SOFT 24 APRIL – 12 JULY 2009 artonview artonview ISSUE 57 ISSUE ISSUE 57 ISSUE 

a u t mn 2009 2009  autumn 2009 autumn NAT IO NA L a US T R A LI G A LLERYOF

CANBERRA ONLY NGA.GOV.AU

The National Gallery of is an Australian Government Agency SOFT SCULPTURE  DEGAS’ WORLD: THE RAGE FOR CHANGE Claes Oldenburg Soft alphabet 1978 (detail) National Gallery of Australia, Canberra © Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen The National Gallery of Australia is an Australian Government Agency Issue 57, autumn 2009

published quarterly by 2 Director’s foreword National Gallery of Australia GPO Box 1150 5 Foundation and Development Canberra ACT 2601 nga.gov.au 8 National Gallery of Australia Bequest Circle 2009 ISSN 1323-4552 Print Post Approved 10 Masterpieces for the Nation Fund 2009: pp255003/00078 ’s Shearing shed, Newstead © National Gallery of Australia 2008 Anne Gray Copyright for reproductions of artworks is held by the artists or their estates. Apart from uses permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, exhibitions and displays no part of artonview may be reproduced, transmitted or copied without the prior 12 Degas’ world: a rage for change permission of the National Gallery of Australia. Enquires about permissions should be made in Mark Henshaw writing to the Rights and Permissions Officer. 20 Soft sculpture The opinions expressed in artonview are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. Don’t touch, lick or smell editor Eric Meredith Lucina Ward designer Kristin Thomas photography Eleni Kypridis, Barry Le Lievre, collection focus/conservation Brenton McGeachie, Steve Nebauer, Pang, John Tassie 28 The golden journey: loans of Japanese art rights and permissions Nick Nicholson to the Art Gallery of South Australia advertising Erica Seccombe Melanie Eastburn printed in Australia by Blue Star Print, Canberra 31 Restoring Buddha and the sixteen protectors enquiries The editor, artonview Andrea Wise National Gallery of Australia GPO Box 1150 acquisitions Canberra ACT 2601 [email protected] 36 Hilda Rix Nicholas Les fleurs dédaignées advertising Anne Gray Tel: (02) 6240 6587 Fax: (02) 6240 6427 38 Redback Graphix The 8-kin network [email protected] Macushla Robinson RRP $8.60 includes GST Free to members of the National Gallery of Australia 39 Harry Tjutjuna Wangka Tjukurpa (Spiderman) Chantelle Woods For further information on National Gallery of Australia Membership: 40 Ethel Warburton Vase and bowls Membership Coordinator Robert Bell GPO Box 1150 Canberra ACT 2601 Tel: (02) 6240 6504 41 Peter Behrens Electric kettle [email protected] Robert Bell 42 Lan Xang Buddha sheltered by Muchalinda, the serpent king Niki van den Heuvel 44 Tsukioka Yoshitoshi The lonely house on Adachi Moor Beth Lonergan

(cover) Eva Hesse Contingent 1969 45 Travelling exhibitions cheesecloth, latex, fibreglass installation 350 x 630 x 109 cm (variable) National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 46 Faces in view Purchased 1973 Courtesy the Estate of Eva Hesse, Galerie Hauser & Wirth, Zurich Director’s foreword

As Spring 2008 wound to a close in November, Ray Degas’ world: the rage for change, however, continues Wilson OAM, from whom we acquired the Agapitos/ until 3 May. It includes some of the Gallery’s most Wilson collection of Australian Surrealism, gave an inspired remarkable European prints of the nineteenth century by speech at the National Gallery of Australia about wills artists such as Honoré Daumier, Edouard Manet, Camille and the benevolent opportunities they provide. Earlier in Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse- the year, Ray had announced that he and his late partner Lautrec and . In this issue of artonview, the James Agapitos had also decided to generously include the exhibition’s curator Mark Henshaw, Curator, International National Gallery of Australia in their wills. We include an Prints, Drawings and Illustrated Books, examines the excerpt of the speech that Ray delivered at the launch of radically changing industrial, political and social milieu of the Gallery’s Bequest Circle on page 8. France and the role artists played in capturing the birth As Ray points out, wills are our formal opportunity to of a modern society—its moments of glory and, at times, have the last word without anyone having the right of reply degradation, the beauty and the grotesquery. and, through bequests, we can make positive statements The touring exhibition from the Art Gallery of South about what we believed in and cherished during our Australia, Misty moderns: Australian Tonalists 1915–1950, life. ‘It is your chance … to say thank you to the cultural opened in February at the National Gallery of Australia institutions that have contributed to your quality of life’, and continues until 26 April. Curated by Tracy Lock-Weir, he said. Through their passion for and their the exhibition is the first to assemble works of Australian great generosity, Ray Wilson and James Agapitos have Tonalism, a movement that had a strong influence on contributed significantly to the enjoyment of Australian art artistic practice between the two world wars. The work of by today’s audiences and those of the future. followers of Max Meldrum and his Tonalism is characterised Speaking of philanthropy, every year we invite people by a particular ‘misty’ or atmospheric quality created by to play a role in the life of the Gallery by encouraging them building ‘tone on tone’. to contribute to the Masterpieces for the Nation Fund, On 24 April, in the exhibition Soft sculpture, we leap our annual appeal for contributions toward acquiring a ahead to an innovation in the arts in the second half of major work of art for the national collection. This year, the twentieth century. Traditionally, when we think of we are appealing for donations, large and small, toward sculpture, we think of solid and permanent objects, of the purchase of an exceptional and potent work by Tom enduring monuments. From the 1960s (although there are Roberts, Shearing shed, Newstead c 1894, the finest of the also earlier examples), some sculptors turned this notion on artist’s oil sketches left in private hands. This spontaneous its head, using cloth, foam, rubber, paper, vinyl and similar image of a shearing shed and Australian pastoral life will pliant materials—rather than stone, and wood. be an extraordinary addition to our collection of Australian Curated by Lucina Ward, Curator, International Painting Impressionism. An article by Anna Gray, Head of Australian and Sculpture, Soft sculpture presents the remarkable Art, is on page 10. range of materials that artists have employed in the Two important and related exhibitions opened at the development of this major sculptural trend. The exhibition National Gallery of Australia in December and January: features the work of perhaps the most popular and Degas: master of French art and Degas’ world: the rage for certainly one of the earliest proponents of soft sculpture, change. I hope your holiday schedule included a visit to the Claes Oldenburg, whose large-scale creations can be seen Gallery to see them both. Together, they give a rich account at major art galleries around the world. The exhibition of a volatile period of change in European art. also includes works by international artists such as Joseph Just over three weeks remain until Degas: master Beuys, Eva Hesse, Annette Messager, Robert Morris and of French art ends on 22 March. This is the first ever Robert Rauschenberg, and Australian artists such as Ricky Australian exhibition of his work. Don’t miss it! Swallow, Mikala Dwyer, David Jensz and others.

2 national gallery of australia Coinciding with Soft sculpture, the Gallery will open the graphics with eye-watering colours to give voice to a raft Rupert Myer, Chairman, National Gallery of Australia, exhibition Reinventions: and assemblages from of pressing social issues. We are grateful to Alison Alder, speaking at the opening of the Australian collection at the end of May. This will include Director of Canberra’s Megalo Access Arts and former Degas: master of French art. Sitting (l–r): John Mackay, assemblages by some of Australia’s most important artists, co-director of Redback Graphix, for donating this vibrant Chairman of ACTEW Corporation, Guy Cogeval, such as Robert Klippel and Rosalie Gascoigne, as well as poster of Australian social history. The 8-kin network Director, Musée d’Orsay, recent sculptural works by Ricky Swallow and Rodney Glick also features alongside a vast array of other works by the and , Director, National Gallery of Australia. among others. studio in our recently published Redback Graphix. Written In this issue, we also feature the acquisition of an by Anna Zagala, Redback Graphix is the third in the book exceptional work by Hilda Rix Nicholas. Her largest series The printed image, which the Gallery will celebrate painting, Les fleurs dédaignées (The scorned flowers) 1925, on Saturday 14 March with talks by some of the artists is the second acquisition of this artist’s work that we have featured in the books. highlighted in consecutive issues of artonview. Les fleurs I would like to extend my congratulations to Rupert dédaignées is another of the Australian painter’s European Myer AM, who was recently reappointed as Chairman subjects—as Snow, Montmartre c 1914 was in our previous of the Council of the National Gallery of Australia for a issue—although she painted it almost a decade later, further three years, and express, on behalf of the Gallery, during a visit to France in 1925, after she had already our gratitude for his unerring service and generosity returned to Australia. She later moved to the Monaro since he was first appointed Chairman in 2006. Rupert district in the greater Canberra region. brings considerable business skill to the position and is a The Gallery has also acquired its first early sculpture tireless promoter of the Gallery. We are fortunate to have from the old Laos kingdom of Lan Xang. It is a fifteenth- a Chairman who is so well informed, so interested in all to sixteenth-century bronze sculpture of the Buddha seated aspects of what we do and so willing to commit time in meditation under the seven-headed hood of the serpent and energy to the institution. It is also heartening (and king Muchalinda. This iconic naga Buddha is common fairly unusual) to have a Chairman who is extraordinarily in Theravada Buddhist cultures, particularly in Thailand, knowledgeable and passionate about art and the Cambodia and Laos. An important addition to the Gallery’s contemporary art world. expanding collection of Southeast Asian Buddhist art, it enhances our ability to introduce visitors to the full range of art and culture of our near neighbours. The Gallery also received a gift of a large screenprint, The 8-kin network 1985 by the design and printmaking studio Redback Graphix. From 1979 to 1994, Redback

Graphix produced posters that combined edgy and witty Ron Radford AM

artonview autumn 2009 3 credit lines

Donations Grants

Terrence Campbell AO and Christine Campbell Degas: master of French art has been indemnified by the Ian Crawford AM Commonwealth through the Australian Government’s Michael Hobbs Art Indemnity Australia program, administered by the Jason Prowd Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and Alison Rahill the Arts Diana Ramsay AO Australia Council for the Arts through the Showcasing the Maxine Rochester Best International Strategy, and through its Aboriginal Janet Rodgers and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board, Visual Arts Board Alan Rose AO and Helen Rose and Community Partnerships and Market Development Peter Webster (International) Board The Gordon Darling Foundation Gifts Visions of Australia through its Contemporary Touring University of Art Museum Initiative, an Australian Government program Impressions on Paper Gallery supporting touring exhibitions by providing funding Aranday Foundation assistance for the development and touring of Alison Alder Australian cultural material across Australia, and Rick Amor through the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative Gordon H Brown of the Australian Government, and state and territory Rachel Burgess governments Mark Dodson Sponsorship Michael Florrimell Patricia Ganter ActewAGL John Gollings Adshel Robert Jacks Brassey Hotel of Canberra Mathew Jones BHP Billiton Jane Kinsman Canberra Times Alistair Legge Casella Wines Kevin Lincoln Champagne Pol Roger Vane Lindesay Coopers Brewery John Loane Eckersley’s Art & Craft John McPhee Forrest Hotel and Apartments Warren Muller Mantra on Northbourne Roslyn Packer AO National Australia Bank Kirsteen Pieterse Qantas Robert Rooney RM Williams, The Bush Outfitter Jorg Schmeisser Sony Foundation Australia Gene and Brian Sherman Ticketek Imants Tillers Yalumba Wine Peter Van de Maele WIN Television

