HANS HEYSEN ROBERT DOWLING ROBERT   LIFE, DEATH AND MAGIC AND MAGIC LIFE, DEATH JAMES TURRELL’S SKYSPACE SKYSPACE TURRELL’S JAMES

ISSUE 62 • winter 2010 artonview ISSUE 62 • WINTER 2010 NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA The National Gallery of Australia is an Australian Government Agency Issue 62, winter 2010

published quarterly by 3 Director’s foreword National Gallery of Australia GPO Box 1150 exhibitions and displays Canberra ACT 2601 nga.gov.au 6 Robert Dowling: Tasmanian son of Empire ISSN 1323-4552 Anne Gray Print Post Approved 10 Life, death and magic: 2000 years of Southeast Asian pp255003/00078 ancestral art © National Gallery of Australia 2010 Copyright for reproductions of artworks is Robyn Maxwell held by the artists or their estates. Apart from 16 Hans Heysen uses permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of artonview may be reproduced, Anne Gray transmitted or copied without the prior permission of the National Gallery of Australia. 20 Portraits from India 1850s–1950s Enquiries about permissions should be made in Anne O’Hehir writing to the Rights and Permissions Officer. 22 In the Japanese manner: Australian prints 1900–1940 The opinions expressed in artonview are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. Emma Colton Produced the National Gallery of Australia Publishing Department: acquisitions editor Eric Meredith 26 James Turrell Skyspace designer Kristin Thomas Lucina Ward photography Eleni Kypridis, Barry Le Lievre, Brenton McGeachie, Steve Nebauer, 28 Theo van Doesburg Space-time construction #3 David Pang, John Tassie Jane Kinsman rights and permissions Nick Nicholson 30 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Eldorado advertising Erica Seccombe, Eric Meredith printed in Australia by Blue Star Print, Jane Kinsman Melbourne 31 Mutuaga The drummer enquiries Crispin Howarth The editor, artonview National Gallery of Australia 32 Nias Anthropomorphic stone monument GPO Box 1150 Canberra ACT 2601 Niki van den Heuvel [email protected] 33 Yami House post advertising Lucie Folan Tel: (02) 6240 6557 Fax: (02) 6240 6427 34 Fred and Lyn Williams gift [email protected] Emma Colton RRP $9.95 includes GST Free to members of the 36 Walangkura Napanangka Untitled National Gallery of Australia Franchesca Cubillo 38 Shapoor N Bhedwar The Naver—invocation For further information on National Gallery of Australia Membership: Gael Newton Membership Coordinator GPO Box 1150 programs Canberra ACT 2601 Tel: (02) 6240 6504 39 Foundation [email protected] 40 Sponsorship and Development 42 Wesfarmers Arts Indigenous Fellowship Belinda Cotton 46 Faces in view (cover) 48 Starry Nights James Turrell Skyspace 2010 50 At play in van Gogh’s bedroom installation: lighting, plaster, painted concrete, marble, stainless steel, granite, bronze, water Peter Naumann and landscape surrounds 800 x 2800 x 2800 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra photograph: John Gollings View at the entrance to the stupa inside the Skyspace.

Director’s foreword

In the last issue of artonview, I said how pleased we were The energy and effort that goes into these great Indonesia, possibly Borneo discovered Flores with the extraordinary success of Masterpieces from Paris: exhibitions should not be underestimated—they command The bronze weaver 6th century Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and beyond. At the time, tremendous time and resources. The Gallery is extremely bronze 25.8 x 22.8 x 15.2 cm attendances had passed 230 000 during the 2009–10 grateful to everyone involved in making the exhibition such National Gallery of Australia, summer holiday season, setting a Gallery record. We really a success—from our sponsors to, for example, the Gallery’s Canberra purchased 2006 did not expect such very high numbers to continue to the security staff, our shop and cafe staff, cleaners, installation To feature in Life, death and magic extent they did during the second half of the exhibition. teams, marketing staff, our members, volunteers and the at the National Gallery of Australia in August. We were wrong—so much so that we achieved and staff who volunteered to work extra hours to ensure people easily overtook a new art museum record during what we enjoyed their experience at the Gallery. normally consider our off-season, when adults return to Now, with Masterpieces from Paris behind us, the work and children to school. Gallery’s focus is on finalising preparations for the opening We were extremely fortunate to be able to extend the season of its new building. exhibition’s season by nearly two weeks to ensure that James Turrell’s spectacular Skyspace, the Gallery’s largest as many Australians as possible could see this fine and work, is almost completed, with only the surrounding deservedly popular show. It is very rare to be able to extend area to be landscaped in the new southern garden before the season for a show of such quality and size, particularly it can open to the public. The Skyspace stupa is the first as the exhibition opened in Japan in May. The Musée one of its kind to be built in the southern hemisphere. d’Orsay, however, generously supported the extra time. In This complex architectural work intensifies our experience the end, 477 000 people visited Masterpieces from Paris, of two elements we take very much for granted in our making it easily the most popular exhibition ever held in everyday lives: the sky and light. We will shortly announce Australia. We had 38 000 school children and over 60 000 its opening season. visitors to the Family Activity Room, which was generously On 13 August, we open to the public Life, death and sponsored by the Yulgilbar Foundation. We printed 64 000 magic: 2000 years of Southeast Asian ancestral art, an catalogues, an art publishing record in Australia. We exhibition designed to reveal the power of art made for also gained an extra 11 000 new members during the rituals of life and death from ancient to recent times. The exhibition. In addition, the exhibition pumped nearly $100 animist religion was the earliest in our immediate region million into the Canberra economy. More importantly, and is still practised in some areas of Southeast Asia. the exhibition brought great Post-Impressionist works to Objects from museums around the world will complement Australia, where few are owned, for the appreciation of so the National Gallery of Australia’s own exceptional many Australians. collection of ancestral art for this, the first major exhibition The nearly half-a-million attendance demonstrates the of Southeast Asian animist art ever staged. Unlike similar importance of staging exhibitions of this quality and size Asian exhibitions around the world, which focus on works in Canberra, which is a convenient city for people from all from classical Hindu and Buddhist civilisations, Life, death over Australia to visit. Nearly 80 per cent of visitors were and magic will reveal the diversity of art produced over from outside Canberra. It would be impossible, of course, two millennia by animist communities, some of which to mount such exhibitions without the support of sponsors still live in mountainous terrain and remote islands. The and programs such as the Australian Government’s Art Australian International Cultural Foundation and the Indemnity Australia scheme, the generous contribution Gordon Darling Foundation are generously supporting Life, of the ACT government for the national marketing death and magic. campaign, corporate sponsors, particularly the National Our two major winter exhibitions look at the work Australia Bank but also Qantas, and other sponsors and of two exceptional Australian painters of the past: Hans philanthropists. Heysen and Robert Dowling.

artonview winter 2010 3 Hans Heysen began his successful career in Adelaide in the Federation period. Although he is one of Australia’s best-known artists, this is the first full retrospective in over 30 years. It includes his oil paintings, watercolours, drawings and prints. Heysen’s work was pivotal to the development of Australian landscape art in the early twentieth century. He made the Australian gum tree the monumental hero of his nationalistic pictures. His later paintings of the rocky, arid region of the Flinders Ranges from the late 1920s, in the reds and ambers of inland Australia, depicted our dry sculptural landscape almost for the first time. Developed by the Art Gallery of South Australia, this touring retrospective opened at the National Gallery of Australia on 14 May and will continue until 11 July. It includes works that have not been shown at other venues. Our second winter retrospective is the Gallery’s own Robert Dowling: Tasmanian son of Empire. Robert Dowling was not only Australia’s first locally trained artist, when in 1850 he advertised his services as an artist, but he also later became Australia’s first artist to enjoy a career abroad. This, the first retrospective of Dowling’s work, has been curated for the Gallery by John Jones, one of the Gallery’s inaugural curators of Australian art. The exhibition opened in Launceston, Dowling’s home town, at Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery in March, where it was very warmly received by locals. It is currently at the Geelong Gallery until 11 July—Dowling having worked in Geelong for a few years after Launceston. Robert Dowling: Tasmanian son of Empire opens at the National Gallery of Australia on 24 July and will later travel to the Art Gallery of South Australia. Recent generous gifts have made significant contributions to the Gallery’s collections of International Prints and Drawings, Australian Prints and Drawings, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art. The Modernist Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg’s gouache painting on paper Space-time construction #3 1923 is an exceptionally generous gift by Penelope Seidler in memory of her husband, acclaimed architect Harry Seidler. Van Doesburg is an important figure in early twentieth-century European art and, along with Piet Mondrian, was a founding member of the De Stijl movement in 1917. De Stijl advocated pure abstraction and made a considerable impact on architecture. Space-time construction #3, in particular, was a major influence on Harry Seidler’s practice as an architect. A highly valued personal possession of the Seidlers since the early 1970s, this work is now a crucial addition to the national collection. Another important acquisition for the collection of International Prints and Drawings is Henri de Toulouse- Lautrec’s famous poster Eldorado 1892, which brilliantly captures the bravado of the notorious French cabaret singer Aristide Bruant. This very large and rare lithograph

4 national gallery of australia complements the Gallery’s important collection of Toulouse-Lautrec’s works on paper. It was acquired through the National Gallery of Australia Foundation with funds raised at the Foundation’s Gala dinner in March. For the Australian Prints and Drawings collection, the Gallery received prints and artists books from the collection of Lyn Williams and the late Fred Williams. This significant gift includes early works by major Australian printmakers John Brack, Tate Adams, Jan Senbergs, George Baldessin and others who shared the printmaking studios with Williams at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology during the 1960s. Walangkura Napanangka’s Untitled 2009 was acquired for the Gallery’s collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art with the generous support of The Myer Foundation in acknowledgment of the 2008 National Apology to the Stolen Generations. This engaging contemporary work is a large acrylic painting from the Western Desert region of Central Australia, the birthplace of this contemporary Indigenous art movement derived originally from sand drawings. This valuable and much appreciated addition to the collection will be included in the opening displays in our new Indigenous galleries. The Gallery also received two Indonesian textiles, gifts of Ani Bambang Yudhoyono, the first lady of Indonesia: a fine hand-drawn batik from Java and a luminous silk and silver brocade from Bali. Accompanied by Thére`se Rein, Mrs Bambang Yudhoyono toured the Asian galleries and the exhibition Emerging Elders: honouring senior Indigenous artists in March. The two gifts were made in recognition of the Gallery’s role in establishing Indonesian textiles as one of Southeast Asia’s most vibrant art forms. Over the past two years, the Gallery has made key purchases of rare Southeast Asian ancestral sculpture that will be first seen in our major exhibition mentioned building. It will provide a comprehensive introduction to Ron Radford, Director, Ani earlier, Life, death and magic. The recently acquired stone Bambang Yudhoyono, first lady Indigenous art from early barks and early Papunya boards of Indonesia, and Thérèse Rein figure of a grand nobleman from the Indonesian island of to contemporary urban works. in the Southeast Asian gallery Nias and the tall boldly painted house post from the Yami with the two textiles given to The new building, nearing completion, will be a special the Gallery by Mrs Bambang community of Taiwan will be among works on display. feature of the next artonview. Yudhoyono. The Gallery continues to refresh the important (opposite) collection displays. A selection of early Indian portrait The queue for Masterpieces from Paris, 7 January 2010. photographs now on show in our new photography gallery reveals the vitality of Indian culture and the unmistakable character of Indian photographic portraiture from after 1850 to 1950. The Indian portraits are from the Gallery’s growing and important collection of early Asian and Pacific photography. Ron Radford AM Director In addition to vitally needed new facilities, the new building includes 11 generous spaces for our collection of Indigenous Australian art, the largest and finest anywhere. A book on the Indigenous collection will be published in conjunction with the opening of the

artonview winter 2010 5 exhibition

Robert Dowling Tasmanian son of Empire

24 July – 3 October 2010 | Orde Poynton Gallery and Project Gallery

Robert Dowling Robert Dowling: Tasmanian son of Empire is a tribute to a Paradoxically, some of his successes have remained hidden Breakfasting out 1859 oil on canvas remarkable colonial artist, the first locally trained artist in for many years. Breakfasting out 1859, Dowling’s first work 61 x 91.5 cm Australia. It opened at the Queen Victoria Museum & Art to receive critical acclaim at the Royal Academy, has only Museum of London, Britain purchased 1953 Gallery, Launceston, on 5 March, and then at the Geelong just been correctly attributed to the artist after spending Gallery on 8 May, and will be on display at the National almost 60 years in the Museum of London attributed to an Robert Dowling Self-portrait c 1852 Gallery of Australia from 24 July to 3 October. It is the English artist. oil on board 30 x 25 cm Gallery’s most significant Australian colonial art exhibition Who, then, was Robert Dowling? Photographs and private collection since its John Glover retrospective in 2004. self-portraits suggest that he was a tall slender man, with a Although Dowling’s work is held in private and public straight back, who was immaculately dressed. He seems to collections across Australia and overseas, this is the first have been good looking in his youth with dark brown hair time that a significant body of his work has been presented and neatly trimmed beard, brown eyes, rosy cheeks and to the public. The exhibition includes more than 70 works. a firmly set mouth. From all accounts, he had a directness The exhibition and the accompanying book both of manner, which he probably inherited from his father, a explore Dowling’s successful career in Australia and Britain. Baptist preacher, and a man of physical and moral strength. It not only re-establishes his place in Australian art history, Dowling likely had few inhibitions; he was a self-made but also shows how he earned a place within British art. man—having started his career as a portrait painter by

