation, and certainly its radically
humble qualities were overshadowed by more fashionable
genres such as narrative painting and grand sunlit
landscape painting. However, possibly of greatest detriment
has been its confusion with the long Western art tradition
of tonal painting. Tonal painting was popular around the
turn of the twentieth century, coinciding with a renewed
appreciation of the dark-toned seventeenth-century
subjects of Velázquez (1599–1660) and Rembrandt
(1606–1669). A descendent of this tradition was a
dominant form of low-toned painting taught in Melbourne,
whereby the painted surface is progressively and slowly
built up, working in part from dark to light. Form is sharply
painted in great detail, creating an effect of realism, and is
typically seen, for example, in the early work of Margaret
Preston, Hugh Ramsay and George W Lambert.
Tonalism is fundamentally different and is best
understood as a painting system. It involves no under
drawing and is based on the rapid and direct recording of
tonal impressions (generalised massed areas of light and
dark) onto the canvas in the order the impressions meet the
eye of the artist. Its intention is to create an exact illusion
of nature. In this way, it is a spontaneous, ‘perceptual’ and
responsive form of painting, as opposed to traditional tonal
painting, which is craft-based and measured.
Thus, rather than appearing highly detailed and
photographic, Tonalist paintings are more generalised and
identified by a soft-focus, tonal atmospheric aesthetic. The
blocked-in tonal transitions in many of these paintings
are also sometimes slow to unfold and demand time and
physical distance from the viewer (six metres) as the fields
of tone optically shift and lock into focus to create the
desired three-dimensional illusionary effect within a unified
tonal pitch.
This Tonalist system of painting was highly controversial
and was pioneered by Max Meldrum (1875–1955), the
‘stormy petrel of Australian art’ and one of the most
important artists, teachers and theorists of the first half of
the twentieth century. When Tonalism arrived in Melbourne
in 1919 in the form of a large group exhibition at the
Athenaeum Gallery, it was bitterly received and divided
the arts community. The sheer immediacy of its technique,
Roy de Maistre
Berry’s Bay c 1920
oil on board
26.5 x 33.0 cm
Art Gallery of South Australia,
Adelaide
Gift of Peggy Barker, Margaret
Bennett, Diana Evans, the Hon Dr
Kemeri Murray, AO, and Adam
Wynn through the Art Gallery
of South Australia Foundation
Collectors Club, 2007
© Caroline de Mestre Walker
its modest subject matter and the subtle appearance of
the paintings fundamentally challenged well-established,
nationalistic and elevated painting traditions that were more
reliant on high craftsmanship and immediate visual impact.
Misty moderns charts the earliest beginnings of the
Tonalist movement through Meldrum’s 1917 revolutionary
perceptual landscapes. These small-scale experimental
studies demonstrate arguably the first important
advance in Australian landscape painting since Australian
Impressionism of the 1880s. Using his newly devised
painting system, Meldrum responded to the delicate tonal
qualities of the Australian bush in Eltham (29 kilometres
north-east of Melbourne) and painted a watershed series
of spontaneous works remarkable for their brevity and
spatial penetration. Paring back his painting process to
a rapid application of broken areas of restricted tone,
Meldrum created works of extraordinary dynamism, light
and space. Meldrum’s The three trees c 1917 is one of his
most progressive paintings from this early Eltham period,
and along with several of his other key early works, became
widely known in artistic circles when illustrated in his
influential hardcover book Max Meldrum: his art and views,
published in 1919. The startling simplification of form
and recessive space demonstrated in these early reductive
paintings of Eltham are significant today for prefiguring the
late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s Minimalist interpretations of
the Australian landscape.
The deep impression that Meldrum’s perceptual
painting system had on Australia’s first wave of modernists
is also demonstrated in Misty moderns by the inclusion
of rare Tonalist works by Roy de Maistre, Roland Wakelin,
Lloyd Rees, Arnold Shore, William Frater and Godfrey Miller.
Among the most interesting of these early exploratory
subjects is Roy de Maistre’s Berry’s Bay c 1920, which is
a rare synthesis of formal elements related to the artist’s
pioneering semi-abstract ‘colour music’ studies and the
softened forms of Tonalism. A small group of Tonalist
self-portraits painted by some of these young artists in
the privacy of their studios are among the most engaging
and most unexpected works in Misty moderns. The sheer
economy of Roland Wakelin’s brushwork in his introspective
and monochromatic Self-portrait 1920 accounts to the
pull of Meldrum’s ideas in the preeminent artistic circles
of Sydney at this time. Meldrum galvanised the artists’
commitment to forging a pathway into art by offering a
painting system that strengthened and simplified their
approach. Tonalism also inadvertently sharpened the artists’
receptivity to modernism. These surprising experimental
paintings challenge pre-existing ideas about the
development of Australian modernism and point towards
the reinstatement of Max Meldrum as a major force in
twentieth-century Australian art.
Clarice Beckett’s spellbinding suburban, coastal and
city views of the 1920s and early 1930s included in Misty
moderns confirm Beckett’s position as one of the movement’s
greatest artists. Forgotten for over 30 years, Clarice Beckett
has only in recent times been rightfully acknowledged as one
of Australia’s greatest landscape painters of the twentieth
century. The National Gallery of Australia led the way in
resurrecting the reputation of Clarice Beckett when James
Mollison, as acting director, acquired a seminal group of the
artist’s then recently rediscovered works in 1971.
Beckett transcended Meldrum’s painting system,
transforming it into her own ethereal signature style,
distinguished by a wonderful command of design and
feeling for colour. Carefully selected examples of her most
luminous and minimal landscapes, such as Passing trams
and Taxi rank of the early 1930s, are displayed in elegant
groupings that collectively resonate, forming a moving
highlight of this exhibition.
Misty moderns concludes with a series of introspective
themes painted during the early 1940s as the terror of
war raged and the competing forces of modernism began
to firmly take hold. Living and working in London in
1942, expatriate Colin Colahan was appointed an official
war artist, providing him with an opportunity to extend
his gaze beyond the domestic realm to produce a series
of sensitively observed war subjects. His poetic airfield
scene of Ballet of wind and rain 1945 is one of the many
revelations in Misty moderns that will be on display at the
National Gallery of Australia in Canberra from February
to April 2009. The exhibtion brings together 82 paintings
by 18 artists drawn from significant private and public
collections from around Australia.