Notified bequests

Mary Alice Pelham Thorman AM

4 national gallery of australia Foundation and Development

Margaret Olley donates Degas drawing to National Gallery of Australia AC has been a supporter of the National Gallery of Australia for some time and, just prior to the opening of the major exhibition Degas: master of French art, she presented the Gallery with an important Degas drawing, Dancer in fourth position c 1885. The drawing is on display, publicly for the first time, in the exhibition Degas, which is open until 22 March. A media launch was held on 4 December 2008 to formally announce the gift. At the launch, Margaret Olley said, ‘I was inspired to give this Degas drawing to the National Gallery of Australia as part of this milestone occasion, the first ever Degas exhibition in Australia, and to be on display for visitors to the National Gallery in the future’. The Director, Ron Radford AM, also commented on how philanthropic support received by the National Gallery of Australia has greatly assisted in building the national collection of art:

Benefaction of important works of art make a significant Australia’s programs. Some people may be able to bequeath Margaret Olley at the annoucement of her gift to addition to the nation. We are grateful to Margaret Olley a work of art and others a portion of their estate. We the Gallery, Edgar Degas’s for her generous gift of this significant Degas drawing. Her recommend that all works of art considered for bequeathing Dancer in fourth position support for the Gallery over a number of years has enabled c 1885. to the Gallery are discussed beforehand with the curator of us to acquire major works that would otherwise have been the relevant collecting area. out of reach. If you would like to join the National Gallery of Australia Dancer in fourth position depicts Degas’ fascination with Bequest Circle or would like more information, please contact illustrating movement. The artist’s method is clearly visible the Executive Director of the National Gallery of Australia through his use of a series of charcoal lines (surrounding the Foundation, Annalisa Millar, on (02) 6240 6691. arms and legs) to decide the most effective position for the dancer’s body. Masterpieces for the Nation Fund 2009 Masterpieces for the Nation Fund is an annual appeal National Gallery of Australia Bequest Circle organised by the Foundation. The appeal enables a number The National Gallery of Australia Bequest Circle is a new of benefactors to make individual contributions. The initiative that formally acknowledges bequest donors during donations combined then enable the Foundation to acquire a their lifetime and gives potential and existing bequest donors significant work of art for the national collection. a unique opportunity to develop a closer relationship with Since it was initiated in 2003, the Masterpieces for the Gallery. An excerpt of Ray Wilson’s speech, which he the Nation Fund has assisted the Gallery to acquire seven presented at the launch of the Bequest Circle, is reproduced significant works for the national collection. These include with an introduction by the Director on pages 8–9. William Robinson’s Creation landscape—fountains of the Bequests to the National Gallery of Australia come in Earth 2002, Long’s Flamingoes c 1905–06, Jeffrey a range of forms and sizes and all make a difference to Smart’s Lovers by house 1956, the nineteenth-century Indian the national collection of art and the National Gallery of shrine hanging Festival of the cattle, Doreen Reid Nakamarra’s

artonview autumn 2009 5 Ray Wilson and Rupert Untitled 2007 and the eighteenth-century shrine hanging Since 1979, the Commonwealth has indemnified Myer, Chairman, National Gallery of Australia, at Autumn Moon festival. approximately $13.9 billion worth of cultural objects in the launch of the Bequest This year we are delighted to announce that the work of 102 exhibitions, with a combined audience total of almost Circle, 14 November 2008. art selected for the fund is Tom Roberts’s magnificent painting 22 million visitors. The scheme was established to provide Michael Costello, Managing Director, ACTEW Shearing shed, Newstead c 1894. An article written by Anne greater access for the people of Australia to significant Corporation, and Ron Gray, Head of Australian Art, is featured on pages 10–11. cultural exhibitions. Radford, Director, National Gallery of Australia, at the For further enquiries regarding the Masterpieces for the We are grateful to Art Indemnity Australia for supporting opening of the exhibition Nation Fund or to donate, please contact the Foundation on the National Gallery of Australia in bringing this important Degas: master of French art. (02) 6240 6454. exhibition to Australia. WIN Television (Supporting Sponsor) Degas: master of French art We thank WIN Television for their supporting sponsorship ActewAGL (Principal Partner) of Degas. In addition to sponsoring Degas, we would like to We would like to thank ActewAGL—in particular, CEO thank WIN Television for their commitment to the exhibition Michael Costello—for their generous support as the Principal Soft sculpture at the National Gallery of Australia from 24 Partner of Degas: master of French art. Thank you also to April to 12 July 2009. We thank Corey Pitt, Station Manager, Mark Sullivan, Managing Director of Actew Corporation; Natalie Tanchevski, Advertising Account Executive, and the John McKay, Chairman of ActewAGL, for his ongoing entire team at WIN Television. commitment to supporting the National Gallery of Australia; Canberra Times (Supporting Sponsor) Paul Walshe, Director of Marketing and Corporate Affairs; We are also grateful to the Canberra Times for their and the entire team at ActewAGL. contribution and support of Degas and for their further We are extremely grateful to ActewAGL for their commitment to promote and support other exhibitions and sponsorship of Degas and furthermore for their support of activities throughout 2009. We thank Peter Fray, former the Gallery for over a decade. By supporting this exhibition, editor, and wish him luck in his new position as the editor ActewAGL reaffirms their commitment to the local and of The Sydney Morning Herald. Our thanks also go to national community and to promoting and celebrating the Ken Nichols, General Manager, and Kylie Dennis, Group vital role that the arts play in our national identity. They have Advertising Manager, and the team at Canberra Times. helped to ensure that Australians have access to some of the Adshel (Supporting Sponsor) world’s most important and inspiring works of art. We also welcome Adshel back to the National Gallery of Art Indemnity Australia (Principal Partner) Australia as a supporting sponsor and thank them for their The assistance of Art Indemnity Australia—the Australian generous support of Degas. Adshel have provided Government’s art indemnity scheme through which loans to a prominent street promotion campaign, ensuring Degas have been indemnified—has been invaluable. Without high-visibility of the exhibition in Sydney, and this support this exhibition could not have taken place.

6 national gallery of australia Canberra. We thank Steve McCarthy, CEO, Peter Cosgrove, with an invaluable learning experience through a Jane Kinsman, curator of Degas, Michael Costello, Chairman, Elvira Lodewick, Marketing Director, and the week-long introduction to the visual arts. Sony Foundation Guy Cogeval, Director, team at Adshel for choosing to support this exhibition. Australia has been supporting this program for the past Musée d’Orsay, and Ron Radford at the media launch Champagne Pol Roger Yalumba Wines and five years and we extend our appreciation to Rod McGeoch of Degas. Coopers Brewery AM, Chairman, and the board and to Natalie Speranza, We also extend our appreciation to Champagne Pol Roger Administrator. and Yalumba Wines as the official wine sponsors of the We are grateful to the Brassey of Canberra for their opening of Degas and all associated gala events. ongoing support of the Gallery, especially through their The opening of the exhibition was a night to remember, sponsorship of the National Gallery of Australia and Sony with the ambience of the evening heightened by the Foundation Australia Summer Art Scholarship. We thank presence of the quintessentially French Champagne Pol Mark Sproat, General Manager, and Mark Huck, Director Roger. Thank you to the team at Yalumba Winery— of Sales. especially Robert Hill Smith, Managing Director, Ralph Corporate Members Program Dunning, General Manager of Marketing, Duncan Sinclair, Yalumba Wines, in conjunction with the Corporate Brand Marketing Manager, and Sean Trenoweth, Area Members Program, will hold its second evening of Manager—for their ongoing commitment to this successful fine art, wine and dining on 5 March to celebrate the partnership. We would also like to thank Coopers Brewery exhibition Degas: master of French art. Guest speaker as the official beer sponsor for the Degas opening and and raconteur Jane Ferrari will once again entertain associated events. and inform guests with stories of her international Mantra on Northbourne travels and extensive wine knowledge. We thank the Mantra on Northbourne for their support as Eckersley’s Art & Craft will again be sponsoring the the official accommodation sponsor for Degas and for their National Gallery of Australia’s annual family day event, ongoing commitment to the partnership with the National Sculpture Garden Sunday, on Sunday 8 March from Gallery of Australia. Thank you to Alex Chapman, General 10.30 am to 1.30 pm. We would like to thank Eckersley’s Manager, and the entire team at the Mantra. for supplying art materials on the day. We thank all our sponsors and corporate members. National Gallery of Australia and Sony Foundation If you would like more information about sponsorship Australia Summer Art Scholarship and development at the National Gallery of Australia The consistent and generous sponsorship provided by please contact Frances Corkhill on +61 2 6240 6740 or Sony Foundation Australia has enabled the Gallery to build Belinda Cotton on +61 2 6240 6556. and strengthen the National Gallery of Australia and Sony Foundation Australia Summer Art Scholarship program. This program provides 16 students from around Australia

artonview autumn 2009 7 National Gallery of Australia Bequest Circle 2009

Ray Wilson delivers his The launch in November of the National Gallery of international prints, drawings and illustrated books. His passionate speech about the importance of bequests Australia Bequest Circle was an important milestone for bequest has enabled the Gallery to buy exemplary works to cultural institutions at the Gallery, which has been fortunate to benefit from by modern masters, including William Morris, Edgar the National Gallery of Australia Bequest Circle many bequests and gifts in its short history. They range Degas, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Otto launch in November 2008, and (left) Ron Radford, from a single fine work to significant amounts of money Dix, Andy Warhol, David Hockney and many others. Director, National Gallery of for the purchase of a major work. Be it a single work, Last year, the Gallery acquired, in part through a Australia. a collection or an amount of money, bequests have generous gift and bequest, the Agapitos/Wilson collection strengthened the national art collection, enabling the of Australian Surrealism from the late James Agapitos Gallery to acquire significant works of art that might OAM and Ray Wilson OAM. Comprising 285 works, otherwise be out of reach. the Agapitos/Wilson collection is the largest Australian For example, a major work by Colin McCahon, Surrealist collection ever assembled. James and Ray Crucifixion: the apple branch 1950, was purchased with also decided to include the National Gallery of Australia funds from the bequest of Sir Otto and Lady Margaret in their wills and Ray presented his eloquent case for Frankel 2004. John Olsen’s remarkable three-panel bequests at the November launch of the Bequest Circle. painting, Sydney Sun 1965 was purchased with funds The following is an extract from his speech: from the bequest of Nerissa Johnson in 2000. Originally Most people approach the subject of their will with conceived as a ceiling painting, this work was one of varying degrees of trepidation. They don’t want to tempt the most significant examples of a small group of ceiling fate by thinking about their mortality, which, despite all the paintings Olsen created in the 1960s. An important and advances in medicine, is inevitable, and having a will and rare early landscape by Hans Heysen, The saplings c 1904, being dead are the necessary parts of making and realising came directly into the collection as a bequest of Millie a bequest. Joyner of Adelaide in 1993. We under-represent the great I have had no trepidation and I will admit to having landscapes of Hans Heysen in the national collection. And fun writing my will. most significantly, in 2001, Dr Orde Poynton bequeathed If you discuss the subject of wills, you will hear the over $13 million in perpetuity to the purchase of

