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ARTS OF THE PACIFIC · FREDERICK MCCUBBIN · EAST ASIAN GALLERY
2 Director’s foreword
6 Foundation and Development
exhibitions and displays
8 Gods, ghosts and men: Pacific arts from the National Gallery of Australia Crispin Howarth
16 Degas: master of French art Jane Kinsman
18 Gallery of East Asian art Robyn Maxwell
24 Home at last Joanna Krabman
conservation
26 Painted by the sun: early Asia–Pacific photography Andrea Wise, Fiona Kemp and James Ward
collection focus
32 Costumes of the Ballets Russes Robert Bell
acquisitions
34 Frederick McCubbin Violet and gold Anne Gray
38 A magnificent gift of Albert Namatjira watercolours Sarina Noordhuis-Fairfax
40 Owen Yalandja Yawk yawks Tina Baum
42 Deborah Paauwe From the waist down Anne O’Hehir
44 Bahau people Funerary figure Lucie Folan
46 Larsen and Lewers Silver bowl Robert Bell
47 Travelling exhibitions
48 Faces in view
published quarterly by
National Gallery of Australia GPO Box 1150 Canberra ACT 2601 nga.gov.au
ISSN 1323-4552
Print Post Approved pp255003/00078
© 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
designer Kristin Thomas
photography Eleni Kypridis, Barry Le Lievre, Brenton McGeachie, Steve Nebauer, John Tassie
rights and permissions Nick Nicholson
advertising Erica Seccombe
printed in Australia by Blue Star Print, Canberra
enquires
The editor, Artonview National Gallery of Australia GPO Box 1150 Canberra ACT 2601 [email protected]
advertising
Tel: (02) 6240 6587 Fax: (02) 6240 6427 [email protected]
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]
(cover) Frederick McCubbin Violet and gold 1911 (detail) oil on canvas 87.0 x 144.5 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased with the generous assistance of the Hon. Ashley Dawson-Damer and John Wylie, AM, and Myriam Wylie 2008
Issue 55, spring 2008
The National Gallery of Australia is an Australian Government Agency
2 national gallery of australia
Director’s foreword
As we near the close of our twenty-fifth anniversary year it
is a good time to reflect on some of its high points.
Turner to Monet: the triumph of landscape presented,
for the first time ever, outstanding Australian landscape
paintings within the context of their contemporaries
in Europe, America and elsewhere. The success of the
exhibition, for which the Gallery was the only venue, can
be measured in terms of the more than 180 000 visitors,
the very high proportion of first-time visitors to the Gallery,
the highest sale of catalogues per head ever and about
thirty million dollars injected into the local economy.
More recently, we celebrated the career of Richard
Larter, a Canberra artist of national repute, in a
retrospective that covers five decades of his artistic practice.
On display in our Project Gallery, Orde Poynton Gallery and
the Australian contemporary gallery, this vibrant exhibition
finishes on 14 September.
Picture paradise: Asia–Pacific photography 1840s–1940s,
which also opened in winter, presents about five hundred
early photographs of the Asia–Pacific region, including
Australia. It is the first historic photographic survey
exhibition of our geographic region and reflects the new
emphasis of the Gallery’s photographic collection on our
region. In another of the many firsts associated with Picture
paradise, this is the first time an institution has shown
nineteenth-century photographs in a variety of appropriate
period frames. Indeed, the framing systems were developed
as part of the Gallery’s innovative reframing project covered
in this issue.
During our silver anniversary year we have made
many significant acquisitions for the national collection,
many of them announced in earlier issues. We have
already exceeded the target of twenty-five million dollars
with the help of many generous donors. For example, the
acquisition of Frederick McCubbin’s Violet and gold 1911
(on the cover of this issue) was made possible though
the generous assistance of Ashley Dawson-Damer, and
John Wylie, AM, and Myriam Wylie. Violet and gold is
a brilliant painting celebrating the light and colour of
the Australian bush at Mount Macedon on a spring
morning. It is a wonderful addition to our collection of
Australian federation landscapes and will be a feature of
the exhibition of McCubbin’s later works, which we are
planning for August next year.
The Gallery recently received a generous twenty-
fifth anniversary gift of a collection of Albert Namatjira
watercolours from Gordon Darling, AC, CMG, and
Marilyn Darling. These brilliant Indigenous paintings of
the central Australian landscape are fine examples of
Namatjira’s distinctive style, which was to inspire an entire
Hermannsburg School. It would now be impossible for us
to gather such a fine collection together ourselves.
In this issue of Artonview we also highlight the
acquisitions of Owen Yalandja’s evocative yawk yawks,
a gift of John and Janet Calvert-Jones; a new silverwork
by Helge Larsen and Darani Lewers, two of Australia’s
most senior silversmiths; a playful work of contemporary
Australian photographer Deborah Paauwe; and a stunning
Indonesian funerary figure from Kalmentan, dating from
the mid fourteenth century.
The National Gallery of Australia holds the nation’s
largest and most valuable art collection, largely acquired
over just three decades of collecting. To celebrate this
significant achievement and the twenty-fifth anniversary
of our opening we have published a handbook, Collection
highlights, which illustrates some two hundred and fifty
significant works from all parts of the Gallery’s collection. It
is available for $24.95.
The new East Asian display in gallery 10 is the final
reconfiguration of the permanent collections before
completion of Stage One of our building redevelopment
in early 2010. It features some highlights of our collection
of Chinese and Japanese art such as the pair of six-
fold screens of horses and trees by the shore from the
Muromachi period (1392–1573) and the eighth-century
Chinese tianlu and pixie earth spirit guardian figures, both
of which are illustrated in Collection highlights. In this issue
of Artonview, Robyn Maxwell, Senior Curator, Asian Art,
has written an insightful piece on this new display.
Early in our collecting history, the Gallery acquired
some outstanding works from the Pacific region, laying the
foundations of our relatively small but significant Pacific
Arts collection. We have recently revived this collection and
the exhibition Gods, ghosts and men: Pacific arts from the
artonview spring 2008 3
National Gallery of Australia will showcase some of the
Gallery’s most rarely seen works along with some recent
remarkable additions to this collecting area. This includes
the early nineteenth-century Maori chieftain’s cloak (see
Artonview issue no. 53). Curated by Crispin Howarth,
Curator, Pacific Arts, the exhibition focuses on sculptural
arts, old and new, including magnificent masks and figures.
This issue also features a collection focus article by
Robert Bell, Senior Curator, Decorative Arts and Design,
on the Gallery’s collection of Ballet Russes costumes and
their connection to Australian history and culture. As
highlighted in issue no. 54, this collection requires extensive
conservation treatment in preparation for a major Ballets
Russes centenary exhibition at the end of 2009.
In July, we celebrated NAIDOC Week. Canberra was
the focus city for the 2008 NAIDOC Week celebrations and
we were pleased to honour Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander cultures with a program of events and a renewed
display in our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander gallery.
One highlight of the Gallery’s celebration was a concert
of the enchanting voice and music of Geoffrey Gurrumul
Yunupingu. We also celebrated the twenty-first birthday of
The Aboriginal Memorial.
Although our silver anniversary ends where it began
a year ago in October, we will continue to strive for
excellence. The Gallery’s December blockbuster exhibition
Degas: master of French art will be a highlight of the next
issue and will be sure to please crowds during Canberra’s
summer months.
Ron Radford
Visitors observe the ten-metre-long Holterman panorama at the media launch for Picture paradise.
4 national gallery of australia
credit lines
Donations
David A Adams
American Friends of the National Gallery of Australia
Australian Capital Equity
Ross Adamson
Antoinette L Albert
Robert O Albert, AO
Gillian Alderson
Robert C Allmark
William J Anderson
Judith H Andrews
Susan Armitage
Sheila Bignell
Susan Boden Parsons
Sarah Brasch
Margaret Brennan
Jennifer Brown
Berenice-Eve Calf
Debbie Cameron
Deborah Carroll
Amanda Cattermole
Vicki Clingan
Diana V Colman
Ann Cork
Lyn Cummings
Curran Family Foundation
David R Curtis
Ashley Dawson-Damer
Jennifer Doyle-Bogicevic
Doug England
Pauline Everson
R H Fleming
Rosemary Foot, AO
William P Galloway
June P Gordon
Pauline M Griffin, AM
Warwick Hemsley
William S Hamilton
James Hanratty
Natasha L Hardy
John Harrison
Elizabeth Healey
Shirley Hemmings
Neil Hobbs
Theodora E Hobbs
Laura Holt
Keith H Hooper
Reverend Bill Huff-Johnston
Claudia Hyles
Father W G A Jack
His Excellency Major General Michael Jeffery, AC, CVO, MC
Judy Johnson
Sara Kelly
King O’Malley’s
Sir Richard Kingsland, AO, CBE, DFC
Joyce E Koch
Robyn Lance
Sandra K Lauffenburger
Judith G Laver
Stephen R Leeder, AO, MD
Paul and Beryl Legge Wilkinson
Penelope E Lilley
Judith MacIntyre
Macquarie Group Foundation
Jennifer Manton
Robert Maple-Brown
Margaret J Mashford
Patricia F McCormick
Yoichi Minowa
Harold Mitchell Foundation
Shirley J O’Reilly
Greg Paramor
John V Parker
Kim Paterson
Jonathan Persse
Mara Praznovszky
Prescott Family Foundation
Jason Prowd
Ralph M Renard
Anthony Rohead
Jennifer J Rowland
Roslyn Russell
Kenneth Saxby
Gisella Scheinberg, OAM
Heather G Shakespeare, OAM
Elizabeth J Smith
Phyllis Somerville
Elizabeth Tanner, AM
Ken Taylor
Noel C Tovey
H N Truscott, AM
Caroline Turner
William Tyree, OBE
Chris Van Reesch Snr
Morna E Vellacott
Vicki Vidor, OAM
artonview spring 2008 5
Elizabeth G Ward
Joy Warren, OAM
Peter G Webster
Joyce P West
Jenine Westerburg
Stephen Wild
Yvonne Wildash
I S Wilkey
Ray Wilson, OAM
Lady Joyce Wilson
Robine Wilson
Donna Woodhill
Evelyn Young
We would also like to thank the numerous anonymous
donors who have donated to the National Gallery of
Australia Foundation.
Gifts and Bequests
The American Friends of the National Gallery of Australia
Anne Atyeo
Neville Black
Gregor Cullen
The family of the Late Peter Russell
Gordon Darling, AC, CMG, and Marilyn Darling
Gordon Darling Australia Pacific Print Fund
Dr Anna Gray
Linda Gregoriou
Ross Griffith
Wenda Gu
Brent Harris
Pauline Hunter
Dale Jones-Evans
Sara Kelly
Derek Kreckler
Leonie Lane
John Loane
Andrew Lu, OAM
Marian Maguire
John McPhee
Bridget McDonnell
Peggy Muttukumara
John Neeson
Nasser Palangi
Mike Parr
Ron Radford, AM
Larry Rawling
William Robinson
The Rotary Collection of Australian Art Fund
Denis Savill
Raphy Star
Tom Trauer
Theo Tremblay
Robert Vanderstukken
Ray Wilson, OAM, and James Agapitos, OAM
Grants
Australia Council for the Arts through the Showcasing the
Best International Strategy, and through its Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board, Visual Arts Board
and Community Partnerships and Market Development
(International) Board.
The Gordon Darling Foundation
The San Diego Foundation
Visions of Australia through its Contemporary Touring
Initiative, an Australian Government program
supporting touring exhibitions by providing funding
assistance for the development and touring of
Australian cultural material across Australia, and
through the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative
of the Australian Government and state and territory
governments
Sponsorship
BHP Billiton
Brassey Hotel of Canberra
Casella Wines
Forrest Hotel and Apartments
Mantra on Northbourne
National Australia Bank
Qantas
R M Williams, The Bush Outfitter
Sony Foundation Australia
Yalumba Wines
6 national gallery of australia
Foundation and Development
As we come to the conclusion of our twenty-fifth
anniversary year we are also approaching our target of
$25 million – which is very exciting. The National Gallery of
Australia’s Director Ron Radford, AM, Chair of the Council
Rupert Myer, AM, and Chairman of the Foundation Charles
Curran, AC, are thrilled with the support provided by
Australians throughout the nation. We are confident we will
make an announcement on our target in the next issue of
Artonview (available in December).
Gordon Darling, AC, CMG, and Marilyn Darling recently
gifted fifteen Albert Namatjira paintings and have pledged
ten more. This extraordinary donation has assisted the
Gallery to achieve our $25 million target. The Darlings have
been long-term supporters of the Gallery. Gordon Darling’s
vision to establish the Gordon Darling Australian and Pacific
Print Fund is the reason that the Gallery has an unrivalled
collection of Australian and Pacific prints.
Foundation directors have been extremely supportive
of the Gallery’s Twenty-fifth Anniversary Gift Program.
Recently, Kerry Stokes, AC, kindly donated funds to our
travelling exhibitions program, which provides regional
areas with a range of stimulating exhibitions throughout
the year. This year, as a result of our travelling exhibitions
program, Ocean to Outback: Australian landscape painting
1850–1950, Grace Crowley: being modern, and Culture
Warriors: National Indigenous Art Triennial have been
viewed by audiences around Australia.
Council member John Calvert-Jones, AM, and his wife
Janet Calvert-Jones generously donated funds to acquire the
magnificent sculpture Ubirikubiri 2007, the remarkable work
of art that featured at the entrance to the exhibition Culture
Warriors (see Artonview no. 53 for more about Ubirikubiri).
Foundation Director Linda Gregoriou and Dale Jones-
Evans gifted Dirty manna by Mike Parr to the Gallery. This
work greatly adds to the Australian Prints and Drawings
collection.
Foundation Director Jennifer Prescott, through the
Prescott Family Foundation, donated funds so that the
Gallery was able to acquire the poignant sculpture Tusk
2007 by Ricky Swallow for the Australian Painting and
Sculpture collection. Ricky Swallow is a young but renowned
artist, and the Gallery is thrilled to have this important work
in the national collection.