Roland Wakelin
Self-portrait 1920
oil on paperboard
26.7 x 25.4 cm
The Art Gallery of New
South Wales, Sydney
Edward Stinson Bequest
Fund 2006
© estate of the artist
Tracey Lock-Weir
Curator, Australian Paintings and Sculpture, Art Gallery of South
Australia, and curator of Misty moderns: Australian Tonalists
1915–1950
The Art Gallery of South Australia’s Misty moderns: Australian
Tonalists 1915–1950 national tour has been made possible by
the support of the Australian Government, through Visions of
Australia.
A catalogue published to accompany this exhibition is available
from the nga shop.
for thcoming exhibition
Soft sculpture
24 April – 12 July 2009
Eva Hesse
Contingent 1969
cheesecloth, latex, fibreglass
installation
350 x 630 x 109 cm (variable)
Canberra
Purchased 1973
Courtesy the Estate of Eva Hesse,
Galerie Hauser & Wirth, Zurich
Soft sculpture looks at the ways artists use non-traditional
materials to question the changing nature of sculpture.
The exhibition explores the historical relationship between
anti-form works of the 1960s and 1970s, the Surrealist
and Pop art objects that inspired them and contemporary
art practice from the 1980s to the present day. Drawing
on the strong holdings of the National Gallery of Australia,
supplemented with loans from private lenders and other art
museums, the exhibition includes rarely displayed treasures
from the collection.
The term ‘soft sculpture’ emerged during the later years
of the 1960s to describe works of art that were constructed
from pliant materials. As artists began to explore and
exploit the qualities of supple substances, unconventional
objects comprising fibres and fabrics, plastic, vinyl and
rubber were introduced into gallery spaces. The resultant
forms were often fragile rather than robust and, in many
cases, combined metaphorical and metaphysical concerns.
Leading the innovation, Claes Oldenburg created
sculptures that referenced banal, everyday objects. His
manipulation of media and form rendered him one of
the foremost exponents of Pop art. Ice bag—scale B
1971 explores the impact of mechanical movement on
a playfully oversized commonplace item. Central to the
themes of the exhibition, Oldenburg’s piece pre-empts
contemporary experimentation with alternative materials
and modes of construction.
Soon after, artists such as Richard Serra, Michelle
Stewart and Robert Morris also began to explore the
qualities of pliable matter. Their innovative use of naturally
occurring and found materials led to the development
of anti-form sculptures that championed the themes of
Minimalism. The display of large-scale works by these
artists will encourage contemplation of the conceptual
nature of post-war American sculpture.
The survey is further enhanced by Eva Hesse’s
celebrated Contingent 1969. Comprising eight rectangular
pieces of latex-covered cheesecloth, each end embedded
in a translucent field of fibreglass, the work explores the
tensions between rigidity and malleability, continuity and
change. Completed shortly before the artist’s untimely
death, the superlative installation is testament to Hesse’s
influence on the genre of sculpture.
Audiences will also have the opportunity to view
important works by European artists. Joseph Beuys’s
Stripes from the house of the shaman 1962–72 1980
uses felt, animal skin, rubber tubing and ground minerals
as autobiographical metaphors for experiences and
feelings. The commanding work blends symbolic and
poetic meaning as Beuys explores the alchemy of art. His
installation transcends the physical and acts as a powerful
means of drawing in space.
The hand-sewn forms of Annette Messager’s
Penetration 1993–94 highlight contemporary explorations
of the soft sculpture genre. Oversized internal organs and
viscera constructed from vividly coloured fabrics hang
from the gallery ceiling, taking the viewer on a tour of
the human body. In this installation, Messager replaces
the kinetic experience proposed by Oldenburg and the
ephemeral approach of the Minimalists with a psychological
ordeal that immerses the viewer’s entire body.
A selection of works by Australian artists will parallel
international tendencies, revealing local approaches to soft
sculpture. Originating with Tony Coleing and Les Kossatz,
following generations of artists referred to Surrealism,
Pop art and Minimalism in their creations. Luke Roberts
manipulates conventional children’s toys in his installation
All souls of the revolution 1976–94 to conjure perverse
humour and sinister connotations, while Rosslyn Piggott’s
High bed 1998 reflects upon the contradictions of the
subconscious mind.
Soft sculpture, the first Australian survey to critically
reappraise this major tendency, will challenge and subvert
traditional notions of art. The exhibition presents a broad
array of objects that promises to intrigue and amaze
audiences of all ages.
Lisa McDonald
Assistant Curator, International Painting and Sculpture
collec tion focus
Australian prints: four fabulous birthday acquisitions!
Queenie McKenzie
Franck Gohier (printer)
Northern Territory
University (print workshop)
Joodal country—Tick Dreaming
1995
lithograph, printed in dark
blue ink, from one stone
printed image 28.4 x 29.8 cm
outskirts of Melbourne reflects the broad nature of the
Fund which, under the guidance of Roger Butler, Senior
Curator of Australian Prints and Drawings, aims to collect
a comprehensive overview of contemporary printmaking in
Australia and the region.
The four print workshops are not only geographically
scattered but each operates along a different model of
the artist-printer association. In the case of Larry Rawling
and his eponymous studio, the role of the printer is based
on a traditional custom-printing approach. Coming from
Canberra
Gordon Darling Australia Pacific
Print Fund, celebrating the
National Gallery of Australia’s 25th
anniversary, 2007
Brook Andrew
Larry Rawling (printer)
Larry Rawling Fine Art
Prints (print workshop)
The man 2005
screenprint, printed in colour,
from multiple stencils
printed image 150 x 100 cm
Canberra
Purchased with the assistance of
the Gordon Darling Australia Pacific
Print Fund, in celebration of the
National Gallery of Australia’s 25th
anniversary, 2008
© Brook Andrew. Represented by
VISCOPY, Australia, 2008
Don’t you just love a birthday? The Gordon Darling
Australia Pacific Print Fund certainly does—celebrating the
National Gallery of Australia’s twenty-fifth anniversary by
acquiring the extraordinary archives of four major print
workshops based around Australia—Larry Rawling Fine Art
Prints, Cicada Press, Franck Gohier and Viridian Press.
It is fitting that Gordon Darling was involved with
this hugely generous gesture as he has been a staunch
supporter of the Australian Prints department since the
Gallery opened in 1982. As the inaugural chairperson,
he encouraged the development of the print collection,
and in 1989 he established what is now the Gordon
Darling Australia Pacific Print Fund, which assists with
the purchase of prints produced after 1960. This recent
acquisition of over two thousand works on paper from
workshops based in Sydney, Darwin, Canberra and the
a commercial printing background, he is known for his
beautifully produced screenprints in which the colours are
crisp, clear and perfectly registered. Over the four decades
that he has been printing limited edition prints, Rawling
has demonstrated his versatility in the medium—producing
screenprinted text for artist’s books, custom-mixing ink
colours and trialling countless experimental techniques
to help achieve the artist’s vision for the work. It is this
remarkable resourcefulness that has made Larry Rawling
a much sought-after printer, and he has worked with
over eighty artists during his long career. Rawling began
printing for Alun Leach-Jones in the 1960s and went on to
produce prints with artists such as Bea Maddock, Charles
Blackman, Robert Jacks and Jan Senbergs. Since moving
his studio to the outskirts of Melbourne in 1998, Rawling
has continued to produce innovative prints for a new
generation of artists, including Brent Harris, David Band,
Juan Davila and Brook Andrew.