8 national gallery of australia usual platitudes: ‘You can’t take it with you’, ‘Blood is By making a notified bequest, you can be certain they Colin McCahon Crucifixion: the apple thinker than water’, ‘You can’t rule from the grave’ will be a grateful beneficiary and will ensure you continue branch 1950 and so on. to enjoy your association with them until the inevitable oil on canvas 89 x 117 cm I won’t dispute ‘You can’t take it with you’ and I happens; and they will honour you after you’ve gone. National Gallery of Australia, suppose ‘blood is thicker than water’, and our families I will add that neither James nor I approve of Canberra Purchased with funds from the Sir Otto and Lady generally have a right to expect something from our estates anonymous donations or bequests. This is a very outdated Margaret Frankel Bequest, 2004 but, frankly, to leave everything to family is the easy option. Victorian concept. We should be proud to stand up, or Your will is your formal opportunity to have the last be laid out, and say we believe in this institution and word, without anyone having the right of reply, and to encourage or challenge, friends, relatives, associates and make positive statements about what you believe in and competitors to follow suit. what you cherished during your life. In this beautiful [Bequest Cirle] booklet announcing the It is your chance to recognise the kindness of friends establishment of the Bequest Circle I am quoted from the and to say thank you to the cultural institutions that have speech I made announcing James’s and my bequest and contributed to your quality of life. I’d like to repeat it here: ‘I am doing this in the hope that I specify cultural institutions because, after family, our example will encourage other supporters of the Gallery health and welfare are usually the next choices; the to follow suit and publicly demonstrate their faith in the organisations that have enriched our lives can be forgotten. future of this great, growing and exciting institution’. I will add that you shouldn’t keep your bequests a secret The purpose of the National Gallery of Australia Bequest from the institutions you are considering. Talk to them so Circle is twofold: to give us the chance to acknowledge and they can manage your generosity in the best possible way honour bequest donors during their life time; and to give while at the same time producing the results you desire; so potential and existing bequest donors an opportunity to you can ‘rule from the grave’ as well. develop a closer relationship with the Gallery. Another platitude relating to money is ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it’. When it comes to a bequest to a Ron Radford AM Director cultural institution you can eat cake for the rest of your life.

artonview autumn 2009 9 Masterpieces for the Nation Fund 2009 Tom Roberts’s Shearing shed, Newstead

Tom Roberts Selected for the 2009 appeal for the Masterpieces for Shearing shed, Newstead. It was there too that Roberts Shearing shed, Newstead c 1894 the Nation Fund, Shearing shed, Newstead c 1894 is a conceived and partly painted three of his most celebrated oil on panel significant and intimate work by Tom Roberts that makes ‘national pictures’; as well as The golden fleece it was 22.2 x 33 cm a statement about the Australian Outback and Australian also the location for Bailed up 1895/1927 (Art Gallery of rural life. It is one of his most compelling impressions, ) and In a corner on the Macintyre 1895 a spontaneous sketch, conveying Roberts’s immediate (National Gallery of Australia). response to his environment. Roberts painted Shearing shed, Newstead during the An image of outdoor country life, Shearing shed, summer of 1893–94, shortly after his arrival at Newstead Newstead shows the sheep yards with a hessian-shaded on 23 December and before the end of the New corrugated-iron shearing shed, freshly shorn sheep, a shearing season the following month. He gave the painting post-and-rail fence, a stand of eucalypts and a cloud of to his host, Anderson—possibly as a present for him during hot dust, viewed through the all-pervasive glare of the the festive season. It is inscribed ‘Tom Roberts to DSA’, Australian midday sun. A bank of brilliant white cumulus with the ideogram of a bulldog, which refers to Roberts’s clouds floats in the brilliant blue sky. nickname. The work shows a side view of the Newstead Working rapidly, Roberts applied his paint thinly in the shearing shed, seen from the north. The shed had been foreground, with the texture of the wood panel clearly built by Anderson’s parents for a larger Newstead, which visible through the paint. He created the sense of a hot was divided in two in 1883. By February 1894, Roberts breeze through his expressive marks depicting the trunks had begun work on The golden fleece, which shows the and leaves of the trees. He used his paint more thickly to interior of this shed. depict the dense blue sky, and applied scumbled impasto Roberts wrote that ‘It seems to me that the best to create the mass of white clouds. words spoken to an artist is, “Paint what you love, and Roberts was Australia’s foremost artist in the late love what you paint”, and on that I have worked; and nineteenth century. Pastoral life fascinated him, and so it came that being in the bush and feeling the delight he loved to depict images of men at work in the bush. and fascination of the great pastoral life and work I have He believed that ‘by making art the perfect expression tried to express it’.2 Like other works that he painted at of one time and one place, it becomes for all time and of Anderson’s property, Shearing shed, Newstead is a powerful all places’.1 Between 1889 and 1898, Roberts spent much rural image of sunlight, heat, woolshed and sheep. Unlike of his time visiting rural properties and painting works of Roberts’s two other shearing images, however, this is not a national character, such as Shearing the rams 1888–90 a picture of ‘strong masculine labour’ and the ‘subdued (National Gallery of Victoria) and The golden fleece hum of hard fast working’.3 Rather it is a universal image (shearing at Newstead) 1894 (Art Gallery of New South of the Australian landscape with sheep grazing, and the Wales). These works of strong, athletic men performing nineteenth-century shed in which the shearing took place. ritualistic work in rude timber buildings have become But, more than this, it is a painting of light and heat and some of the most well-known and much-loved images in dust—the glare on the roof of the shed, the dust rising Australian art. from the parched ground of the high-summer landscape. One of the places he visited frequently during the Roberts created a feel of the heat, the quietness and the mid 1890s to get inspiration for these works was Duncan blinding light—an experience of the Australian bush. Anderson’s property, Newstead, near Inverell in the New Anne Gray England tablelands of northern New South Wales. He Head of Australian Art became immersed in the life of the sheep property and notes the landscape of that area. It was there that he painted 1–3 Tom Roberts, letter to the editor, Argus, 4 July 1890.

10 national gallery of australia artonview autumn 2009 11 exhibition

Degas’ world: the rage for change

23 January – 3 May 2009 | Orde Poynton Gallery

a prime instigator, without first examining some of its conceptual precedents. When we think of ‘the artist’, particularly visual artists, we are likely to fall back on a range of familiar clichés: genius, outsider, maverick, visionary, prophet, eccentric. The romantic cliché of the artist as a talented but tortured visionary acting under the quasi-religious phenomenon of inspiration still has popular currency today. Fundamental to this conception of the artist is the notion that an artist is a gifted individual who somehow works, at best, alongside society, and, at worst, and more typically, outside it. He is, essentially, not like us; she is special, anointed. We privilege not only their activity, but their very identity. But it has not always been so. The view of an artist as a gifted individual living somehow ‘outside’ society is a modern construct. Leaving aside a conceptual model based on the artist of antiquity, from post-medieval times until the late eighteenth century, an artist’s place in society was more likely to have been as an artisan. An artist was an employed tradesperson practising his (or, occasionally, her) craft within one of two dominant contexts—the Church or the State, the latter being not a modern state but a feudal state indissolubly linked to either a monarchy or dominant ruling aristocracy. Each of these contexts depended on the notion of patronage. Subject matter was either religious—mostly allegorical paintings based on the Old or New Testaments, often with an overtly erotic content—or secular. Secular Paul Signac The exhibition Degas’ world: the rage for change is less The port of Saint-Tropez paintings could themselves be divided into three main 1897–98 specifically about Degas than the world he inhabited. categories: paintings based on mythology, again often with lithograph It is about his fellow artists and friends—those who image 43.5 x 33 cm a highly eroticised lode (the birth of Venus, for example); sheet 52 x 39.9 cm inspired him, and those he, in turn, inspired. As an National Gallery of Australia, paintings that were depictions of property under the guise exhibition it seeks to avoid the clichés of sweetness and Canberra of landscape; and paintings that were a form of portraiture, Purchased 1980 light with which Impressionism has been interminably documenting either centuries-long aristocratic family burdened. Instead, it is about the real world of Maximilien Luce lineages, a kind of DNA in paint, or much more short-term Blast-furnaces of Charleroi nineteenth-century France. 1898 relationships based on lust. lithograph History, however, craves context, and it is impossible image 26.6 x 20.2 cm The nineteenth century would see all of that change. to understand the turbulent swirl of changing ideas that sheet 36.6 x 28.2 cm The fundamental reason for why this was the case, National Gallery of Australia, is at the heart of the exhibition Degas’ world, and the Canberra in historical terms, is intrinsically connected with the notion of the rage for change that underpins it, without Felix Man Collection, Special intersection of two revolutions—one technical, the Government Grant, 1972 examining the historical context in which these ideas came Industrial Revolution, and one socio-political, the French to fruition. Similarly, it is impossible to understand the Revolution. These became the warp and weft of a new unfolding character of Degas’ world, and the revolutionary sieve by which society (at least Western society) was sifted. Impressionist exhibitions (1874–86) of which Degas was

12 national gallery of australia

The glittering new currency that would be left once the as individuals, members of society had certain inalienable Honoré Daumier Artists looking at the work was disposed of—what would come to underpin this rights. These ideas would be crucial in the unfolding of of a rival 1852 new society’s basic structure—would be the idea of the what would take place in artistic circles in the 1870s. from Le charivari, 14 May 1852 sanctity of the individual. As the nineteenth century progressed, the French lithograph The Industrial Revolution heralded a move away from a Revolution, or at least the idea of revolution as a 35.4 x 24.8 cm National Gallery of Australia, largely agrarian, feudal society to one that was more urban. popular uprising, also became the preferred template Canberra Purchased 1980 It saw the emergence of a new social order with new social for social change in France and, later, elsewhere. The stratifications—it saw, for example, the emergence not only political structure of modern France was becoming well Paul Gavarni The baby in St Giles Hospice of a new merchant class but also of a wealthy middleclass established: French society was increasingly urbanised and 1852–53 (a bourgeoisie) and an urban proletariat. What the French had a significant emerging merchant class, a developing plate 6 from the series The English at home 1852–53 Revolution did was to take this new socio-economic order bourgeoisie and a significant urban proletariat. The status lithograph image 21.5 x 18.5 cm and liberate it from its now anachronistic feudal structure of Napoleon himself had changed: he was now seen as a sheet 36.4 x 26.7 cm by imposing a new political order. Central to this order, was kind of archetype of the visionary individual, one who acted National Gallery of Australia, Canberra the 1804 Code Napoléon, the French civil code established as an avatar for change. Purchased 1986 under Napoleon I. Given that this was the case, what then was the (opposite) The code not only established the fundamental nexus between the changing political landscape of Edouard Manet The barricade 1871 democratic notion of popular sovereignty and civil equality nineteenth-century France and the aesthetic upheaval lithograph but, importantly, introduced two new concepts upon that followed the first Impressionist exhibition of 1874? image 47 x 34.2 cm sheet 60.4 x 47.2 cm which this new order was based—the notions of equality To answer this question, it’s necessary to step back and National Gallery of Australia, (at least for men) before the law and freedom of religious have a look at the role the Salon played in French artistic life. Canberra Felix Man Collection, Special expression. In addition, Napoleon introduced the notion of From 1725, the Salon was the only significant arena in which Government Grant, 1972 promotion based on merit or talent or both. He specifically artists in France could show their works. Organised annually, introduced this notion to subvert the sort of corruption that it was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux- so thoroughly characterised the Ancien Régime. The effect Arts. From 1748, works for display were selected by a jury of these three features of the Code Napoléon was, firstly, who were either members of the academy or previously to formally entrench the notion of the individual as the awarded artists. By 1848, the Salon was the biggest annual fundamental unit in society in a way that had formally not art event in the world. The structure of the Salon and the been the case and, secondly, to consolidate the idea that way it functioned deliberately echoed the structure of the