Foundation Director Sandy Benjamin, who is also
the Chair of the Decorative Arts and Design Collection
Development Fund, donated funds to the Foundation so
that the Gallery was able to strengthen our collection of
contemporary glass by purchasing Sea urchin I 2007 by
Kevin Gordon. Ms Benjamin’s efforts in garnering support
for the Gallery’s Decorative Arts and Design collection is
highly appreciated.
The Decorative Arts and Design collection has been
generously supported through donations made by
Raphy Star. Most recently, he donated two glass works
by Brian Hirst, Cycladic series guardian II vase 1987 and
Cycladic series vase 1988, which strengthen the Gallery’s
contemporary glass collection.
Masterpieces for the Nation appeal 2008
The appeal is progressing very well and we are most
grateful for the support provided from donors throughout
the country. This year, donations are going towards the
acquisition of two paintings: Doreen Reid Nakamarra’s
Untitled 2007, which will be an important addition to
the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art collection,
and Autumn moon festival [Sharad Purnima], a pichhavai
for the Asian Art collection. If you would like to receive a
brochure about this program, please contact the Foundation
Office on (02) 6240 6454. Also, for more details on the
Masterpieces for the Nation appeal 2008, see Artonview
issue no. 54.
artonview spring 2008 7
Bequest Program
We are very excited about launching an official bequest
program at the National Gallery of Australia. More details
about this program will be available in the next issue of
Artonview. If you are interested in being involved or would
like more information please contact Annalisa Millar,
Executive Director, National Gallery of Australia Foundation,
on (02) 6240 6691.
2020 Summit Dinner at the National Gallery
of Australia
In an atmosphere charged with creative energy, we were
delighted to welcome participants of the 2020 Summit to
a champagne supper and private viewing of the exhibition
Turner to Monet: the triumph of landscape.
The evening was hosted by Chair of the Council Rupert
Myer, AM, and Director Ron Radford, AM, who were both
delegates of the Creative Australia stream of the 2020
Summit. The Gallery was also represented at the Summit by
Brenda L Croft, Senior Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Art, a delegate of the Indigenous Australia stream.
We would like to thank Champagne Pol Roger and
Yalumba for their support of this evening. The mood was
relaxed and jovial allowing informal discussion to continue
into the night.
Corporate Members Program & Yalumba Rare and
Fine Dinner
Yalumba and the National Gallery of Australia’s Corporate
Members Program held an evening of fine art, wine and
dining on 27 May in conjunction with the exhibition Turner
to Monet: the triumph of landscape. The evening was a
great success with various Canberra businesspeople turning
out to enjoy the exhibition and a delicious dinner with six
of Yalumba’s finest wines to be tasted. A highlight was the
guest speaker Jane Ferrari. Ms Ferrari is the internationally
renowned Yalumba crusader. She is a born storyteller
whose infectious enthusiasm and outstanding knowledge
of wine ensured the evening was both informative and
entertaining. We thank everyone who attended this
premier event. Also a special thank you to Yalumba for
providing rare and fine wines, entertainment and prizes on
the night.
The Corporate Members Program offers businesses
the opportunity to become involved in arts sponsorship
at an entry point level. If you are interested in hearing
more about the program please contact Frances Corkhill,
Sponsorship and Development Officer, on (02) 6240 6740.
We are grateful to the following corporate members
for their continued support: Mantra on Northbourne, The
Brassey of Canberra, Forrest Hotel and Apartments, Casella
Wines, Champagne Pol Roger and Yalumba.
Mr Rupert Myer, AM, Mr Ron Radford, AM, Mr Hugh Jackman, and The Hon. Peter Garrett, AM, MP, at the 2020 Summit Dinner at the National Gallery of Australia.
Mr Dan Bisa, Mrs Jo Bisa, Mrs Anna Bezos and Mr George Bezos, at the Corporate Members & Yalumba Rare and Fine Dinner at the National Gallery of Australia.
(opposite) Mr Kerry Stokes, AC, and Mrs Christine Stokes, at the 2020 Summit Dinner.
8 national gallery of australia
exhibition
Gods, ghosts and men: Pacific arts from the
National Gallery of Australia
10 October 2008 – 11 January 2009 Orde Poynton Gallery and Project Gallery
The Pacific covers one third of the Earth’s surface. It is the
largest and deepest ocean on the planet; the landmass of
Australia is dwarfed by its size and could fit into the Pacific
Ocean at least twenty times.
Australia has strong connections to the Pacific through
historical, political and geographical ties. We are the
western border to this watery expanse in which many
thousands of islands break the deep blue surface in chaotic
patterns like stars in the sky until the Pacific is hemmed in
again, to the west, by the eat coast of the Americas.
So large is the Pacific and vast the distance between
island groups that each is distinctive in its own right for
the array of animals, plants and the people that live there.
Many Pacific Island communities were and are connected
to one another through trade and social links even when
the distance between islands is considerable. Some cultures
also developed in isolation, such as the Rapa Nui people
of Easter Island. Papua New Guinea supports hundreds of
distinct yet interconnected cultures but the country is still
large enough for relatively isolated communities to have
developed unique arts.
The National Gallery of Australia’s first Director, James
Mollison, was instrumental in developing the Pacific Arts
collection. With great foresight, he acquired many of the
works in the exhibition Gods, ghosts and men: Pacific arts
from the National Gallery of Australia. Being judiciously
careful in his selection, Mollison acquired a number of
the most iconic objects in the collection, including the
Ambum stone, the Double figure from a housepost [To-reri
uno] from Lake Sentani and, in 1985, Max Ernst’s private
collection of non-western art – some of which is displayed
in the exhibition. It was not until 2006 that the Gallery
regained its focus on Pacific arts and, in the past two years,
several works of great importance have been acquired,
including a bridal veil from Papua New Guinea, a war club
from the Marquesas Islands and the cloak of a Maori chief.
The Gallery holds collections of traditional and
contemporary Pacific arts – the latter includes the largest
collection of contemporary prints from Papua New
Guinea in Australia. Both of these spheres of the Pacific
Arts collection are radically different in many respects yet
very similar in others. While the traditional arts consist of
masks, shields and ancestral sculptures that (for the main
part) are not still in use among Pacific communities, the
artists working today sometimes draw on this heritage
as a source of identity. The exhibition Gods, ghosts and
men focuses firmly on the traditional sculptural arts as
the recent travelling exhibition Imagining Papua New
Guinea featured many great works from the contemporary
collection. Discussions on the classification or divisions
between art and artefact, traditional or contemporary may
seem to be required but are not necessary; any culture that
an artist works within is subject to change. It is the very
nature of human cultures to change due to internal and
external influences. For the Pacific region great changes
were experienced for centuries prior to the introduction of
Western expeditions in the eighteenth century.
The recognition of traditional Pacific arts as art rather
than examples of material culture has a fairly short history,
shorter than one might expect. During the late nineteenth
century, the anthropological understanding was that
unravelling the differing forms, motifs and designs would
assist in delineating one tribal community from another;
it was not an admiration of the aesthetic values of a work
and its ability to affect the viewer.1
Such an appreciation for Pacific arts has, in part, a
debt to the contemplation of African art by artists in the
cubist and expressionist movements during the early 1900s.
The championing and occasional appropriation by artists,
mainly in Europe, of what were seen to be the exotic arts
of cultures living in distant lands did not address any real
understanding of the Pacific arts or the people who created
them. It was more the dynamic of the exotic tribal object
being a touchstone or visual cue to connect with, or unlock
an artist’s innate sense of primitivism.
By the 1920s, art from the Pacific struck a chord with
members of the surrealist movement who were attracted
by the less structured almost subconscious plasticity
inherent to Melanesian art compared to the seeming
rigidity of African masks and figures. Melanesian figurative
Iatmul people Papua New Guinea, East Sepik
Province, Tambanum village Gable mask from a haus
tambaran 1920–50 wood, ochre, shell 124.0 x
100.0 x 50.0 cm National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra Purchased 2008
artonview spring 2008 9
10 national gallery of australia
sculpture, especially those of Papua New Guinea’s Sepik
River region, often depict mythical beings with both
animal and human attributes along with flowing surface
designs that surrealist artists likened to having dream-like
qualities – which fired their discussions and creativity in
the arts. During the mid twentieth century in Australia,
artists were introduced to and inspired by the Pacific arts
in various situations beyond the large cluttered cases in
museums. William Dobell and Guy Warren’s experiences in
wartime New Guinea left lasting impressions, as it did for
many Australians who served in the Pacific Islands during
this time. Far removed from the Pacific itself, other artists
working in Britain during the 1940s, such as James Gleeson
and Robert Klippel, were exposed to a wealth of Pacific
arts through their mutual friend, the ‘primitive’ art dealer
William Ohly.
Pacific arts as an influence to artists from outside
the Pacific has been well documented from a Western
viewpoint, beginning with the activities of Robert Louis
Stevenson and Paul Gauguin; however, interest in the
motivations and actions of indigenous artists whose names
are now lost is very much a later twentieth-century move in
the study of Pacific arts.
A pioneer in observing Pacific arts to gain an indigenous
viewpoint of the artistic process was Professor Anthony
Forge of the Australian National University, whose seminal
studies in the mid-to-late twentieth century of Abelam art
still hold impact today.2 The National Gallery of Australia is
very fortunate to have received a gift in memory of Forge.
The gift is formed of many works Forge purchased from the
Abelam people and other communities during his work in
Papua New Guinea.
Several works from this gift are exhibited in Gods,
ghosts and men along with works that Sir William Dargie
collected directly from the communities and individuals
during his expeditions to Papua New Guinea in the late
1960s. The Gallery is very lucky to have collections formed
in ‘the field’ as information about the works is usually
recorded. An important collection gathered in the late
nineteenth century is the Fellows collection of Massim art.
This collection of art from south-eastern Papua New Guinea
comprises of works made for or given to Reverend Samuel
Fellows and his wife Sarah in recognition of the Kiriwinian
people’s embrace of Christianity.
When viewing works in the exhibition Gods, ghosts
and men, we are really looking at only the husks, the
physical elements, of rituals and festive events – which are
still remarkably moving even though they are now silent.
The dramatic spectacle of song, dance and the sense of
immediacy the audience experienced when viewing masked
performers cannot be contained and collected.
The bridal veil (ambusap) with its painstakingly applied
shell decorations would have been a treasured item by
its owner. The veil formed a major part of a series of
adornments a bride would wear for the important event of
entering her husband’s house for the first time. How the
wearer of this particular veil (presumably the envy of other
women in the community for wearing attractive finery)
must have felt upon this occasion in her life we cannot
guess at, yet the work itself, its flowing intricacy, conveys
a sense of elegance befitting the event it was made for.
Religious beliefs for Pacific communities prior to the
twentieth century were linked by the earnest need to
connect with, placate, charm and control the influences
Mathew Salle Papua New Guinea,
New Ireland Bird and snake fighting [Turu]
2004 wood, ochres, shell
38.0 x 104.0 x 12.0 cm National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra Purchased 2008
Tigoana Solomon Islands
Figure of a spirit being [Adaro] c. 1940
wood, patinas, shell 82.0 x 19.0 x 16.0 cm
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Purchased 2008
artonview spring 2008 11
of spirits and the cosmic order though the use of magic
and rituals.
For the majority of Melanesian cultures their spiritual
beliefs could broadly be considered animist in the sense
that all things are equal: humans are on an equal footing
to every living thing in their environment and each object
has a soul or spirit connected to it. In the Eastern Solomon
Islands, people believed – and, in places, still believe – in
water spirits that can manipulate the sea and travel on
rainbows. These spirits are called adaro. The Gallery’s adaro
figure has porpoise- or dolphin-like, which the water spirit
can control. Where he steps, shoals of fish follow. The
figure, carved by Tigoana, is not only a representation of an
adaro spirit but can also be thought of as the adaro spirit
itself; the sculpture is a vessel for the spirit to enter when
called upon for assistance.
Another two works that, now silent, can only hint
at their once pivotal and chaotic importance for their
audience are the Susu masks from New Britain. These
masks are not just striking in their appearance; while worn,
they are the very spirits themselves – through performance,
they become the manifestation of a particular spirit, if only
for the briefest of moments.
To ‘activate’ a mask, a figure or other object and make
it alive with the spirit it was intended to house involved
convincing the spirit or ancestor to enter the work through
invocation and ritual adherences. The use of magical
ingredients play a major role in activating these vessels:
special herbs, pieces of animal meat, powdered lime, shells,
money and even bodily fluids are some of the symbolically
offered ritual substances that could be spat or smeared
on objects to energise the connections between worlds
artonview spring 2008 13
to a spirit or an ancestor. In some instances, the process
involved the application of colour as certain colours have
magical importance and the act of painting a work would
entice the desired spirit to take residence in the object.
Strict rules needed to be observed by the artist,
including the abstention from eating certain foods or
entering into sexual or social activity until the process
of producing the work of art was completed. The idea
of activating or breathing life into a mask or figure of
an ancestor for it to be communed with, supplicated
or implored to assist in some way was common across
the Pacific although each community developed distinct
approaches – from simple rituals to elaborate ceremonies –
to procure the support of the ancestors, gods and spirits.
The exhibition includes several shields from Papua New
Guinea and one from Awyu people of West Papua from
the Max Ernst collection. Each shield is highly decorated;
indeed, it is rare to encounter shields from Melanesia
without carved or painted designs across their surfaces.
The meandering designs on the small leaf-shaped Awyu
people shield may depict body adornments, geographical
locations or even a rapidly moving river but, without
solid information, the intent behind the motifs remains
cryptographic while the imagery remains bold. Nonetheless,
each shield’s design identified the community or clan of
their owner and, through the strength of the designs, fear
could be instilled into an opponent.