John Loane initiates print-based collaborations with
established artists at his Canberra-based studio Viridian Press.
After working as the inaugural director of the Victorian Print
Workshop, Loane established Viridian Press in Melbourne
in 1988. Over the years, he has invited selected artists to
work with him on developing editions of prints, producing
etchings, lithographs and woodblock prints with artists such
as Mike Parr, Aida Tomescu, Jeffrey Harris, Imants Tillers,
Judith Wright and Savanhdary Vongpoothorn. Diverse
in their style and conceptual approach, many had never
worked with printmaking before and Loane’s approach
often involves an exchange of ideas and technical expertise.
Working together can be the catalyst for a shift in scale or
the discovery of new possibilities in their work. In 2004,
Loane worked with Brisbane-based artist Judith Wright on
developing a series of prints based on her dance-derived
films and drawings. Wright was surprised by how her fragile
shadow drawings were transformed by the process of
printmaking into robust and monumental pieces, such as her
2004 etching One dances. The elongated abstract shape is
printed in a soft transparent black, which echoes the shadow
of dancers in the spotlight.
Artist and printer Franck Gohier is recognised for his
pivotal role in initiating Indigenous printmaking in the Top
End. He began printing at the Northern Territory University
in 1992 and helped establish their groundbreaking print
workshop with Leon Stainer and George Watts. They
formed links with the community and initiated printmaking
workshops to encourage painters such as Rover Thomas,
Queenie Mckenzie, Tommy Bung Bung, Lily Karadada and
Paddy Carlton to try other mediums. Printmaking offered
a new way of recording traditional stories and Gohier
introduced the artists to lithography, etching, woodcuts
and linocuts, which he printed in the rich earth tones of
the desert country. In 1997, funding cuts to universities
prompted Gohier to set up the independent print workshop
Red Hand Print Studio with Shaun Poustie (formerly of Red
Planet Posters). This open-access studio was founded on the
principle of community-based printmaking, and underpinned
by the Gohier and Poustie’s ideological vision that prioritised
the hand of the artist above the commercial viability of the
Cicada Press, based at the College of Fine Arts in
Sydney, follows the Bauhaus-derived apprenticeship model
and was established in 2003 by the Head of Printmaking
Studies, Michael Kempson. It offers short-term residencies
to established artists, who are invited to produce a
series of prints, which are often editioned by students
from the printmaking workshop. This dynamic exchange
enriches the process for the artists—many of whom have
had limited experience in printmaking—and allows the
students to gain invaluable insight into the artist’s process.
The residency program often results in exciting new
works such as Adam Cullen’s 2001 dark and spiky relief
etching Local concerns which, although condensed in size,
contains the same disturbing energy as his forceful largescale paintings. Other participants have included senior
New South Wales artists Elisabeth Cummings, John Peart,
John Coburn and Reg Mombassa as well as younger
Sydney-based figurative artists Adam Cullen, Cherry
Hood, Nicholas Harding, Euan MacLeod, David Fairbairn
and Ben Quilty. Cicada Press has also had a long-term
commitment to working with Indigenous artists based in
Sydney and remote communities.
The acquisition of this significant group of prints has
been a fantastic accomplishment for the Gordon Darling
Australia Pacific Print Fund in the twenty-fifth birthday
image. Red Hand continued to work with established and
emerging artists based in Aboriginal communities. After
Poustie moved to Sydney in 1999, Gohier continued to run
the workshop before setting up his own studio in 2000 to
concentrate on producing his own works on paper.
year, and has further strengthened the National Gallery of
Australia’s exceptional collection of contemporary prints.
Adam Cullen
Cicada Press (print workshop)
Special concerns 2001
relief-etching, printed in
black ink, from one plate
Canberra
National Gallery of Australia’s
25th anniversary, 2007
Ben Quilty
Cicada Press (print workshop)
Fang 2005
etching and aquatint,
printed in brown ink, from
one plate
Canberra
(opposite)
Judith Wright
John Loane (printer)
Viridian Press (print
workshop)
One dances 2004
etching, printed in sepia ink,
from one copper plate
Canberra
Sarina Noordhuis-Fairfax
Curator, Australian Prints and Drawings
acquisition Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ar t
Balang (Mick) Kubarkku’s bark paintings
Balang (Mick) Kubarkku
Namorodo spirit 1971
natural earth pigments on
bark 153 x 61 cm
Canberra
Purchased 2008
© Balang (Mick) Kubarkku.
Represented by VISCOPY,
Australia, 2008
Balang (Mick) Kubarkku’s life spanned a period of incredible
change for his people, the Kunwinjku (eastern Kunwinjku),
of central Arnhem Land. From the Kulmarru clan, Kubarkku
was of the Dhuwa moiety and Balang subsection. He was
born at Kukabarnka, part of his homelands in the Marrinj
clan estate, which included Yikarrakkal and Kubumi.
He died in May at the township of Maningrida, central
Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.
Kubarkku was born into a world that had minimal
contact with non-Indigenous people and culture, when
the only white people who travelled to largely inaccessible
Arnhem Land were traders, anthropologists and later
missionaries. The first bark paintings were collected
in the 1870s from Port Essington. Maningrida did not
exist until just after Second World War when it was
established as rations distribution centre/trading post;
however, the timeless culture of the Kunwinjku has been
inherent in the land for thousands of generations.
As with many Indigenous artists from traditional
communities, Kubarkku was tutored in artistic and
cultural practices by his father, Ngindjalakku, initially
creating paintings for sacred ceremonies and later selling
his works through the government established township
of Maningrida.
At the time of his death, Kubarkku had been infirm
for some time and had not created any works of art since
the early 2000s. Very few works were created after 1995,
when Kubarkku was acknowledged for his artistic vision
and prowess in the exhibition Rainbow, sugarbag and
moon, with Lofty Bardayal Nadjamerrek, curated by Margie
West, then Curator of Aboriginal Art and Material Culture
at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.