6 national gallery of australia artonview winter 2010 7 Robert Dowling teaching himself how to paint. It would seem he believed Weerat Kuyuut and the Mopor people, Spring Creek, Weerat Kuyuut and the Mopor people, Spring Creek, in himself and his abilities but was always ready to learn Victoria 1856, are unique historical documents. These Victoria 1856 from whomever he came across—artists Thomas Bock images reveal a real interest in and concern for the oil on canvas 52 x 108.5 cm and Henry Mundy, for instance. His family had a standing Mopor people, in their way of life and their relationship The University of Queensland Art in Tasmanian society, and this would have contributed to with their land. He talked with the Aboriginal people, Museum, Brisbane gift of Miss Marjorie Dowling, 1952 his self-confidence. Moreover, he mixed with men who learned their names, closely observed the clothes they played a crucial role in developing the young colony— wore and the tools they used when hunting, and depicted men such as the Reverend John West and WP Weston, this in his paintings. who were prominent figures in the anti-transportation From his Baptist family background Dowling would league, believing that the penal system was cruel. have developed a concern for the wellbeing of other From his father, and from such local dignitaries, Dowling people. We can see this in his social realist painting, would have gained a sense of justice and integrity. Breakfasting out. Painted in London in 1859, the year But mixing among such society also provided Dowling that Charles Dickens wrote A tale of two cities, this work with easy access to those who might commission portraits shows the working class in the streets of London, or purchase paintings. He came from a close-knit family; including a predatory toff attempting to seduce a young his brother Henry, particularly, was a staunch advocate woman. This Dickensian painting also suggests that of his work and encouraged others to purchase or Dowling, like the great author and like some of the commission it. Tasmanian dignitaries he portrayed in his youth, may In the Western District of Victoria in the 1850s, have been interested in social reform. Dowling painted sympathetic portraits and portrait groups In London in the 1870s, Dowling painted the of the local Aborigines. His Aboriginal subjects, such as watercolour Egyptian banana seller 1878, a carefully

8 national gallery of australia worked image in which he conveyed the quiet beauty 14 July 1886, the artist’s nature was ‘breezy, genial and Robert Dowling A sheikh and his son entering and radiance of his subject and captured the softness sympathetic. He took a cheerful view of life, looked on Cairo, on their return from a and exquisite detail of her shawl. In its large scale and the bright side of human nature, and was somewhat of a pilgrimage to Mecca 1874 oil on canvas Orientalist subject, A sheikh and his son entering Cairo laughing philosopher’. 139.3 x 244.5 cm 1874, reflects Dowling’s ambition. Such subjects were Three years in the making, Robert Dowling: Tasmanian National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne popular with successful academicians at the time such as son of Empire, the exhibition and book, curated and presented by a committee of gentlemen, 1878 Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema, who often portrayed the written by John Jones, reveals the work of a remarkable Orient as exotic, colourful and sensual. character and a fascinating and broad-ranging artist. One of Dowling’s last paintings, Miss Robertson of As the Director of the National Gallery of Australia, Colac (Dolly) 1885–86, was a portrait of a young Australian. Ron Radford, has said:

The painting is currently the subject of the National Gallery This exhibition aims to return Robert Dowling to his of Australia’s Masterpieces for the Nation Fund 2010 proper place in Australian cultural history. He was the (see page 39). Dowling first painted Dolly dressed in first Australian to achieve success at the Royal Academy white at her home in the Western District of Victoria. in London and the most successful portrait painter in But Dolly, then aged 19, did not approve of the portrait Australia in the 1880s. and persuaded the artist to repaint her wearing a dark Robert Dowling truly holds a special place in the history of brown dress. Other successful portrait painters would not Australian art, a place that this retrospective affirms. have done so, but Dowling agreed, perhaps entranced Anne Gray by the charms of young Dolly, but perhaps just out of a Head of Australian art genuine kindness of heart. As the art critic James Smith commented in Dowling’s obituary in The Argus on

artonview winter 2010 9 exhibition

Life, death and magic 2000 years of Southeast Asian ancestral art

13 August – 31 October 2010 | Exhibition Galleries

Ngaju people Throughout Southeast Asia, the deification of significant Kalimantan, Indonesia Ceremonial mat (amak dare) forebears and the veneration of spirits of nature have long early 20th century provided the impetus for the creation of superb works of bamboo, natural dyes 205.3 x 88.8 cm art. Life, death and magic: 2000 years of Southeast Asian National Gallery of Australia, ancestral art is the first major exhibition to focus on the art Canberra purchased 1994 of animism, the oldest of the Asian religions. For thousands

Toraja people of years, objects have been made to give pleasure to the Sulawesi, Indonesia living and the dead. Often their designs are simultaneously Ceremonial hanging and shroud (paporitonoling) 19th appealing and frightening, created to encourage benign century (detail) spirits to join in village celebrations and yet providing cotton, dyes 137 x 181 cm protection from dangerous beings and misfortunes. For National Gallery of Australia, Canberra this exhibition, some of the finest works of Southeast acquired through gift and purchase Asian animist art have been assembled from around the from the Collection of Robert J Holmgren and Anita E Spertus, world, with generous loans from collecting institutions in New York, 2000 Asia, Europe and America joining works from the national collection. Recent acquisitions of animist sculpture by the National Gallery of Australia will be revealed for the first time and provide the focus for the themes in the exhibition. A rare painted Yami house post (see page 32) is pivotal to the section exploring the majestic wooden architecture of the region, while two monumental Nias stone effigies of noblemen—one purchased 2009 (see page 33) and one in 2008—are central to the selection of objects, textiles and gold jewellery that proclaim wealth and power. Many of the textiles from the Gallery’s internationally renowned Asian collection will also be new to visitors. Here, the focus is on bold fibre shrouds and delicate barkcloths brightly painted with curving buffalo horns, widely used as symbols of abundance. Heavily beaded and interlaced mats from the collection depict the cosmic tree and the spirit ship that, along with strange birds, symbolise changes in status throughout life as well as transitions through the layers of the universe, especially between this world and the afterlife. Mats and fabrics are often hung at significant rites of passage, especially funerals. Life, death and magic presents a very broad geographic and temporal vista of the region’s ancestral arts, from ancient times to the twentieth century and encompassing

10 national gallery of australia

Yamdena, Maluku, mainland and island Southeast Asia. The juxtaposition of is powerfully represented, in ceremony, by the male arts Indonesia Ancestral altar (tavu) 2000-year-old archaeological treasures with nineteenth- of woodcarving and smelting and the female arts of 19th century century sculptures, gold ornaments and architectural textile, basketry and pottery. Works have been selected to wood 138 x 188 x 3.5 cm elements dramatically demonstrates the ancient and demonstrate recurring images in animist art such as human Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam enduring links between the arts of the Philippines, and animal figures, real and mythical, shown seated, Sa’dan Toraja people Indonesia, Malaysia (especially Borneo), the indigenous standing and sometimes mounted on fantastic creatures. Tondon village, Sulawesi, Indonesia inhabitants of Taiwan and the mountain groups of Similarly the horns of sacrificial buffaloes, grains of rice Granary facade 19th century Vietnam and southern China. Significantly, the exhibition and stars in the night sky evoke fertility and fecundity. wood, pigments 211 x 198 x 10 cm reveals the richness of the arts of smaller and more These symbols are displayed at rites enacted to ensure the Fowler Museum of Cultural History remote communities often overlooked in exhibitions and prosperity and survival of small communities, while fanged UCLA, Los Angeles gift of Dr and Mrs Robert Kuhn publications in favour of the great stone monuments and demonic masks and fierce reptilian forms such as serpents sculptures from the better-known classical Hindu-Buddhist and dragons serve to repel evil. civilisations such as Angkor and Borobodur. The central object in the exhibition is The Bronze The exhibition features works in a wide range of media, weaver, the Gallery’s superb 600-year-old seated maternity including fibre, stone, metal, wood and clay. Always figure. Found on one of the eastern islands of the present at the many rites that celebrate agricultural and life archipelago, The Bronze weaver will share the spotlight cycles—most notably harvests and funerals—are sculpture in Life, death and magic with other remarkable rare and and textiles, often symbolising the male–female dimensions ancient bronzes: a curving ceremonial axe from Roti from of the cosmos that underpin ancestral beliefs. This dualism the National Museum of Indonesia, Jakarta, an enigmatic

12 national gallery of australia artonview winter 2010 13 Sumbanese people bulbous flask with spiral ornamentation unearthed in dead. Some of the most striking are the gold burial masks. west Sumba, Indonesia Breast ornament or pectoral Borneo from the Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva, and Powerful but delicate examples from Indonesia and from (marangga) the splendid figure of a sturdy dog possibly discovered the pre-Hispanic period of Philippine art comprise only the late 19th – early 20th century gold, cinnabar in Sulawesi and now in the collection of the Honolulu nose, eye and lip covers along with arching gold eyebrows. 16.5 x 24.2 x 0.8 cm Academy of Arts. Life, death and magic follows the life cycle from birth National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Among the most beguiling, however, are the bronzes to death and into the afterlife. A wooden baby carrier purchased 2005 from the early Dian Kingdom (500 BCE – 200 CE) from Borneo, borrowed from the Musée du quai Branly Sumbanese people discovered in a series of archaeological excavations in the in Paris, protects the child physically while its carvings of Kanatang domain, Sumba, Indonesia province of Yunnan in southern China. Objects from the large ferocious faces, with bared teeth and huge shell disc Ceremonial ear pendant Provincial Museum in Kunming and smaller local museums eyes, provide a barrier to evil spirits. Given the uncertainties (mamuli ) 19th century gold alloy include large drums with dramatic three-dimensional scenes of childhood, it is not surprising that some of the most 10.2 x 9.6 x 1.4 cm National Gallery of Australia, of weaving and hunting on their lids. The most detailed of powerful art is created to celebrate the great achievements Canberra the scenes shows a village house and granaries teeming of adulthood—success at hunting, including warfare and purchased 1984 with activity—a cameo of life in early Southeast Asia that head hunting, prowess in weaving and the promotion are still replicated today in remote hamlets in the Batak to high rank and chiefdom. The exhibition will feature a regions of north Sumatra or the Toraja areas of Sulawesi. selection of large gold ornaments, ostentatiously displayed The facade of a Toraja granary from the collection of the by nobles from Nias at great communal feasts, from the Fowler Museum of Cultural History at the University of Los Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore. Angeles comes from a structure very similar to but two Arguably the greatest works of art have been created millennia younger than those of the Dian people of Yunnan. for funerals of prominent members of the community, Another fascinating aspect of the exhibition is the whose spirits may continue to be active in the affairs of the variety of masks found across Southeast Asia. Frightening living. Where the afterlife mirrors the human dimension, wooden faces—in both anthropomorphic and animal no expense is spared on ensuring that the deceased moves forms—are stark reminders of the need for powerful into the realm of the spirits and ancestors with an enviable protection from evil spirits and the wandering souls of the collection of fine grave goods at an elaborate ceremony with huge attendances. Beautiful objects—textiles, ivory, jewellery and vessels of ceramic and bronze—are interred with the dead during mortuary rites. In many communities, the bones are later exhumed and the deceased is again honoured in elaborate secondary burial rites that also require fine objects and textiles. A number of large and richly decorated coffins are the epitome of the arts associated with death. A 2.4-metre-long house-shaped bronze sarcophagus from the Dian culture of Yunnan and an intricately decorated, buffalo-shaped nineteenth- century Toraja ossuary from Sulawesi are among the most spectacular items in Life, death and magic, demonstrating the endurance of Southeast Asian art forms and practices from ancient times into the modern era. Unusually for a major Asian exhibition, works created by both men and women are featured together in Life, death and magic, since the veneration of nature spirits and ancestral beings, who are themselves both male and female, requires the creation of powerful works of art by members of both sexes. Respect for ancestors, including the mythical creators, the original mothers and fathers of all things, often demands fine effigies to be placed in sacred locations and altars in and around the family house and village compound. Mindful of the role of the ancestors in the existence of the living and the ongoing wellbeing of the community, pairs of figures—male and female—are conspicuous in animist art of Southeast Asia. Their human form varies from full-bodied realism to stylised minimalism, and their size from tiny to taller than life-size. Through magnificent contributions from two great Dutch museums, the National Museum for Ethnology in Leiden and the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, the exhibition explores the most powerful objects created to honour the dead. These spectacular shrines and altars, often in the form of mythical founding ancestors, were sites of offerings reverently laid by generations of descendants. Southeast Asian art has long been a major focus of the National Gallery of Australia’s collections, displays and curatorial research. Through the juxtaposition of works drawn from the Gallery’s fine collection and the generous loans of great works of Southeast Asian art from around the world, visitors will be introduced to the little-known but truly astounding art of the oldest religion in Southeast Asia. Audiences will experience art forms and styles that have endured sweeping changes over many thousands of years until recent decades. The accompanying publication fully illustrates this unique assemblage of the finest and rarest Indonesia works of ancestral art from Southeast Asia. Standing dog 4th–6th century bronze Robyn Maxwell 43.2 x 15.9 x 37.5 cm Senior Curator, Asian Art Honolulu Academy of Arts, Hawaii gift of the Christensen Fund 2001 The book Life, death and magic: 2000 years of Southeast Asian ancestral art, published in conjunction with the exhibition, will be available from 13 August at the Gallery Shop and selected bookstores nationally.