One of the contemporary works in the exhibition is
a shield painted by Kaipel Ka. The shield is actually quite
old with a pecked design below its more recently painted
surface. Ka has produced series of shields with identical
designs for warring groups, maintaining the collective
identity of the fight group in much the same way football
colours are worn. The shield depicts two birds of paradise
perched upon a skull with glaring eyes and below is the
slogan ‘six 2 six’ which, in the Wahgi Valley area, is an
invitation to party all night long; although, in this context,
it has become an aggressive statement intended to unnerve
the opponent – ‘we will fight you from dawn until dusk,
six to six’.
Weapons across the Pacific were also embellished
beyond their brutal function as bludgeoning clubs to a
level where many communities, particularly in Polynesia,
enlisted specialist carvers to produce beautifully balanced,
immaculately finished weapons that played a great part in
communicating the high esteem accorded to the owner.
The face-like business end of the U’u club from the
Marquesas Islands is a superb example of the elaboration
and care taken by specialist artists in producing war clubs.
The U’u club is immediately one of the most iconic works
of art from the Pacific. It couples functionality with a
delicate attention to detail; and those details have been
adapted from the socially important temporal art of body
decoration, tattoo.
Several of the Polynesian works exhibited relate in some
way to their owners status and prestige, none more so
than the objects that were once associated to those of high
social rank. The stool No’oanga from the Cook Islands, with
Cook Islander people Cook Islands, Aitu Island Seat for a noble [No’oanga] 19th century wood 16.0 x 50.0 x 23.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 2007
(opposite) Kaipel Ka Papua New Guinea, Western Highlands Province, Banz Six to six shield 1990–95 wood, paint, wire, rattan 148.0 x 47.0 x 12.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1996
Awyu people Western New Guinea, Papua Province, Mappi or Ederah River Parrying shield 20th century wood, ochre, lime 95.5 x 27.0 x 8.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Max Ernst Collection, purchased 1985
14 national gallery of australia
artonview spring 2008 15
its four legs reminiscent of a crouching animal poised and
ready to move, was the property of an ariki (a hereditary
chieftain). It was used during meetings to ensure no-one
else’s head was higher than that of the chief.
In pre-Christian Polynesian societies, the head was
the most important part of the body as it has strong
connections with mana, a spiritual quality that generates
great respect. People and objects can both hold levels
of mana. Older objects absorb mana though their long
histories and connections with people and this mana can
still sometimes be felt or sensed by people who identify
particular works as part of their heritage.
A singularly magnificent work from the Pacific Arts
collection is the Maori cloak Huaki – fibre arts are rare in
Polynesia compared to objects produced in wood, stone
and bone. Cloak-making was an art whose secrets where
closely guarded by women who acquired the specialist skill
and knowledge to work flax into such robes of splendour.
Huaki are the rarest of all cloaks from New Zealand and
the Gallery’s example undoubtedly was owned by a leader
of great importance, a person with strong mana whose
majesty was visually communicated through wearing
the huaki.
Gods, ghosts and men divulges the richness and
diversity of this region but still barely scratches the surface
of the National Gallery of Australia’s collection of over two
thousand works from the Pacific. It reveals, however, the
greatest works by artists who were recognised within their
communities for their ability to create.
The names of many Pacific artists have been lost
over time or were simply not recorded when a work
was traded out of a community’s circles. However, this
lack of knowledge regarding the names of the artists or
the people who wore, danced, consulted or used these
works lends a certain enigmatic charisma. And it is these
small but magical mysteries that can enhance our ability
to contemplate and suspend our beliefs. In a similar vein
to the Surrealists, who contemplated Pacific arts with far
larger gaps in their understanding than we have today, we
can make closer connections between the works and the
ancestors and spirits that have been said to inhabit them.
We can imagine, for instance, that the housepost figure
Mogulapan is actually the spirit of Mogulapan himself and
that a mask is not just a mask but a spirit in physical form.
These intangible qualities affect our senses when
assessing the aesthetics of the Pacific arts – particularly so
with the expressive forms of Melanesian art – that set apart
the sculptures of ancestors and spirit beings from so many
of the other spheres of art within the National Gallery of
Australia.
Currently inanimate, these objects were once – and, in
some cases, possibly continue to be – more than superb
works of art. They are the spiritually charged places, the
lightening rods, where the ancestors themselves and
otherworldly spirits could interact with and influence the
human world. Although dormant, these charged works of
art can speak for themselves.
Crispin Howarth Curator, Pacific Arts, and curator of Gods, ghosts and men
Gods, ghosts and men: Pacific arts from the National Gallery of Australia is proudly supported by the National Gallery of Australia Council exhibitions fund.
notes1. A C Haddon, The decorative art of British New Guinea: a study in
Papuan ethnography, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 1894. For the period in which it was produced, Haddon’s book remains an exemplary work dealing with a comparative analysis of the visual arts of British New Guinea.
2. Anthony Forge, ‘Style and meaning in Sepik art’, in A Forge (ed.), Primitive art and society, Oxford University Press, London, 1973, pp. 169–92.
Kamakaing Papua New Guinea, Tami Island, Wonam village Bowl in the form of a fish [Njul potipah] 20th century wood 14.0 x 8.3 x 24.5 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1969
(opposite) Iatmul people Papua New Guinea, East Sepik Province, Kanganaman village Orator’s stool [Kawa rigit] 1920–50 wood, ochre, shell 122.0 x 51.0 x 45.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 2008
16 national gallery of australia
for thcoming exhibition
Degas: master of French art
12 December 2008 – 22 March 2009
Horses, ballerinas, laundresses are [Degas’] predilections and of all the things in the world which surround him seem to preoccupy him exclusively. But what truth there is in his draughtsmanship, and how astute is his understanding of colour.1 Jules-Antoine Castagnary, 1874
The exhibition Degas: master of French art spans the period
from Edgar Degas’ early portraiture and historical subject
matter to his late experimental paintings and photographs
of the 1890s. It also examines the rich visual and literary
sources that Degas drew upon in his early years.
A major theme of the exhibition is the transformation
of Degas as an artist and his experimentation, which
contributed to the developments of his singular style. It
traces his development from finely crafted paintings to
those that possess a brilliant palette and loose brushwork
and concludes with radical works that include finger
painting. This makes him an influential figure in the
evolution of modern art – an artist whose work was both
admired and collected by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.
One particular focus is on Degas’ work after he became
an artist of modern life, when his art was increasingly
exploratory in its composition and its execution. On 15
April 1874 he was one of a group of young artists who
came together as the Société Anonyme des Artistes,
Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs, etc. with the view to
showing their work independent of the official Salon. The
timing for their first exhibition was crucial. Degas, along
with Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir,
Berthe Morisot, Alfred Sisley and others, chose a date prior
to the Paris Salon of the that year. In this way it could not
be considered as just another Salon des Refusés – a display
of rejects from the official art exhibition of the Académie
des Beaux-Arts, which was renowned for its conservatism.
Though the exhibiting group varied in their art style, all
were keen to establish an art that related to their day rather
than dressing up figures in fanciful costumes with fanciful
themes of the past. What they wanted to do was establish
a new art for a modern France. The artists arranged for
the display of their work on the second floor of the large
studios (formerly belonging to the photographer and
balloonist Nadar) at 35 Boulevard des Capucines, close to
the new opera house in Paris. In a review of the exhibition
in Le Charivari on 25 April 1874, critic Louis Leroy
pejoratively described the group as ‘Impressionists’. Many
adopted the title as a badge of honour, although Degas
found the term distasteful. It was also on this occasion that
the critic Jules-Antoine Castagnary made his comments on
Degas in the journal Le Siècle.
From this time Degas came to be known for his
thoroughly modern French subject matter – the ballet,
behind the scenes at the opera, the racecourse, the
café-concert, milliners, laundresses, brothels and bathers.
Later, his art became more exploratory in its composition
and its execution while taking on the appearance of
greater intimacy and more informality. Unlike other artists
associated with the Impressionists, Degas did not set out to
capture a fleeting moment or to work en plein air. Despite
the spontaneous appearance of his subjects, the art of
Degas was carefully contrived and composed – the sense
of liveliness achieved through a thoughtful pastiche. As his
art evolved, it gained a new sense of spatial arrangement,
moving away from mathematical perspective to a more
radical, flattened space in some instances.
The exhibition Degas will explore other relevant themes
such as the influence of French caricature, japonisme,
literature and the theatre. Through modelling wax figures
of horses, ballet dancers and bathers (later cast in bronze),
Degas constantly searched for ways to depict movement
and form. The relationship of his sculpture to his paintings
and drawings will be examined in this exhibition.
Degas was a consummate painter, draughtsman,
printmaker and sculptor, who in his later years
also undertook experiments in the new medium of
photography. The exhibition Degas will include all these arts
and their interrelationships.
Jane Kinsman Senior Curator, International Art, and curator of Degas
note1. Jules-Antoine Castagnary, ‘Exposition du Boulevard des Capucines:
les Impressionnistes’, Le Siècle, 29 April 1874, p. 3; translated by Mark Henshaw.
Edgar Degas The dance class began 1873,
finished 1875–76 oil on canvas
85.0 x 75.0 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris
18 national gallery of australia
display
Demonstrating the creative skills of East Asian artists,
past and present, works of art in the National Gallery of
Australia’s reinstallation of the East Asian Gallery range
from Neolithic ceramics to twentieth-century works on
paper. The new and expanded permanent display in the
intimate lower gallery adjacent to the National Australia
Bank Sculpture Gallery is loosely arranged by regional
and cultural themes. Although the national collection of
works from China, Japan and Korea is not large, it covers
a diversity of styles, forms and functions, in materials
important to Asian artists.
Together, the displays illuminate significant forces
behind the creation of great art in the region. They include
early funerary vessels and lively tomb figures, Buddhist
images from traditions as diverse as those of Mongolia and
Japan, and works that demonstrate the close visual and
scholarly connections that informed the art of the literati.
Also explored is the Japanese fascination with theatre and
responses to urban modernism, especially through the
ancient but enduring art of the print.
The oldest objects on display – incised, painted and
glazed earthenware – were created to be buried with
the dead. Beliefs that the fortunes of states and peoples
depended on the appeasement of ancestral spirits, and
the honouring of those immortals, resulted in elaborate
funerary rituals accompanied by beautiful objects to usher
the deceased into the afterlife. In China, dedication to
ancestor worship led to the creation of an enormous range
of grave goods modelled on the wealth and luxury that
surrounded a ruler in life. These include representations of
highly prized animals, particularly camels and thoroughbred
horses, which were an important part of the deceased’s
retinue. Such objects were buried with departed rulers to
demonstrate status and fulfil needs in the afterlife.
Ceramics were an integral part of this tradition, initially
as inexpensive substitutes for bronze and jade items, and
later as important objects in their own right. A rich array of
pottery images, including soldiers, courtiers and animals,
have been found in tombs from as early as the Western
Han period (206 BCE – 8 CE), although the custom
reached its zenith during the Tang dynasty (618–907). One
unusually large mortuary figure from the Han dynasty, with
detachable head and saddle, depicts a breed of central
Asian horse introduced into China. In contrast to domestic
Mongolian ponies, the imported horses were prized for
their strength and size. Known as ‘celestial horses’, objects
such as this became a testament to the rank, wealth and
social status of the deceased. Like many of the Chinese
funerary objects in the Gallery’s collection, this is part of a
generous gift from Hong Kong-based businessman and art
patron T T Tsui.
While early ceramics were decorated with painted
designs, one of the great achievements of the Chinese
ceramic artisan, glazed decoration, completely transformed
earthenware surfaces. Perhaps the most striking example is
a huge pair of protective earth spirits that originally stood
guard at the entrance to the tomb of a Chinese ruler.
Drawn from real and mythical animals and birds, each
figure displays an amalgam of ferocious and threatening
features. The glazed head of the lion-shaped, clawed pixie
figure sprouts curving antlers and a flame-like mane, while
the man-lion tianlu figure displays cloven hooves, enormous
flared ears and a single spiralling horn. Its unglazed head
would probably once have been painted. Coated in
brilliant amber, green and straw sancai glazes – perfected
by the Tang-dynasty potters – the guardian figures crouch
expectantly on tall, rocky outcrops.
Less imposing but equally superb is the fifth – sixth
century duck-shaped earthenware vessel from Korea. A gift
of a former Korean ambassador to Australia, it was also
created as a funerary object. Ducks are thought to have
been worshipped in the small southern Korean kingdom
of Kaya (42–562), which is noted for its duck-shaped
funerary vessels. Symbolising a plentiful food supply for the
deceased in the afterlife, the vessels were naturalistically
rendered, especially in the expressive details of the head
and beak.
Buddhism was another important impetus for the
creation of art in East Asia. Over time, the religion spread
from India along the Silk Route to China, Korea and across
the sea to Japan. As Buddhism developed and adapted
to new cultures and circumstances, different philosophies
and schools rose to prominence. Although the teachings
of the earthly Buddha Shakyamuni formed the basis of
the traditional sects of Theravada Buddhism, the Southern
Buddhism still followed in Southeast Asia today, a second
Gallery of East Asian art
A pair of Tang dynasty Chinese Earth spirit guardian
figures, pixie and tianlu, in front of Pine trees by the
shore, a sixteenth-century Japanese screen given to
the Gallery by Andrew and Hiroko Gwinnett and the
National Gallery of Australia Foundation.
20 national gallery of australia
movement, known as Mahayana, emerged in the first
century. As its influence was mainly felt in Nepal, Tibet,
China, Korea and Japan, it became known as Northern
Buddhism.
The doctrinal expansion of Mahayana Buddhism was
mirrored in its art. In a burst of creative energy fed by
intense mystical and visionary experiences, pantheons
of celestial Buddhas, saviours (bodhisattvas), saints and
other divine beings inhabiting heavenly realms became the
focus of prayer and devotion. Japanese Mahayana deities
were among the most diverse, mixing forms belonging
to Daoism, Confucianism and the native Shinto religion.