These bark paintings are part of a group of eighteen
barks recently acquired by the Gallery, marking an
extremely valuable addition to the holdings of this
significant artist’s work in the national collection, bringing
the total number of works in the collection by Kubarkku to
twenty-five. Spanning four decades by one of the country’s
most significant Arnhem Land artists, the group of barks
were collected by a single vendor over a number of years.
Kubarkku was a traditionalist in his approach to
painting, mirroring his upbringing with minimal contact
with white people prior to war. His art adhered to the
style reminiscent of rock art painting, similar to his
colleague and countryman Bardayal Nadjamerrek and
other contemporaries such as Anchor Kulunba, Peter
Marralwanga and Crusoe Kuningbal—all of whose
descendents are among the current group of acclaimed
Kunwinjku artists.
Kubarkku produced highly figurative work, allowing
space around his depictions of totemic animals and
spirit beings, differing markedly from the innovative and
increasingly abstracted rarrk (cross-hatched) designs created
by acclaimed Kunwinjku artists like John Mawurndjul.
Initially he commenced painting at Gunbalanya (Oenpelli)
after the war before moving to Maningrida in 1957,
where he and David Milaybuma were the first regular
painters at Maningrida. The present Maningrida Art and
Culture—arguably one of the country’s most recognised
and successful art centres—evolved from the establishment
of an art and craft centre in 1968, auspiced through the
Maningrida Progress Association.
His representations of malevolent spirit beings and
ancestral figures resonate with power, and the works of
Kubarkku and Nadjamerrek are a direct connection to
the ancient tradition of painting on rock surfaces and bark
shelters, a tradition that ceased in 2004 when Bardayal
painted the last image on rock galleries near his homeland.
Kubarkku’s first paintings were on bark shelters and he
later incorporated the rarrk designs associated with the
Mardayin ceremony into his art.
Among his repertoire were Ngalyod, the Rainbow
Serpent; Namarrkon, the lightning spirit; Kodjok
Bamdjelk, the pandanus spirit; lorrkon (hollow log coffin);
namorroddo, yawk yawk and mimih spirits; and assorted
freshwater fish species and native animals such as the
namanjwarre (estuarine crocodile) and lambalk (sugar
glider). He is the cultural custodian, or djungkay (manager),
of the Bird Moon Dreaming.
Namarrkon, the Lightning Spirit is associated with the
intense electrical storms of kunemeleng, the pre-wet
season between October and December. Namarrkon is
typically illustrated in the rock art and bark paintings of
the region with a circuit of lightning encircling its body.
Kulburru, the stone axes which protrude from his joints,
are hurled by Namarrkon to cause the lightning and
thunder that accompany tropical storms. The body form of
Namarrkon is said to represent ngaldjurr the Leichhardt’s
Grasshopper (Petasida ephippigera), which is active and
most visible during this time of year.1
Dird Djang (Moon
Dreaming) c 1990
bark 112 x 90 cm
Canberra
Purchased 2008
Australia, 2008
Njaljod–Rainbow snakes at
Gubumi on the Mann 1979
bark 126 x 79
Canberra
Purchased 2008
Australia, 2008
Contemporary Arnhem Land artists create works for
the art market, acquired for public and private collections,
and none paint designs on the rock art sites, some of
which dated as old as 50 000 years (if not older).
Kubarkku was one of the few men who could recall those
artists of earlier generations and was able to provide
detailed interpretations of images on the rock galleries.
Brenda L Croft
Senior Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art
note
1. Margie West (ed), Rainbow, sugarbag and moon: two artists of the
stone country, exhibition catalogue, Museum and Art Gallery of the
Northern Territory, Darwin, 1995.
acquisition Australian Painting and Sculpture
Frederick McCubbin At the falling of the year
Frederick McCubbin
At the falling of the year 1886
oil on canvas 30.6 x 15.1 cm
Canberra
Terry and Christine Campbell, 2008
In At the falling of the year 1886, Frederick McCubbin
lovingly depicted a small segment of a woodland. Two baby
magpies fly among the trees. He carefully delineated the
bark and leaves of the slender eucalypt saplings as well as
the grasses and twigs in the foreground. We feel as if we
are in the midst of this intimate scene, listening to the soft
rustling of the bush.
McCubbin was a prominent Australian Impressionist
and At the falling of the year comes from a key period in
his oeuvre. The title derives from a line in Adam Lindsay
Gordon’s poem ‘A song of autumn’, where the poet wrote:
Where shall we go for our garlands glad
At the falling of the year,
When the burnt-up banks are yellow and sad,
When the boughs are yellow and sere?
…
McCubbin evoked this season through his use of yellow
and red tones, and a fading evening light. He most likely
painted it at Houston’s farm, Box Hill, on the outskirts of
Melbourne. From 1885 to 1886, McCubbin was working
alongside Tom Roberts at the artists’ camp at Box Hill
(near Heidelberg). It was an ideal place to work because
it allowed them easy access to the bush during the
weekends and was a short train journey from Melbourne,
where they worked during the week. They were soon
joined by other artists, including Arthur Streeton, Charles
Conder and Jane Sutherland.
This painting shows the advances that McCubbin
and Roberts made in Australian landscape painting.
Telescoping in on a small segment of the bush, their
paintings were radically different in composition and
technique from the wide panoramic views of earlier
Australian landscape painters. In contrast to the work of
previous artists, they depicted treescapes in which the
sky is nearly absent and the eucalypts are viewed in close
focus. In these works, they sought an intimate, naturalistic
approach to the bush, capturing the play of light and
shade in the landscape.
During 1886, both McCubbin and Roberts painted
outdoors in front of the motif, using a limited range
of colours (predominantly greens and browns). In its
freshness and immediacy, close viewpoint and tonal palette,
McCubbin’s At the falling of the year also resembles works
that Roberts painted around this time, such as A Sunday
afternoon c 1886 and A summer morning’s tiff 1886.
McCubbin, however, generally presented his scenes from
an even more intimate viewpoint than Roberts.
The image of the two tall eucalypt saplings at the right
of At the falling of the year is also a feature of several of
McCubbin’s works at this time. He painted this work in the
same year as his seminal Lost 1886, for which it could be
considered a study—as it could for other significant works
of this period such as Gathering mistletoe 1886. Although
small, McCubbin saw At the falling of the year as a work in
its own right and exhibited it in the First annual exhibition
of the Australian Artists’ Association at Buxton’s Galleries
in Melbourne on 7 September 1886, three years before the
famous The 9 by 5 impression exhibition of oil sketches by
McCubbin, Roberts, Streeton and Conder was shown at
this same venue.
In 1886, McCubbin was appointed drawing master
of the school of design at the National Gallery School in
Melbourne—a position he held for the rest of his life.