artonview winter 2010 15 exhibition

Hans Heysen

A grand vision: strong forms and bold light

14 May – 11 July 2010 | Exhibition Galleries

they are triumphant portraits, with symbolic resonance. Heysen ‘humanised’ his trees into dramatic self-conscious poses, imbuing them with qualities of endurance, resilience and grandeur. And he arranged his trees within the landscape as if they were sculptural forms or architectural columns. Mystic morn, for instance, depicts two young cows moving through a eucalyptus grove in the early morning light. Heysen painted it soon after his return to Adelaide after studying in Europe for four years, and it reflects his new awareness of the character of the Australian bush. In the exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia, visitors will be able to see together for the first time four versions of this image: two drawings, one watercolour and an oil painting. They will be able to observe how the artist explored the same subject in different media. In the first drawing, Group of young trees c 1904, Heysen made a tentative sketch, possibly outdoors, depicting sinuous trees and their peeling bark. The second drawing, Study for ‘Mystic morn’ 1904, is a densely worked compositional study for the oil painting, with very faint grid lines dividing the image into 16 even rectangles in preparation for transferring the design onto canvas—a method Heysen used throughout his career. This compositional drawing also includes a man beside the cow on the left, showing Hans Heysen One of Australia’s best-known landscape painters, that Heysen initially considered including a figure in the Droving into the light 1914–21 oil on canvas Hans Heysen (1877–1968) was also one of the most painting. These changes demonstrate the way that Heysen 121.9 x 152.4 cm successful during his lifetime. He changed the way we carefully composed his landscapes—after first having Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth view the Australian landscape, with his distinctive gum made a sketch directly from nature. He worked on his gift of Mr WH Vincent, 1922 trees having now become a part of our national imagery. composition to make it more balanced and harmonious, Hans Heysen This exhibition celebrates Heysen’s work. and sought to direct the viewer’s eye through the image. Mystic morn 1904 oil on canvas Heysen painted the majesty of Australia. He did so The watercolour, Study for ‘Mystic morn’ 1904, may have 122.8 x 184.3 cm through his images of huge gum trees around Hahndorf been painted before the finished oil, but it could possibly Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide and the stark hills of the Flinders Ranges. Heysen’s largeness have been painted after it. Unlike the carefully worked Elder Bequest Fund, 1904 of vision is evident in oil paintings such as Mystic morn drawing, it is a freer image, painted in rich strong colours 1904, Red gold 1913 and Droving into the light 1914–21. and using the watercolour medium to capture an intense In these works, Heysen observed nature acutely, portraying light. There are no cows in this image, and the trees are individual species of gum trees in all their specificity— more interwoven and intertwined. The trees almost seem to a river red gum distinguished from a white gum or a come to life. The work is also related to another oil painting stringybark. But these images are not just descriptive; by Heysen, Sunshine and shadow 1904–05.

16 national gallery of australia

Hans Heysen In 1926, in search of a change in his art, Heysen visited spiritual or sublime in nature. In Droving into the light Bronzewings and saplings, 1921 1921 the Flinders Ranges, more than 500 kilometres north 1914–21, for instance, Heysen expressed his love of light, watercolour on paper of Adelaide, and began to depict the ancient mountain glowing through the monumental gums at the end of the 56.7 x 76.4 cm Art Gallery of South Australia, ranges there. Before this, he had been attracted to the day. The massive foreground trees provide scale for Adelaide theme of nature laid bare, to scenes of quarries and cliff the picture as well as a frame directing the attention of South Australian Government Grant, 1937 faces, but from 1926 to 1933 the dry bare-boned terrain the viewer towards the centre of the composition. of the Flinders Ranges became the focus of his art. He It is a vision of nature as homely, secure and peaceful; admired the way in which the hills were defined by light. a promised land. He captured the sharp profiles of the hills, the clarity of the In addition to his evocative gum tree paintings and light, and the intense colours. But, more significantly, he the magnificent barren landscapes of the Flinders Ranges, saw this landscape as being dateless, frozen in time, and he the exhibition includes a number of Heysen’s lesser- captured its haunting silence. Writing to Sydney Ure Smith, known images, from his early student days and his time in Heysen observed that in the Flinders Ranges the scene was Europe from 1899 to 1903. There are portraits of Heysen’s ready-made, ‘fine big simple forms against clear transparent wife Sallie and still-lifes depicting the vegetables from skies—and a sense of spaciousness everywhere’. his garden. There are landscapes that reflect Heysen’s Heysen was also interested in capturing the Australian experience of bushfires in the Adelaide Hills, in which sunlight in all its variety—from a brilliant glare to a misty he captured the fierce blaze of the fire and the stifling haze. And through this he conveyed a sense of the heat emanating from it. And there are images of sheep

18 national gallery of australia wandering on dusty roads during a drought, which conjure watercolour, the Commonwealth Government commissioned Hans Heysen Spring 1925 up the smell of the hot, dry air. Heysen to paint a similar work in oil, which he called The watercolour on paper Among Heysen’s intimate and domestic images is the promenade 1953. In Canberra, both the watercolour and 39.3 x 49.2 cm private collection delightful watercolour of two cats in a tree, Spring 1925. the oil will be shown together for the first time. It is a simple snatch of life—with the cats stretching, There is much to see in this exhibition, which throws crouching, possibly waiting for coming prey, or maybe just a different light on Heysen. Ron Radford, Director of the basking in the sun. Likewise, Bronzewings and saplings National Gallery of Australia, has summed up the artist’s 1921 is a sparkling image and one of Heysen’s major achievements: watercolours. Here, the artist depicted a group of albino Heysen made the Australian gum tree monumental and turkeys within a sapling glade. The Hahndorf postmistress the hero of his nationalistic pictures. His paintings of the had given him a number of bronzewing turkey eggs and, rocky, arid region of the Flinders Ranges from the late to his surprise, when the eggs hatched many of the chicks 1920s onward added a new dry and sculptural aesthetic, turned out to be white. The combination of bronzewing emphasising the reds and ambers of inland Australia. and white turkeys inspired this work. He took much care Comprising about 80 works, the exhibition Hans Heysen at in painting the scene, laying down each colour freshly the National Gallery of Australia has been organised and with a crisp edge and arranging the composition like a curated by the Art Gallery of South Australia. mosaic. Heysen considered it one of his most complicated Anne Gray pieces of design. Some years after he had painted this Head of Australian Art

artonview winter 2010 19 display

Portraits from India 1850s–1950s

The second display in the National Gallery of Australia’s Photography gallery turns to the important role India played in the development of portrait photography in Asia. The works on display present the vibrant and enigmatic world of Indian studio-based portraiture.

Dias Studio One highlight in the new display is the portrait of the ethnographers—locals were quick to pick up cameras, Maharaja Jivajirao Scindia, Gwalior c 1937 dashing Maharaja George Jivajirao Scindia of Gwalior— build up their skills and develop successful businesses. As in gelatin silver photograph, prominently wearing his sash and medal of the Knight other parts of Asia, Indian royals were particularly astute in watercolour image 29 x 24 cm Grand Commander of the Star of India, awarded to seeing the political potential of the new medium and were card 51.5 x 41 cm him in 1946. I first saw him looking down at me in a passionate patrons and practitioners. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra dealer’s premises in Jaipur in Rajasthan. He was with One drawback of the new medium—particularly in purchased 2009 other elaborately framed, hand-coloured photographs India, where colour, symbolically and for its own beauty, and paintings hanging at rakish angles high on the walls. permeates every aspect of life—was that it rendered a Piles of studio shots of children, family portraits, glamour highly colourful world in monochrome. The solution was a shots of women and albums by Raja Deen Dayal wrapped truly hybrid form of photography and painting. Techniques in cloth jostled in the semi-dark with embroideries, softly used for hundreds of years by painters of miniatures found shimmering silver jewellery and knick-knacks. a new application in painting over photographs, particularly A selection of the photographs I saw that day were portraits—with the over-painting often almost completely acquired by the Gallery, and they, along with others obscuring the photograph beneath. Photography bought in recent years, comprise this new display of developed a distinctive local flavour with regional styles photography from the collection. Images on show date and essentially a home-grown clientele—as opposed to the from early in the history of Indian photography, from the hand-coloured views and portraits from Japan, for example, 1850s, with the inclusion of plates from William Henderson which were produced for the tourist trade. and William J Johnson’s The Oriental races and tribes, The history of the professional studio photographer is residents and visitors of Bombay, the first photographically longer in India than in other more-industrialised countries illustrated ethnographic publication on India. These where amateur home photography took over by the late photographs show a high degree of manipulation—their nineteenth century. In India, elderly hand-colourists are still strangeness attributed to Johnson bleaching out the studio working today, and long-established studios continue to backgrounds, overprinting them with Bombay scenes from do business or have only recently closed. Contemporary separate negatives and drawing in features such as foliage. photographers also draw on their predecessors’ studio Also in the display is a splendid array of nineteenth- work as inspiration. This display of a century of Indian century rulers with their inventive blending of traditional portrait photography presents examples of a wonderfully Indian clothing mixed with Western imports such as patent rich and varied art form, one with a long history. Like many leather shoes and umbrellas—ensembles that demonstrate things brought in by the colonising foreigner, photography resourceful adjustments to shifting political and social was embraced and made unmistakably Indian, in style and climates under the British Raj. in spirit. Invented in the late 1830s, photography is distinctive Anne O’Hehir as an art form in the history of many countries because Assistant Curator, Photography it was introduced very soon after its appearance in Europe—arriving without the burden of a pre-existing tradition. Brought into India by a variety of means— visiting photographers, missionaries, anthropologists,

20 national gallery of australia artonview winter 2010 21 travelling exhibition

In the Japanese manner Australian prints 1900–1940

Paul Haefliger During Margaret Preston’s second visit to Paris in 1912, late 1919. Produced to decorate her new flat in Mosman, Sublime Point above Bulli 1936 woodcut, printed in colour in her Australian contact, artist Rupert Bunny, advised her to on Sydney’s North Shore, this delicate hand-coloured print the Japanese manner from one look at the Japanese prints at the Musée Guimet. She was with its glowing colours and strong lyrical design is a testament cherry woodblock on paper printed image 26.5 x 36.6 cm immediately impressed by the asymmetry of the images to Preston’s connection with the formal qualities and sheet 26.5 x 36.6 cm and the use of pattern as a key element of design. After techniques associated with Japanese woodblock printing. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra gift of the artist, 1978 trade with Japan resumed in the 1850s, the rediscovery Frenchman’s Beach (Neutral Bay) is included in the

Margaret Preston of Japanese art and design had a profound influence National Gallery of Australia exhibition In the Japanese Frenchman’s Beach (Neutral Bay) on European art. From the 1860s, traditional Japanese manner: Australian prints 1900–1940, which will tour 1920 woodcut, printed in black ink woodblock prints became a source of inspiration for artists across regional New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland from one woodblock, hand- who were receptive to the unique compositions enlivened and Western Australia from 18 June 2010 to 21 November coloured, on thin smooth off- white Japanese-style paper by silhouettes, high horizon lines and unusual viewpoints. 2011. The exhibition showcases the work of Australian 21 x 26.3 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Elongated pictorial formats, decorative motifs and spaces artists inspired by the traditional Japanese woodblock purchased 2009 with abstract elements of colour and line superseded printing art of ukiyo-e. By the turn of the nineteenth © Margaret Rose Preston Estate. Represented by VISCOPY, Australia perspective and shadow as the focus of the design. century, Japanese prints were all the rage in England Arriving in London in 1913, Preston viewed the and France. Australian artists, like their contemporaries Lionel Lindsay Beach scene with figuresc 1917 important exhibition of Japanese ukiyo-e (floating world) worldwide, were also drawn to the nuanced aesthetic of etching, printed in black ink from one plate; woodcut, printed in printmaking at the Victoria and Albert Museum and later Japonisme. Printmakers working in Sydney, Melbourne, colour from one block on paper described four woodblock prints completed during this Perth and Adelaide adapted the radical forms, cropped printed image 22.1 x 16 cm sheet 28.2 x 20.6 cm period as having been printed ‘in the Japanese manner’. figures and flat areas of colour that characterised Japanese National Gallery of Australia, Canberra The recently acquired Frenchman’s Beach (Neutral Bay) woodblock printing to form a distinctly Australian aesthetic. purchased 1989 © National Library of Australia c 1920 is one of six woodcuts printed by Preston using Some artists experimented with the colour woodblock Japanese techniques following her return to Australia in method, which involved brushing ink directly onto wood or