artonview autumn 2009 15 Clémentine-Hélène Dufau wider French world. It was simultaneously a quasi-judicial While discontent with the Salon exhibitions and the jury The sling 1898 lithograph model—it had a jury—but, unfortunately, it was also one process had been simmering for some time, and exhibitions image 96 x 132 cm that was open to corruption, or was perceived to be corrupt. of rejected works had been organised on a semi-regular sheet 100 x 140.8 cm National Gallery of Australia, In the 1850s and 1860s, many artists increasingly basis for decades, the 1863 Salon show, with its rejection Canberra questioned the jury’s selections. As has been argued above, of more than 3000 works, caused an uproar. The State, for Gift of Orde Poynton Esq, AO, CMG, 1993 the social history of the first half of the nineteenth century the first time, stepped in to sponsor an exhibition of works from the perspective of an emerging middle class, of which that had been rejected. This became known as the famous artists were part, is the history of how the concepts of Salon des refusés (The rejects exhibition). equality before the law and freedom of expression became A comment by Théophile Thoré about the 1863 imbedded in an individual’s psyche. These two principles exhibition indicates just how moribund and irrelevant the had become the accepted and expected norm. The way Salon had become:

the Salon behaved (or appeared to behave) offended, in The French School, such as it appears in the Salon show particular, the now firmly established concept of equality of 1863, doesn’t signify anything. It is no longer religious, before the law—in this case, represented by the judgments or philosophical; there’s absolutely no history, and there’s made by the Salon jury with respect to the works they no poetry. It simultaneously lacks any reference to the selected. The consequences of this were important— traditions of the old, or the imagination of the new.1 selection or non-selection could make or break an artist’s Eleven years later, in 1874, things came to a head. Unable career, and artists now lived in a modern commercial world to bear the continuing ignominy of having to submit works without (generally) the patronage of either the Church or to a jury they perceived as being either incompetent or the State. In the 1860s particularly, the Salon’s increasingly corrupt, Edgar Degas and a group of his friends decided arbitrary and aberrant behaviour also offended the now they would no longer show with the Salon (although some codified notion of promotion based on talent—no matter of them still did). Instead, they formed the Société anonyme how subjective this notion of talent might have been—in a des peintres, sculpteurs et graveurs (the Cooperative very significant way. Society of Painters, Sculptors and Printmakers).

16 national gallery of australia On 28 March 1874 the following simple notice about the historical significance of what they were seeing. Eugène Grasset The morphine addict 1897 appeared in La chronique des arts et de la curiosité (The A mere fortnight after the show opened, Jules Castagnary, pencil Chronicle of Arts and Curiosities) and elsewhere: in a wonderful summary of what had led up to this event, image 41.2 x 31.2 cm sheet 46 x 36 cm The exhibition of the Societé anonyme des peintres, had this to say in the 29 April 1874 edition of Le siècle National Gallery of Australia, (The Century): Canberra sculpteurs et graveurs will open on 15 April at M Nadar’s Purchased with the assistance of salons, boulevard des Capucines. Orde Poynton Esq, AO, CMG, A couple of years ago, there was a rumour getting around 1995 And so, in this modest, unembellished and unassuming artists’ studios about the birth of a new school of painting … The members of the [Salon] jury, with their usual Eugène Grasset way, the most revolutionary change in the history of art The acid thrower c 1896 intelligence tried to block the way of these new comers. lithograph was quietly ushered in. Strategically, Degas and his co- They closed the doors of the Salon to them, prevented image 40 x 37.7 cm conspirators held their first show two weeks before the sheet 60.6 x 44 cm them from getting any publicity, and by every idiotic National Gallery of Australia, official Salon exhibition opened. Jean Prouvaire, in the means which egotism, stupidity or envy has at its disposal Canberra edition of Le rappel (The Recall) of 20 April 1974, wrote: in this world to express itself, did their best to make them Gift of Orde Poynton Esq, AO, CMG, 1993 the object of ridicule. Well, I swear to you on Cabanel’s What [these artists] have done is quite audacious, and this ashes, and those of Gérôme, that there’s talent here, and a in itself is enough to make claims on our sympathy. And lot of it. These young people have a way of apprehending audacity is not their only plus. It’s almost like the curtain nature that has nothing dull or banal about it. It’s alive, going up before the real play begins—sometimes the agile, light. It’s ravishing. How quickly an object has been prelude is better than the main event. perceived, how intelligent has been its execution. Yes, it is Reaction to the exhibition, given its modest heralding, a kind of summary, but how true the details are. was astonishingly instantaneous. Armand Silvestre, writing Charles de Malte’s exhortation in the journal Paris à in L’opinion nationale a mere week after the exhibition l’eaux-fortes (Paris Etched) of 19 April 1874, on the other opened, commented: ‘For a week now, they are all we’ve hand, could not have been more simple: ‘In short, I urge heard about …’. And while opinion was divided with you to go and see this fireworks display of riotous colour. respect to the relative merits of the works on display, some You’ll come away with a sense of something new …’. contemporary commentators were staggeringly astute

artonview autumn 2009 17 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Not all the commentary, however, was positive. After having broken with tradition, [these artists] have Woman with a tub 1896 systematically formulated the theory of the impression. from the album But even if it was negative it was often expressed with Womankind 1896 characteristic nineteenth-century wit. In La patrie (The Nature renders us impressionable; art makes us lithograph impressionists. Our eyes are corrupted by study. What we 40.4 x 52.8 cm Homeland) on 21 April 1874, for example, a commentator have to do is to keep the eye innocent and allow it to do National Gallery of Australia, writing under the initials ALT memorably expressed their Canberra nothing but see. Our hands must be at the service of our Purchased 1977 distaste for the exhibition: eyes like a clumsy but sincere workman and they must Do you remember the Salon des refusés exhibition, the restrict themselves to faithfully expressing only what the first one, where you could see nude women the colour of eyes have seen. Here we have then the art of painting an indisposed Bismarck, and jonquil-yellow horses, and reduced to a sort of telegraphic mechanism; the first Marie-Louise blue trees. Well then! That exhibition was apparatus is the eye, the second the hand, the third is the a Louvre, a Pitti Palais, an Uffizi compared to what’s on canvas onto which impressions are registered like letters display at the boulevard des Capucines. on the sky-blue paper of a telegram.

The level of sophistication, whether positive or negative, The underlying rage for change in the 1874 exhibition, of much of the contemporary commentary on the first and those that followed (eight in total from 1874 to Impressionist exhibitions is still astonishing today. Of 1886), was so powerful that it would break, once and for the second exhibition, held in 1876, in a piece that is as all, the Academy’s stranglehold on the practice of art in remarkable for its insight as it is for its achingly poetic nineteenth-century France. Finally, art would be freed of the elegance, Arthur Baignères wrote in the L’écho universel tired and anachronistic classicism that it had been shackled (The Universal Echo), 17 April 1876: with for the preceding 300 years. More importantly, Degas’

18 national gallery of australia group of mavericks, and these breakaway exhibitions, of a dispossessed and alienated urban poor, of nascent Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen would become the model for the myriad secession feminism. For every dancing floozy in this exhibition, there Paris by night 1903 movements that would follow over the next 50 years. is an aging, hollow-eyed female junkie; for every innocent, lithograph image 19 x 30.4 cm More than 50 artists would show works at the oblivious child, there is the pathetic barely living corpse of sheet 27.8 x 44.8 cm eight so-called Impressionist (the name went through some has-been courtesan; for every summery frolic on a National Gallery of Australia, Canberra a number of changes) exhibitions from 1874 to 1886. beach, there is a spectral face caught in the momentary Felix Man Collection, Special Government Grant 1972 They included artists such as Mary Cassatt, Paul Cézanne, light of a Paris night. For all that is light, there is much that Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Camille Pissarro and Paul is dark. This is the real world, not some mindless confection Signac, all of whom are represented in Degas’ world: the that gives a bad name to the art of the time. Here is art’s rage for change. Also included in Degas’ world are works other face, the one the Salon did not want to see. by artists who were friends of the Impressionists and of Now that the historical dust has settled, we can see that Degas in particular: Emile Bernard, Pierre Bonnard, Henri- each of the artists represented in this exhibition has in Edmond Cross, Eugène Grasset, Maximilien Luce and the some way joined the pantheon of those who were at the incomparable Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. And there are forefront of the rage for change that characterised the also works by a number of important precursors on display: period, a rage that would see the world of the nineteenth Honoré Daumier, Paul Gavarni and Camille Corot and century hurtling headlong into the chaos of the twentieth. more. Mark Henshaw What the collection of works in this exhibition Curator, International Prints, Drawings and Illustrated Books demonstrates is that these representations of Degas’ world All works in the exhibition Degas’ world: the rage for change have little to do with the overused saccharine clichés of are from the National Gallery of Australia’s International Print sweetness and light with which Impressionism and Post- collection.

Impressionism have been interminably burdened. What notes we have here are depictions of a world in the throes All translations from the original French are by the author. 1 Théophile Thoré, Salons de W Bürger 1861 à 1868, 2 vols, Librairie de of intense change—a world of factories, of pollution, Ve Jules Renouard, Paris, 1870, p 269.

artonview autumn 2009 19 exhibition

Soft sculpture Don’t touch, lick or smell

24 April – 12 July 2009 | Exhibition Galleries

Claes Oldenburg Plastics surround us. The foam in a chair is polyurethane. five decades. From the 1960s, artists began to use cloth, Ice bag—scale B 1971 from edition of 25 Drink bottles are polyethylene terephthalate. And fur, rope, rubber, paper, leather, vinyl, plastics and other moulded plastic, synthetic keyboards are manufactured from acrylonitrile butadiene new substances to make forms that are persistent rather fabric, electric motor 101.5 x 122 (diam) cm styrene. The science of contemporary life is bewildering. than permanent. The choice of these materials emphasises National Gallery of Australia, Our clothing is made of polyester and nylon, we eat Canberra natural forces, such as gravity and heat, and in many Purchased 1975 with polystyrene cutlery from acrylic vessels and from cases have metaphorical or metaphysical implications.

Meret Oppenheim polypropylene takeaway containers, and we live in buildings The exhibition examines the historical relationship between Squirrel 1969 dominated by polycarbonates and polyvinyl chlorides. But if anti-form works of the 1960s and 1970s, and later categories no 38 from edition of 100 fur, glass, plastic foam we concentrate on these substances and composites, with of art, to the present day. It shows the many diverse ways 23 x 17.5 x 8 cm their seemingly endless number of applications, we may artists exploit substances to make works of art. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra temporarily overlook the other common use of the term Traditional sculpture is by definition dimensional and Purchased 2008 ‘plastic’: capable of being moulded or modelled, able to be durable; it requires the determination of the artist. In the influenced or formed. plastic arts, a distinction is made between painting’s appeal Soft sculpture surveys the impact of unconventional to the eye and sculpture’s references to the body, and, by materials on three-dimensional art practice over the last extension, to our senses. Materials evoke certain sensations.