Five years later, in September 1891, Roberts and Streeton
moved from Melbourne to New South Wales, where they
painted at Sirius Cove on Sydney Harbour and elsewhere
in New South Wales. They subsequently travelled overseas.
McCubbin remained in Melbourne, crafting his own art
out of the well-known and much-loved places around
him. In these works, he showed the breadth of his vision
and his deep understanding of nature, capturing sparkling
sensations of light and atmosphere.
Anne Gray
Head of Australian Art
The exhibition McCubbin: greatest impressions will be at the
National Gallery of Australia from 14 August to 1 November 2009.
acquisition Australian Painting and Sculpture
Hilda Rix Nicholas Snow, Montmartre
Hilda Rix Nicholas
Snow, Montmartre c 1914
oil on canvas on board
58.5 x 48.5 cm
Canberra
Purchased 2008
Born in Ballarat in 1884, Hilda Rix Nicholas was one of
Australia’s most significant women artists during the
early 1900s. While working abroad from 1907 to 1918,
she painted portraits and depicted people in the streets
and gardens of Étaples in Paris and views of daily activity
in Tangier. Following her return to Australia she painted
images of Australian rural life and landscape.
Snow, Montmartre c 1914 is one of her boldest and
most joyous landscapes. Painted in Montmartre just before
the First World War, it is an urban scene, capturing the cold
northern light on snow. It is most likely the view from Rix
Nicholas’s studio window as she is unlikely to have ventured
outside in the cold to paint such a scene. The low viewpoint
suggests she painted it sitting down. Unlike so many of her
other works, it is unpeopled—it is a pure image of light,
the interplay of sunshine and shadow on the surface of
the snow, and conveys some of the feel of a wintry day in
Paris. It is constructed with strong forms: the horizontals of
the buildings and fence contrast with the diagonals of the
roofs and the tapestry-like pattern of the trees. She painted
it expressively, using energetic brushstrokes and vibrant
colour: blues, creams, browns and greens.
Rix Nicholas probably painted this work around
1914—the artist was in France from 1907 to 1914 and
the subject is a French one. The high key palette, free
handling of paint and bold composition is similar to those
she adopted in 1912 and 1914 for her Moroccan pictures.
When Rix Nicholas moved to England at the end of 1914
she depicted a house and garden in Kent using a bright
palette of reds and yellows as well as blues and purples.
Snow, Montmartre captures a time before tragedy
struck Rix Nicholas. At the start of the war, her mother
and sister (with whom she lived) contracted typhoid.
Her sister died soon after but her mother lived for a few
more years, until 1916. Six months after her mother’s
death, she married Major George Matson Nicholas. After a
brief honeymoon he returned to the front and was killed in
action a month after their wedding.
When she came back to Australia in 1918, Rix Nicholas
received critical acclaim for the range and versatility of
her work. Renewed by her return, she reformulated her
approach to art, exchanging her European imagery for
nationalistic images of Australian country life. She visited
Britain and France in 1924–26, and painted Breton subjects.
She continued to exhibit her work throughout the 1930s and
1940s, but failing eyesight and ill health limited her output
during the 1950s. She died in 1961 at the age of 76.
Hilda Rix Nicholas gained a place among contemporary
Australian artists through the power and strength of her
imagery.
Anne Gray
Head of Australian art
acquisition Australian Print s and Drawings
Howard Arkley and Juan Davila Interior with built in bar
As part of a recent purchase of works from the innovative
Melbourne screenprinter Larry Rawling, the Gallery
acquired Interior with built in bar 1992, a collaborative print
by Australian artists Juan Davila and Howard Arkley. At the
time, Arkley and Davila seemed an unlikely partnership.
Aside from their volatile personalities, their backgrounds
and aesthetics were very different. Arkley was born in the
Melbourne suburb of Box Hill in 1951 and his art became
synonymous with the kitsch decorative themes of the
1950s and subsequent decades. In contrast, Davila was
born in Chile and immigrated to Australia in 1974 with his
own set of cultural and political baggage.
In the late 1970s, Tolarno Galleries represented both
artists and it was through the gallery that they first met.
Arkley and Davila soon discovered that they shared an
ambivalent attitude towards the mainstream abstraction of
the period and a passion for popularised images.
From their first collaboration, Blue chip instant decorator:
a room, installed at Tolarno Galleries in 1991, to their last,
Icon interior 1994–2001, the theme of interior decoration
stayed with them. Icon interior began in 1994 and was
unfinished at the time of Arkley’s death in 1999. It was
finally shown in an exhibition at Kalli Rolfe Contemporary
Galleries in 2001 and served as a heart-felt tribute from
Davila to his friend. This installation was a reversal of their
earlier Blue chip instant decorator: a room in that it did not
depict real furniture in a created environment, but rather
virtual furniture in a real space. The exhibition also included
Interior with built in bar.
Arkley’s contribution to Interior with built in bar was
a background packed with the patterns and symbols of
suburban Melbourne. His hyper-intensive colours were
informed by suburban decoration as well as pop culture
imagery of the period. Davila subsequently sabotaged
Arkley’s work by turning it upside down and putting
his own version of a suburban interior over the top,
challenging Arkley’s kitsch imagery. The theme of interior
decoration in this and other collaborations is a vehicle
with which the artists question and subvert Melbourne
suburban values.
Juan Davila
Howard Arkley
Larry Rawling (printer)
Larry Rawling Fine Art
Prints (print workshop)
Interior with built in bar 1992
screenprint, printed in colour,
from 17 stencils 163 x 216 cm
Canberra
Purchased with the assistance
of the Gordon Darling Australia
Pacific Print Fund, in celebration of
the National Gallery of Australia’s
Alexandra Walton
Gordon Darling Graduate Intern, Australian Prints and Drawings
acquisition Australian Decorative Ar t s and Design
Kevin Gordon Sea urchin I
Kevin Gordon
Sea urchin I 2008
glass
30 x 37 (diam) cm
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Gift of Sandy Benjamin, 2008
Over the past twenty years, the diverse practices of
contemporary Australian studio glass have seen its
innovators acknowledge the rich visual and technical
history of the material while developing it with the aid of
new design and production technologies. The Western
Australian artist Kevin Gordon is among the leading group
of Australians taking glass beyond the expected.