One of the great Buddhist sculptures in the collection is
the Japanese thirteenth-century gilded lacquer image of
Amida (Amitabha in Sanskrit). Regarded as one of the most
compassionate figures in Buddhism, Amida the Buddha
of Infinite Light was a popular figure in the Kamakura
period (1185–1392) and is the principal deity of the Pure
Land Buddhist sect in Japan. Followers believe that faith in
Amida, as well as contemplating his image and chanting
his name, will enable rebirth in the Pure Land, a Buddhist
paradise in the west. The Gallery’s figure gazes down
benevolently as he welcomes reborn souls. Sometimes
considered an attendant of Amida is the Buddhist saviour
known in Japan as Jizo Bosatsu. Jizo is a bodhisattva, a
being who delays personal enlightenment to assist others.
In the Gallery’s Edo-period (1603–1868) image, Jizo is
shown as a monk wearing monastic robes and with his
head shaved. He holds the six-ringed staff of a mendicant
and a sacred jewel, a symbol of spiritual wealth. A
protector of travellers, samurai and fire fighters, Jizo is most
widely worshipped as a guardian to mothers and children,
particularly infants who are ill or have died.
In China, where Mahayana beliefs were similarly
confronted by Confucian and Daoist philosophies, many
local sects developed and Daoist immortals and Buddhist
sages (lohan or arhat) appeared in both religious and folk
art. The concept of the lohan spread from India, where
there were originally sixteen in number, to China, where
the group expanded to eighteen, and even to five hundred.
Now on display is a set of eighteen lohan from China, the
most recognisable of which are Rahula, the son of Buddha,
with a figure of Buddha emerging from his chest, and
Pindola, with extremely long eyebrows. One side of a very
large and opulent Satsuma jar, a late nineteenth-century
export from Japan to Europe, also depicts three Buddhist
sages (rakan in Japanese) modelled in high relief, while the
lid is topped by a dancing hermit.
In Tibet, a particular form of Buddhism developed from
both indigenous and Indian tantric doctrines. This form
View of the East Asian Gallery with a vibrant ikat-dyed man’s
robe from Uzbekistan in the foreground.
artonview spring 2008 21
was absorbed into a number of Chinese Mahayana sects.
With iconography similar to that found on Tibetan religious
scrolls, a small Mongolian painting on display in the East
Asian Gallery shows the dakini Dechen Gyalmo. Dakinis
are female, demonic and quasi-divine beings in Hindu and
Buddhist esoteric art. In tantric belief, voluptuous women
are seen as the vessels of primary creative and spiritual
power. This naked dakini is holding ritual symbols – a drum
and a chopper – in her hands. She wears fine jewellery, a
garland of flowers and a crown of skulls. The dakini stands
on a lotus pedestal enclosed by a downward-pointed
triangle, a magic and potent female symbol.
Ascetic schools of Buddhism, such as Zen (Chan in
Chinese), also had enormous impact on the visual arts.
The Gallery is fortunate to own a sculpture by the famous
Japanese Buddhist monk Enku. He entered a Buddhist
monastery as a youth but during much of his life appears
to have followed an ancient tradition of ascetic practice in
the mountains. Such men were believed to have developed
supernatural power and were often sought out to heal or
to avert crises. Enku’s religious practice involved producing
works of art and he is best known for thousands of
sculptures, carved mainly with an axe, made as offerings,
gifts or charms. Most of his sculptures are still located in
Japanese villages and shrines. An inscription on the back of
the Gallery’s sculpture identifies it as Zenzai Doji, a youth
who travelled the Buddhist world from one teacher to
another seeking wisdom.
Resplendent in the new East Asian display is a rare
example of a pair of Japanese painted and gold leaf screens
from the sixteenth century. The folding screens demonstrate
the meeting of function and beauty, an exquisite painting
that serves as a utilitarian room divider. The evergreen pine
tree (matsu) is a symbol of youth, longevity and dignity, and
the subject of pine trees by the shore is a recurring theme
in Japanese art. Possibly a narrative, the scene shows lively
horses on the right screen and fast-moving fishing boats on
the left, balanced by the tranquillity of the pines twisting
across both screens. Because of conservation requirements,
pairs of folding screens from the collection will be rotated
on a regular basis.
Across Central and East Asia, boldly decorated
costumes and textiles were created for court, ritual and
theatre. The sultanates or khanates that arose along the
famed Silk Road in the great trading towns of Bukhara,
Khiva, Tashkent and Samarkand displayed their wealth
in handsome apparel and furnishings. Men and women
wore robes and coats of various cuts carefully constructed
with imported linings and decorative tablet-woven ribbon
trim. The cut of many flowing garments is similar for both
A Han dynasty Chinese funerary sculpture of reclining dog, a gift from T T Tsui, in front of works of art including an ancient Japanese pot and an Iranian ceramic male figure.
artonview spring 2008 23
sexes, although men’s garments include bulky outer coats
worn over thinner robes. Complementing simple tailoring,
the colours are rich and luminous and the designs bold
and abstract. Motifs range from the geometric to ancient
stylised tree and floral imagery also found on other art
forms from Central Asia, such as jewellery and carpets.
In Japan, the theatre inspired artistic innovation and
was a source of wonderful imagery. Woven from silk and
gold foil paper, an ornate brocade outer-robe for a male
actor in a Noh drama performance demonstrates the links
between palace and theatre. Literally meaning ‘hunting
cloak’, the awase kariginu robe developed from the
informal jacket worn by Japanese male courtiers. During
the Edo period, however, the awase kariginu became the
most important outer garment for certain male characters
in the Noh drama, and the costume worn by strong gods,
ministers and the bird-like tengu demons. Those made for
the stage are larger than the original form used for daily
apparel, and additional padding and the small masks used
in Noh theatre create an effect of size and bulk.
The theatre continued to be popular in modern Japan
with many visual artists and their actor contemporaries
creating bold images for a broader urban middle-class
audience. In the East Asian Gallery, the ukiyo-e prints of
Natori Shunsen (1886–1960) portray prominent actors
in iconic roles drawn from popular new forms of kabuki
theatre which dramatised well-known events and folk
legends. Another consummate printmaker, Tsukioka
Yoshitoshi (1839–1892), created extraordinary and often
disturbing prints of supernatural stories ranging from
a homesick palm uprooting itself and walking out of a
garden, to an ailing samurai confronted by his past victims
in the form of giant skulls.
While social structures and hierarchies changed in
twentieth-century East Asia, many ancient sources of
imagery continued to inspire modern artists. Munakata
Shiko (1903–1975) combined spontaneity and a sense of
joyous discovery with stories and images familiar from the
canons of Japanese Buddhism and Chinese Daoism. The
woodcuts in his 1939–40 series Life of Prince Shotoku
took figures from the legendary story of Prince Shotoku
(574–622) who dedicated himself to public service and
Buddhist teachings. Shotoku is remembered as the
founding father of the Japanese state and as an ideal
Buddhist king. In complete contrast, a late twentieth-
century print by Masami Teraoka (b. 1936) acknowledges
both American Pop art and Japanese ukiyo-e woodblocks.
In Catfish envy 1993, the artist humorously sets subject
matter typical of Edo-period prints in an American beach
scenario to comment on current morals and attitudes in
Japan and the West.
Together the vibrant and enormously varied displays
in the refurbished gallery provide visitors with illuminating
insights into the arts and histories of the diverse East
Asian region.
Robyn Maxwell Senior Curator, Asian Art
A row of Chinese bone sages, lohans, which were a gift from Mr Louis Berthet and Mrs Suzette Bertolozzi.
(opposite above) View of the East Asian Gallery featuring a Han dynasty Chinese watchtower, a gift from Andrew and Hiroko Gwinnett, beside the gilded Japanese screens Pine trees by the shore.
(opposite below) View of the calligraphy on the back of a Japanese sculpture by Enku, shown between a Japanese Noh robe and a series of actor portraits by Natori Shunsen. The prints were a gift from Jennifer Gordon.
24 national gallery of australia
children’s exhibition
Home at last
13 September – 1 February 2009 Children’s Gallery
For young children, the home is the centre of their world
and the focus of family life and, as they grow, they
branch out into the wider world from this home base. The
exhibition Home at last provides a child’s eye view of the
Australian home across time, place and culture. It features a
range of new and familiar media, techniques and objects by
Australian artists in the National Gallery of Australia’s collection.
The home is a popular subject for artists, particularly
their own home, which is easily accessible, relevant, known
and loved. Grace Cossington Smith’s Interior with veranda
doors 1954 captures the intimate, memory-filled spaces
of her family home. One of the artist’s sketchbooks (an
intimate, portable and affordable format for drawing in and
around the home) is included in the exhibition.
For many it is the relationships within the household
that make a house a home. The prints, paintings and
photographs in the exhibition explore every day moments
of home and family life, including extended family, friends
and much loved pets. Through the familiar process of
photography, Robert McFarlane portrays a warm family
gathering in Grandmother Lily McFarlane (nee Gelsthorpe
Brimage) at a dinner for her 77th birthday at our family
home at Downing Street, Brighton, Adelaide 1964.
Atmospheric light captures the faces of family watching
and waiting in anticipation as the candles are lit.
Some artists comment on the place of the home in
Australian society. Howard Arkley’s painting Floral exterior
1996 explores the Australian dream of the suburban home.
Elaine Russell Little orphans 2004
synthetic polymer paint on paper 97.0 x 78.0 cm
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Purchased 2004
artonview spring 2008 25
Inspired by advertising and magazines, Arkley imposes
interior decoration on the exterior of the house. The stencil
process is also used by Adrian Doyle, who presents a
nostalgic Australian childhood memory in Boy on a clothes
line 2003. Another Australian icon is introduced to the
children in Margaret Dodd’s Holden with lipstick surfboards
1977 – a famous Australian family car with a twist.
Objects reveal the times and experiences of their maker.
Art is often made at home and for the home. Furniture and
toys in the exhibition reveal the resourcefulness of artists
who ‘make do’ and ‘make a bob’ by creating art from
recycled materials in hard economic times. Chest of drawers
c. 1920 from the Australian folk art collection is a delightful
piece creatively assembled from kerosene tins and packing
cases by an unknown South Australian artist.
The Indigenous Australian works of art in the exhibition
show the artists’ close connections to home through their
choice of materials and techniques and the function of
their work. Golbordok (traditional bush honey collecting
bag) 1989 is closely woven from pandanus fibre and
embedded with wax to ingeniously prevent leakage. The
bag was woven by Margaret Rinybuma and decorated with
ochres by her husband Michael Gadjawala from Maningrida
in Central Arnhem Land.
Elaine Russell’s painting Little orphans 2004 illustrates
an episode from her childhood at Murrin Bridge Mission on
the Lachlan River in central New South Wales in the 1940s
and 1950s. In this scene she depicts herself being followed
home from a swim in the pond by a family of ducklings.
The image alludes to a childhood spent growing up in a
loving family, living in difficult circumstances. The painting
is displayed alongside a work from the Frances Derham
collection of child art, Mt Margaret Mission, Western
Australia 1939 by thirteen-year-old Boongie Nindarngar.
The annotated drawing includes a photograph of the artist
and is a map of his mission home, defining his world.
Leaving home and starting again in an unfamiliar place
is an experience common to many Australians throughout
history. Abraham Solomon’s painting Second class – the
parting: thus part we rich in sorrow parting poor 1854
and David Moore’s photograph Migrants arriving in Sydney
1966 introduce children to the migration experience.
They reveal the mixed feelings associated with leaving the
familiar and encountering the new.
Inside the homelike exhibition space, preschool and
primary children are encouraged to take a fresh look at the
familiar and imagine the experience of others by engaging
with art. Children have the opportunity to make a creative
response to the exhibition by drawing and building small
homes. Visitors can attempt to identify secret sounds and
the works of art that match them, and can try to guess
the functions of mystery objects. Many of the works evoke
sensory associations and memories of the sights, sounds,
smells, tastes and feel of the home environment. Take a
journey through the exhibition with someone of a different
age to yourself and talk about your diverse and shared
experiences.
Joanna Krabman Educator, Family and School Programs, and curator of Home at last
To coincide with the opening of the exhibition Home at last, the website Picture my world will go online. Relating to the concept of home, the website will feature local school projects and children’s responses to works of art in the exhibition. People can add their own responses and more on the website. nga.gov.au/PictureMyWorld
Howard Arkley Floral exterior 1996 synthetic polymer paint on canvas 174.5 x 134.5 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 2001
26 national gallery of australia
conservation
Painted by the sun: early Asia–Pacific photography
Picture paradise: Asia–Pacific photography 1840s–1940s
11 July – 9 November 2008 Exhibition Galleries
The National Gallery of Australia’s exhibition Picture
paradise surveys the first hundred years of photography
in the Asia–Pacific region and features a rollcall of
technical processes – from rare, early, delicate salted
paper photographs printed in sunlight and jewel-like
daguerreotypes formed over a noxious vat of hot mercury
to more recent gelatin silver and pigment process prints.
The exhibition includes an unusual range of photographic
formats other than the ubiquitous single framed print:
ornately bound travel albums, elegantly cased images and
spectacular panoramas such as the impressive ten-metre-
long Holtermann panorama, Panorama of Sydney Harbour
and suburbs from the north shore 1875. The images in
Picture paradise predate the widespread application of
commercial colour photographic processes. Visitors will
see meticulously applied hand-colouring achieved with
watercolour pigments, inks and early synthetic dyestuffs.
The exhibition celebrates the diversity of photographic
ingenuity in its first century of development. In true
entrepreneurial style, Bernhardt Otto Holtermann
(1838–1885), a photographer and politician, began his
life in Australia as a prospector. In 1875 he collaborated
with Charles Bayliss (1850–1897) to produce the largest
photographs the world had seen. In a purpose-built room
in the tower of Holtermann’s Lavender Bay house, Bayliss
used large-format cameras to photograph the harbour.