20 national gallery of australia Fur is a link to times when people relied on pelts for and even somewhat macabre. Fur is, of course, pleasant Les Kossatz Sheep on a couch 1972–73 warmth and body covering. Felt likewise protects against to touch but repellent to the tongue. Beer quenches sheepskin, leather, the elements but, by the fact of its processing, is one step the thirst and fills the stomach. But, here, access to the stainless steel 91 x 203 x 91 cm removed from fur, wool or hair; it retains the ‘memory’ of golden amber is perversely blocked by the foam stopper. National Gallery of Australia, forms, be they the head in a hat or, in Man Ray’s The enigma Oppenheim’s elevation of a humble object has its origins in Canberra Purchased 1975 of Isidore Ducasse 1920, something more mysterious. the readymade tradition set in train by Marcel Duchamp, Soft sculpture includes Surrealist and Pop art objects to but she also draws on fairytale figures from her childhood suggest some of the precursors for anti-form tendencies. and notions of fabulist transformations. Associated with the Paris Surrealists from a young age, One of the foremost proponents of Pop art, Claes Meret Oppenheim’s reputation was made by a single Oldenburg is credited as the creator of soft sculpture. piece. Squirrel 1969—like her famous Object 1936, also Throughout the 1960s, he made oversized hamburgers and known as Breakfast in fur (The Museum of , pieces of cake in vinyl stuffed with kapok, and miniature, New York)—combines an everyday item with fur. A beer collapsible canvas objects such as drum sets, which offer tankard, its handle transformed into a tail and capped with wry commentary on the dominance of fast food and mass a head made of foam, this work is wickedly funny, puzzling culture. Oldenburg’s work marries the Surrealists’ absurdist Joseph Beuys disregard for scale and functionality with a Pop art a wire armature, giving the animal a taxidermist’s quality. Stripes from the house of the shaman 1964–72 1980 fixation on the crassness of consumerism. His objects and Positioned as if for shearing, it is bound to a leather felt, wood, coats, animal sculptures are often issued in editions, thus echoing the bench—the type often found in museums and other skin, rubber tube, pamphlets, , quartz mass production of the original items. For the Icebag series modernist architectural settings, or in a psychiatrist’s room and ground minerals, pigments of sculptures, he combines fabric and moulded plastic but, here, fitted with cart-like wheels. Is this support to installation sheet with a motorised mechanism to explore the impact counter the indignity of the animal’s situation? A comment 340 x 655 x 1530 cm National Gallery of Australia, of movement. Icebag—scale B 1971 initially appears as a on farming practices? Or could it be an involved joke about Canberra playful, oversized object, but in motion it takes on human the state of sculpture per se, propped up by institutional Purchased 1981 characteristics. At times, it is unpleasantly reminiscent of a support but sunk in the mire below? Sheep on a couch prosthetic device, or mechanical lung, and the cap has an encapsulates the different types of ‘soft’ found throughout uncanny ability to follow the viewer around the room. the exhibition: the sheep’s wool, the pliable couch and the A familiar animal is omnipresent through the oeuvre lack of stability implied by the half-wheels. of Les Kossatz. He takes sheep, one of the most potent Joseph Beuys’s materials are emotionally and vernacular symbols of Australia, and sets them in some symbolically charged—by notions of alchemy, by history, unusual contexts, subjecting them to bizarre juxtapositions by the artist’s own psyche. Ideas of redemption and of recognisable objects. They lounge on chairs, fly through transformation are crucial to Stripes from the house of curtains, confront one another across a plaza, or tumble the shaman 1964–72 1980. The lengths of felt leading out of trapdoors and slide down shoots. The skin used for up to and through the wooden portal suggest transition. Sheep on a couch 1972–73 retains its shape by virtue of As well as being a source of warmth and insulation, felt absorbs dirt, dust, fat, water and sound and is therefore and weaving, to be considered appropriate vehicles for Ewa Pachucka Landscape and bodies 1972 quickly integrated into its environment. Elements such as sculpture. The life-sized figures in Landscape and bodies jute, hemp, wire copper, iron phosphate, sulphur and cinnabar also relate to 1972 emerge from apparently peaceful surrounds. Their 202 x 308 x 302 cm (overall) National Gallery of Australia, concepts of art as a spiritual force, which can heal through anonymous slumber is emphasised by the over-all quality Canberra the use of ritual. But these substances are dangerous in of the work, punctuated by the knots, stitching and other Purchased 1973 certain contexts, especially when ingested. The coats—one evidence of the artist’s hand. The sheer monumentality of sealskin, the other wool—in Stripes from the house of the Pachucka’s project proclaims the relevance and physicality shaman allude to Beuys’s performances, his self-conception of making; it asserts grand ideals of humans living in as a mediator between the earthly and spiritual worlds. harmony with the environment as well as the artist’s own The intense emotion, incorporation of myth and ritual and utopian socialist beliefs. consistent use of particular materials and objects make his Soft sculpture includes large works that hang, glitter, work one of the most powerful of the postwar period. drip or ooze, as well as installations into which we enter to Other organic materials, such as jute and hemp fibres, be surrounded and suffused. Throughout the late 1960s and preserve smells. These materials evoke movements of 1970s, as access to plastics and plastic technology increased, the 1970s and the revival of interest in craft traditions. artists produced increasingly experimental work. Eva Hesse’s Like Beuys, Ewa Pachucka’s creative processes suggest an desire for latex and fibreglass, her attraction to the painterly element of redemption. It took the Feminist art movement qualities and subtle colours of liquid rubber, overcame her and re-evaluation of categories of fine art in the late 1960s misgivings about the material’s intrinsic vulnerability over and early 1970s for textile traditions, such as knitting time. Each component of the elegiac, hybrid installation

artonview autumn 2009 23 24 national gallery of australia Contingent 1969 (on the cover of this issue)—one of Hesse’s act of discovery or even forbidden knowledge. Lucas Lucas Samaras Box no 85 1973 last major works before her death at the age of 34—is a Samaras’s partially opened, pin- and stone-encrusted pins and stones on large rectangular stretch of latex-covered cheesecloth box incorporates a sense of anticipation. It is a perverse cardboard 27.1 x 44.8 x 28.6 cm embedded at each end in a translucent field of fibreglass. thing, both attractive and repellent, visually seductive and National Gallery of Australia, The combination of these materials sets up a distinct tension implicitly violent. Box no 85 1973 seems to invite touch Canberra Purchased 1981 between rigidity and malleability, continuity and change. but, like a Venus flytrap or some poisonous insect, we Sylvie Fleury Artists also exploit the performative in their work, should keep our distance. Another box, Sylvie Fleury’s Vital perfection 1993 incorporating chance into the decision-making process. Vital perfection 1993, lined with snow-white fur and no 53 from edition of 100 synthetic fur, cardboard Using materials as diverse as liquid polyester resin and stamped with gold upper-case lettering, suggests a 27.5 x 17 x 9 cm pigmented foam, Richard Van Buren and Lynda Benglis branded, expensive fashion item, perhaps with an element National Gallery of Australia, Canberra worked by pouring, spilling, even flinging their materials, of fetishism. Like Oppenheim, Fleury uses fur but, in Purchased 1995 making sculptures that embrace seemingly accidental the 1990s, hers is acrylic. Her objects and multimedia (opposite) forms. Elsewhere, the application of heat or a temporary installation explore notions of gender, ambivalence and Lauren Berkowitz Bags 1994 reversion to liquid state produces startling effects of consumerism, and while Vital perfection hints at luxury polyethylene bags collapsing, melting and disintegration. and fulfilment, it is, ultimately, empty. installation 400 x 600 x 100 cm One room of the exhibition has been fashioned into a Lauren Berkowitz’s use of plastic relies on accumulation, (variable) Collection of the artist boutique of artists’ multiples and small-scale sculpture. repetition and an element of surprise. Many hundreds of Installed at the Ian Potter Here visitors will find objects that slump, bend or even bite. carefully cleaned and arranged bottles, used newspapers Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne, 1998 Other objects are fluffy, squishy or squeezed. The materials and collected bags were the stuff of her 1994 exhibition Photograph: John Gollings of some works are hard and unyielding but have been Bags, bottles and newspapers. She reminds us of the manipulated by the artist to imply liquidity and movement prevalence of non-perishable materials and single-use or to recall substances that are actually soft. There are cakes objects in our lives, but also demonstrates the continuing made of foam, books knitted from wool and a satchel that importance of serial, anti-form and minimalist tendencies is not leather. There are objects whose forms are less easily in the 1990s. Originally part of that exhibition, Bags 1994 is defined; things that should definitely never ever be touched, constructed from two walls of white plastic shopping licked or smelled. In other rooms, visitors will find sculptures bags over a suspended wire armature. It is solid yet ethereal, that incorporate air, objects made with hair, the stuff of a space in which sound is muffled yet light may pass. While dreams and nightmares. Even the traditional materials of the installation initially seems to promise comfort and painting, oil and canvas, are recast as sculpture that protection, once inside, the viewer becomes aware of the simply won’t stay on the wall. precious fragility of the space and of its claustrophobic, Boxes can be a metaphor for absence and loss, anxiety-inducing qualities. A traditional memento mori implying a sense of narrative or progression, for the causes us to reflect on the passing of time but, in Bags,

artonview autumn 2009 25 26 national gallery of australia Berkowitz has extended these ideas to warn of the dangers of over-consumption. Much of Annette Messager’s work has an element of play as well as a tendency to catalogue and to fragment. In Penetration 1993–94 we quite literally walk into a room of body parts. One hundred and one brightly coloured, sewn and stuffed fabric objects—intestines, hearts, lungs, spines and other internal organs—hang in a grid formation from the ceiling. They are based on diagrams from a biology textbook but reproduced as stuffed toys. On the one hand, the work suggests a child’s mobile or a place to explore. On the other, we can find more sinister references to an abattoir or surgery. The lights dangling among the body parts illuminate the forms and draw attention to their irregularity, the roughness of the stitching and the apparently casual nature with which they are hung with wool. Messager is concerned with the ways in which sex and science make use of the body and how domestic skills are trivialised. There is nothing of the stitched, homemade quality in Nell’s The perfect drip 1999. This massive, stylised droplet has the viscosity of oil, the mirror finish of a finely polished automobile. The fact that it is dripping from the ceiling is immediately disconcerting: is this a water leak or build up of moisture? Could it be coolant from the air-conditioning? Or perhaps something even nastier still? Trapped in time, we wait for the drip to fall while knowing perfectly well that it can’t. The amorphous, slightly surreal and space-age quality of The perfect drip suggests origins in a computer- generated, action-packed sci-fi film. Its disturbing but comical contradictions are the sculptural equivalent of Salvador Dali’s soft watches in his painting The persistence of memory 1931 (The Museum of Modern Art, New York). Nell’s work reprises ideas raised by Surrealist and Pop art artists, but is also a fine example of fluidity achieved in material form. Soft sculpture reveals the qualities of softness and plasticity in many ways and across a range of media: furry, pliable, visceral, even liquid. Inspired by organic and inorganic forms, artists have transformed sculpture, engaging new materials and developing new forms of making. The impact of plastics and other resinous Nell substances on art practice is especially remarkable when we The perfect drip 1999 polyurethane foam, fibreglass, consider just how recent is their development. Indeed very acrylic paint little contemporary work is actually completely hard. Just 237 x 150 cm Collection of Catherine Lezer and as Rodin in the nineteenth century broke with traditional Kevin McIsaac, Sydney sculpture—and the invention of pre-mixed paints in (opposite) portable tubes is a factor in the beginning of — Annette Messager Penetration 1993–94 the introduction of pliable, petroleum-based substances has cotton stuffed with polyester, had a major impact on art of the last 50 years. angora wool, nylon, electric lights installation 500 x 500 x 1100 cm Lucina Ward National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1996 Curator, International Painting and Sculpture

artonview autumn 2009 27 collection focus

The golden journey: loans of Japanese art to the Art Gallery of South Australia

Muromachi period The golden journey: Japanese art from Australian fishing on the other. Pines by a shore, or hamamatsu, has (1392–1573) Japan collections is a major exhibition being held at the Art been a popular subject in Japanese art since the Heian Pine trees by the shore Gallery of South Australia from 6 March to 31 May 2009. era (794–1185) but is more closely associated with the c 1550 pair of six-fold screens; Organised by James Bennett, Curator of Asian Art at Muromachi period (1392–1573), when these screens were ink, colour, gold, silver and mica on paper the Art Gallery of South Australia, the exhibition brings painted. A rare example of an intact pair of screens from each 175 x 366 cm together treasures from private as well as public collections such an early date, the acquisition of this magnificent National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Australia-wide. Bennett was also the curator of Crescent work was made possible through the support of Andrew Gift of Andrew and Hiroko moon: Islamic art & civilisation in Southeast Asia, which and Hiroko Gwinnett and the National Gallery of Australia Gwinnett and the National Gallery of Australia Foundation was shared by the National Gallery of Australia in 2006. Foundation. Pine trees by the shore is part of a select 2006 The Gallery is delighted to be lending a group of important group of Japanese screens in the collection. Adding to works of art from the national collection to The golden these, the Gallery has recently purchased Miyuki: the journey. Some are well-known favourites from our display imperial outing and hunt c 1600–1610, an elaborate pair while others, primarily due to conservation requirements, of screens showing scenes from the eleventh-century are seen less often. Japanese novel The Tale of Genji. We look forward to An important work in the exhibition is Pine trees by displaying this exciting new acquisition in Canberra’s the shore, a celebrated pair of mid sixteenth-century recently refurbished East Asian gallery in coming months. Japanese screens (byobu). The sumptuously gilded Also travelling to Adelaide are woodblock prints and painting shows horses among pine trees on the bank books by the renowned Edo-period (1603–1868) ukiyo-e of an inlet on one screen, and boats returning from printmaker Hokusai Katsushika (1760–1849). Among