Kevin Gordon was born to British parents in Norway
in 1968, moved to Scotland in 1972 then to Perth in
Western Australia in 1980. He trained with his father, the
glass engraver Alastair Gordon, from 1989 to 1992, before
establishing his own studio in 1992. In 1995, he operated
the Gordon Studio Glassblowers with his sister Eileen
Gordon in Melbourne before returning to Perth to
re-establishing his studio with glassblower David Hay
in 1999. Gordon has a strong reputation for his work
in engraved, multi-layer cameo glass, an ancient glass
decorating technique used by few designers and artists
in Australia due to its technical complexity and long
production times. Gordon’s earlier work reflects a strong
influence of French cameo glass of the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries, much of which was the period’s
most vivid expression of the natural world.
With its complex engraving, carving, sandblasting,
wheel-cutting and polishing of clear blown glass, Sea
Urchin I moves on from Gordon’s coloured and opaque
works. It was developed following a period of intensive
research undertaken by Gordon in the Western Australian
Museum’s Department of Aquatic Zoology. His interest
in the museum’s collections of dry marine specimens
stimulated his research into computer-aided design
templates as a way to interpret, in glass, the intricate
organic complexity of these marine forms. The resulting
work was revealed in his exhibition Systema naturae at
the Form Gallery in Perth in early 2008. His precision
cutting and polishing of sections of this work into lenslike discs allow its engraved textures and patterns to be
refracted and reflected through them. This ethereal object
invites the curious and concentrated gaze and rewards
the viewer with an invocation of the drama and mystery
of the natural world.
Robert Bell
Senior Curator, Decorative Arts and Design
acquisition Australian Decorative Ar t s and Design
Raphael & Co Worktable
Sydney cabinet-making firm Raphael & Co was run by
British-born Joseph G Raphael, who had arrived in Sydney
around 1839, in partnership with Andrew Lenehan and
Edward Flood. Lenehan had come from Ireland in 1835
and, in 1841, had set up his own cabinet-making firm
with Flood, taking over the former cabinet-making firm of
James Templeton. Lenehan’s workshop supplied furniture
to Sydney’s Government House in 1846 and, by 1863, he
had acquired new premises on King Street. Raphael took
over the running of Lenehan’s business in 1868, forming
Raphael & Co.
Lenehan and Raphael were both British-trained and
were importers of furniture. The design of this worktable
(for sewing and needlework) illustrates the amalgam of
historical revival styles that characterised mid-Victorian
period furniture produced in Australia. The great exhibition
of 1851 in London, which celebrated industrial technology
and design, created a taste for flamboyant furniture and
virtuoso craftsmanship. The influence of this exhibition
was seen in the Australian production of elaborate and
expensive furniture that celebrated the use of Australian
native woods.
This worktable has a support structure of solid turned
and carved tulipwood, on four brass and porcelain castors.
The frieze is Huon pine and rose mahogany veneer and
the corner blocks are tulipwood with applied shields of
Huon pine. The hinged lid is solid brush cypress pine
veneered with strips of book-matched tulipwood, Huon
pine and black bean, with a central motif of four connected
diamond-shaped panels in Huon pine, Tasmanian musk and
native cherrywood veneers. Under the lid, its precisely fitted
interior consists of thirty small compartments surrounding a
larger rectangular compartment. A tapered workbox slides
out from underneath the table and is covered with new
pleated silk in a colour based on the deteriorated original
silk fragments. The table retains its original waxed patina
and bears a partial Raphael & Co ink stamp on the base of
the workbox.
This worktable, with its fine turned frame elements,
elaborate veneers and precise functionality is an excellent
and rare example of the best of Australian design and
production of the mid-nineteenth century.
Raphael & Co
Worktable c 1869
wood, brass, porcelain and silk
75 x 63 x 47.5 cm
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Purchased 2008
Robert Bell
Senior Curator, Decorative Arts and Design
acquisition A sian Ar t
Heri Dono Flying angels
Heri Dono
Flying angels 2006 (detail)
polyester resin, clock
parts, electronic
components, paint,
wood, cotton gauze
installation
60 x 135 cm
(each, approx)
Canberra
Gift of Gene and
Brian Sherman 2008
Heri Dono is among Indonesia’s most prominent and
innovative contemporary artists. Working in sculpture,
installation, performance, paint and print, he brings
together elements of Indonesian artistic tradition with his
own distinctly contemporary concepts and playful imagery.
The intersection of these constituents, and the tensions
that ensue, are recurring features of Heri Dono’s work.
His Flying angels 2006—an installation of nine whimsical
electronic angels with elaborate headdresses, impish painted
faces, broad cotton wings, tiny red boots and exposed
genitals—is part of an ongoing series begun in 1995.
Since their first showing at the 1996 Bienal de São Paulo,
angels from the cluster have been exhibited in various
configurations in many parts of the world, including Japan,
Indonesia, Switzerland, Singapore and Australia. Invited
to participate in vast numbers of biennales, triennials and
residencies internationally, Heri Dono is a constant traveller
who creates and recreates his work on the move.
Stylistically inspired by Flash Gordon cartoons and
American robots from the 1950s, the Flying angels also
draw on the Indonesian theatre tradition of wayang
puppetry, an art form long associated with social
commentary and political expression. After graduating from
the Indonesia Institute of the Arts in Jogjakarta in 1987,
Heri Dono trained in wayang kulit shadow play—using
two-dimensional, perforated leather puppets—under the
modern master Sukasman. In contrast to many Indonesian
artists active in the 1970s and 80s, artists from Heri Dono’s
generation have tended to embrace rather than reject
local artistic practices. While much of his work, particularly
painting and performance, draws strongly on the aesthetic
and form of wayang kulit, Flying angels and the related
series Bidadari turun dari langit (Fairies from the heavens)
2004 have greater affinity with the three-dimensional
puppet dolls used in wayang golek.
For the artist, whose work expresses his particular
experiences and concerns, the dangling angels represent
human vulnerability but are also uplifting personal symbols
of freedom, conscience and hope. Actively opposed to
oppression, injustice, violence and abuses of power, Heri
Dono is interested in the role of the individual in society
and has referred to his angels as a replacement for the
garuda, mythical man-bird, as an emblem of Indonesian
identity. He has described the garuda as ‘a symbol of
collective identity and propaganda to prevent individuals
from developing their intellect and personality freely’.1
As it is in much of the artist’s work, the subversive
spirit of Flying angels is shrouded in incongruously quirky
cheer. Powered using temperamental low-tech motors
constructed from discarded clock parts and electronics,
the angels flap their wings while emitting discordant
sound; their chorus brings together contemporary popular
music with birdsong, insect chirps and the voice of the
artist chanting in several languages, including old Javanese.
Flying angels is a gift of Gene and Brian Sherman,
who are long-standing supporters of contemporary Asian
art and the National Gallery of Australia. It is an excellent
complement to the Gallery’s small but high-quality
collection of contemporary art from Asia and, especially, to
the single Heri Dono angel acquired by the Gallery in 1999.