22 national gallery of australia

Ambrose Patterson lino blocks, while others applied Japanese aesthetics and printmakers. Coming from a wealthy family, Teague had View over the Thames, evening c 1904 style to various print forms. the opportunity to travel extensively, and developed woodcut, printed in colour in Featured in the exhibition is the earliest print created a sustained interest in the aesthetic conventions and the Japanese manner from two blocks, with additional hand- in the Japanese manner by an Australian artist. Ambrose techniques of Japanese woodblock printing. Like Teague, colouring in gouache on thin cream paper Patterson’s woodcut View over the Thames, evening many Australian artists in this exhibition studied and printed image 21.8 x 30.6 cm 1904 displays a soft, tonal view of twilight over the River worked in Europe. In Paris and London, they were exposed National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Thames, with St Paul’s cathedral silhouetted against the to exhibitions of Japanese works of art as well as new ideas purchased 2000 sky. Another rare inclusion is a Japanese-style bound book in Modern art. After travelling to Japan, artists such as of verse written and illustrated in 1905 by Melbourne artist Margaret Preston and Paul Haefliger achieved a convincing Violet Teague. This small childrens book contains the very synthesis of Western and Japanese traditions. first colour woodcuts printed in Australia. The book was It was Margaret Preston who taught woodblock exhibited widely, winning an award at the first Australian printing to Thea Proctor, who in turn instructed the exhibition of women’s work in Melbourne in 1907. Night German-born Haefliger. Haefliger continued his study of fall in the ti-tree is a cautionary tale set out through a series traditional printmaking techniques in Japan, following a of brief verses reminiscent of Japanese haiku. The rabbits process where the image is cut along the grain of the wood who live among the tea trees are urged to run, ‘Flirt tails rather than across the end grain. The hard, slow-growing and away!’, from ‘Man’s merciless traps’. cherry wood used by Haefliger was favoured by Japanese Working with fellow artist Geraldine Rede, Teague artists. Rice paste mixed with watercolour was brushed made the book entirely by hand, using Japanese methods onto the block, which was then hand-printed onto fine, at every stage of production. The book is bound with the soft paper using pressure from a bamboo-covered pad pages folded at the fore-edge (the edge opposite the known as a baren. With this method, the printer could spine) and stitched through the spine with ribbon. The manipulate the ink to produce bold areas of colour, subtle images are printed from woodblocks with the buff coloured gradations of tone and fine line work. paper reminiscent of the mulberry paper used by Japanese Haefliger’s Sublime Point above Bulli 1936 is a

24 national gallery of australia woodcut, printed in colour in the Japanese manner from Another artist who experimented with Japanese Murray Griffin Cannas 1935 a cherry-wood block. The Sublime Point lookout is on aesthetics was Murray Griffin. In Cannas 1935, he used lino linocut, printed in colour from the escarpment above the Illawarra coast in New South rather than wood as the base for his matrix, as the material multiple blocks on cream lithographic wove paper Wales, with a view south past the town of Bulli towards was easier to cut and more readily available. The strong printed image 28 x 35.4 cm Wollongong. In this print, Haefliger depicts a group of virile geometric shapes and vibrant colours of the Cannas were sheet 32.8 x 43.7 cm National Gallery of Australia, young men clambering up the cliff face, looking across closely aligned to Modernist design. The brushy lines give a Canberra purchased 1978 a vast expanse of blue water dotted with the white sails sense of the texture of a woodblock print, with the striking of yachts and the pattern of undulating sandy bays. He cropped design recalling the print of irises by the Japanese successfully blends Eastern and Western elements, creating artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849). a uniquely Australian image while using the Japanese In the Japanese manner builds on the successes of the method of colour printing. landmark exhibition The story of Australian printmaking Like Haefliger, Lionel Lindsay drew inspiration from 1801–2005 at the National Gallery Australia in 2007. serene depictions of populated Japanese landscapes. This exhibition presented the calibre and depth of the Though focused on traditional values in art, Lindsay was Gallery’s Australian print holdings and was regarded as highly experimental in his use of different artistic practices the most comprehensive gathering of works on paper to express his poetic vision. A prolific printmaker and by artists from Australia and the region. In the Japanese passionate collector of Japanese prints and artefacts, he manner will provide audiences across Australia with a fresh enthusiastically explored the possibilities of combining and inspiring glimpse of some of the National Gallery of printmaking methods in works such as Beach scene Australia’s most delightful treasures. with figures c 1917. Here, the Japanese compositional Emma Colton techniques of cropping tall trees with the border of the Assistant Curator, Australian Prints and Drawings print and the gradual fading of the blue sky into the sea In the Japanese manner begins its tour of regional venues at have been overprinted with an etching to define the finer Lake Macquarie Art Gallery, NSW, from 18 June to 1 August 2010. outlines of the trees and figures. Go to nga.gov.au/japanesemanner for a full list of venues and dates.

artonview winter 2010 25 acquisition

James Turrell Skyspace

A major new Skyspace by American artist James Turrell nears completion at the National Gallery of Australia.

The Skyspace at the National Gallery of Australia is a site-specific work, its location chosen by the artist to complement and accord with the Gallery’s southern garden. On approach, visitors see a mound surrounded by water. Only a small portion of the structure is visible from outside. Being partially subterranean, the sculpture is established as an integral part of the garden; this also muffles extraneous sound and reduces light pollution. Via a long sloping walkway, the visitor encounters a large square-based pyramid with coloured interior walls. In the middle of this room, a huge basalt stupa rises, highlighted by the turquoise water that surrounds it. Two ramps, set at right angles around the perimeter of the room, converge on a single entrance on the opposite side of the stupa. Crossing a small bridge, we enter the stupa, the Skyspace proper. We find ourselves within a simple domed space, sparsely furnished with a concrete bench around the edge. The roof is open, the sky framed in an oculus. A moonstone, set into the centre of the floor, echoes the opening above. A bank of lights is located around the base of the dome, discreetly fixed into the wall of the bench. This inner sanctum is austere, even church-like. Within the space, we look up. Even during the day, changing light conditions, shifting weather patterns and variations in the seasons, ensure the experience is always different. We are offered artlessness, simplicity, unhurried perception— James Turrell A Skyspace is a work of art that we enter—and then perhaps even the chance of epiphany. Skyspace 2010 installation: lighting we stay to look at light, to ponder and to be moved. Turrell has made a small number of permanent Skyspaces installation, concrete and Contrasts between artificial light within the installation in the United States of America, Europe, Britain, Japan and basalt stupa, water, earth, landscaping and the changing external atmosphere affect the Israel. To date only two others use the stupa form: Three 800 x 2800 x 2800 cm appearance of the sky. Colours change and seem more gems 2005 at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, and National Gallery of Australia, Canberra painterly. Movement is intensified. The sky shimmers and Second wind 2005 2009 at the NMAC Foundation in Cadiz, photographs: John Gollings pulsates and, at times, descends into the space to meet Spain. The Skyspace in Canberra will open with a series us. By asking the viewer to take the time to notice these of special viewings later this year, when the landscaping is subtleties, James Turrell reveals the immensity of the complete. Visitors will then experience this wonderful work natural world and the sheer beauty of ‘divine’ architecture. of art, Turrell’s new Skyspace under southern skies.

A Skyspace marks the transition between night and day, Lucina Ward and the work is at its most dramatic and most complex at Curator, International Painting and Sculpture dawn and dusk.

26 national gallery of australia

acquisition

Theo van Doesburg Space-time construction #3

[Concerning] the space that is implicit in this arrangement of divorced structural trays that carry floors, one can only recall the paintings of the 1920s such as this one [Space- time construction #3] by Theo van Doesburg, a remarkable man who seemed to have predicted what would/will concern twentieth-century man’s eyes about what he feels to express this spaciousness, this continuum [of space]. His painting reflects this continuum of being able to look down and being able to look above from any one space, sensing that there is something beyond, having an illusion of something more, that the space keeps on going. It is not ever restricted or confined. And this is particularly exploited later in my work of the 1960s in multistorey buildings. It makes sense both in terms of planning and expresses a visual quality that underlies my interpretation of modern architecture. The significance of the van Doesburg is outlined by Peter Blake and brilliantly captured in Max Dupain’s photographs in the 1973 publication Architecture for the new world: the work of Harry Seidler, which included an illustration and analysis of the van Doesburg. Seidler generously gave a group of Dupain’s photographs of his work to the National Gallery of Australia in 2001. Space-time construction #3 became a valued possession of the Seidlers after they acquired it from Berlin dealer

Harry and Penelope Seidler Space-time construction #3 is a 1923 painting in gouache Jürgen Holstein. Holstein had bought the van Doesburg at (architects) on paper by the renowned leader of De Stijl, Theo van an auction of the Tremaine collection and had contacted Interior view, Harry & Penelope Seidler House, Killara, NSW, Doesburg. It remained a constant inspiration for the Harry Seidler, having seen its importance to the architect in 1966–67 photograph: Max Dupain extraordinarily gifted architect the late Harry Seidler AC during Blake’s book. The work was also coincidently created in the © Harry Seidler & Associates his years of practice. Seidler’s work, in turn, has had a year of Seidler’s birth, 1923. As Penelope Seidler recently

Theo van Doesburg great influence on architectural developments in Australia. recalled, Harry was ‘thrilled’ to own ‘his most favourite Space-time construction #3 Penelope Seidler has now generously donated Space-time artwork’. In turn, this most influential work in the recent 1923 gouache, graphite, ink construction #3 to the Gallery in memory of her husband. history of architecture in Australia is now in the national 44 x 31 cm Harry Seidler first saw the work at the Museum of collection for all Australians to own. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Modern Art in New York in the 1940s, when it was owned Along with this van Doesburg gouache, Penelope donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts by American collectors Mr and Mrs Burton Tremaine. Seidler has also generously donated a group of early Program by Penelope Seidler AM The impact of the van Doesburg work on Seidler was European Modernist works on paper by artists associated in memory of Harry Seidler AC, 2010 profound—something he outlined on numerous occasions with the Bauhaus. The gift includes postcards by Paul Klee, in lectures and interviews. Its influence was evident in his Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, which designs for the Rose Seidler House in 1949–50. Seidler also were created to promote the Bauhaus exhibition in 1923 mentioned van Doesburg’s importance for his Rushcutters (again coinciding with the year of Harry Seidler’s birth). Bay apartments of 1963–65 and the family home in Killara Penelope Seidler gave these to her husband on his birthday. of 1966–67. In a lecture to the Royal Australian Institute They provide wonderful examples of the aesthetic and the of Architects on 8 October 1980, copies of which are passion the Seidlers shared as collectors over the years. held at the universities of Melbourne and South Australia, Jane Kinsman Seidler noted: Senior Curator, International Prints, Drawings and Illustrated Books

28 national gallery of australia acquisition

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Eldorado

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec became renowned for his portrayal of subjects drawn from the Parisian demimonde in the late nineteenth century, producing astonishing images executed with an unerring and penetrating eye. The subject of this famous poster is the singer Aristide Bruant. Bruant was a notorious character as renowned for his rich baritone voice as he was for insulting his audiences. Despite this, his patrons kept coming back for more, attracted not only to the outrageousness of his performances but also because he sang lyrics in a Parisian argot. Toulouse-Lautrec was a master draughtsman and we can see this in the seemingly effortless way he has captured Bruant’s physical presence and character. As one critic of the day said of Bruant, he was ‘Tall, with a broad barrel chest and a Napoleonic profile: but his eye is sly and his lip sardonic’. Bruant commissioned this poster for his debut in 1892 at the Parisian café-concert Eldorado, which was more luxurious than some of the seedier café-concerts found in Montmartre. The poster brilliantly captures Bruant’s character; his larger than life presence, his signature scarf and black fedora almost burst from the picture frame. Behind Bruant is the ominous silhouette of a city ruffian suggesting the singer’s links with the Parisian underworld. Bruant was keen to promote such an association to provide him with the streetwise credentials that attracted his wealthier patrons, who enjoyed slumming it. This is an iconic work by Toulouse-Lautrec, who applied fine-art qualities to low-art subjects. Eldorado with its sinuous lines, bold colouring and simplified forms also reveals the artist’s enthusiasm for Japanese ukiyo-e prints. Now, through the generosity of the National Gallery of Australia Foundation, this justifiably famous poster will become one of the highlights of the collection.