28 national gallery of australia the works being borrowed are his much-loved colour eighteenth-century Japanese and Chinese brocades, the woodblock Peonies and butterfly c 1832 and the motifs on the kesa include plum blossoms, dragons and three-volume publication One hundred views of Mount clouds. The use of patchwork references the tattered and Fuji 1834 – c 1842. Like Hokusai’s renowned Red Fuji mended robes of a mendicant. While intended to reflect from the series Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji 1826–33, the poverty of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni (Shaka in One hundred views of Mount Fuji was inspired by the Japanese) this example, like most kesa, is made from luxury popularity of Japanese domestic tourism as well as the fabrics originally intended for secular use. Donating fine artist’s own fascination with Fuji, a sacred mountain and textiles such as kimono, court costumes and Noh theatre active volcano. Less well-known but certain to attract robes to temples for reinvention into religious objects attention are two prints from The sleeve scroll (Sode no like kesa and altar cloths attracts spiritual merit. The rare maki), a portfolio of 12 explicit erotic prints by Kiyonaga combination of Japanese and Chinese silks makes this kesa, Torii (1752–1815). The long, narrow format of the subtly a gift from Gene and Brian Sherman, particularly special. coloured prints, in which just a detailed sliver of the scene Another generous gift, a sculpture of a rakan Buddhist is visible, adds to their voyeuristic appeal. sage (arhat in Sanskrit), will also be shown in Adelaide. The Gallery’s collection of important Buddhist works The sculpture is one of a pair of rakans given to the of art will also be represented in The golden journey. Gallery in 1993 in memory of PE Kuring and GE Vest. Among these objects is an exquisite Buddhist priest’s cloak Probably once installed in the now-destroyed Five- or mantle (kesa), which will have its first public showing as hundred Rakan Temple (Rakan-ji) in Tokyo, the seated part of the exhibition. Constructed from a patchwork of figure holds a wish-granting jewel (hoshu), a symbol of

artonview autumn 2009 29 Hokusai Katsushika spiritual rather than material wealth. Rakans are holy men, and the sixteen protectors. The fourteenth-century Peonies and butterfly c 1832 colour woodblock print often attributed with magical powers, who have achieved Kamakura-period scroll painting has recently returned 25 x 37.4 cm their own enlightenment and will attain nirvana at death. from extensive conservation treatment and remounting National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Although revered, rakans are considered less important than in Japan where it is registered as a culturally significant Purchased 1996 bodhisattvas (bosatsu in Japanese), saviour beings committed Japanese work of art in an overseas collection. Andrea to the enlightenment of others as well as themselves. Wise, the Gallery’s Senior Paper Conservator, was closely Temporarily removed from the National Gallery of involved with the conservation of the painting in Japan and Australia’s display of East Asian art for loan to The golden has prepared a fascinating account of the process, which journey is a striking seventeenth-century sculpture of Zenzai appears in this issue of artonview. Doji (Sudhana) by Enku (1632–1695). After entering a Buddha and the sixteen protectors shows the earthly Buddhist monastery as a young man, Enku devoted most Shaka Buddha surrounded by a range of figures including of his life to esoteric ascetic practice in the mountains. His the 16 protectors of the Prajnaparamita (Perfection of faith took physical form in the thousands of distinctive sculptures Wisdom) Sutra. Paintings of this type were used as aids he carved using an axe. One of Enku’s most popular to meditation accompanying ceremonial readings of the subjects, Zenzai Doji travelled from one teacher to another sutra in Japanese temples. Often overshadowed in Japan in search of wisdom. He is said to have studied under 53 by Amida, the Buddha of the Western Paradise who had a masters, including the bodhisattva Kannon (Avalokiteshvara), great following in the early Kamakura period and remains and to have reached in a single lifetime a level of spiritual popular today, the Shaka Buddha enjoyed renewed appeal understanding usually only associated with Buddhas. during the later Kamakura period. A highlight for new audiences, as well as those The Buddha is depicted seated on a lotus throne with familiar with the Gallery’s Japanese collection, is Buddha his hands in a gesture of preaching. On either side of the

30 national gallery of australia Buddha are two bodhisattvas: the compassionate Monju and fictional accounts of his life, including the 1970s Enku Figure of Zenzai Doji riding a lion and wise Fugen seated on an elephant. Japanese television series Monkey (in which he is known (Sudhana) late 17th century In the foreground, to one side of the large central incense as Tripitaka), have contributed to his fame. wood 54 x 15.7 x 12 cm vessel, is the legendary seventh-century Chinese monk The National Gallery of Australia is pleased to be National Gallery of Australia, Xuan Zang (Genjo- in Japanese) holding a bag containing lending a significant selection of works from our small Canberra Purchased 1977 the 600 Buddhist scriptures he collected during an epic but high-quality collection of Japanese art to the Art (right) inscription on reverse journey to India. Among the texts he brought back Gallery of South Australia for The golden journey—a rare of Figure of Zenzai Doji were three versions of the 600-chapter Prajnaparamita opportunity to see Japanese treasures from collections (Sudhana) late 17th century Sutra, which he translated, unabridged, on his return. across Australia. Xuan Zang’s autobiography, Journey to the west in the Melanie Eastburn great Tang dynasty, as well as numerous biographies Curator, Asian Art

artonview autumn 2009 31 collection focus/conservation

Restoring Buddha and the sixteen protectors

Kamakura period A treasure of considerable age, the National Gallery of To protect the paint during the long restoration (1185–1392) Japan Australia’s fourteenth-century Kamakura-period hanging process, a temporary facing was applied using rayon paper The Buddha and the sixteen scroll Buddha and the sixteen protectors was selected and funori, a weak adhesive derived from seaweed. protectors 1300s ink, natural pigments and in 2005 by representatives from the National Research Once the painted surface was consolidated, and the facing gold on silk; hanging scroll image 115.9 x 60.5 Institute in Tokyo as a candidate for conservation attached, the work could safely be turned over to reveal support 206.7 x 84.7 cm treatment in Japan. The initiative is part of a Japanese the multitude of paper repairs on the back—scrolls of this National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Government-funded program of caring for works of age often have several layers of paper linings and many Purchased 1989 art of exceptional quality in overseas collections. The repairs made at different times and by different artisans. institute was founded in 1930 to research and preserve To fully conserve a scroll, all the previous linings and repairs important Japanese works of art and, subsequently, the are removed. This makes it possible to access and repair the Division for International Co-operation for Conservation primary silk support. In the case of Buddha and the sixteen was established in 1993. Each year, a team of experts protectors, the paper layer immediately behind the image from the institute visits overseas museums to select a was intensely brown in tone, accounting for much of the small number of works for treatment. In 2007, following corresponding darkness in the image. Further inspection extensive discussions between the Gallery’s curatorial and of the previous restorations also explained the strangely conservation staff and the National Research Institute bright appearance of the central figures: the lining papers, about the nature of the treatment and the expected including the very dark lining paper directly behind the outcomes, the scroll was sent to the Bokunindo Studio image, had been preferentially cut away in the area of the in Shizuoka, who had been nominated to undertake the figures and replaced with lighter paper. conservation treatment. Once conservators at the Bokunindo Studio had At the Bokunindo Studio, the scroll was thoroughly removed the dark brown lining paper, the primary silk examined using a range of technical processes, and the support on which the image is painted was revealed. information gathered about its condition was meticulously The silk has a plain, very open weave, common to early documented. The old mounting silks were removed and scrolls, which allows the paint to become incorporated into treatment to consolidate flaking and cracked paint began. the support and offers some protection against mechanical Buddha and the sixteen protectors was a very dark stress. With all the lining papers removed, the extent of painting, with the exception of the three central figures— brittleness and damage to the scroll’s silk support was Buddha, Monju and Fugen—which were distinctly lighter obvious, as were the numerous silk repairs, indicating a in tone than the remainder of the image. Also, the lower long history of restoration and centuries of wear and tear. half of the work lacked contrast and much of its detail and The distortion and stress created in a silk support can be clarity had been lost. It is common for a scroll of this age dramatic if the repair is not exactly right, and many of the to have been restored and remounted a number of times, in-fills on the Gallery’s scroll did not match the original at least once every 100 years. in texture, weight and alignment. The process to remove Scrolls were only intended for short periods of display— the silk repairs was a slow and delicate one, and some in this case, as a visual accompaniment to readings of the old repairs were simply too difficult to detach due to the Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom) Sutra—before condition of the support and the fragility of the paint being rolled up and put away until the next reading. applied to the back. The Gallery’s scroll had clearly had a long and active life After removing as many of the silk repairs as possible, of rolling, unrolling and display, which had led to conservators closely matched the weave and weight of the extensive creasing and cracking in the support layers, repair silk to the original. Each silk repair was then precisely with paint loss throughout. fitted and adhered with wheat starch paste. A new first

32 national gallery of australia lining of dyed mino paper was followed with two further linings made from soft, delicate misu paper. A final lining of thick uda paper ensured strength as well as flexibility. At various points in the process, the scroll was stretched flat to relax all the components and to prepare it for the next stage. The last step was remounting. The Kamakura period saw the emergence of classifications of mounting styles appropriate to the purpose and significance of the work of art. Buddha and the sixteen protectors is classified as a shin painting, a high-quality work featuring a Buddhist subject, so the proportions and arrangement of the new mount were chosen accordingly. The silks for the mount are prepared in a similar way to the painting: they are lined and stretched before use. This ensures that materials of varying dimensions are of equal thickness in the final product and that their expansion and contraction is controlled. Once mounted, rollers, decorative ends and hanging and tying cords were attached to the scroll, and a storage box was specially built to securely house and protect this remarkable, newly restored work. The conservation and remounting of the scroll were extremely successful. The disparity in tone between the central figures and the remainder of the scroll has been reduced and more detail is apparent. The beautiful new mounting silks enhance and balance the image, creating a harmonious effect that should last at least another century. The National Gallery of Australia would like to acknowledge the generosity of the National Research Institute and the Bokunindo Studio in giving new life to this splendid and important work of art.