The Holtermann panorama comprises a mammoth plate
format (52.5 x 42.8 cm), with twenty-three albumen print
panels on a single cotton backing. It is acknowledged as
being the finest surviving example of its kind. Although
some of the images have faded edges – typical damage
related to this process – the main concern for conservation
was the work’s inherent structural weakness. While records
indicate that Holtermann routinely transported selections
of panoramic works on a single rolled canvas (1.5 x 24
metres) for ease of viewing and display, this panorama was
bound in a concertina format which folded flat. Evidence
suggests that the unusual concertinaed format may be a
later intervention, implying that the marbled paper and
bookcloth may be additions.
The final three panels, while attached to the Sydney
panorama, are not part of it, but form a separate
panorama depicting a gun placement at Middle Head in
Sydney. The Middle Head images were originally attributed
to Holtermann, but have since been reassigned to Bayliss.
While the panels in the Holtermann panorama are correctly
bound in the portrait orientation, the panels in the second
panorama form the complete image only when placed
Bernard O Holtermann, commissioner
Charles Bayliss, photographer
Panorama of Sydney Harbour and suburbs from the north
shore 1875 (detail) 23 albumen silver
photographs 52.5 x 985.0 cm (overall)
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Purchased 1982
artonview spring 2008 27
in the landscape orientation and could not, therefore,
be viewed as a complete image in the current format. In
order to display the Holtermann panorama in its entirety,
the second panorama needed to be folded behind and
concealed in the mounting system. This complication,
together with the extreme length and the inherent
fragilities, posed the most serious problems for display.
In previous exhibitions, the panorama had only been
partially displayed due to the size limitations of available
showcases. On one occasion it had been supported on
an angle in a custom-made frame – again, only partially
displayed. For Picture paradise, however, the curator, Gael
Newton, requested the entire panorama be displayed
vertically. In the concertinaed format, this form of display
was problematic to achieve as, due to the nature of the
mounting, damage was caused each time the panorama
was unfolded or re-folded.
The edges of many panels were creased and abraded
from wear associated with repeated folding and unfolding
of the binding. This action was complicated by the
advanced deterioration of the cloth hinges, which had split
in a number of areas, and further contributed to abrasion
of the photographic emulsion surface.
A dramatic decision was taken jointly by the curator
and Conservation to separate the panels. These were
not joined directly to each other, but linked only with the
cotton lining, making this choice easier. This alleviated
much of the handling damage and immediately created
more options for safe display. An added bonus was that
the second panorama could be displayed, for the first
time, with the images united in the correct orientation.
Once separated, it was necessary to carry out some surface
cleaning recto and verso, to stabilise torn and creased
edges and to infill and retouch areas of loss. The original
paper lining and fabric were left intact. The final step in
the treatment was to develop a safe system for display. The
display strategy was based on edge lining each panel onto
a separate rigid support to minimise handling, particularly
during installation. Wide strips of Japanese paper were
adhered to the cotton lining on the verso of each image
using a synthetic adhesive to avoid introducing moisture.
Once each image was adhered to a rigid panel it was
easily attached to the wall using Velcro. When the entire
panorama had been installed on the wall, a large window
mount and modular frame was constructed around it. The
Gallery’s Conservation and Exhibition Design staff liased
and planned extensively to address the many complications
28 national gallery of australia
of the project. The final frame comprised two long metal
struts above and below the panorama to support the four
two-metre-long acrylic glazing panels that slid into the
struts from one side. A decorative, gold-painted wooden
frame was placed over the top to complete the structure,
which had been predrilled to avoid creating debris.
Another photographer working with oversized formats,
J W Lindt, is represented by two characteristically imposing
carbon prints depicting life in New Guinea, Mourners
and dead house at Kalo, New Guinea 1885 and Moto
water carrier, Port Moresby 1885. Carbon prints are not
silver-based images but pigmented gelatin. The nature of
the process allows the photographer latitude to develop
richness and variety in the colour and topography of the
gelatin layers. As both of these works were exposed to
poor environmental conditions prior to being acquired by
the Gallery, their substantial gelatin layers had become
swollen, sticking to the interior of the glazing in their
frames. Unfortunately, the glazing had been removed,
taking with it some areas of image emulsion. Treatment
involved ‘rescuing’ the detached emulsion and re-adhering
it. Cleaning the surface of the print and final retouching
using watercolours unified and enhanced the image. The
original frames were also restored and provide appropriate
historical context.
A variety of travel albums also feature in the exhibition.
Albums were compiled by early tourists to the Asia–Pacific
region and by local commercial photographic studios.
The photographs in these albums were often annotated,
providing insight into a particular photograph’s subject
matter. Many albums are surprisingly large and heavy and
have gilt cloth bindings appropriate to the period. More
unusual are those that use different binding materials,
such as Stafhell and Kleingrothe’s album Sumatra, which
has an intricate cover finished in lacquer-ware inlaid
with mother of pearl and ivory. During treatment by
the Gallery’s conservation team, the albums in Picture
paradise necessitated a cross-disciplinary approach, with
book conservators addressing structural problems, objects
conservators integrating missing areas of inlay and paper
conservators undertaking minor treatments and providing
appropriate display mechanisms.
Cased images such as daguerreotypes and ambrotypes
require darkened spaces and precise lighting with
Paper conservators James Ward and Fiona Kemp unfold and examine the ten-metre-long
Holtermann panorama.
(opposite above) Installing the Holtermann
panorama for the exhibition Picture paradise at the
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
(opposite below) Paper conservator Andrea Wise carefully patching a section of
the Holtermann panorama.
artonview spring 2008 31
minimal reflection. These works epitomise the magical
nature of early photography. Captured on either a metal
(daguerreotype) or glass support (ambrotypes), they are
small, highly detailed, often intimate portraits – and,
occasionally, landscapes. Daguerreotypes, in particular,
remain vulnerable to physical and chemical damage, so
traditionally the photographic plate would be sealed and
housed in a shallow, hinged case that opened like a book.
Commonly, cases were fabricated from leather-covered
wood, papier-mâché or alternatively, moulded from an
early type of thermoplastic (sawdust and shellac) and
lined with silk or velvet. A metal mount, glass glazing and
decorative, imitation-gold pinchbeck edging provided these
works with extra protection against scratching and damage
from pollutants. As each of the materials in this composite
object have very different vulnerabilities and parameters
for exhibition, cased photographic images require special
consideration. Historically they were viewed in subdued
light by the atmospherically appropriate light from a single
candle. Conservation worked closely with the exhibition
designers to create new modular showcases for these
works, incorporating fibre-optic lighting to allow for their
full appreciation.
‘Photography, like electricity, was one of the miraculous
scientific discoveries of the 19th century. Its impact was
immediate and profound.’1 Originally developed and used
by scientists, photography was rapidly adopted by people in
every strata of society, as a sublime documentary tool.
Acceptance of photography as a branch of the arts
took longer. During the twentieth century, photographs
as objects, and photographic technique as a form of
legitimate artistic expression, have made only gradual
ingress into museum and gallery art collections.
Similarly, the impact of photographic treatment
and display in conservation has been one of continuing
absorption and adaptation. Early photographers were
endlessly inventive, constantly exploiting materials and
techniques to suit the circumstances in which they found
themselves. The extraordinary range of works in Picture
paradise reminds the audience that an idiosyncratic
approach was commonplace. Conservators of photographic
images need to be equally creative and resourceful. The
preparatory period for Picture paradise brought both
satisfaction and delight as we rose to the challenges set by
some of the world’s first photographic artists.
Andrea Wise, Fiona Kemp and James Ward Paper Conservation
The exhibition is presented in conjunction with Vivid, Australia’s inaugural National Photography Festival, which celebrates photography’s vital role in Australian life and history.
A book published in conjunction with the exhibition Picture paradise is available from the Gallery Shop. For further information, telephone (02) 6240 6420 or send an email to [email protected].
note1. Shar Jones, J W Lindt: master photographer, Currey O’Neil Ross, South
Yarra, 1985, p. 1.
Fiona Kemp retouching J W Lindt’s Moto water carriers, Port Morseby.
(opposite) J W Lindt Moto water carrier, Port Moresby 1885 carbon print 70.9 x 60.8 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
After treatment by the Paper Conservation.
32 national gallery of australia
collection focus
Costumes of the Ballets Russes
The National Gallery of Australia has a renowned
collection of costumes from the Ballets Russes (the
Russian Ballet), which was founded by the flamboyant
Russian arts producer Serge Diaghilev (1872–1929). By
integrating design, music and dance, and encouraging
the artistic experimentation and collaboration of painters,
choreographers and composers, Diaghilev created the new
art of modern ballet. From 1909 to 1929, his company
Les Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev performed in Paris,
throughout Europe (although never in Russia) and in North
and South America.
Based in Paris from 1909, Diaghilev created opera
and dance productions that brought the exoticism of
Russian culture to a wider Western audience, and with
it the work of Russian artists and designers such as Léon
Bakst, Alexandre Benois, Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail
Larionov; choreographers Michel Fokine and Léonide
Massine; composers Igor Stravinsky, Alexander Borodin,
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Nicholas Tcherepnin; and
dancers such as Tamara Karsavina, Anna Pavlova, Adolph
Bolm, Serge Lifar and Vaslav Nijinsky. Through the work of
these artistic collaborators and performers Diaghilev was
able to orchestrate and bring to life a new vision of the
Slavic, oriental, baroque, romantic and later constructivist
elements of Russian culture.
Diaghilev’s association with the wider world of the arts
led to him commissioning artists such as Pablo Picasso,
Henri Matisse, André Derain, Robert and Sonia Delaunay,
Georges Braque, José Maria Sert and Giorgio de Chirico
to design costumes and scenery for a number of his
productions. The costumes reveal aspects of these artists’
work as designers and provide insights into the nature
of collaboration between the performing and visual arts.
Valuable works such as Léon Bakst’s The blue god costume
worn by Nijinsky in Le dieu bleu in 1912, Henri Matisse’s
design for Costume for a mourner in the 1920 production
of Le chant du rossignol and Giorgio de Chirico’s Costume
for a male guest in the 1929 production of Le bal are some
of the many highlights of the collection.
The costumes designed and worn by Diaghilev’s
designers and dancers from 1909 to 1929 form the
main part of the Gallery’s Ballets Russes collection, and
complementing these are costumes from some of the
Léon Bakst, designer Les Ballets Russes de Serge
Diaghilev, producer Costume for The blue god in the
Ballets Russes production of Le dieu bleu [The blue god] c. 1912
silk, metal, gelatin tunic length: 76.6 cm
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1987
artonview spring 2008 33
Henri Matisse, designer Les Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev, producer Costume for a mourner in the Ballets Russes production of Le chant du rossignol c. 1920 cotton and wool felt, cotton and silk velvet tunic length: 166.5 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1973
productions of his successor Colonel Wassily de Basil,
whose companies revived much of Diaghilev’s repertoire
from 1932 to the late 1940s.
With Diaghilev’s untimely death in Venice in 1929, the
Ballets Russes disbanded, and a diaspora of its dancers
and choreographers formed new and influential dance
companies in North America and Europe. In 1932 de Basil
and René Blum formed a new company, Les Ballets Russes
de Monte Carlo, which de Basil took over as sole director
in 1935. This company (under various names and business
arrangements) toured to Australia in 1936, 1938–39
and 1939–40, creating a sensation with its repertoire
of Diaghilev and newer productions and its integration
of avant-garde design with innovative performance
and music. The legacy of the Ballets Russes is its role in
the introduction of modern dance in Australia, led by a
number of the company’s dancers and choreographers who
remained in Australia or returned to work here. This legacy
is currently being examined during a four-year collaborative
research project between the National Library of Australia,
The Australian Ballet and the University of Adelaide, which
will provide a further Australian dimension to the National
Gallery of Australia’s collection.
Following the demise of de Basil’s company in 1951, its
rich remaining stock of Diaghilev’s original costumes and
those from de Basil’s earlier companies, maintained in Paris
long after their arduous life on the stage, eventually found
their way into several major museum collections during
the 1960s and 1970s, including that of the then fledgling
Australian National Gallery (now the National Gallery of
Australia), which acquired a large group of Ballets Russes
costumes in 1973 and again in 1976.1 The Gallery’s
collection of Ballets Russes costumes is one of its major
assets and is one of the world’s largest collections of this
material. The last exhibition of these costumes, From Russia
with love, was staged by the National Gallery of Australia in
1999. Selections from the collection, focusing on individual
productions of the Ballets Russes, are regularly displayed in
the International Art galleries to show their relationship to,
and influence on other design and decorative arts of the
early twentieth century.
Many of these costumes have been restored during
the past twenty years by the Gallery’s textile conservators.
Their painstaking work continues on a group of costumes
not previously exhibited due to their degraded condition.
The conservators’ long experience with the particular
characteristics of the Ballets Russes designers’ materials
and construction methods allows for the complex and
sometimes seemingly impossible reconstruction of
costumes that have had little care since they were last
donned for performance. The conservators’ brief is to
maintain the working and visual condition of costumes that
have been used, while repairing and replacing elements of
their fabric that have been lost or damaged by insects or
extended exposure to light.
Robert Bell Senior Curator, Decorative Arts and Design
This renowned collection of Ballets Russes costumes will be shown in a major exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia from 14 December 2009 to 14 March 2010. This exhibition will celebrate the centenary of the first Paris performances of the Ballets Russes by Diaghilev, and the work of the many artists with whom he collaborated over a twenty-year period at the beginning of the twentieth century.
note1. For accounts of the National Gallery of Australia’s collection of Ballets
Russes costumes see: Roger Leong, From Russia with love: costumes for the Ballets Russes 1909–1933, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1998; and Christine Dixon, ‘Museum pieces? The Russian Ballet collection’, in Pauline Green (ed.), Building the collection, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2003, pp. 176–89.