Jane Kinsman Senior Curator, International Prints, Drawings and Illustrated Book

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Eldorado 1892 colour lithograph on two sheets 150 x 99 cm (overall) National Gallery of Australia, Canberra acquired through the National Gallery of Australia Foundation, 2010

30 national gallery of australia acquisition

Mutuaga The drummer

It is rare that a Melanesian work of art from the nineteenth Mutuaga The drummer 1880–90 century can be attributed to an artist with any certainty, ebony, lime so the artist known as Mutuaga is a phenomenon. He is 36.5 x 4 x 5.5 cm National Gallery of Australia, the only named New Guinean artist who was active during Canberra this period and who is responsible for a known body of purchased 2009 outstanding work characterised by small yet monumental figurative sculpture. The artist was known to be of positive and cheerful disposition and, as a carver of great standing, Mutuaga was nicknamed Oitau (carved man) by his peers. His ability to transform the utilitarian object—in this case, a lime spatula (known as enale or gem in the Suau area)—and to make it into something attractive and covetous was exceptional. While all lime spatulas from the Milne Bay Province are decorated to some extent, and many also include a small figure as the handle, Mutuaga’s works are usually far larger and show a greater level of sculptural strength. Little was known about the artist’s identity until 1996, when art historian Dr Harry Beran published groundbreaking research. Beran identified Mutuaga and his body of work through some hundred sculptures that had been mainly sitting unrecognised in museum collections. We now know Mutuaga was born around 1860 in Dagodagisu Village in the Milne Bay province of Papua New Guinea. He died around 1920. Mutuaga, although he did not adopt Christianity, gained the friendship and patronage of the missionary Charles Abel at the nearby Kwato Island Mission. Mutuaga’s relationship with Abel provided a conduit for his art beyond the traditional exchange practices of his community. Missionaries, commodores and even two of Papua’s first governors acquired Mutuaga’s sculptures. Unsurprisingly, many of these works later found their way into galleries and museums across the world. The National Gallery of Australia’s The drummer—like the Gallery’s Double figure from Lake Sentani—was once part of sculptor Jacob Epstein’s collection on non- Western art. Epstein was known to spend hours silently contemplating objects in his collection. One can almost see Epstein sitting in silence with this work in his hands, enjoying its superb tactile qualities and reflecting on the work of another great artist obscured by time and distance.

Crispin Howarth Curator, Pacific Art

artonview winter 2010 31 acquisition

Nias Anthropomorphic stone monument

Situated off Sumatra’s west coast, the island of Nias is home to an ancient yet enduring tradition of monumental statuary in stone and wood. Ancestral and aristocratic effigies, pillars and seats of honour are still found today in Nias villages. The layout of traditional villages is dramatic, with immense wooden houses erected around central terraces and stone-paved plazas, the venue for important feasts and gatherings. A striking Anthropomorphic stone monument (gowe salawa) from Nias is a major acquisition of Indonesian animist sculpture. The impressive figure of a nobleman would have been commissioned as a portrait to preside over a feast of rank celebrating the patron’s elevation in social and political standing. While abstract depictions of great chiefs in the forms of shafts and steles are found across the entire island, this example is carved in a more realistic style found especially in the northern villages of Nias. The squatting or seated human figure is an ancient feature of animist sculpture throughout Southeast Asia and this gowe salawa is one of the most striking known examples of this form. A slightly more eroded partner to this monument, most likely by the same artist, is on permanent display in the Louvre in Paris. On Nias, distinct hierarchical divisions exist between lower and upper classes. In former times, slaves and commoners were governed by noble chiefs who traced their lineage back to mythical founding ancestors. Even today, status is reinforced by the display of attributes associated with wealth and power. The Gallery’s gowe salawa exhibits many markers of high status, including a gold studded headdress, necklace, bangles and long ear ornament—typical ceremonial regalia of a Nias nobleman. The patron’s qualities of bravery and strength are confirmed by the emphasis of his masculine physical traits, namely his prominent genitalia, and by his sword and scabbard. This figure joins another more abstract Nias stone monument in the collection, and both will be on display in the exhibition Life, death and magic: 2000 years of Nias people Southeast Asian ancestral art. Nias, Indonesia Anthropomorphic stone monument Niki van den Heuvel (gowe salawa) 19th century or earlier stone Exhibition Assistant, Asian Art 160 x 30 x 41 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra purchased 2009

32 national gallery of australia acquisition

Yami House post

This large and strikingly painted panel is an important new addition to the Gallery’s collection of Asian sculpture. It was created by Taiwan’s Yami people, an indigenous group who live on Botel Tobago (also known as Lanyu or Orchid Island), a small mountainous isolated island off the south-east coast of Taiwan. Along with distinctively decorated canoes, the tomok—the main house post of a traditional dwelling—is the most culturally valuable art form of the Yami people. Worldwide, only a small number of significant Yami objects are held by public museums. Yami culture shares ethnographic and linguistic similarities with communities of the northern islands of the Philippines. Fishing is still central to traditional life and the flying fish that annually migrate past the island are considered sacred. The Yami ritual calendar centres on the flying fish season when ceremonies are performed to summon, store and prepare the fish. A typical Yami dwelling consists of a main house built below ground to withstand frequent typhoons, a separate work house, and a platform for eating and socialising. Painted with very similar imagery to the ceremonial canoes, tomok support the roof apex at the centre of the main house. Symbolising the connection between sea and mountain, the tomok is the first element to be erected after a house site is excavated, and is carefully positioned in accordance with local lore. Highly valued, tomok are passed down from one generation to the next and are moved if a family relocates or reconstructs a house. One face of this post is decorated with red, black and white motifs intended to protect the household from malevolent spirits of the dead (anito). The circular motif, which typically appears on Yami canoe prows, is called mata no tatara (eye of the canoe). The figure with spiral arms and headdress represents Magamoag, the ancestor who imparted boat-building and agricultural skills to the Yami, while the goat’s horn motif symbolises longevity. This tomok will go on display alongside other rare and fascinating works of art in the Gallery’s forthcoming exhibition Life, death and magic: 2000 years of Southeast Asian ancestral art. Yami people Botel Tobago, Taiwan House post (tomok) 19th century Lucie Folan wood, pigments Curator, Asian Art 216.6 x 108.8 x 8 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra purchased 2009

artonview winter 2010 33 acquisition

Fred and Lyn Williams gift

George Baldessin The prints and artists books in the Fred and Lyn Williams at the print workshop at Melbourne Technical College, Walkers II 1966 etching and aquatint, printed gift capture the milieu of the Melbourne art scene, with renamed the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in black ink, from one plate, important examples from well-known printmakers including (RMIT) in 1960. From 1961 to 1963, Williams used the on thick off-white wove paper plate-mark 20.2 x 30.2 cm Tate Adams, Jan Senbergs, Franz Kempf, Noel Counihan workshop on Fridays in the company of Gil Jamieson, sheet 56 x 69.4 cm and John Brack. There are also prints by significant artists Don Laycock, Tate Adams and Leonard French. He also National Gallery of Australia, Canberra not generally recognised for their printmaking, including a established links with a number of RMIT students, including gift of Lyn and the late Fred Williams, celebrating the National wonderful group of early screenprints by Leonard French Guy Stuart, Robert Jacks, Paul Partos and George Baldessin. Gallery of Australia’s 25th and experimental works by Asher Bilu. Baldessin studied painting at RMIT, adding sculpture anniversary, 2009 One of Australia’s most significant painters and and printmaking in his third and fourth years. The printmakers, Fred Williams played a pivotal role in the printmaking course at the college was revolutionised by development of contemporary art in Australia. Williams Tate Adams, who took over evening classes and established lived in London from 1952 to 1956, undertaking study the first Diploma of Printmaking in Australia in 1960. The at the Chelsea Art School and the Central School of Arts print workshop at RMIT had been opened up to interested and Crafts. It was during this period that he learnt the artists in the late 1950s by Adams’s predecessor, Roy Bisley. technique of etching, with works populated by the vivid It brought students together with painters and sculptors characters of music halls and London streets. who wished to experiment with the printed medium. Following his return to Melbourne, Williams began Williams developed a firm friendship with the much developing new works, while editioning his London prints younger Baldessin, and a strong connection emerged

34 national gallery of australia between the two artists in terms of both subject matter etchings. Influenced by the uninhibited line that Williams George Baldessin A recurring day in the life of and technique. Baldessin’s early work was influenced by the also often employed, Baldessin adopts a loose, edgy MM II 1966 images of music halls and trapeze artists that Williams had drypoint style to articulate form. etching and aquatint, printed in black ink, from one plate, created in London. In particular, Baldessin was intrigued by Before his premature death in 1978, at the age of 39, on thick off-white wove paper plate-mark 26.4 x 25.8 cm the suspended figure and Williams’s ability to capture the Baldessin created a significant body of prints marked by sheet 72.2 x 49.8 cm isolation of performance. Such links are clearly seen in the his distinctive use of line and shadow, sexual ambiguity, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra etchings by Baldessin that form part of the Fred and Lyn theatricality and mystery. The recent exhibition showcasing gift of Lyn and the late Fred Williams gift. George Baldessin’s paintings, drawings, etchings and Williams, celebrating the National Gallery of Australia’s 25th A recurring day in the life of MM II 1966 is from sculptures at TarraWarra Museum of Art in Victoria anniversary, 2009 Baldessin’s seminal circus narrative series, with the top- provided an opportunity to view rarely seen works from hatted observer of life as protagonist. In this work, as public galleries, private collections and the artist’s estate. To in Walkers II 1966, Baldessin negotiates his developing celebrate the success of this exhibition a selection of prints iconography focused around the detached figure. and drawings is currently being shown in the National Baldessin learnt the process for aquatint from Williams, Gallery of Australia’s Australian art display, including four using it as an atmospheric device to create texture across etchings from the Fred and Lyn Williams gift. the plate. In Walkers II, the silhouetted figures drift across Emma Colton a velvety black stretch of barren landscape, an empty Assistant Curator, Australian Prints and Drawings backdrop reminiscent of Williams’s 1950s music-hall

artonview winter 2010 35 acquisition

Walangkura Napanangka Untitled

Walangkura Napanangka When we contemplate the wonderful acrylic paintings community that the germination of the Western Desert Untitled 2009 synthetic polymer paint on from the Western Desert region of Central Australia, we acrylic painting movement began. Tjangala was one of a canvas immediately think of the small Aboriginal community of small handful of Pintupi, Luritja, Warlpiri and Anmatyerre 180 x 244 cm National Gallery of Australia, Papunya, the birthplace of the contemporary Indigenous ceremonial leaders who initiated, with Geoffrey Bardon, Canberra art movement. We imagine a time, some 40 years ago, this new and innovative art movement. From July 1971 acquired in acknowledgment of the National Apology to the Stolen when the senior Aboriginal men of the region unreservedly to August 1972, some 620 paintings were produced for Generations with generous support from The Myer Foundation, 2010 depicted their sacred ancestral stories in vivid, culturally the market and later sold at the Stuart Art Centre in rich iconography on any available flat surface. The artists of Alice Springs. this period were Aboriginal men, cultural lawmakers and Napanangka was exposed to and surrounded by this ceremonial leaders within the community. They depicted proliferation of art; however, she did not begin painting their sacred Tjukurpa (Dreamings), retelling the stories of until 1997 and, even then, not regularly until 2002. the ancestors. The National Gallery of Australia was fortunate to The history of the Aboriginal art movement has acquire a beautiful work, Untitled 2009, by Napanangka changed remarkably within this short period. There are in 2010. This significant painting is a very considered many factors that have contributed to the meteoric rise work, and relates to an important Aboriginal site called of this exciting industry: the land rights and outstation Yanawarri, near Tjukurla, north-west of Docker River in the movement whereby Aboriginal people began to move Gibson Desert region in Western Australia. back to their homelands from missions and reserves and Napanangka’s style is strongly influenced by her late hence paint their country; the creation of the Aboriginal husband; both artists depict the physical and spiritual Art Board in 1973, which assisted in establishing and Central Australian landscape in bold and powerful ways. promoting Indigenous art to a wider commercial art Unlike Tjangala’s work, however, there is more freedom, audience; and the development of government-funded flow and rhythm to Walangkura’s work. It is both forthright Aboriginal Art Centres whose sole purpose was to support and feminine. encourage and facilitate the development of Aboriginal art The choice of colours and the nature of the in remote regions. These combined mechanisms ensured composition are confident, intricate and intense and that Australian Indigenous art would no longer sit within reference the power and heat of the desert. It is imposing the confines of the ethnographic museums, but would be and intimidating to the viewer. launched and catapulted into the fine arts arena. It is a topographical map of the artist’s country, Today, Aboriginal women also play a major role as although painted according to a spiritual scale rather producers of Western Desert paintings, often following in than a geographic scale: significant cultural sites are large the footsteps of their fathers, brothers and husbands. and dominate the canvas, while discrete locations and Walangkura (Jackson) Napanangka is a Pintupi woman tracks are small and disappear into the work. Australia is originally from the Tjukurla region in Central Australia. fortunate to have this work in the national collection. Born around 1940, Napanangka spent the early part of It was acquired in acknowledgment of the National her life travelling through her families’ country, between Apology to the Stolen Generations with generous support Punkilpirri near Docker River and Walukirritji rock hole on from The Myer Foundation. the south-west side of Lake MacDonald. In the 1960s, Franchesca Cubillo many Pintupi people were leaving their homelands due to Senior Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art an extensive drought in the region. Walangkura travelled with her family into the government settlement of Haasts Bluff and was exposed for the first time to western culture. She later moved with her husband, Uta Uta Tjangala, to the Aboriginal community of Papunya, roughly 250 kilometres west of Alice Springs. It was here in this small Indigenous