Andrea Wise Senior Paper Conservator acquisition Australian Painting and Sculpture

Hilda Rix Nicholas Les fleurs dédaignées

Hilda Rix Nicholas She stands proudly with chilly hauteur, wearing an The subject of this portrait was no lady, but a Parisian Les fleurs dédaignées (The scorned flowers) 1925 eighteenth-century-style floral dress. What is she thinking? professional model and a prostitute, apparently with a oil on canvas Is that an expression of disdain or petulance? She has reputation for being moody and cantankerous. The dress 193 x 128.5 cm National Gallery of Australia, just spurned a bouquet of flowers, throwing them on the was not her own but a costume created by the artist Canberra ground at her feet. Is it just by chance that these flowers specifically for the painting. The artist depicted her standing Purchased 2008 are similar to those on her dress? Who is she looking at indoors before an early twentieth-century pastiche of a out of the corner of her eyes? And is that a pout, or the seventeenth-century Flemish tapestry—a tapestry once glimmer of a smile on her lips? owned by the artist but incinerated by a bushfire in 1985, Who is this moody lady? Why is she wearing this which destroyed the artist’s house along with about 60 sumptuous dress? And what is going on behind the of her paintings and drawings. scenes? She holds herself rigidly, with an apparent Rix Nicholas was one of a group of prominent early sense of control, but we perceive both arrogance and twentieth-century women artists. In 1907 she travelled vulnerability. Her small head is made to look even smaller abroad with her mother and sister to study art. She visited by the bulk of her dress. France and became interested in depicting the peasants, In Les fleurs dédaignées (The scorned flowers), already popularised by established artists. Visits to Morocco Australian artist Hilda Rix Nicholas created a polished in 1912 and 1914 liberated her brushwork and especially sixteenth-century-Mannerist-style portrait reminiscent of her use of colour. During the First World War she fled the work of Agnolo Bronzino. In Mannerist fashion, Rix France for England, where her mother and sister died from Nicholas gave her painting a surface coolness, but we typhoid. In 1916 she married Australian Major George feel a considerable emotional heat emanating from the Matson Nicholas but, within weeks, he was killed in action subject. Rix Nicholas painted it in Paris in 1925, wanting on the western front. After her return to Australia in 1918 to evoke the atmosphere of the works of earlier artists she painted works of Australian rural life. In 1924, Rix without copying them. Like the artists she emulated, she Nicholas returned to Europe. In Paris, she hired a studio achieved a consciously artificial style, concentrating on overlooking the Luxembourg Gardens (which had once details of costume and decoration—as well as obtaining belonged to Rosa Bonheur), where she painted Les fleurs acute psychological observation. The precise, rigid position dédaignées. She returned to Australia in 1926 and, in of the woman’s arms, combined with the shape of her 1928, married a young grazier, Edgar Wright. She remained wide symmetrical skirt, form the silhouette of a vase. The on the property at Knockalong, near Delegate, for the rest subject’s pale skin appears smooth and without blemish, as of her life, working in a large studio (which still exists) near though she herself was made of porcelain. her (now destroyed) house. Les fleurs dédaignées is Rix Nicholas’s most arresting The painting was recently purchased for the national portrayal and the largest canvas by the artist. Rix Nicholas collection from Rix Nicholas’s son, Rix Wright, and is now on painted the work to submit it to the Salon in 1925, to view to the public for the first time in many years. impress by its size as well as through its accomplished Anne Gray technique and presence. Head of Australian Art

34 national gallery of australia

acquisition Australian Prints and Drawings

Redback Graphix The 8-kin network

Michael Callaghan This poster was designed and printed by Michael Callaghan and they sought social change through grassroots (designer and printer) Ray Young and Ray Young at Redback Graphix (1979–94) in 1985 to communication. This reflected the approach of 8kin (designer and printer) promote the Central Australian Aboriginal radio network FM, which, through its broadcasting and recording of Redback Graphix (print workshop) 8kin FM. It is typical of the posters that Redback Graphix Aboriginal languages and music, fosters pride in Aboriginal The 8-kin network 1985 screenprint, printed in produced in the 1980s, combining vibrant, incandescent culture and identity. colour, from six stencils colours with a photographically derived composition to The 8-kin network was gifted to the National Gallery 102 x 152 cm National Gallery of Australia, deliver a political message. of Australia by Alison Alder, former co-director of Redback Canberra Redback Graphix was not an arts collective or a Graphix and current Director of Megalo Access Arts, Gift of Alison Alder, 2008 public-access workshop, but a socially engaged design a community-access printmaking studio and gallery in workshop whose iconic images advocated and documented Canberra. It is an important addition to the National Gallery immense social change. Established in 1979 by Michael of Australia’s extensive collection of over 200 Redback Callaghan, the group designed and printed posters for Graphix posters. community events and services for clients that shared their This acquisition also coincides with the publication of humanitarian concerns and sociopolitical agenda. Their Redback Graphix, written by Anna Zagala and published by posters cut to the heart of social inequities and demanded the National Gallery of Australia. that audiences take note of a range of issues, including Macushla Robinson HIV/AIDS, unemployment, nuclear disarmament and Curatorial Assistant, Australian Prints and Drawings Aboriginal land rights. Redback Graphix is available at the nga shop for $39.95 and Redback Graphix artists were often involved in the includes illustrations of all the posters Redback produced from 1979 community-based projects that their posters promoted, to 1994. Telephone (02) 6240 6420 or email [email protected]

36 national gallery of australia acquisition Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art

Harry Tjutjuna Wangka Tjukurpa (Spiderman)

Harry Tjutjuna describes himself as a ‘spiderman’; not to draw a comparison to the wall-crawling, web-slinging Stan Lee comic-book creation of the 1960s, who was translated to the big screen for a new generation of Spidey fans, but because of the ancestral creatures of his Tjukurpa (creations stories). Aboriginal people often associate themselves with one or more of the creatures of their ngura (home place) in this way. Tjutjuna is a senior Pitjantjatjara leader in his community and is also a ngangkari (traditional healer) and, as a ngangkari, he uses spider webs to treat abrasions and skin injuries.1 Tjutjuna’s birthplace is Mount Davies in the north- west corner of South Australia. He moved to Ernabella as a young man and was educated at the Ernabella Mission School. He is now a senior elder and, like many of his contemporaries from remote communities, he came to painting in his later years—at end of 2005. Tjutjuna is associated with Tjala Arts, a newly established art centre closely affiliated with the oldest operating incorporated Indigenous art centre in Australia—Ernabella Arts. His experiences and intimate knowledge of country, its stories and his own personal obligations are evident throughout his work, and he has emerged as a highly innovative artist. Although Tjutjuna is not known for figurative works, this painting affirms his position as a senior lawman and Harry Tjutjuna Wangka Tjukurpa ngangkari. Tjutjuna’s primary totem is a spider, and the (Spiderman) 2007 design in the background not only references the intricate synthetic polymer paint on canvas spun by spiders but also the inherent role the spider 154 x 182 cm National Gallery of Australia, plays in his Tjukurpa. The brilliantly vibrant colours of this Canberra painting also resonate with the earthy oranges and reds Purchased 2008 found in Tjutjuna’s desert birthplace. The exciting addition of Tjutjuna’s Wangka Tjukurpa (Spiderman) 2007 to the national art collection acknowledges a new phase of works on canvas in Ernabella’s artistic development. Harry Tjutjuna may not be fighting super villains but, as an artist, elder and a healer, he is keeping the law and culture of his people alive.

Chantelle Woods Assistant Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art note 1 Spellings and meanings of Indigenous Australian words are from information about Harry Tjutjuna, Ernabella Arts, 2007.

artonview autumn 2009 37 acquisition Australian Decorative Arts and Design

Ethel Warburton Vase and bowls

Ethel Warburton The Australian ceramicist and porcelain painter Ethel those with fine black-lined graphic motifs, were developed Bowl 1920 Vase 1920 Warburton was born in Glen Innes, New South Wales, in in collaboration with her engineer-husband, Raymond Bowl with nasturtium 1894 and died in Sydney in 1992. She studied, as Ethel Warburton, himself a skilled amateur craft-worker. She was decoration 1920 glazed earthenware Beavis, at Sydney Technical College from 1912, taking art recognised as a leading ceramic artist in New South Wales 9.5 x 23 x 23 cm 24 x 10 x 10 cm classes there from 1914. In 1918 she began a three-year during her most active years as a china painter from 1930 6.5 x 27 x 27 cm pottery course, making a range of Art Nouveau-inspired to 1965. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra pieces with incised and multi-glazed decoration on press- These pieces, from a recently acquired group of ceramic Purchased 2008 moulded shapes from the college’s stock of moulds. She works from Warburton’s early years of practice reveal the joined the Society of Arts and Crafts of New South Wales development of her distinctive design and decorating style. in 1921 and married in 1920, setting up her own studio The influence of late nineteenth- and early twentieth- for china painting in her home in Cremorne, New South century British and American Arts and Crafts ceramics Wales. While exhibiting regularly with the Society of Arts can be seen in the organisation of the design elements of and Crafts from the early 1920s, she took further classes each work. They add to Warburton’s representation in the at East Sydney Technical College from 1928 to advance her national collection and allow a fuller picture to be gained of overglaze painting practice. the work of an influential Australian craft artist of the early Her work from the 1920s and 1930s was characterised twentieth century. by reductive, geometric designs painted on imported Robert Bell European and English porcelain blanks and was often based Senior Curator, Decorative Arts and Design on Australian flora imagery. Some designs, particularly

38 national gallery of australia acquisition International Decorative Arts and Design

Peter Behrens Electric kettle

Peter Behrens was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1868 and died in Germany in 1940. He trained in architecture and design at the Gewerbeschule in Hamburg from 1886 to 1888, and in painting at the Kunstschule in Karlsruhe from 1888 to 1891. In 1893 he joined the avant-garde design group Münchner Sezession, and in 1897 he founded the Vereinigte Werkstätten für Kunst im Handwerk (United Workshops for Art in Handwork). He produced buildings and designs for objects for the Darmstadt Artists’ Colony in 1901 before moving to Düsseldorf to head the Kunstgewerbeschule from 1903 to 1907 and to establish the influential design association Deutscher Werkbund (German Work Association). From 1907, he worked as the product designer for the giant German industrial company Allgemeine Elektrizitäts Gesellschaft (AEG), designing electric kettles, fans, clocks and complete buildings and interiors, while also working as a designer for other ceramics and glass manufacturers. This electric kettle was designed and produced during Behrens’s early and most productive period. It is a development of the well-known electric kettle produced by AEG from 1909 (and later by Gebrüder Bing, from 1920 to 1924). It was part of a range that was produced from standardised parts and available with different handles—a particularly interesting transitional design showing Behrens move from the handcraft aesthetic of the Arts and Crafts and Jugendstil styles of the late nineteenth century to the direct expression of industrialised production processes and materials. This kettle is presented in polished brass with machine-hammered decoration, a cane-covered handle and ebonised wood knob. While retaining an organic form and texture, it also incorporates the modern and practical aspects of electric power with a solid heating element that Peter Behrens, designer slides out for replacement. Its serial number indicates that it AEG, manufacturer Electric kettle c 1910 was manufactured prior to 1914. brass, cane, ebonised wood, metal element This humble appliance shows how the major German 23 x 12.9 (diam) cm industrial designer of the early twentieth century was able National Gallery of Australia, Canberra to bring modernity to the domestic environment. Purchased 2008