Created in 1995, the single angel was one of the first such
sculptures produced by the artist.
Previous works of art acquired with the support of
Gene and Brian Sherman include Red rain (Hujan
merah) 2003, a popular installation by Brisbane-based
contemporary Indonesian artist Dadang Christanto,
and Taiwanese artist Lin Shu-Min’s holographic installation
Glass ceiling, both purchased through the Gene and Brian
Sherman Contemporary Asian Art Fund.
Melanie Eastburn
Curator, Asian Art
note
1 Heri Dono, ‘Watching the logic through an upside-down mind’, in
Yasuko Furuchi (ed), Heri Dono: dancing demons and drunken deities,
The Japan Foundation Asia Center, Tokyo, 2000, p 83.
acquisition Pacific Ar t s
Solomon Islands people Bonito fish
Solomon Islands people
Bonito fish 1900–30
wood, nautilus shell, patinas
38 x 90 x 35 cm
Canberra
Purchased 2008
Large sculptures of the bonito fish (Katsuwonus pelamis),
more commonly known as skipjack tuna, are iconic symbols
in the art of the Solomon Islands. The fish were, and still
are in some areas, considered sacred. They form a link to
the ancestors and to sea spirits; their presence indicates
good relations between man and the spirit world. This can
perhaps be explained by the important role they play in the
fishing cultures of the Solomon Islands.
Bonito are attracted to shoals of smaller fish and tend
to form schools that aggressively attack the shoal, driving
them to the surface of the water. Birds are attracted by
this turmoil, swooping into the fray for their pickings. This
spectacle is a signal for fishermen who are also intent in
taking advantage of the bonito schools work. Although
the smaller fish are made easy to catch by the bonito, the
real prize is the bonito itself. Actually catching a bonito,
however, requires consummate skill.
Bonito are smooth-skinned with no scales; they have
red blood and are described as being the ‘humans of the
sea’. The sighting of the first bonito each season is a signal
to begin festivities that involve passing the traditional
knowledge of this unpredictable fish to young initiates.
These festivities were organised in front of the sacred canoe
houses, which faced out toward the sea.
The canoe house is where the large sculpture of bonito
fish along with carvings of sharks and relics such as the
skeletal trophies of pigs, people and fish decorated the
already elaborate structure. On certain occasions, such as
the arrival of the bonito schools, sculpture of bonito fish
and those of frigate birds would be moved out of the canoe
house and attached to dance platforms near the shore.
The Gallery’s bonito exhibits a widely used aesthetic
choice in the art of the Solomon Islands: the use
of hundreds of tiny triangles of shell inlay against a
contrasting black mass—the black colouration is derived
from a mixture of soot, plant resin and possibly ink
obtained from nautilus fish. This technique gives the
impression, when displayed in a darkened canoe house
illuminated by torchlight, of the sculpture being underwater
with rippling reflections of the sun and watery shadows
shimmering as if the fish is in motion.
The artist has presumably observed bonito in its
underwater habitat, when its fins would be fully extended,
and captured its essence in this work.
Crispin Howarth
Curator, Pacific Arts
This acquisition is on display in the exhibition Gods, ghosts and
men at the National Gallery of Australia until 11 January 2009.
Travelling exhibitions summer 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 [email protected].
Culture Warriors: National Indigenous Art Triennial
Ocean to Outback: Australian landscape
painting 1850–1950
The National Gallery of Australia’s 25th Anniversary
Travelling Exhibition
Supported by Visions of Australia, an Australian
Government Program supporting touring exhibitions
by providing funding assistance for the development
and touring of Australian cultural material across
Australia. The exhibition is also proudly sponsored
by RM Williams, The Bush Outfitter, and the National
Gallery of Australia Council Exhibitions Fund
Arthur Streeton
The selector’s hut (Whelan on
the log) 1890
oil on canvas 76.7 x 51.2 cm
Canberra Purchased 1961
Maringka Baker
Kuru Ala 2007
synthetic polymer paint on
canvas 153.5 x 200.0 cm
Canberra Purchased 2007
© Maringka Baker
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
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
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
Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Qld
14 February – 10 May 2009
Newcastle Region Art Gallery, Newcastle, NSW
8 November 2008 – 1 February 2009
Canberra Museum and Gallery, Canberra, ACT
14 February – 17 May 2009
The Elaine and Jim Wolfensohn Gift
Travelling Exhibitions
War: the prints of Otto Dix
Otto Dix
Ration carriers near Pilkem 1924
plate 43 from the portfolio War
etching, aquatint 24.8 x 29.8 cm
Canberra The Poynton Bequest, 2003
© Otto Dix. Licensed by VISCOPY,
Australia, 2008
Three suitcases of works of art: Red case: myths and rituals
includes works that reflect the spiritual beliefs of different
cultures; Yellow case: form, space, design reflects a range of art
making processes; and Blue case: technology. These suitcases
thematically present a selection of art and design objects that
may be borrowed free-of-charge for the enjoyment of children
and adults in regional, remote and metropolitan centres.
nga.gov.au/Wolfensohn
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
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Qld
7 November 2008 – 1 February 2009
Sri Lanka
Seated Ganesha 9th–10th century
bronze 10.0 x 6.8 x 4.4 cm
in Red case: myths and rituals
Canberra Ulli and Georgina Beier
Collection, purchased 2005
Imagining Papua New Guinea is an exhibition of prints from
the national collection that celebrates Papua New Guinea’s
independence and surveys its rich history of printmaking.
Artists whose works are in the exhibition include Timothy
Akis, Mathias Kauage, David Lasisi, John Man and Martin
Morububuna.
nga.gov.au/Imagining
Flinders University City Gallery, Adelaide, SA
5 December 2008 – 28 January 2009
Southland Museum and Art Gallery, Invercargill, New Zealand
20 February – 19 April 2009
Red case: myths and rituals and
Yellow case: form, space and design
Young District Arts Council, Young, NSW
3 November – 16 December 2008
Cable Beach Primary School, Broome, WA
9–23 February 2009
St Mary’s College, Broome, WA
23 February – 16 March 2009
Imagining Papua New Guinea:
prints from the national collection
Mathias Kauage
Independence celebration I
1975 (detail) stencil
50.2 x 76.4 cm
For further details and bookings telephone (02) 6240 6650
or email [email protected].