36 national gallery of australia

acquisition

Shapoor N Bhedwar The Naver—invocation

deeply attracted to the Zoroastrian religion of the Parsi and its origins in ancient Persia from where his people emigrated to India in the tenth century. Bhedwar was also an enthusiastic theatregoer and wrote poems and plays although apparently none were published. He was initially more successful in sport than the arts, becoming a member of the first Parsi cricket team to tour England in 1886. Bhedwar took up photography in 1888 in India to illustrate one of his own literary efforts and soon became obsessed with the medium as an art form. Leaving his wife and son behind, Bhedwar travelled to England to study at the Polytechnic School in London in 1889. He also learnt from prominent art photographer Ralph W Robinson in Redhill, Surrey. He was soon winning medals in the Photographic Salon (later the Royal Photographic Society). One reviewer at the time said of Bhedwar: ‘he came, he saw, he conquered’. One of the artist’s most successful projects was the series of six tableaux photographs The feast of roses, which illustrates the hugely popular poem Lallah Rookh. Written by Irish balladeer Thomas Moore and first published in 1817, the poem is a romance set in ancient India. His most distinctive work is a series of images illustrating Zoroastrian religious life. Very few photographs of their religious ceremonies had ever been made public before this series as only Parsis would have been allowed to participate. The Naver—invocation is the first in the series and shows the initiation of a young Zoroastrian priest, the old priest calling on the Almighty to aid the young initiate in his work. By the early 1920s, Bhedwar had apparently ceased exhibiting and sold his studio in Bombay. He slipped into relative anonymity. That is until interest in his work piqued again among Modernist photographers in India in the 1930s before once more fading in the 1960s. Bhedwar has been largely forgotten for the past 50 years. The fate of his archive is not currently known but his surviving prints have begun to be re-evaluated. What is apparent now is that rather than merely copying European-style Shapoor N Bhedwar Between the 1890s and 1910s, Indian photographer The Naver—invocation art photography, Bhedwar adapted it to express his own from the series on the initiation Shapoor N Bhedwar was prominent in the art photography cultural background. His process as well as the charm and of a young Zoroastrian priest salons of Europe and America. Bhedwar (Shapurjee 1892 skill of his work earn him a distinguished place among platinum photograph Nusserwanjee Bhedwar) came from a wealthy Parsi pioneering Asian photographers. 32.4 x 26.6 cm family in Bombay and in his youth developed passionate National Gallery of Australia Gael Newton purchased 2009 interests in art and Eastern and Western literature. He was Senior Curator, Photography

38 national gallery of australia Foundation

National Gallery of Australia Foundation Gala Dinner and Weekend 2010 The 21st Anniversary of the Foundation was celebrated with a fund-raising Gala Dinner and weekend of events at the National Gallery of Australia on Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 March. The event raised over $200 000, which provided funds to acquire the Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec lithograph Eldorado 1892 (see page 30). It is a rare and exceptional lithograph, which complements the National Gallery of Australia’s small but important collection of Toulouse- Lautrec’s works on paper. The Gallery was thrilled at the opportunity to secure this work for the national collection. The weekend was a great success. Guests travelled from across Australia to celebrate. A luncheon in the Sculpture Garden Restaurant launched the weekend, followed by a tour of the Conservation and Registration departments. Saturday afternoon then concluded with a talk on the opened later this year. The Foundation is delighted with Dr Bennett Macdonald, Ita exhibition Emerging Elders by Franchesca Cubillo, Senior Buttrose and Charles Curran at the support received so far. Donors are asked to contribute the 21st Anniversary Foundation Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art. $10 000, which can be paid over two financial years. All Gala Dinner, 9 February 2010. The highlight of the weekend was, of course, the Gala donors will be acknowledged on the Founding Donors Dinner on Saturday night. Guests attended a champagne honour board that will be placed in the entry foyer. For reception in the National Australia Bank Sculpture Gallery, more information or to receive a brochure, please contact followed by a private viewing of Masterpieces from Paris. the Executive Director of the Foundation on (02) 6240 6691. The sumptuous five-course dinner, prepared by Ten and a Half’s Executive Chef James Kidman, was exquisite. The National Gallery of Australia Bequest Circle weekend came to a close as guests enjoyed an elegant The Foundation is delighted to welcome Gunther Mau and Sunday brunch at the French Embassy, generously hosted Cream Gilda Mau as new members to the National Gallery by His Excellency Michel Filhol, French Ambassador in of Australia Bequest Circle. Gunther and Cream Mau have Australia, and Madame Catherine Filhol. been supporters of the Gallery for a number of years and their generous benefaction is greatly appreciated. Masterpieces for the Nation Fund If you have included the National Gallery of Australia The work of art selected this year for the Masterpieces for in your will, please let us know so that we can thank you. the Nation Fund is Robert Dowling’s Miss Robertson of If you are interested in joining the Bequest Circle or would Colac (Dolly) 1885–86. This is a large and impressive portrait like more information about making a significant and and is included in the touring exhibition Robert Dowling: lasting contribution to the future of the national collection Tasmanian son of Empire. Enclosed with this issue of through a bequest, please contact Liz Wilson, Development artonview is a brochure that provides further information on Officer, on (02) 6240 6781. the work and the fund. All donors to the fund will be invited Further information on this program is available at nga. to a function hosted by the Director to celebrate the new gov.au/aboutus/development/bequests.cfm. acquisition. For further information or to make a donation, please contact the Foundation Office on (02) 6240 6454. Dr TT Tsui The National Gallery of Australia and the Foundation Founding Donors 2010 were saddened to hear of the death on 2 April 2010 of The Founding Donors 2010 program aims to raise Dr TT Tsui. He was one of the Gallery’s most generous $1 million to assist with acquisitions for the galleries to be benefactors and a champion of Chinese art.

artonview winter 2010 39 Sponsorship and Development

(left to right) The winners and Ballets Russes: the art of costume The Gallery extends its heartfelt gratitude to long-term supporters of the ‘National Australia Bank Online The Gallery is delighted to announce that long-term supporter of the Gallery the Hon Mrs Ashley Dawson- Masterpieces from Paris supporters, ActewAGL will be a Presenting Partner for the Damer as Exhibition Benefactor for McCubbin. Promotion’, Bree Creaser. Novotel Canberra, Monica 2010–11 summer blockbuster Ballets Russes. The Gallery Davis and Christine Smith Life, death and magic: 2000 years of Southeast Asian (Qld), Judith White (WA), Andy is grateful to ActewAGL for their ongoing and enthusiastic and Cherrie Kirk (SA), Avi support, which is testimony to their commitment to the ancestral art Rebera, Senior Partner, NAB The Australian International Cultural Foundation and Government Business, Gillian community and to the arts. and Bill Taylor (Tas), Natasha the Gordon Darling Foundation have awarded grants to Furiosi and Brett Bissett (ACT), Sophie and Wendy Kleeman Robert Dowling: Tasmanian son of Empire support Life, death and magic, an important exhibition (NT), Isabel Hohnen (WA), Manteena Construction is welcomed as an Exhibition that demonstrates the Gallery’s commitment to original Venetia and Jeremy Blackman (Vic), Lesley Hurwood and Partner for Robert Dowling, which opened at the Queen research, innovative curatorship and scholarly publications. Peter Donnelly (NSW). Victoria Museum & Art Gallery, Launceston, on 5 March. The support of these grants is essential in making this This travelling exhibition is currently at Geelong Gallery and exhibition possible. The Gallery is very grateful to the will be at the National Gallery of Australia from 24 July to trustees of both foundations for their insight, leadership 3 October 2010. and generosity. This is the first time that Canberra-based construction company Manteena has sponsored an exhibition at the National Australian Government Gallery of Australia. The Gallery is grateful for their support. The Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) generously support the Gallery through McCubbin: Last Impressions 1907–17 the National Collecting Institutions Touring and Outreach R.M.Williams, The Bush Outfitter, is generously partnering Program, an Australian Government program aiming with the Gallery for McCubbin. This travelling exhibition to improve access to the national collections for all is at Bendigo Art Gallery until 25 July 2010. The Gallery is Australians, in particular for the exhibitions Robert Dowling, grateful for the success of this ongoing partnership. Face: Australian portraits 1880–1960 and Roy Lichtenstein.

40 national gallery of australia DEWHA also provides welcome support through Visions of Australia, an Australian Government program supporting touring exhibitions by providing funding assistance for the development and touring of Australian cultural material across Australia, and through the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian Government and state and territory governments, which has provided funding for the Gallery’s travelling exhibitions Robert Dowling, In the Japanese manner: Australian prints 1900–1940 and Space invaders: Australian street stencils and posters.

Sidney Myer Fund The Sidney Myer Fund and its Trustees for this very generous grant towards the acquisition of Untitled 2009 by Walangkura Napanangka (see page 36) in the commemoration of the Australian Government’s National Apology to the Stolen Generations (Australian Indigenous).

Council Circle and the Corporate Members Program Rupert Myer AM, Chairman of the National Gallery of and Fiona Dewar from Cox Inall Ridgeway for their Neilma Gantner and Lady Marigold Southey AC in the Australia Council, and other members of the Council professional management of the consultation project. Masterpieces from Paris Family hosted the annual Council Circle dinner at the Gallery on Activity Room, which was generously supported by The 28 April. The evening included current sponsors along with American Friends of the National Gallery of Australia Yulgilbar Foundation. special invited guests. The American Friends generous grant of US$200 000 was On 19 May, the Corporate Members Program and made possible with the very generous support of Kenneth Tyler Yalumba Wines held a dinner in conjunction with Hans and Marabeth Cohen-Tyler. The grant will support the Gallery’s Heysen. The evening was hosted by raconteur and department of International Prints, Drawings and Illustrated international spokesperson for Yalumba, Jane Ferrari, and Books to provide access to the Tyler collection through the will be the forth such event at the Gallery as part of the Gallery’s Kenneth Tyler collection website and publications. ongoing partnership with Yalumba. The Gallery welcome Thanks go to Judith Ogden Thompson, who recently Barlens to the Corporate Members Program. Barlens resigned as Director from the Board of Directors, for her generously supported the 2010 Sculpture Garden Sunday, longstanding contribution to the American Friends. which attracted over 1800 people to participate in the The Gallery looks forward to her continuing friendship and many activities. We thank them for their contribution in advice as a member of its Advisory Board. making the day such a success. Senior Curator of Pacific Art Michael Gunn’s compelling talk about the major exhibition he is currently developing National Australia Bank Art Education and Access on Polynesian art was warmly received by American Friends Partnership at the Australian Consulate-General, New York. The Gallery The National Australia Bank (NAB) supports the National greatly appreciates the support of the American Friends and Summer Art Scholarship and the annual Sculpture Garden the Australian Consulate-General in hosting this event. Sunday. Like the National Gallery of Australia, National The Gallery is very grateful to the American Friends Australia Bank is passionate about supporting Australian for their continued and unwavering support and has communities and helping young people reach their creative been delighted to see them visit the National Gallery of potential. The success of these two programs have been Australia this year. In particular, Susan Talbot, President of hallmarks of that commitment. The Gallery is grateful to the American Friends; Dr Lee MacCormick Edwards and her NAB and their staff for their support and involvement in partner Michael Crane; Judith Ogden Thompson and her these annual art education and access programs. son Edward Cabot.