Robert Bell Senior Curator, Decorative Arts and Design

artonview autumn 2009 39 acquisition Asian Art

Lan Xang Buddha sheltered by Muchalinda, the serpent king

Lan Xang kingdom Buddha sheltered by Muchalinda, the serpent king is protuberance at the crown of the head, and his elongated (1353–1707) Laos the latest addition to the National Gallery of Australia’s earlobes. The ushnisha is one of the Buddha’s 32 lakshanas, Buddha sheltered by extensive collection of Southeast Asian Buddhist art. the marks of a great man that appeared as a result of Muchalinda, the serpent king 15th–16th century The exquisite bronze is the Gallery’s first acquisition of meritorious acts in the Buddha’s previous lives. In this bronze 84 x 46.5 x 30 cm sculpture from Laos, where it was made some time during sculpture, it is covered in tight curls of hair and culminates National Gallery of Australia, the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries. Renowned as the in a flame-shaped radiance encompassed by four open Canberra Purchased 2008 pinnacle of Lao Buddhist art, this period saw the lotus petals. The elongated ears also allude to the Buddha’s production of images that manifest a distinct local identity. former life as an Indian prince, his lobes having been Buddha sheltered by Muchalinda, the serpent king stretched by elaborate and heavy . exemplifies the prevailing concepts of ideal beauty with Narratives from the life of the Buddha pervade the art its serene expression, well-proportioned facial features, of Southeast Asia, where they serve to reinforce the eternal symbolic elements and high-quality craftsmanship. truths of Buddhism and assist believers in understanding During the fourteenth to eighteenth centuries, the the faith’s more complex concepts. Images of Shakyamuni regions of present-day Laos and north-eastern Thailand taking shelter beneath the multiple heads of Muchalinda, formed the territories of Lan Xang, the Land of a Million the serpent or naga king, are especially prominent. Elephants. The first ruler of Lan Xang, King Fah Ngum the In the Gallery’s sculpture, Shakyamuni is shown seated in Great (1316–1393, reigned 1353–72), a Lao prince who the half-lotus position upon the coils of Muchalinda. had been exiled and raised in Cambodia’s Angkor court, The canopy of Muchalinda’s seven heads rises up behind is credited with unification of Lan Xang and the subsequent the Buddha from an eighth head at the rear of the adoption of Theravada Buddhism. Immediately after his sculpture. A slight variation from the iconography of ascension, Fah Ngum invited Khmer Buddhist monks and Thai and Cambodian sculptures depicting the same subject, artists to attend his court. From that time, Cambodian the eighth head suggests a distinctly Lao treatment of Pra Bang sculptures showing the standing Buddha in the the theme. favour-bestowing posture (vara mudra) became a source of While Muchalinda is present in a number of accounts inspiration for Lao sculptors. By the middle of the fifteenth of the Buddha’s life, this sculpture appears to correspond century, however, Lao Buddhist art had blossomed into a with an episode following Shakyamuni’s attainment of distinctive style, with diverse iconography influenced by nirvana. Residing in the bliss of enlightenment under neighbouring Cambodia and Thailand. the Bodhi tree, the Buddha was threatened by a violent Seated in a posture of meditation (dhyana mudra), storm. Stirring from his abode at the base of the tree, the historical Budhha Shakyamuni is shown with eyes Muchalinda coiled himself around Shakyamuni for seven cast downward and the suggestion of a smile that days to shield him from the raging elements. Thereafter, alludes to his understanding of the truth about life. Muchalinda was considered the Buddha’s protector and His compassionate expression also invites worshippers was designated by the Enlightened One as the guardian to have faith in his teachings. This serene countenance of mantras and sacred texts. is further emphasised by the slender nose and high Buddha sheltered by Muchalinda, the serpent king arch of his brows, both of which reveal the strong is now on display in the Southeast Asian gallery. It joins influence of Sukhothai images made in Thailand during other important Buddhist images from Burma, Cambodia the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. and Thailand. Other symbols of the Buddha’s great wisdom Niki van den Heuvel and spiritual advancement are the ushnisha, a slight Assistant Curator, Asian Art

40 national gallery of australia

acquisition Asian Art

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi The lonely house on Adachi Moor

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi In the folktale The hag of Adachigahara, a cannibalistic The lonely house on Adachi Moor 1885 old woman preys upon travellers, particularly pregnant colour woodblock print women and children, on the Adachi Moor in northern diptych 72 x 24 cm (overall) National Gallery of Australia, Japan. In this scene, the hag is sharpening the knife Canberra she will use to kill her heavily pregnant captive and the Purchased 2008 unborn child. Created in 1885, The lonely house on Adachi Moor is macabre but, by not showing the actual moment of violence, it is less bloody than some of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi’s earlier prints, such as those for the 1867 series Twenty-eight famous murders. Yoshitoshi is considered the greatest ukiyo-e woodblock print artist of the Meiji era (1868–1912). With periods of poverty and mental illness, the artist’s life may be seen to mirror the tumultuous times in which he lived. Japan was grappling with the demise of the Tokugawa shogunate, rice shortages, sporadic lawlessness and the new presence of Europeans and Americans. Yoshitoshi was concerned about the erosion of Japanese culture and chose to work with traditional themes, including horror—a popular genre in Japanese theatre, literature and art during the nineteenth century. While traditional in his choice of subject matter, Yoshitoshi was an innovator in style and technique, demonstrated by his masterful use of perspective and realism, his expressive line work and his bold adoption of the synthetic inks that began to replace vegetable colours in the 1860s. He created prints of great beauty and dramatic power. Yoshitoshi used a variety of formats, including the vertical oban diptych that is so effective in this work. Although one of Yoshitoshi’s most notorious prints, The lonely house on Adachi Moor is surprisingly rare. The Japanese authorities suppressed it when it was first released, and a planned second edition was never published. This acquisition complements the National Gallery of Australia’s existing collection of more than 60 Yoshitoshi prints, representing several themes of his diverse oeuvre from observational portraits of women to ghost stories.

Beth Lonergan Assistant Curator, Asian Art

42 national gallery of australia Travelling exhibitions autumn 2008

Exhibition venues and dates may be subject to change. Please contact the Gallery or venue before your visit. For more information on travelling exhibitions, telephone (02) 6240 6525 or send an email to [email protected].

Ocean to Outback: Australian landscape Imagining Papua New Guinea: painting 1850–1950 prints from the national collection The National Gallery of Australia’s 25th Anniversary Imagining Papua New Guinea is an exhibition of prints from Travelling Exhibition the national collection that celebrates Papua New Guinea’s Supported by Visions of Australia, an Australian independence and surveys its rich history of printmaking. Artists whose works are in the exhibition include Timothy Government Program supporting touring exhibitions Mathias Kauage by providing funding assistance for the development Independence celebration I 1975 Akis, Mathias Kauage, David Lasisi, John Man and Martin stencil Morububuna. and touring of Australian cultural material across 50.2 x 76.4 cm Australia. The exhibition is also proudly sponsored National Gallery of Australia, nga.gov.au/Imagining by RM Williams, The Bush Outfitter, and the National Canberra Southland Museum and Art Gallery, Invercargill, New Zealand Ulli and Georgina Beier Collection, Gallery of Australia Council Exhibitions Fund purchased 2005 21 February – 19 April 2009 To mark the 25th anniversary of the National Gallery of Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art History, Masterton, Arthur Streeton Australia, Director Ron Radford, AM, curated this national New Zealand, 2 May – 11 July 2009 The selector’s hut (Whelan on the log) 1890 touring exhibition of treasured works from the national oil on canvas collection. Every Australian state and territory is represented 76.7 x 51.2 cm through the works of iconic artists such as Clarice Beckett, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra , Grace Cossington Smith, Russell Drysdale, Hans Purchased 1961 Heysen, Max Meldrum, , Tom Roberts, Arthur The Elaine and Jim Wolfensohn Gift Streeton and Eugene von Guérard. Travelling Exhibitions nga.gov.au/OceantoOutback Three suitcases of works of art: Red case: myths and rituals Canberra Museum and Gallery, Canberra, ACT includes works that reflect the spiritual beliefs of different 14 February – 17 May 2009 cultures; Yellow case: form, space, design reflects a range of art making processes; and Blue case: technology. These suitcases Karl Millard thematically present a selection of art and design objects that Lizard grinder 2000 may be borrowed free-of-charge for the enjoyment of children brass, bronze, copper, sterling silver, money metal, Peugeot and adults in regional, remote and metropolitan centres. Culture Warriors: National Indigenous Art Triennial mechanism, stainless steel screws nga.gov.au/Wolfensohn 10.0 x 8.0 x 23.5 cm Proudly supported by BHP Billiton; the Australia Council in Blue case: technology For further details and bookings telephone (02) 6240 6650 for the Arts through its Aboriginal and Torres Strait The Elaine and Jim Wolfensohn Gift or email [email protected]. Islander Art Board, Visual Art Board and Community Blue case: technology Partnerships and Market Development (International) Board; the Contemporary Touring Initiative through Royal Institute for the Deaf and Blind, Sydney, NSW, Visions of Australia, an Australian Government program; 16 February – 30 April 2009 Maringka Baker Kuru Ala 2007 and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative Koe-Nara, Schools as Community Centre, Cessnock, NSW, synthetic polymer paint on of the Australian Government and state and territory 6–20 May 2009 canvas governments; the Queensland Government through the Kurri Kurri and District Pre-school, Kurri Kurri, NSW, 153.5 x 200.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Queensland Indigenous Arts Marketing and Export Agency 21–29 May 2009 Canberra Purchased 2007 Culture Warriors, the inaugural National Indigenous Art Red case: myths and rituals and © Maringka Baker Triennial, presents the highly original and accomplished work of Yellow case: form, space and design thirty Indigenous Australian artists from every state and territory. St Mary‘s College, Broome, WA, 23 February – 16 March 2009 Featuring outstanding works in a variety of media, Culture Broome Senior High School, Broome, WA, Warriors draws inspiration from the fortieth anniversary of the 17 March – 7 April 2009 1967 Referendum (Aboriginals) and demonstrates the breadth Sri Lanka Broome Public Library, Broome, WA, 13–24 April 2009 and calibre of contemporary Indigenous art practice in Australia. Seated Ganesha 9th–10th century Derby District High School, Derby, WA, 27 April – 8 May 2009 nga.gov.au/NIAT07 bronze 10.0 x 6.8 x 4.4 cm Kimberley School of the Air, Derby, WA, 8–18 May 2009 Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Qld in Red case: myths and rituals St Joseph’s School, Kununurra, WA, 22 May – 5 June 2009 The Elaine and Jim Wolfensohn Gift 14 February – 10 May 2009 Kununurra District High School, Kununurra, WA, 8–19 June 2009

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

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44 national gallery of australia

9 10 faces in view

1 Emma Joy Smith and Annika Hutchins at the opening of Degas: master of French art, 11 December 2009.

2 Vanessa Carlin and Norman Korte at the opening of Degas.

3 Kaye Pembeton, David Whitney and Peter Wilkins at the opening of Degas.

4 Ruth Waller and Jude Ray at the opening of Degas. 11 5 Celia McKew, Stephen McKew Mark Stacey, Kathy Stacey, Simon Hawkins and Gabriella Hawkins at the members opening of Degas.

6 Rex Sulway and his daughter Donna Gibbons at the members opening of Degas.

7 The Gallery’s Adriane Boag (left) helps the participants of the National Gallery of Australia and Sony Foundation Australia Summer Art Scholarship in a printmaking workshop.

8 Jane Wild, textile conservator, shows Summer art scholars a Leon Bakst costume that is being conserved for the Gallery’s exhibition Ballets Russes: the art of costume, 4 December 2009 – 26 April 2010.

9 Mike Parr presenting a talk to Summer art scholars during their visit to the Gallery.

10/ Children and their carers have 11 plenty of fun activities to entertain them in the specially designed Degas Family Activity Room.

12 Summer art scholars on a guided 12 tour of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander gallery.

13 Members Christmas wishes children’s ballet in the Gallery’s James O Fairfax Theatre in December 2008.

artonview autumn 2009 45

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