34 national gallery of australia
acquisition Australian Painting and Sculpture
Frederick McCubbin Violet and gold
The National Gallery of Australia’s recent acquisition Violet
and gold 1911 is a brilliant light-filled work. We can see
here how the artist focussed on light and colour rather
than subject. In 2001, Ron Radford, then director of the Art
Gallery of South Australia, wrote about this work as being
‘One of McCubbin’s most beautiful Macedon paintings’,
remarking that ‘there is no narrative, only poetry’.1
Does this surprise you? Do you think of Frederick
McCubbin as one of the great Australian Impressionists,
alongside Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Charles
Conder? Do you consider him to be an artist who had his
heyday in the 1890s, painting images of the bush extolling
the life of pioneers and the sadness of lost children? Do
you regard him as playing a major role in the development
of the Australian landscape, painting works that are part of
the fabric of Australian culture? All of this is certainly true.
But do you also believe that his best days were over
by the twentieth century, and that he carried on as the
‘good old Proff’, philosophising and teaching others? If so,
you need to think again. Of course McCubbin was one of
the great Australian Impressionists. However, as Australia
became a federation and began to move into modern
times, McCubbin just got better and better. While Roberts,
Streeton and Conder did their best works in the 1880s
and 1890s, McCubbin came into his own in the twentieth
century, particularly after his first and only trip to Europe
in 1907, when he spent five months abroad. During this
visit he was inspired by the works of J M W Turner and
Claude Monet, especially the late paintings of Turner, which
were being shown for the first time at the Tate Gallery
in London.2 McCubbin observed, ‘as Monet says, “Light
is the chief sitter everywhere”.’3 Violet and gold amply
demonstrates this.
In this work, McCubbin created an image of cattle
drinking at a pool surrounded by tall trees; but, more than
that, he depicted a beam of light reaching through the
trees and onto the cattle. Light glows through the trees.
As Radford has observed: ‘Rays of dappled light flickering
through the dark trees animate the surface of the painting
with flecks of colour’.4 Indeed, the way he captured the
light radiating through the trees and across the ground is
miraculous.
Violet and gold is an example of how, during the
early years of the twentieth century, McCubbin changed
his approach and began to paint pure images, focussing
on nature, on light, the time of day and the season. He
painted flickering light, hazed light, dazzling light – light
in all its manifestations. As McCubbin wrote of Turner, he
‘realized the quality of light … no theatrical effect but mist
and cloud and sea and land drenched in light … They glow
with a tender brilliancy’.5
McCubbin also began to depict modern life and
modern times: wharfs, factories and city streets. He started
to portray his subjects using pure colour applied with a
palette knife. And, he used paint in a most advanced and
abstracted fashion, creating painterly surfaces. If you stand
closely to Violet and gold (or look at the detail opposite),
you will see what I mean. You will find portions of the
picture in which McCubbin has almost splattered his paint
over the coarse canvas. He animated the surface of the
painting with flecks of colour. His free handling of paint and
his layering of pure colours are remarkable.
McCubbin gave Violet and gold an abstract, poetic
title – possibly a result of having looked at and admired
James McNeill Whistler’s work in London in 1907.6 The title
may have come from a line in a poem by the American
poet Stephen Crane: ‘In little songs of carmine, violet,
green and gold. A chorus of colors came over the water’.
But in giving it the abstract title of ‘Violet and gold’ he was,
more importantly, suggesting that it was a painting about
colour and paint and light rather than about cows. While
he named other works ‘The coming of Spring’, ‘Afterglow’
(both National Gallery of Australia), ‘Winter’s morning’
and ‘Autumn morning’ (both National Gallery of Victoria,
Melbourne), emphasising the time of year or time of day,
this is one of only a few works to which he gave a colour title.
Violet and gold was painted about one kilometre
from McCubbin’s country retreat Fontainebleau at Mount
Macedon, on the nearby property of Ard Chielle. McCubbin
found this area inspirational and painted many images
there that capture his interest in atmospheric effects. They
derive from his deep knowledge and love of the place and
his lived experience. Violet and gold is one of the most
painterly and evocative of these works – full of pastoral
charm and end-of-day ease.
Frederick McCubbin Violet and gold 1911
oil on canvas 87.0 x 144.5 cm National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra Purchased with the generous assistance of the Hon. Ashley
Dawson-Damer and John Wylie, AM, and Myriam Wylie 2008
Frederick McCubbin Violet and gold 1911 (detail)
36 national gallery of australia
The area below Mount Macedon where McCubbin
painted Violet and gold was low-lying and swampy and
full of tall gum trees. McCubbin was fascinated by the
Australian eucalypt, and suggested that other Australian
artists did not appreciate its qualities. He wrote:
The subtle way in which it responds to varying effects
of light and shadow was lost on them … the varieties in
shades and colours, the Gum tree presented, from the
violet grey tints of the stringy bark to the transparent
sheen of the White Gum, upon which colours disport
and change in a hundred subtle ways as they would
upon a mirror. Yet our trees and our faded flora are such
component parts of our Australian landscape.7
Some of McCubbin’s late works are among Australia’s
finest Federation landscapes. ‘They glow with a tender
brilliancy’ (as McCubbin described the work of Turner).8
The shimmering, dazzling light in Violet and gold shows
how much McCubbin learnt from Turner. It has a rich
painterly surface – which reflects the subtle harmonies of
the Australian bush. And, as Turner often did, McCubbin
makes the small shining orb of the sun the central,
dominating force of the composition.
Among McCubbin’s late works are two other Macedon
paintings in the Gallery’s collection, Hauling rails for a
fence, Mount Macedon 1910, which McCubbin painted
one year before Violet and gold, and Afterglow 1912,
painted one year afterwards. In comparing these works
we can see that Violet and gold is the more daring and
adventurous work. Whereas Violet and gold is a long,
narrow canvas, the other two works are more rectangular.
And where in Violet and gold McCubbin focused on a
thicket of trees, emphasising the denseness of the bush and
hardly showing any sky, in both Hauling rails for a fence
and Afterglow he adopted a more traditional composition,
placing a clump of trees on one side and open sky on the
other. In Violet and gold McCubbin used the reflections
in the pool to add to the internality of the work – with
the reflections an illusionist echo of the trees. In all three
paintings he created dynamic compositions by contrasting
the strong verticals of the tree trunks with diagonals: in
Hauling rails for a fence and Afterglow, the diagonals are
essentially those of the hillside, but in Violet and gold he
used a more complex composition with the diagonal fall of
the shaft of light coming down across the picture towards
the right, contrasted with the dark shape of a jagged
branch rising diagonally from the left.
The three paintings also show McCubbin’s interest in
different times of day: Violet and gold capturing a low sun
Frederick McCubbin Hauling rails for a fence, Mount
Macedon 1910 oil on canvas 71.5 x 101.5 cm
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Purchased 1964
artonview spring 2008 37
shining through an early morning mist, Hauling rails for
a fence portraying the middle of the day and Afterglow
depicting the rosy afterglow of the setting sun. McCubbin
did not just vary his compositions in painting these three
subjects, but also his range of colours and his brush (or palette
knife) strokes – each used to create a different atmospheric effect.
McCubbin played with the use of figures in each of
the paintings, from the workers in Hauling rails for a
fence to the animals in Violet and gold and to the classical
nudes of Afterglow. However, the figures are not there to
create a story so much as to give a sense of space to the
composition. Although Violet and gold becomes flatter
if we were to take out the cattle, it also becomes more
obviously an adventurous paint-laden picture surface,
showing nature experienced from within.
The generous support of Ashley Dawson-Damer and
John Wylie and Myriam Wylie has made possible this major
purchase of Violet and gold for the Gallery’s twenty-fifth
anniversary year. They have helped us represent more
strongly one of Australia’s most important artists at the
turn of the century and, in doing so, have provided a great
service to the Australian public.
Anne Gray Head of Australian Art
The National Gallery of Australia will be holding an exhibition from 2 August to 27 November 2009 of Frederick McCubbin’s later paintings. Anne Gray would welcome being contacted by owners of works by McCubbin painted after 1907.
email: [email protected] tel: +61 (0) 2 6240 6405
notes1. Ron Radford, Our country: Australian Federation landscapes
1900–1914, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2001, p. 84.
2. McCubbin did know of Turner’s work before visiting Europe. Indeed, he wrote to Tom Roberts on 8 January 1906, commenting that ‘I am painting a Turnerian gem …’; in Andrew McKenzie, Frederick McCubbin 1855–1917: ‘The Proff’ and his art, Mannagum Press, Lilydale, 1990, p. 243.
3. Frederick McCubbin, in James MacDonald, The art of Frederick McCubbin, Boolarong Publications, Brisbane, 1986, p. 84.
4. Radford, p. 84.5. Frederick McCubbin, letter to Annie McCubbin, 19 July 1907, in
McKenzie, p. 259.6. Whistler was a leading proponent of the credo ‘art for art’s sake’. He
famously titled many of his works ‘harmonies’ and ‘arrangements’, such as Arrangement in grey and black: the artist’s mother (Musée du Louvre, Paris).
7. McCubbin, in MacDonald, p. 84.8. McCubbin, in McKenzie, p. 259.
Frederick McCubbin Afterglow 1912 oil on canvas 91.5 x 117.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1970
38 national gallery of australia
acquisition Australian Prints and Drawings
A magnificent gift of Albert Namatjira watercolours
The Finke River begins its 600-kilometre journey amid a
stand of tea trees and river gums at Ormiston Gorge in
Central Australia and continues as a string of waterholes
that stretch towards the edge of the Simpson Desert. The
riverbed carves its way through the MacDonnell Ranges at
Glen Helen, curves around the whitewashed buildings of
the Lutheran mission clustered at the base of Mount
Hermannsburg, before heading southwards through the
sandstone gullies of Palm Valley. This is the traditional
territory of Western Arrernte artist Albert Namatjira, who
translated the ancient beauty of his country through his tin
box of watercolour paints. As an artist, he saw the desert
landscape as filled with light and colour – from sap-stained
trees to the translucent mauve of the distant ranges –
as an Indigenous artist, he was aware of the physical
presence of ancestral beings embodied in the giant ghost
gums and in the forms of surrounding mountains and gorges.
It is this numinous quality that entranced Gordon and
Marilyn Darling who, over the last twenty years, have
formed an extraordinary collection of watercolours by
Namatjira, from his early paintings of fleeing kangaroos to
the mature landscapes of the 1950s. They are generously
gifting the first fifteen of twenty-five paintings to the
National Gallery of Australia to be displayed in The Gordon
and Marilyn Darling Gallery of Hermannsburg Painting,
which promises to be one of the highlights of the new
Albert Namatjira Redbank Gorge, MacDonnell
Ranges, Central Australia 1936–37
watercolour on paper 27.5 x 25.0 cm
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Gift of Gordon and Marilyn Darling, celebrating the National
Gallery of Australia’s 25th anniversary, 2008
artonview spring 2008 39
Albert Namatjira Ghost gum 1945–53 watercolour over pencil on paper 42.0 x 32.2 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Gift of Gordon and Marilyn Darling, celebrating the National Gallery of Australia’s 25th anniversary, 2008
Indigenous galleries that form part of the Stage One
building expansion. These works were previously lent to
the National Gallery of Australia for the 2002 retrospective,
Seeing the centre: the art of Albert Namatjira 1902–1959,
curated by Alison French whose research was supported by
the Gordon Darling Foundation. This landmark travelling
exhibition brought together works from state galleries and
private collections to provide a long overdue opportunity
for the critical reappraisal of Namatjira’s works on paper.
Early interest in the art of the Central Desert area
was centred on a group of artists based at the Lutheran
Mission Station at Hermannsburg, or Ntaria, who came
to be called The Hermannsburg School. At the forefront
of this attention was Albert Namatjira, who was the first
to become interested in the medium of watercolour after
seeing several exhibitions by Rex Battarbee and John A
Gardner, who regularly visited the mission during painting
trips through South Australia and Central Australia.
In 1936, Albert arranged to work as Battarbee’s
cameleer on two month-long excursions to Palm Valley and
the MacDonnell Ranges in exchange for painting lessons.
During these trips he quickly picked up the rudiments
of perspective and technique, having shown himself to
be a natural draftsman in his early pokerwork drawings
of local plants and animals on mulga wood plaques,
boomerangs and woomeras for the mission’s small craft
industry. Battarbee was so impressed with his instinct for
composition and colour that he chose three watercolours
to display alongside his own at the Royal South Australian
Society of Arts Gallery in 1937. The following year he
organised a solo exhibition at the Fine Arts Society Gallery
in Melbourne, for which Albert added his father’s tribal
name, Namatjira, to his signature. His paintings sold out
within three days, establishing a pattern of commercial
patronage that continued throughout his exhibiting career.
This success and further painting expeditions by
Namatjira and Battarbee inspired others at the mission
to follow in his footsteps including the Pareroultja and
Raberaba brothers, Walter Ebatarinja and Adolf Inkamala.
These camps could last for weeks, which allowed Namatjira
to paint the ever-changing light over the course of a day
or across the seasons. He journeyed by foot, camel and
car to sites all around the MacDonnell Ranges and outside
Western Arrernte country as far as Haast’s Bluff, Uluru and
Mount Connor. When he had found a suitable vantage
point, he would sit cross-legged with a sheet of paper
tacked to a wooden board and a billy can of water and
begin with a wash of sky. This combination of Namatjira’s
direct experience of the land and his unerring eye for
colour gives the viewer the full fierce blaze of ochre rock,
the thirsty expanse of scrub-mottled plains and the purple
shadows that spread like bruises in the folds of the ranges.
For many Indigenous artists, their sense of self is bound
to the ancestral country that holds their Dreaming story.
For Albert Namatjira and his kinsfolk, this connection
to the land was manifested through representational
watercolours. After Namatjira’s death in 1959, the
Hermannsburg School was largely overlooked, particularly
following the emergence of the symbolic acrylic paintings
of the Papunya Tula collective during the 1970s. It was
not until the first retrospective of Namatjira’s painting was
held in 1984 at the Araluen Arts Centre in Alice Springs
that his vision of country was accepted and both realistic
and symbolic approaches have now been recognised as
different ways of depicting the creation stories embodied
in the landscape. This has encouraged other Indigenous
artists to tell their story through watercolour painting,
and Namatjira’s artistic heritage continues through his
descendents and those that he inspired.