Wesfarmers Arts Indigenous Fellowship The Gallery would like to thank all its partners. If you The Wesfarmers Arts Indigenous Fellowship continues would like more information about Sponsorship and to develop. The Gallery is grateful to Wesfarmers for its Development at the National Gallery of Australia, keen interest and generous investment, of both time please contact Frances Corkhill on +61 2 6240 6740 or and resources, to see this important phase of the project [email protected] and Belinda Cotton on complete. Thanks also to the consultants Aden Ridgeway +61 2 6240 6556 or [email protected].

artonview winter 2010 41 development program

Wesfarmers Arts Indigenous Fellowship

A partnership between the National Gallery of Australia and Wesfarmers

Katie Maguire, Daisy Andrews In 2007, Wesfarmers Limited partnered with the National In Wesfarmers’s Reconciliation Action Plan, Managing and Rosie Goodjie in Broome. © AAANKA Gallery of Australia to develop an Indigenous Fellowship to Director Richard Goyder provides valuable insight into the support Indigenous leadership within the visual arts sector. organisation’s philosophy and priorities, which are strongly The Indigenous arts industry is recognised as one of reflected in the partnership between Wesfarmers and the Australia’s most dynamic and successful contributors on the Gallery and in the fellowship:

international stage—culturally and economically. However, This Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) is a commitment the number of Indigenous Australians currently employed by Wesfarmers to ensure our businesses are places in the arts is relatively small. According to the 2006 census, where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples feel approximately 2538 Indigenous Australians work in cultural welcome and valued, as employees, customers and industries as their main area of employment—representing citizens. In particular … to provide Aboriginal and Torres about 2.1% of all employed Indigenous Australians. Strait Islander peoples with greater opportunities to participate in our country’s economic prosperity, through Of these, 182 work in the creative arts as practitioners sustainable employment. and 652 work as visual arts and craft professionals. In By creating opportunities, by showing respect and by an industry where Australian Indigenous art and culture developing relationships, we can play a part in wiping contributes over $400 million to the Australian economy, out the unacceptable gap that exists between Aboriginal these statistics reveal significant imbalances. and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the wider This situation is what the Wesfarmers Arts Indigenous Australian community. Fellowship aims to address by increasing the number of Both Wesfarmers and the National Gallery of Australia Indigenous visual arts professionals. recognise the importance of creating opportunities through

42 national gallery of australia the fellowship that encourage the exchange of knowledge and received in Australia and internationally and its Benson Saulo, Brian Stevens, Franchesca Cubillo and contribution to a national visual identity. The traineeship between individuals, communities and cultural institutions. Elizabeth Liddle in Melbourne. The first phase of the project has been an extensive helped to accelerate my career trajectory and led to my appointment as Curator of Indigenous Art at the National Nada Rawlins and Aden national consultation process completed in February this Ridgeway, Cox Inall Ridgeway, Gallery of Victoria … viewed cumulatively, it was an year. Over 220 visual arts professionals (Indigenous and in Broome. incredibly exciting and inspiring time in my formative © AAANKA non-Indigenous), community members, government and career … I had also never worked in an institution where private organisations, artists, art centre workers and others Aboriginal ways of doing things were seen to enhance from across Australia contributed their views, advice, rather than undermine the institution. Part of my long- evaluation and experience towards refining the goals and term personal and career goals is to contribute to the structure of the fellowship. advancement of Aboriginal people, and I feel strongly This extensive consultation process has been invaluable that Aboriginal Art has the capacity to increase a greater level of understanding of Aboriginal culture to the wider in shaping the Wesfarmers Arts Indigenous Fellowship, community. That idealistic seed was planted and nurtured which will initially run over four years as a professional at the National Gallery of Australia, and the core value that program for long-term development, networking, exchange was shared by me and many others was that art matters. and mentorship. During those four years, four Fellows Person to person, organisation to organisation, community will undertake a high-level, project-based fellowship to community—the Wesfarmers Arts Indigenous Fellowship program for up to two years in their field of interest. In program is an initiative of promise, encouragement, addition to the principal fellowship, a further 20 candidates excellence and engagement. will participate in a shorter accredited Indigenous arts The Wesfarmers Arts Indigenous Fellowship will be leadership program. launched and open for applications in June 2010. The Stephen Gilchrist, from the Inggarda language group, Gallery is grateful to Wesfarmers for its keen interest and who is currently the Curator of Indigenous Art at the generous investment, both in time and resources, and National Gallery of Victoria is one of the new generation acknowledges the work carried out by Cox Inall Ridgeway of Indigenous visual arts professionals. Stephen’s career as well as principal consultants Aden Ridgeway and Fiona demonstrates the critical role that mentorship and Dewar for their management of the consultation project. professional development play in creating a viable career path for Indigenous Australians in the visual arts. For Belinda Cotton Head of Development Stephen, it also began at the National Gallery of Australia, where he worked as a Trainee Assistant Curator in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art department.

Throughout the traineeship, I gained invaluable curatorial experience and learned much about the Indigenous visual arts industry, how it is critically interrogated

artonview winter 2010 43 credit lines

Includes donations received from Gifts Michael Hobbs and Doris Hobbs 22 January to 22 April 2010. Aranday Foundation The Hon Robert Hunter QC and Pauline Ben Frankel Hunter Grants Gordon Darling Foundation John Ingham and Frances Ingham Peter J Jopling QC The American Friends of the National Heather Green and Jock Smibert Nick Kelly and Susie Kelly Gallery of Australia Inc, New York, made Emmanuel Hirsh Sir Richard Kingsland AO, CBE, DFC, and possible with the very generous support Sue Lovegrove Lady Kingsland of Kenneth Tyler and Marabeth Cohen- Rupert Myer AM and Annabel Myer Lou Klepac OAM and Brenda Klepac Tyler. Betty Nathan Richard Longes and Elizabeth Longes Australian Government: Penelope Seidler AM Alasdair MacLeod and Prue MacLeod Department of Health and Ageing’s The estate of Leslie John Wright Rupert Myer AM and Annabel Myer Dementia Community Grants Program Jason Yeap Baillieu Myer AC and Sarah Myer Department of the Environment, Water, Dr Margaret Olley AC Heritage and the Arts through: Founding Donors 2010 Roslyn Packer AO The National Collecting Institutions Dr Michael Armitage and Susan M Armitage Bruce Parncutt and Robin Campbell Touring and Outreach Program, an Lauraine Diggins Ralph Renard and Ruth Renard Australian Government program John Grant AM and Inge Grant John Schaeffer AO and Bettina Dalton aiming to improve access to Richard Griffin AM and Jay Griffin Peter Scott and Ofelia Scott the national collections for all Peter Hack Penelope Seidler AM Australians Brand Hoff and Peta Hoff Paul Selzer and Linda Selzer Visions of Australia, an Australian Dr Colin Laverty OAM and Elizabeth Laverty Rosemary Simpson Government program supporting Ann Lewis AO Zeke Soloman AM touring exhibitions by providing Macquarie Group Foundation Simon Swaney and Carolyn Kay funding assistance for the Graham Mapp AM and Sue Mapp Aida Tomescu development and touring of Dr David E Pfanner Lang Walker and Sue Walker Australian cultural material across David Shannon and Daniela Shannon Ray Wilson OAM Australia, and through Art Indemnity Lady Marigold Southey AC Jim Windeyer and Peronelle Windeyer Australia. Mark Young Australian International Cultural Foundation Gala Dinner The Gordon Darling Foundation ActewAGL The Sidney Myer Fund Rick Amor Melody Gough Memorial Fund Dr Michael Armitage and Susan M Armitage Charles Curran AC and Eva Curran Sponsorship Charles Baillieu and Samantha Baillieu Simon Elliott Margie Kevin ABC Radio Betty Beaver AM Denise Officer Accor Hospitality (Novotel Canberra) Jane Bradhurst Liz Wilson ACT Government (through Australian Sir Ronald Brierley Capital Tourism) Ann Burge ActewAGL Christopher Burgess and Christine Burgess Masterpieces for the Nation 2010 The Age Julian Burt Michael Bartlett Barlens Nick Burton Taylor and Julia Burton Taylor Suzanne Elshoufi The Brassey of Canberra John Calvert-Jones AM and Janet Calvert- Brian Jones The Canberra Times Jones AO Robert Logie-Smith and Sue Logie-Smith Casella Wines Terrence Campbell AO and Christine Alistair McLean Champagne Pol Roger Campbell Graham Reeve Eckersley’s Art & Craft Campbell Campbell-Pretty and Krystyna Forrest Hotel and Apartments Campbell-Pretty Members Acquisition 2009 JCDecaux Maurice Cashmere George Alexander and Dydy Alexander Manteena Santo Cilauro and Morena Buffon Robert Allmark Mantra on Northbourne Laurie Cox AO and Julie Ann Cox Robin Amm AM National Australia Bank The Hon Mrs Ashley Dawson-Damer Cynthia Anderson National Gallery of Australia Council Warwick Flecknoe and Jane Flecknoe Ian Anderson Exhibitions Fund June Gordon Susan Arnott Nine Network Australia John Grant AM Margaret Aston Qantas Maurice Green and Christina Green John Austin and Helen Austin R.M.Williams, The Bush Outfitter Andrew Gwinnett and Hiroko Gwinnett Jim Bain AM The Sydney Morning Herald Michael Hamson and Susie Hamson Ronald Bannerman Wesfarmers Limited The Hon Justice Kenneth Handley AO and Berenice Bannister WIN Television Diana Handley Betty Beaver AM Yalumba Wines Meredith Hinchliffe Peter Belling Yulgilbar Foundation John Hindmarsh and Rosanna Hindmarsh Dora Berman

44 national gallery of australia Beryl Bevis In memory of Marjory Hackworth Janet Oakley Richard Bialkowski and Robyn Bialkowski Rosemary Halford Brian O’Keeffe AO and Bridget O’Keeffe AM Alan Bishop Aileen Hall Robert Oser Michele Black and Rodney Black (Creations Natasha Hardy John Parker and Joss Righton Jewellers) David Harper and Jenny Harper Mervyn Paterson and Katalin Paterson Catherine Bosser John Harrison and Danielle Kluth Tom Pauling and Tessa Pauling Stephen Box and Deirdre Box Sue Hearn and Alex Byrne Vladimir Pavlovic Adrienne Bradney-Smith Suzanne Hecker David Pearse and Elizabeth Pearse Geoffrey Brennan and Margaret Brennan Bruce Heiser John Playoust and Therese Playoust Mary E Brennan Marian Hill Patricia Porcheron and Robyn Porcheron Bill Brisbane and Joan Brisbane Rachel Hilton and James McKenzie Preventative Medicine and Rehabilitation Diana Brookes L Holcombe Centre John Bruce and Barbara Bruce Yvonne Honnery Helen Rankin John Buckingham Jim Humphreys and Clare Humphreys Gavin Roberts Marion Helena Burden Tom Humphreys and Barbara Humphreys Dr Pamela Rothwell Billie Burke OAM Dr Joseph Johnson CSC, AAM, and Jennifer J Rowland Robert Cadona Madelaine Johnson John Salmons and Leonie Salmons Robyn Cairns and Alex Cairns Brian Jones Annette Searle Dr Berenice-Eve Calf Pamela Jupp and David Jupp Fabia Shah Debbie Cameron Margaret Keogh Richard Shand and Tonia Shand John Campbell and Yvonne Campbell Ilse King Roy Smalley Katrina Chapman Ron Kirkland and Christobel Kirkland Vivian Spilva and Andrew Spilva Vikki Clingan Reg Kitchin and Joan Kitchin Christopher Haddon Spurgeon Michael Cockburn and Margaret Cockburn Grace Koch Dr Richard Stanton Graham Cocks and Elizabeth Cocks Betty Konta Keith F Steward Mrs Compton Ted Kruger and Gerry Kruger Gay Stuart and Charles Stuart Edith Gwen Cooper Brian Lamb and Lynette Lamb Judith Sutton Hunter Cordaiy Ruth I Langley OAM Elinor Swan Kerry-Anne Cousins Hendricka Lussick Robert Swift and Lynette Swift Anne Coventry Liz and Mike Lynch Alan Taylor Barry G Cowdell Steensen Varming (Australia) Pty Ltd Claudette Taylor (for Dunstan) Michael Creswick Bronwen Macnamara and Michael Sue Telford In memory of Philippa Crossley Macnamara Dr DA Thomas Jean Cruickshank Gwenyth D Macnamara Jacqueline Thomson Marlene Danza Tamara Makeev OAM Helen Todd Rowena Danziger AM and Ken Coles John Malone Sylvia Tracey Dianne Davies Deborah Malor and Ron Malor Norma Uhlmann Anne De Salis Bruce Marshall and Robin Coombes Brenton Warren Angela Delaney Ernie Marton Ray Watt and Jenny Watt Peter Di Sciascio Margaret J Mashford Mo Wedd-Buchholz Sue Dobbyns Stewart May and Wendy May Christine Wellham Susan Doenau Fleur McAlister and Douglas McAlister Helen White Rosemary Dupont EA McCarthy and MJ McCarthy Dr Stephen Wild Desley M Eaton Tony McCormick Yvonne Wildash Peter Eddington and Joy Williams Ruth McKay Muriel Wilkinson Dr Murray Elliott AO and Gillian Elliott Dr Stephen G McNamara Dr Elizabeth Williams Annette Ellis MP Trish McPherson Forreste Williams Pauline Everson Tina Merriman Andrew L Williamson Ian Falconer and Mary Falconer Joan Miskin and Barry Miskin David Williamson and Angela Williamson Ilma Ferguson Beth Monk and Ross Monk Gratton Wilson Gillian Foley Meg Mooney Alison Witter Roslyn Francis Margaret Morrow Bill Wood Henry Thomas French Alan Morschel and Ruth Morschel Prof Robin Woods AM Helen Fyfe Janet Munro Ellen M Woodward Neilma Gantner Peter Murphy Diane Wright Michael Gillespie and Nicole Gillespie Pauline Murray Marya Glyn-Daniel and Charles Glyn-Daniel Robert Nairn Robert Gnezdiloff and Moya Gnezdiloff Colin Neave AM June Gordon Prof and Mrs Barry W Ninham Eileen Gorst Barbara Noden Pauline M Griffin AM Linda Notley

artonview winter 2010 45 1 2

3 4

46 national gallery of australia

5 6 faces in view

For more images of programs and events held by the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, visit flickr.com/photos/nationalgalleryofaustralia.

