Picture Paradise # Richard Larter # Gleeson Interviews
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artonview artonview artonview ISSUE No.54 ISSUE No.54 winter 2008 W I N T E R 2008 NATIONAL Richard Larter Sliding easy 1970 (detail) synthetic polymer paint on composition board National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1970 G A L L E R Y O F AUSTRALIA a retrospective Canberra only 20 June – 14 September 2008 The National Gallery of Australia is an Australian Government Agency PICTURE PARADISE ¬s¬RICHARD LARTER ¬s¬¬',%%3/.¬).4%26)%73 Jan JanBillycan Billycan (Djan (Djan Nanundie) Nanundie) Yulparija Yulparija people people All the All Jilathe Jila2006 2006 acrylic acrylic binder binder with withlangridge langridge dry pigmentdry pigment and andmarble marble dust dust on plyboard on plyboard National National Gallery Gallery of Australia, of Australia, Canberra Canberra Purchased Purchased 2007 2007 © Jan © BillycanJan Billycan (Djan (Djan Nanundie) Nanundie) A.W.W.A.W.W. Plâté Plâtéand Co & Co Sinhalese Sinhalese man man c. 1920c. 1920 (detail) (detail) gelatin gelatin silver silver photograph photograph Collection: Collection: David David Knaus, Knaus, California California A NATIONALA NATIONAL GALLERY GALLERY OF OF AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIA TRAVELLING TRAVELLING EXHIBITION EXHIBITION PICTUREPICTURE PARADISEPARADISE ArtArt Gallery Gallery of Southof South Australia, Australia, Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, SA, 20 June20 June – 31 – August31 August 2008 2008 ArtArt Gallery Gallery of Westernof Western Australia, Australia, Perth, Perth, WA, WA, 20 September20 September – 23 – November23 November 2008 2008 GalleryGallery of Modernof Modern Art, Art, Brisbane, Brisbane, Qld, Qld, 21 February21 February – 10 – May10 May 2009 2009 ASIASIAA–P–PAACIFICCIFIC P PHOTOGRHOTOGRAPAPHYHY 1840s–1940s 1840s–1940s PrincipalPrincipal Sponsor Sponsor CCANBEANBERRRRAA O ONLNLYY 10 10JUL JULY –Y 9 – N 9O NVEMBEOVEMBER 2008R 2008 N GNA.GGOA.GOV.AUV.AU TheThe National National Gallery Gallery of Australia of Australia is an is Australianan Australian Government Government Agency Agency The TheNational National Gallery Gallery of Australia of Australia is an is Australian an Australian Government Government Agency Agency artonview contents Issue 54, winter 2008 (June–August) published quarterly by National Gallery of Australia GPO Box 1150 Canberra ACT 2601 2 Director’s foreword nga.gov.au ISSN 1323-4552 6 A walk through Turner to Monet: the triumph of Print Post Approved pp255003/00078 landscape © National Gallery of Australia 2008 8 Foundation and Development Copyright for reproductions of artworks is held by the artists or their estates. Apart from uses permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, 10 Masterpieces for the Nation Fund appeal 2008 no part of artonview may be reproduced, transmitted or copied without the prior permission of the National Gallery of Australia. 14 Painted in words: the James Gleeson oral history Enquires about permissions should be made in writing to the Rights and Permissions Officer. collection The opinions expressed in artonview are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. 20 Richard Larter: a retrospective editor Eric Meredith 26 Royal court photography in Picture paradise: designer Asia–Pacific photography 1840s–1940s Kristin Thomas photography Eleni Kypridis 32 Pacific arts: highlights from the National Gallery of Barry Le Lievre Australia collection Brenton McGeachie Steve Nebauer John Tassie 34 Treating the costume for a squid rights and permissions Nick Nicholson 37 Contemporary Australian Architects 2008 Speakers advertising Erica Seccombe Series printed in Australia by Pirion Printers, Canberra 38 New acquisitions enquires The editor, artonview 48 Culture Warriors on tour National Gallery of Australia GPO Box 1150 Canberra ACT 2601 50 Travelling exhibitions [email protected] advertising 52 Faces in view Tel: (02) 6240 6587 Fax: (02) 6240 6427 [email protected] RRP: $8.60 (inc: GST) Free to members of the National Gallery of Australia For further information on becoming a member of the National Gallery of Australia contact Membership Coordinator Tel: (02) 6240 6504 GPO Box 1150 Canberra ACT 2601 [email protected] cover: Tamil Nadu, India Shiva as Lord of the Dance [Nataraja] 11th–12th century bronze 128.5 x 106.0 x 40.0 cm Purchased with the assistance of the National Gallery of Australia Foundation 2008 Director’s foreword The staging of the groundbreaking exhibition Turner to gifted a number of works in the past. This latest gift by her Monet: the triumph of landscape is a great event in our husband Ben Gascoigne, AO, and the Gascoigne family is recent history. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd honoured the in the spirit of her generosity, and is a strikingly important Gallery by opening the exhibition to the public on 14 March contribution to our contemporary Australian collection. Ben 2008. It has been a huge success and has exceeded our Gascoigne formally presented the two million dollar gift at expectations. The National Gallery of Australia is its only the Gallery in March. venue, and only days remain before the exhibition closes on Another interesting new acquisition is the Tasmanian 9 June to see these stunning works, which trace the rise of double-ended sofa, a major colonial example of the nineteenth-century landscape painting. Turner to Monet, Regency-period style of the early nineteenth century. Probably among other things, presents for the first time Australian dating from the late 1820s, it is one of our earliest nineteenth-century landscape painters in the context of Tasmanian works. This fine neoclassical sofa crafted from their great European and American contemporaries. You Australian cedar is now on display with other examples of will not see works by all these artists together again as the colonial furniture from Tasmania and New South Wales and exhibition is drawn from forty collections from around the with new works from our expanding colonial silver collection. world. The exhibition, curated by Christine Dixon, Senior From 20 June to 14 September the National Gallery Curator, International Painting and Sculpture, Lucina Ward, of Australia celebrates the work of Richard Larter, one Curator, International Painting and Sculpture, and me, is of Australia’s most provocative artists and remarkable generously supported by Channel Nine and Art Indemnity colourists. Larter spent most of his career on the outskirts Australia. of Sydney and in Yass and now lives in Canberra. At the The Gallery has recently acquired a rare, large and age of 79, Larter continues to paint prolifically, having exquisite Shiva Nataraja sculpture from the Indian Chola achieved a significant local and national profile over dynasty (ninth–thirteenth centuries) and it is a pivotal many decades. This retrospective exhibition will cover his image for our special Indian gallery. Shiva, the great god artistic practice from the late 1950s to the present, and of destruction, is depicted performing the Dance of Bliss, will include a room dedicated to his most tireless subject, which destroys in order to recreate the universe. In this his late wife Pat Larter. His unflinching and unapologetic quintessential Hindu image, Shiva is surrounded by a halo study of the human body and sexuality, and his fascination of flames as he crushes the dwarf of ignorance underfoot. with popular culture and politics, will make this a sharply A masterpiece of Chola bronze casting, the sculpture was engaging exhibition. Curated by Deborah Hart, Senior created in south India around the eleventh and twelfth Curator, Australian Painting and Sculpture after 1920, this centuries – the high point of bronze casting in India. The retrospective brings together works from public and private skills of Chola artists are evident, as is the elegance and collections to represent five decades of Larter’s career. sensuality of the sculpture of this period. At one hundred Picture paradise: Asia–Pacific photography and thirty centimetres in height, the new Shiva Nataraja is 1840s–1940s is the first ever comparative survey exhibition one of the largest Shiva Nataraja sculptures from the period of the history of photography of our Asia–Pacific region. in existence. The image of the dancing Shiva represents The exhibition reveals the beauty and cultural diversity the most powerful and popular image in Indian art. We throughout South and Southeast Asia, Australia and the appreciate the generous support of the Foundation and Pacific, and chronicles the developments in photography also the proceeds from the 25th Anniversary Gala Dinner, during the first century of its existence in the region. which made this important acquisition possible. The significant portion of native-born photographers in The Gallery has also acquired a ten-panel work the exhibition is a highlight – including Lala Deen Dayal, by Australian artist Rosalie Gascoigne. Earth 1999 is Kusakabe Kimbei, Francis Chit, Kassian Cephas and Ichiki Gascoigne’s final assemblage series and is now a highlight Shirō. Their contribution to the history of the medium in of the Australian galleries. It is made from sheets of form- the region is often overlooked in favour of significant board, used in building and construction work. Her earlier foreign photographers such as Samuel Bourne and Scot works were often mixed-media, incorporating other John Thomson. The works of both local and foreign materials and found objects, but Earth is an assemblage of photographers working in our region are brought together form-boards alone. This evocative work has a strangely still, in Picture paradise to allow