Sarina Noordhuis-Fairfax Curator, Australian Prints and Drawings
40 national gallery of australia
acquisition Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art
Owen Yalandja Yawk yawks
The Kuninjku people in the Maningrida region of Central
Arnhem Land believe that yawk yawks are mermaid-like
manifestations of young female ancestors. They have
slender undulating bodies, fine scales, forked tails, pointed
breasts and long, almost featureless faces. If disturbed
or frightened, the shadowy figures of these magnificent
water creatures can be seen fleeing into the depths of
Mirrayar billabong, an important yawk yawk site and sacred
Yirritja moiety place. The Dangkorlo clan are custodians of
this billabong.
Owen Yalandja, a Kuninjku (eastern Kunwinjku) artist
and a senior member of the Dangkorlo clan, is a renowned
sculptor and is well known for his carving and singing at
yawk yawk ceremonies. He was born in 1962 and is the son
of Kuninjku ceremonial leader, painter and carver Crusoe
Kuningbal (1922–1984) and brother to Crusoe Kurddal (b.
1961). It wasn’t until the death of their father that Yalandja
and Kurddal began carving mimih spirits. Their sculptures
were similar to those of their father, but they produced the
figures at a larger scale to better represent the size and
form of mimih – tall, slender spirits that live in the rocky
environment of the Arnhem Land plateau.
My father … taught me and my brother … how to carve.
He only did mimih spirit figures and when I first started
as an artist I used to make mimih figures as well. Then, I
decided to change and to start representing yawk yawk
spirit figures.1
Yalandja began experimenting with the painted designs
and use of colour and, while Kurddal continued carving
mimih, Yalandja began carving yawk yawk. He would carve
their bodies like those of the mimih – tall, very slender and
often with intricate detail over their sometimes twisted
bodies. Today, however, his yawk yawk sculptures are more
distinct and refined from his mimih figures.
Yawk yawk is a bit the equivalent of a mermaid in balanda
[white] culture. Yawk yawk is my Dreaming and she lives
in the water at Barrihdjowkkeng near where I have set
up my outstation. She has always been there. I often visit
this place.
I love making these sculptures and I have invented a way
to represent the fish scales on her body. The colours I use
have particular meanings [which are not public]. I make
them either red or black. I am now teaching my kids to
carve, just like my father did for us.
I make it [yawk yawk] according to my individual ideas …
My father used to decorate them with dots. A long time
ago, he showed me how to do this. But this style is my
own; no one else does them like this.2
Yalandja uses only kurrajong (Brachychiton diversifolius)
wood, the same wood his father used, and natural earth
pigments with PVA (polyvinyl acetate) fixatives to create the
stunning designs on his figures. He selects unusual trunks
that are thin and curvilinear, giving his figures a sinewy
appearance and creating the impression of movement
in the body and tail. The natural fork in the tree often
provides the fork of the yawk yawk’s tail.
Yalandja is now passing on his knowledge by teaching
his son Dustin Bonson to carve mimih spirits.
These three exquisite yawk yawk figures, along with
three others, were first featured in the exhibition Culture
Warriors: National Indigenous Art Triennial, which is
currently on tour around Australia and will open and
the Art Gallery of Western Australia, its second touring
venue, on 20 September 2008. They were kindly gifted
by Janet and John Calvert-Jones and are fine additions to
the National Gallery of Australia’s collection of six other
stunning yawk yawks.
Tina Baum Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art
note1. Owen Yalandja, interview with Apolline Kohen, Cadell Outstation,
Northern Territory, 4 February 2007.2. Yalandja.
Owen Yalandja Yawkyawks 2007
natural earth pigments and PVA fixative on Kurrajong
(Brachychiton diversifolius) (l–r) 280.0 x 16.7 cm (diam);
225.0 x 14.3 cm (diam); 240.0 x 15.8 cm (diam)
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Gift of Janet and John Calvert-Jones, 2008
42 national gallery of australia
acquisition Australian Photography
Deborah Paauwe From the waist down
When she was recently asked which art work of any ever
made she would most like to live with, Deborah Paauwe
chose the image Vale Street 1975 by the Australian
photographer Carol Jerrems.1 On the face of it, an
unexpected choice. With its defiantly bare-breasted female
figure and her attendant satyr-like teenage boys, it has
come to be regarded by many as a stridently feminist
iconic image – somehow a more forthright and unromantic
work than I would have expected. And yet Vale Street
also has a pervading mystery, a sense of a story unfolding
that remains unresolved and unknowable. It also has an
intriguing atmosphere of vulnerability underneath the
assertiveness: a suggestion that violence and brutality lie
behind beautiful surfaces. This mixture is found in much of
Paauwe’s imagery. From the waist down 1998, dating from
early in her career, is particularly powerful in its subtlety,
ambiguity and inscrutability.
Of Dutch and Chinese heritage, Paauwe was born in
Pennsylvania in the United States of America and came to
Adelaide in 1985 after an unusual childhood spent mostly
travelling and living in South-east Asia with her Bible-
Presbyterian missionary parents and two older brothers. It
is to her childhood in the 1970s that Paauwe most often
turns for inspiration. Not a literal retelling so much, but
more so her ability to access the feelings experienced at
that time and to reconstruct that psychic landscape in her
imagery. The body here is seen from the perspective of
a child and the skirt blocks out what is behind. It is too
close to the camera, crowding in on the viewer, the colour
simplified and overblown. It is this ability to reconstruct
memory with an emotive and dreamlike intensity that often
gives her work its allure.
From the waist down is an image Paauwe recreated
from looking through family photograph albums, tapping
into that rich and fascinating area of photography
concerned with questions of history and memory, both
personal and cultural. In making the series Blue room,
from which this image comes, Paauwe looked back to
her own childhood and was also inspired by her mother’s
adolescence in the 1950s, a time that seems to speak
to Paauwe of a simpler and happier existence. Paauwe
conjures up the 1950s through fashion references and
by using a palette of bright, saturated colour. Given the
rupture she experienced coming to a new country at the
age of thirteen, her desire to recreate a perfect upbringing
is not surprising: she has said that she felt that her
childhood had been taken away from her.2
The photographs of Deborah Paauwe are concerned
with exploring identity and how it is formed, particularly at
that time in a girl’s life when she makes the transition from
the world of childhood to adolescence – themes that have
been more overtly explored as her oeuvre has developed.
Traditional feminine preoccupations are frequently
explored. She revels, for instance, in the inclusion of her
own collection of vintage clothes and fabrics. Her images
frequently re-present rituals of play and dressing up, which
are perhaps innocent to the girls themselves but not always
to the eyes of others.
Paauwe may talk of the ingenuous nature of childhood
play but she knows that is not how the images will
necessarily be received; she knows that contemporary
depictions of beautiful and sensual images of childhood
are always fraught. That Paauwe, a woman, makes these
images radically affects our reaction to the works, a
strategy that other contemporary photo-media artists –
most famously perhaps Sally Mann, Francesca Woodman,
Nan Goldin and Cindy Sherman – have also played with to
effective and, at times, controversial outcomes.
The sexual ambiguity in Paauwe’s work is calculated
and subversive and one that engages with contemporary
theoretical writing on the body. As writer Anne Marsh
has said about her work: ‘Paauwe is teasing the gaze,
underlining the voyeurism of the spectator, and thus
planting trouble through the image’.3 Through isolating
parts, the body is depersonalised and objectified. Much of
Paauwe’s work operates in an arena of disjunction and loss:
a beautiful world of nostalgia and longing in which danger
and the unknown lurk beneath the surface.
Anne O’Hehir Curator, Photography
notes1. Deborah Paauwe, interview with Maria Zagala, ‘New work: Deborah
Paauwe’, Art World, no. 2, April 2008, p. 110.2. Wendy Walker, Deborah Paauwe: beautiful games, Wakefield Press,
Adelaide, 2004, p. 8.3. Anne Marsh, ‘Through a veil brightly: recent works by Deborah
Paauwe’, Double Dutch, exhibition catalogue, Greenaway Art Gallery, April 2002, n.p.
Deborah Paauwe From the waist down 1998
Type C colour photograph 75.0 x 75.0 cm
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Gift of Paul Greenaway, OAM, 2008
44 national gallery of australia
acquisition Asian Art
Bahau people Funerary figure
This striking wooden hampatong sculpture is the newest
addition to the National Gallery of Australia’s growing
collection of fine animist art from Southeast Asia. Although
textiles from the animist cultures of the region are a
renowned strength of the Asian art collection, the Gallery
holds only a few outstanding examples of sculpture from
peoples who have continued to follow ancient beliefs in the
power of nature spirits and ancestors.
The term ‘hampatong’ refers to a wide range of
figurative sculptures created by the various indigenous
groups of Borneo collectively known as Dayak peoples.
Rather than one homogeneous society, Borneo is home to
numerous communities with differing customs, languages
and distinct art traditions. These include the Bahau of
central Borneo, whose stylised figurative sculpture is among
the most powerful in Dayak art. In traditional communities
such as the Bahau, many people still hold strong beliefs
in benevolent and malevolent supernatural forces, usually
embodied by spirits of nature, natural phenomenon (such
as disease) and the souls of deceased ancestors. Festivals
and rituals, and the art associated with such activities, are
strongly focussed on ensuring that these forces remain in
balance to protect communities and encourage prosperity.
The form and function of hampatong vary between
different Dayak groups, but they are generally carved
from hardwood and include amulets and small figures for
domestic use and large sculptures that are sometimes over
two metres in height. The latter are placed near houses and
village entrances, around agricultural fields and at funerary
sites. Hampatong of all sizes are considered to have
magical powers and may be used to predict future events
and provide spiritual defence. Sculptures placed in fields
usually remain in position until harvest time to strengthen
the crop. Domestic images and hampatong placed close to
communal houses often depict recently deceased ancestors
and may have individualised human features in detailed
carving. These sculptures provide a temporary home for
the souls of the dead and are a personal expression of
remembrance for deceased individuals. The ornate ancestor
carvings also serve a protective spiritual function – they
are a primary means of preventing disease from entering
homes.
Conversely, village guardians and funerary sculptures
are designed to ward off powerful evil spirits and are
therefore more stylised, with aggressive facial expressions
and imposing proportions. While anthropomorphic figures,
animals, demonic beings and birds may be represented,
they display common iconographic devices used to
represent hostility. Most notable of these are protruding
tongues, sharp fangs and prominent, staring eyes. Images
of this type are closely related to funerary sculptures
created by various animist groups across Southeast Asia.
Funerary rites are of central importance in the
cultures of Borneo, and the hampatong sculptures play
an important role as spiritually charged objects providing
protection and are a means of communicating with the
realm of the ancestors. Textiles, jewellery and ritual utensils
are also essential tools in the precisely orchestrated funeral
ceremonies. Secondary burials, where bones are exhumed
after a period of time to be ritually purified, are considered
to be of particular cultural significance. These mortuary
rituals traditionally include codified mourning practices,
offerings and animal sacrifices. Their main purpose is to
honour the dead, allowing the soul to journey safely to the
afterlife, thus guaranteeing that it does not become an evil
and bothersome spirit.
Recent radiocarbon testing reveals that the Gallery’s
hampatong was created in the early to mid fourteenth
century. Remarkably well preserved for its age, especially
considering the typical effects of a tropical environment,
it is likely to have been situated in a burial cave or under
a large shrine structure for centuries. A rare and elegant
animist sculpture, the Gallery’s hampatong is over a metre
in height, and has an angular, stylised body. The large,
round eyes, sunken cheeks and open mouth with bared
teeth suggest that it originally served as a protective village
guardian or a grave-marker. The frightening geometric
facial imagery is characteristic of sculpture created by the
Bahau people of east Kalimantan in Indonesian Borneo.
Lucie Folan Assistant Curator, Asian Art
Bahau people Kalimantan, Indonesia Funerary figure
[hampatong] 1300–68 wood 114.0 x 18.0 x 18.0 cm
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Purchased 2008
artonview spring 2008 45
46 national gallery of australia
acquisition Australian Decorative Arts and Design
Larsen and Lewers Silver bowl
The fluid and austere form of this large bowl shows the
continuing influence in Australia of the sculptural organic
design that characterised the form of Scandinavian
jewellery and metalwork from the 1950s. Helge Larsen,
Danish-born and trained in this tradition, was instrumental
in the establishment of these principles in Australia
and, with Darani Lewers, has developed jewellery and
metalwork that expresses a highly individual interpretation
of the built and natural Australian environment.
The genesis of the design of this bowl can be seen in
Larsen and Lewers’s silver objects from the early 1980s
in the National Gallery of Australia’s collection, many of
which draw from the study of the details and materials
of Australian vernacular design and architecture. The
sweeping form of this bowl, the largest work made by
these artists, is a technical tour de force that has been
achieved by raising (hammering, planishing and polishing)
the shape from a single sheet of sterling silver. Its apparent
weightlessness and asymmetrical folded form suggest the
lightness and effortlessness of origami and the directness
of functional tinware, yet its weight, solidity and surface
colour link it to the functional and technical traditions
and visual language of silver hollowware. The artists have
paid particular attention to the way that reflected light
emphasises the undulating and attenuated form of the
object, leading the eye from its inner to its outer surfaces.
Helge Larsen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark,
in 1929, and trained in the Danish silversmithing
apprenticeship system and at the College of Art and Design
in Copenhagen from 1949 to 1955. He furthered his work
and studies at the University of Colorado in Denver in the
United States of America from 1955 to 1957. He then
returned to Copenhagen to establish his own jewellery
business, Sølvform, where he employed Australian jeweller
Darani Lewers from 1959 to 1960. In 1961 he migrated
to Australia, married Lewers and set up a workshop
partnership with her in Sydney. He was appointed as the
founding Head of Jewellery and Silversmithing at the
Sydney College of the Arts in 1977, becoming an Associate
Professor and its Head of School from 1991 until his
retirement to full-time private studio practice in 1994. In
recognition of his work in craft education, he received an
Australia Council Emeritus Award in 1999.