The 1888 Melbourne Cup
The 1888 Melbourne Cup 1888
Western Australia Museum, Albany, WA
8 December 2008 – 7 January 2009
Western Australia Museum, Geraldton, WA
9 January – 20 February 2009
The National Gallery of Australia Travelling Exhibitions
Program is generously supported by Australian airExpress.
vale
James Gleeson: an extraordinary journey
At the heart of every great work of art lies an area of darkness that
defies analysis. Theorists try, but something of the greatest works
always elude the pursuer … It is not whether you have understood
exactly what the artist had in mind, but whether or not it has stirred
your imagination into a creative act.
James Gleeson, 1993
Portrait of James Gleeson by
Jacqueline Mitelman, 1997
Courtesy of National Library of
Australia, Canberra
James Gleeson
The attitude of lightning
towards a lady-mountain 1939
oil on canvas
79.0 x 63.3 cm
Canberra
James Agapitos, OAM, and Ray
Wilson, OAM, 2007
James Gleeson (1915–2008) was one of Australia’s most
important artists and art writers. For more than 60 years,
he has painted works that question, demand and engage.
Inspired by the Surrealist movement, Gleeson started
painting in the late 1930s while in his early twenties. He
revolutionised and transformed Australian painting through
his original and dynamic works. He was always interested
in paint, commenting that ‘seeing the originals of great
paintings in Europe, I fell in love with paint. I discovered a
new interest in style and technique’.1 His powerful images
are always visceral, sometimes terrifying and bizarre. They
reach the emotions directly, creating a strange magical
world that stirs the imagination. For over six decades he
continued his extraordinary journey in paint.
Gleeson had a significant place in the development of
the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, in being one of
those responsible for forming the Australian art collection
in its earliest days. From 1975 to 1979, he was the Gallery’s
Visiting Curator of Australian Art and, from 1976 to 1982,
a member of the Gallery’s first Council. His knowledge,
enthusiasm and dedication ensured many fine acquisitions.
He emphasised the value of creating significant
collections of art on paper pointing to the Gallery’s
responsibility towards public education and the
encouragement of research in the visual arts, as well as
the role that the works on paper collection would have
in ‘broadening and deepening our understanding of
Australian art in the years to come.2 Under Gleeson’s
guidance, the Gallery acquired many artists’ sketchbooks.
He was also responsible for seminal exhibitions on the
collection, such as Aspects of Australian art, 1900–1940
in 1978.
Gleeson interviewed a range of Australian artists in
the 1970s and this oral history archive has been digitised
as an invaluable asset to the Gallery’s Research Library.
Many of these interviews can be heard online and offer a
profound and personal insight into both Gleeson and the
artists interviewed.
For a period in the 1960s and 1970s, Gleeson took a
break from painting and made a major contribution through
his lucid and insightful texts. These include Masterpieces
of Australian painting (1969) as well as monographs on
William Dobell (1969) and Robert Klippel (1983). His writing
was sensitive and intelligent. He always gave something of
himself and his experience of a wide range of art to make
the relationship between the reader and the artist a more
personal one.
Gleeson was a great benefactor of the arts, generously
giving his work to major public collections, including the
National Gallery of Australia. Through the Gleeson O’Keefe
Foundation, he promoted major acquisitions of Australian
art for public collections. Works by Gleeson were donated to
the National Gallery of Australia in September 2007 as part
of one of the largest collections of Australian Surrealism ever
collected—the Agapitos/Wilson collection. Among the many
Gleeson works now in the national collection is The attitude
of lightning towards a lady-mountain 1939, a key painting in
the history of Australian art as it is one of the first Surrealist
works undertaken in Australia. Like so many of his paintings,
drawings and collages over the years, this seminal painting
reveals Gleeson’s audacious, imaginative and technical
powers, which will resonate with local and international
visitors for many years to come.
A true gentleman, a generous and compassionate
person, his recent death at the age of 92 will be a
significant loss to the Australian art world.
Anne Gray and Deborah Hart
Australian Art
notes
1. James Gleeson, in John Hetherington, Australian painters: forty profiles,
FW Cheshire Publishing, Melbourne, 1963, p 144.
2. Gleeson, ‘Australian sketchbooks: William Dobell’, Art and Australia,
Australian National Gallery special issue, vol 14, no 4, 1977, pp 324 & 327.
1
2
4
6
3
5
7
8
9
10
faces in view
1–3.Bee Gunn and Barry Cundy; Nicky
Gallagher, Luseanne Tuita, Siua
Lafitani and Yvonne Howarth;
Lyn Morey, Jane Wild and
Margaret Wild at the opening
of Gods, ghosts and men.
4. Children participating in the
South Pacific dance workshop
led by dancer, teacher and
choreographer Shiara Astle from
Phoenix Performing Arts.
11
5. Life model drawing
workshop inspired by Richard
Larter’s works of art.
6. Crispin Howarth, Curator,
Pacific Arts, giving his insightful
talk on the works of art in
Gods, ghosts and men.
7. Robyn and John Milthorpe at
the special members’ opening
for Gods, ghosts and men.
8. Mark Henshaw, Curator,
International, Prints and Drawings,
discussing the works of Eduardo
Paolozzi’s portfolio Bunk! 1972.
9. Peter Fay, co-curator of Without
borders, with Gallery member
Elizabeth Storrs, artist Slim
Barrie and Maryanne Voyazis.
10/ Visitors participating in the
11. special event Big draw at
the Gallery in October.
12. Amber Al-otaibi, Siobhan and
Natalie Turtle and Olga Pinzon
at the members’ Glitterati party,
celebrating the conclusion of
Richard Larter: a retrospective at
the National Gallery of Australia.
12
13. Robert Allison, Marj Wilson and
Elizabeth Allison at the QANTAS
Twenty-fifth anniversary lecture
Inside/Outside: perspectives on
collections, presented by Dr
Michael Brand, Director, The J
Paul Getty Museum, and former
senior the curator of Asian art at
National Gallery of Australia.
14. Canberra Youth Orchestra,
conducted by Dominic Harvey.
13
14
Edgar Degas
France 1834–1917
The dance class c. 1873
oil on canvas
47.6 x 62.2 cm
The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
CCA 908/15
Creating energy. Inspiring greatness.
ActewAGL Retail ABN 46 221 314 841.
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Edgar Degas The racecourse. Amateur jockeys close to a carriage 1876–87 (detail) Musée d’Orsay, Paris Gift of the Comte Isaac de Camondo, 1911 © RMN / Hervé Lewandowski
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W
NE
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Edgar Degas, France 1834‚Äì1917, At the races: before the start c. 1878‚Äì80, oil on canvas , 40.0 x 89.9 cm, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond,
Collection of Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon, Photograph: Katherine Wetzel , ¬© Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
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The Boucher Nude, 1957
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degas: master of french art · australian print collections

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