Darani Lewers, the daughter of artists Gerald and
Margo Lewers, was born in 1936. She trained at East
Sydney Technical College and in the studio of Estonian
jeweller Niina Ratsep in 1958 before moving to Denmark
to work with Helge Larsen from 1959 to 1960. She was
awarded an Order of Australia in 1982 for her contribution
to the Australian contemporary crafts movement.
Larsen and Lewers have worked in partnership on major
commissions, metalwork and jewellery since 1961,
mounting thirty-nine solo exhibitions in Australia and nine
in Europe, and contributing to twenty-one international
jewellery and metalwork exhibitions.
This new work from two of Australia’s most senior
silversmiths celebrates their fiftieth year of practice. It
joins other silver hollowware works in the collection from
established Australian silversmiths, adding strength to the
Gallery’s holdings of Australian metalwork, both historical
and contemporary. Its acquisition was funded from the
Meredith Hinchliffe Fund, which focuses on contemporary
Australian craft, and it is a major new Australian
contemporary decorative arts and design acquisition in the
Gallery’s silver anniversary year.
Robert Bell Senior Curator, Decorative Arts and Design
Helge Larsen and Darani Lewers
Bowl 2008 sterling silver 12.2 x 39.0 x
28.0 cm Purchased 2008 with funds from
the Meredith Hinchliffe Fund
artonview spring 2008 47
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].
Maringka Baker Kuru Ala 2007 (detail) synthetic polymer paint on canvas 153.5 x 200.0 cm National Gallery of Australia © Maringka Baker
Culture Warriors: National Indigenous Art Triennial
Proudly supported by BHP Billiton; the Australia Council for the Arts through its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Board, Visual Art Board and Community Partnerships and Market Development (International) Board; the Contemporary Touring Initiative through Visions of Australia, an Australian Government program; and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian Government and state and territory governments; the Queensland Government through the Queensland Indigenous Arts Marketing and Export Agency; and Australian air Express
Culture Warriors, the inaugural National Indigenous Art Triennial, presents the highly original and accomplished work of thirty Indigenous Australian artists from every state and territory. Featuring outstanding works in a variety of media, Culture Warriors draws inspiration from the fortieth anniversary of the 1967 Referendum (Aboriginals) and demonstrates the breadth and calibre of contemporary Indigenous art practice in Australia. nga.gov.au/NIAT07 Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, WA, 20 September – 23 November 2008
Arthur Streeton The selector’s hut (Whelan on the log) 1890 (detail) oil on canvas 76.7 x 51.2 cm National Gallery of Australia
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 R.M.Williams The Bush Outfitter and the National Gallery of Australia Council Exhibitions Fund
To mark the 25th anniversary of the National Gallery of Australia, Director Ron Radford, AM, curated this national touring exhibition of treasured works from the national collection. Every Australian state and territory is represented through the works of iconic artists such as Clarice Beckett, Arthur Boyd, Grace Cossington Smith, Russell Drysdale, Hans Heysen, Max Meldrum, Sidney Nolan, Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Eugene von Guérard. nga.gov.au/OceantoOutback
Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, NT, 9 August – 19 October 2008 Newcastle Region Art Gallery, Newcastle, NSW, 8 November 2008 – 1 February 2009
Otto Dix Ration carriers near Pilkem 1924 (detail) plate 43 from the portfolio War etching, aquatint 24.8 x 29.8 cm National Gallery of Australia The Poynton Bequest 2003 © Otto Dix. Licensed by VISCOPY, Australia, 2008
War: the prints of Otto Dix
Otto Dix’s Der Krieg cycle, a collection of 51 etchings, is regarded as one of the great masterpieces of the twentieth century. Modelled on Goya’s equally famous and equally devastating Los Desastres de la guerra [The disasters of war], the portfolio captures Dix’s horror of and fascination with the experience of war. nga.gov.au/Dix
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 22 August – 26 October 2008 Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Qld, 7 November 2008 – 1 February 2009
Grace Crowley Abstract painting 1947 (detail) oil on cardboard 60.7 x 83.3 cm National Gallery of Australia
Grace Crowley: being modern
One of the leading figures in the development of modernism in Australia, Grace Crowley’s life and art intersected with some of the major movements of twentieth-century art. This is the first exhibition of Grace Crowley’s work since 1975 and includes important works from public and private collections. Spanning the 1920s through to the 1960s, the exhibition traces her remarkable artistic journey from painter of atmospheric Australian landscapes to her extraordinary late abstracts. nga.gov.au/Crowley
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, WA, 14 June – 21 September 2008 Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Tas., 2 October – 23 November 2008
Colin McCahon Crucifixion: the apple branch 1950 (detail) oil on canvas 89.0 x 117.0 cm Purchased with funds from the Sir Otto and Lady Margaret Frankel Bequest 2004
Colin McCahon
A National Gallery of Australia Focus Exhibition
This exhibition showcases the National Gallery of Australia’s holdings of one of the Australasian region’s most renowned and respected artists – Colin McCahon. It includes paintings and works on paper spanning the period from the 1950s to early 1980s. The exhibition’s tour of Australia and New Zealand is significant as it coincides with the thirtieth anniversary of the New Zealand Government’s gift to Australia in 1978 of the iconic work Victory over death 2 1970, which has become a destination work for the Gallery. nga.gov.au/McCahon
Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand, 5 July – 19 October 2008
Seated Ganesha Sri Lanka 9th–10th century (detail) bronze 10.0 x 6.8 x 4.4 cm in Red case: myths and rituals The Elaine and Jim Wolfensohn Gift
The Elaine and Jim Wolfensohn Gift Travelling Exhibitions
Three suitcases of works of art: Red case: myths and rituals includes works that reflect the spiritual beliefs of different cultures; Yellow case: form, space, design reflects a range of art making processes; and Blue case: technology. These suitcases thematically present a selection of art and design objects that may be borrowed free-of-charge for the enjoyment of children and adults in regional, remote and metropolitan centres. nga.gov.au/Wolfensohn
For further details and bookings telephone (02) 6240 6589 or email [email protected].
Karl Millard Lizard grinder 2000 (detail) brass, bronze, copper, sterling silver, money metal, Peugeot mechanism, stainless steel screws 10.0 x 8.0 x 23.5 cm in Blue case: technology The Elaine and Jim Wolfensohn Gift
Red case: myths and rituals and Yellow case: form, space and design
Inverell Shire Library, Inverell, NSW, 1–26 September 2008 Gympie Regional Gallery, Gympie, Qld, 1–28 October 2008 Young District Arts Council, Young, NSW, 3 November – 16 December 2008
Blue case: technology
South West Arts, Hay, NSW, 4 August – 22 September 2008 Coomoora Primary School, Coomoora, Vic., 6 October – 3 November 2008
The 1888 Melbourne Cup
The Western Australian Museum, Kalgoorlie, WA, 1 September – 10 October 2008 The Western Australian Museum, Perth, WA, 20 October – 26 November 2008
The National Gallery of Australia Travelling Exhibitions Program is generously supported by Australian airExpress.
Travelling exhibitions spring 2008
48 national gallery of australia
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artonview spring 2008 49
faces in view
1. Children participating in the Gallery’s Character clues workshop.
2. Janet Meanie and Lyn Gascoigne at the opening celebrations for Picture paradise.
3. A child hold up her mask at Character clues workshop.
4. Laila Shouha and her mother Luiza Urbanik at the opening celebrations for Richard Larter.
5. Rhys Muldoon, Belinda Cotton and Hugh Jackman at the 2020 Summit Dinner at the National Gallery of Australia.
6. Chantelle Woods, Assistant Curator, with Visiting Indigenous curators from Canada: (l–r) Steven Loft, Ryan Rice, Bonnie Devine, Jim Logan, David Garneau, Michelle LaVallee, Ramses Calderon.
7. Peter Boreham, Sarah Bryan and Penny Boyer at the opening celebrations for Picture paradise.
8. Richard Nipperess, Ong Niennatfrakul, LinLin Kearney, Selena Kearney and Chris Lilley at the special Members’ opening for Richard Larter.
9. Bill Henson opening the Gallery’s exhibition Picture paradise.
10. The Siam Thai Dance Troupe performing at the opening of Picture paradise.
11/ Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu 12. performing in the James O Fairfax Theatre at the National Gallery of Australia during NAIDOC Week.
13. David Foxwell, Ruth Foxwell and David Patterson at the opening celebrations for Picture paradise.
14. Stefan Fuchs, Alexander Chapman, Mark Huck and Frances Corkhill, Sponsorship and Development Officer, at the opening celebrations for Richard Larter.
15. Helen Eager, Richard Larter, Christopher Hodges and exhibition curator Deborah Hart at the opening celebrations for Richard Larter.
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50 national gallery of australia
Emily
Kam
e K
ngw
arre
yeUtopia
The genius of Emily Kame Kngwarreye
Her name is spoken in the same breath as Modigliani and Monet, yet she never
saw their work.
Her work is seen in major galleries around the world, yet she never left Australia.
Direct from Tokyo, the National Museum’s highly
acclaimed international exhibition of paintings by one of Australia’s greatest contemporary
artists is on show at one Australian venue only.
22 August – 12 October 2008
Tickets at www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions
Exhibition costs apply. Open 9 am – 5 pm daily (closed Christmas Day)Lawson Crescent Acton Peninsula Canberra ACT 2600
Freecall 1800 026 132 www.nma.gov.auThe National Museum of Australia is an Australian Government Agency
Untitled 1993 (detail)©Emily Kame KngwarreyeCollection of Phillip and Jenny LawrenceLicensed by Viscopy 08
important fine art auctionsydney november 2008
call for entriesfor obligation-free appraisals, please call
Sydney MelbourneDamian Hackett Chris Deutscher Merryn Schriever Tony Preston
02 9287 0600 03 9865 6333
www.deutscherandhackett.com
experience expertise integrity results
clockwise from top left
JEFFREY SMARTSunbathers at Construction SiteSOLD NOVEMBER 2007 $600,000 COLIN MCCAHONClouds 5SOLD NOVEMBER 2007 $360,000 JOHN BRACKUp in the Air (Small Version)SOLD NOVEMBER 2007 $288,000
ROSALIE GASCOIGNENews BreakSOLD AUGUST 2007 $300,000
artonview spring 2008 51
important fine art auctionsydney november 2008
call for entriesfor obligation-free appraisals, please call
Sydney MelbourneDamian Hackett Chris Deutscher Merryn Schriever Tony Preston
02 9287 0600 03 9865 6333
www.deutscherandhackett.com
experience expertise integrity results
clockwise from top left
JEFFREY SMARTSunbathers at Construction SiteSOLD NOVEMBER 2007 $600,000 COLIN MCCAHONClouds 5SOLD NOVEMBER 2007 $360,000 JOHN BRACKUp in the Air (Small Version)SOLD NOVEMBER 2007 $288,000
ROSALIE GASCOIGNENews BreakSOLD AUGUST 2007 $300,000
SYDNEY 02 8344 5404 MELBOURNE 03 9822 1911 GOLD COAST 07 5591 7134 WWW.MENZIESARTBRANDS.COM
let us steer you in the right directionAt Menzies Art Brands we help you make the right decision. Our expert
specialists happily provide assistance in buying, selling and collecting.
Menzies Art Brands are the leading Australian Art Auctioneers. Upcoming
Sydney auctions are Deutscher~Menzies 17 September & Lawson~Menzies
18 September, followed by our December auctions.
ME
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JEFFREY SMARTFirst Study for The Directors 1977
oil on canvas on board 19.0 x 45.5 cm
SOLD DM June 2006 $84,000(including buyer’s premium)
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54 national gallery of australia
ngashop publications
ISBN 064254204-X
9 7 8 0 6 4 2 5 4 2 0 4 5
Richard LarterDeborah Hart184 pp., illustrated in colour, softcover 290 x 240 mmRRP $44.95Special NGA venue price $34.95
Printed images by Australian artists 1885–1955
Roger Butler315 pp., illustrated in colour, hardover, 290 x 240 mm RRP $89.00
Culture WarriorsNational Indigenous Art Triennial
Brenda Croft (ed.)218 pp., illustrated in colour, softcover, 298 x 245mm RRP $55.95
Australian artists booksAlex Selenitsch128 pp., illustrated in colour, softcover, 225 x 225 mm RRP $39.95
Picture paradiseAsia–Pacific photography 1840s–1940s
Gael Newton88 pp., illustrated in colour, softcover 270 x 220 mmRRP $29.95Special NGA venue price $24.95
Collection highlightsNational Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Ron Radford (ed.)272 pp., illustrated in colour, softcover 250 x 176 mmRRP $24.95
open 7 days 10 am – 5 pm • Parkes Place, Canberra ACT 2601 • ngashop.com.au
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Where are you staying?
Conveniently close to both Manuka and Kingston shopping villages. Only three km from the National Gallery of Australia
... more like home.
Less like a hotel
Arthur Streeton 1867-1943, Golden summer, Eaglemont 1889, oil on canvas 81.3 x 152.6 cm.
KINGSTON
16 Eyre St [email protected] 1800 655 754
Australian Landscape painting 1850 - 1950The National Gallery of Australia 25th Anniversary travelling exhibition
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open 7 days 10 am – 5 pmParkes Place, Canberra ACT 2601free call 1800 808 337(02) 6240 [email protected]
56 national gallery of australia
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B A R T O N
Canberran Owned and Operated
National Gallery ofAustralia Package
twin/double. per room, per night.
Includes Heritage room, full buffet breakfast for 2 adults, free parking, daily newspaper, two tickets to the Degas exhibition and tickets to Old Parliament House.
$199.00
The Brassey of Canberra
Belmore Gardens and Macquarie Street, Barton ACT 2600
Telephone: 02 6273 3766 Facsimile: 02 6273 2791Toll Free Telephone:
Email: [email protected]: //www.brassey.net.au
Brassey Artonview Degas 233x267.1 1 1/7/08 11:59:44 AM