1 Adam Hill with his work Not everyone’s cup of tea 2009 at the National Gallery of Australia.

2 Tarek El-Ansary with his family during the all-night opening of Masterpieces from Paris, 17 April.

3 Director Ron Radford with ABC Radio National’s Rod Quinn during the 36-hour opening 2 7 period for the final weekend of Masterpieces from Paris, 18 April.

4 Tanya Hird, Morena Buffon and Prue Macleod at the National Gallery of Australia Foundation’s 21st Anniversary Gala Dinner, 20 March.

5 Local entertainers tickle the funny bones of security on the final Saturday of Masterpieces from Paris, 17 April.

6 Christopher Pease speaks about the process behind his Cow with Body Paint 2007 at the Gallery, 28 January.

7 Ani Bambang Yudhoyono, first lady of Indonesia, Thérèse Rein and Ron Radford on tour in 4 8 9 the exhibition Emerging Elders with Franchesca Cubillo, Senior Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, 10 March.

8 Will Minchin, the 250 000th visitor to Masterpieces from Paris, with his wife Miriam and their daughter Mathilda, 26 February.

9 Activities to keep visitors entertainted while queuing for Masterpieces from Paris at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 3 April.

10 Children get their hands dirty and test their creativity at Sculpture Garden Sunday in the National Gallery of Australia’s Sculpture Garden, 14 March. artonview winter 2010 47

6 10

Starry Nights ‘It’s nice to do gigs like this, it reminds you why you do these things in the first place.’

Tim Rogers, musician

Held over four nights in March, Starry Nights—a National Gallery initiative in association with ACT Tourism—was conceived as a unique way for audiences to experience the exhibition Masterpieces from Paris. The event combined late-night viewings, live entertainment, shopping, food and wine. The night was designed to appeal to a broad demographic seeking to extend their exhibition experience into a fulsome night’s entertainment, the line-up of live acts— Joe Camilleri, Clare Bowditch and Tim Rogers—did not disappoint. The Gallery’s beautiful Sculpture Garden was the venue for the evening’s Starry Nights action with headline acts commencing at 9.00 pm, preceded by music from local DJs and the ANU School of Music. Before the concert, Starry Nights ticket holders could view the exhibition at their leisure. Then, as the sun set over the Gallery building, its concrete facade came alive with projections of exhibition images above the stage and superb performances by leading Australian musicians. Starry Nights drew on the Gallery’s history of staging live music in the oasis of the Sculpture Garden. May well it continue …

(top) Clare Bowditch Trio and (centre) their audience. (bottom and opposite) Tim Rogers Band. photographs: Murray Foote

artonview winter 2010 49

At play in van Gogh’s bedroom The Masterpieces from Paris Family Activity Room

‘I liked the children’s room. And I love art. It was fun’.

Rebecca, aged 6

A spectacularly successful aspect of the recent Masterpieces from Paris exhibition was the fun and educational Family Activity Room. Located midway through the exhibition, it provided children with a stimulating and safe place to consider and creatively respond to the works of art they were seeing. Families returned to viewing the exhibition refreshed and with new insights. A family visit to the exhibition was also enriched by a childrens trail and childrens audio tour. The Masterpieces from Paris Family Activity Room was a collaboration between the Gallery’s Education and Exhibition Design departments. Recreated as a three- dimensional play space, Van Gogh’s bedroom at Arles provided the concept and the setting for the room. One parent said it was ‘like being inside van Gogh’s head, being in his picture’. Children could enter the painting and recreate puzzles of works of art printed on each side of cubes on van Gogh’s large bed. Along the opposite wall, children created origami stars to add to an interactive mural of Vincent van Gogh’s Starry night. Portraits and still-lifes from the exhibition became the inspiration for self-portraiture Self-portrait by Ellin, made in the Family Activity Room. and still-life drawing. Visitors enjoyed sharing time reading childrens stories and reference books about the art and artists in the exhibition. Activities were plentiful and were designed to be adapted for children of all ages and interests. The approach was one of kinaesthetic learning—learning through hands-on experience and direct physical engagement, making the experiences more concrete and lasting, more enjoyable and meaningful. Over the four-and-a-half months of the exhibition, over 61 000 people visited the Family Activity Room and 13 407 children registered for activities. Given its spectacular success, the Family Activity Room concept is set to be taken up in Ballets Russes: the art of costume in December.

Peter Naumann Head of Education and Public Programs

artonview winter 2010 51 Only Qantas can bring 89 years of experience to the table. And the seat. And the entertainment system. And the cuisine.

Qantas A380 Premium Economy. With over 89 years of continuous flying experience, we know what inspires our Premium Economy passengers. A private cabin on the upper deck. A dedicated cabin host. Spacious Marc Newson designed seats with plenty of legroom. Delicious Neil Perry inspired menu, premium Australian wine list and an equally tempting choice of entertainment playing on the large in-arm screen. Time will fly faster than you may want it to. The Qantas A380 by Airbus. Comfort that comes from over 89 years of continuous flying experience. Qantas is proud to sponsor the National Gallery of Australia. CREDIT_WWW.REGIONALFOOD.COM.AU\YARRH WINES

Shake up your Canberra winter experience with a snow stopover, the Fireside Festival or the Capital Country Truffl e Festival

Hyatt Hotel Canberra Country Guesthouse The Brassey of Canberra Canberra City YHA LUXURIOUS RETREAT Schönegg HERITAGE WINTER PACKAGE WEEKEND RETREAT Exclusive use of the Ambassador 2-DAY WINTERFEST INDULGENCE Stay in a Heritage Room and Enjoy 2 nights in this central Lounge awaits Club Room guests. Begin your 2 night Winterfest with walk to some of the nation’s location featuring a cafe, funky Price includes an extensive a 5-course degustation dinner. most iconic cultural attractions. bar, indoor pool, spa, sauna, continental breakfast, along On Friday indulge in a hot rock Included in your package is full kitchen and rooftop BBQ. with pre-dinner drinks and massage for 2 at Geranium House buffet breakfast, entry to the Includes a cooked or continental canapés served daily Sustainable Day Spa Museum of Australian breakfast plus a plus a complimentary Democracy at Old welcome pack of *PER and a 2-course lunch *PER *PER *PER bottle of Domain COUPLE at Poachers Pantry’s COUPLE Parliament House, COUPLE cheese, chocolate COUPLE Chandon NV and $ Smokehouse Cafe. $ daily newspaper $ and champagne. $ 2pm checkout. 395 Includes continental 795 and free parking. 197 *2 nights in a twin or double 230 and cooked breakfast.

Diamant Hotel Canberra Hyatt Hotel Canberra Canberra City YHA Forrest Hotel & Apartments DISCOVER CANBERRA’S DELUXE HERITAGE EXPERIENCE SNOW STOPPER ENJOY THE ARTS THIS WINTER CULTURAL SECRETS Stay in a 1920s heritage-inspired Recover from your ski trip with Forrest Hotel celebrates Hans Warm up with a glass of port in Park Deluxe Room featuring an a 1 night city stopover in a Heysen, one of the most front of the fi replace of this iPod docking station, Nespresso quad-share room. Soothe aching infl uential artists of the 20th heritage-listed building close to coffee machine and DVD player. muscles in the indoor pool, spa, century. Package includes the city’s fi nest restaurants and Enjoy a buffet breakfast at the sauna and enjoy a cooked accommodation, hot buffet bars. Includes a Deluxe Promenade Cafe and breakfast. Other breakfast, a ticket to Room, continental a 2pm checkout. facilities include a the exhibition and a breakfast, Ferrero *PER *PER *PER *PER COUPLE Tourist information COUPLE funky bar and cafe. PERSON bottle of wine per PERSON Rondnoir chocolates $ is available from the $ Single and twin room. $ and cultural map with concierge desk. shares also available. $ discount vouchers. 240 355 46 *Per person twin share 108

Book now at wraptinwinter.com or call 1300 889 026 *TERMS AND CONDITIONS APPLY. VALID FROM 1 JUNE – 31 AUGUST 2010. SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY.

ArtonView_FCP_1June.indd 1 29/04/2010 11:41:19 AM On novotel.com National Collecting Institutions indulgence is surreal Touring & Outreach Program

The National Collecting Institutions Touring and Outreach (NCITO) program is an Australian Government initiative providing $1 million annually to improve access for all Australians to our national collections. NCITO supports exhibitions from Australia’s national collecting institutions to tour within Australia and overseas, with particular emphasis on increasing regional access to the collections. The following NCITO-supported exhibitions are currently touring metropolitan and regional Australia: • Robert Dowling: Tasmanian son of Empire (National Gallery of Australia) • The National Photographic Portrait Prize 2010 (National Portrait Gallery) • Symbols of Australia (National Museum of Australia) • Little shipmates – seafaring pets (Australian National Maritime Museum) Other approved exhibitions will commence touring later in 2010 with a further funding round expected to be announced in June-July. For more information on NCITO and current NCITO-supported exhibitions visit: www.arts.gov.au/collection/ncito_program.

FROM * arts.gov.au $268 FOR TWO PEOPLE

INCL. BREAKFAST INDulgE yOuRsElF

AT THE NEwly REFuRBIsHED NOVOTEl CANBERRA

Take time out and indulge at Novotel Canberra and enjoy our newly refurbished rooms and facilities. Our Indulgence Package for 2 includes: • Accommodation in an Executive King Room • Full buffet breakfast daily in the hotel restaurant • A Poachers Farmhouse Hamper from Poachers Pantry (including gourmet meats, jam and a cooler bag valued at $100)

Accor Advantage Plus members receive their 10% discount and A|Club members will earn points on each stay. Want to know what’s on out there?

The Herald’s 3-day entertainment subscription package brings

65 Northbourne Ave, Canberra you the essential guide to the best of Sydney’s art, culture, fi lm Reservations 1300 65 65 65 and much more. Plus you’ll experience the convenience of home

delivery every Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning.

Subscribe to our 26-week package and pay less than $4.20 a week – that’s a saving of 30% the newsstand price.

Designed for natural living Call 13 66 66 and quote GALLERY or visit subscribe.smh.com.au/gallery *Valid 1 June 2010 to 28 December 2010. Conditions apply. Bookings are payable at time of reservation and are non-exchangeable, non-refundable and non-transferable. All rates are per night for single, twin or double occupancy in an Executive King Room. Rates are subject to change and are based on a limited allocation of rooms and subject to availability. Maximum of one Poachers Farmhouse Hamper from Poachers Pantry per room reservation, per stay. Offer valid until August 31, 2010 for new Herald subscribers only in NSW and the ACT where normal Herald home delivery exists. Prices are GST-inclusive. A deduction of $109 will be made upfront for a delivery period of 26 weeks. Minimum subscription term for this offer is 26 weeks. Cancellation fees may apply for subscriptions paid upfront and terminated prior to expiry. Subscriptions are for individual use only and cannot be sold. Delivery to addresses in security apartment or office buildings is subject to delivery capability. For alternative subscription packages call us on 13 66 66 expertise • integrity • results

Jeffrey Smart Sunbathers at Construction Site, 2003 67.0 x 100.0 cm SOLD November 2007 • $600,000 call for entries Price includes buyer’s premium, excludes gst important australian and international fine art auction melbourne • august 2010

for obligation-free appraisals, please contact Melbourne Sydney Chris Deutscher Damian Hackett Richard Ennis Merryn Schriever 03 9865 6333 02 9287 0600

www.deutscherandhackett.com • [email protected] Proud supporter of the National Gallery of Australia

AutumnAVAILABLE | Winter Now 2010

Proudly sponsoring McCubbin: Last Impressions 1907-17

www.rmwilliams.com.au 1800 339 532

1734_Art on ViewAW10_02.indd 1 9/04/10 11:53 AM NAB104223_CommunityAd_297x233.indd 1 8/04/10 1:04 PM New Radar from Domain.com.au is a world-first that will revolutionise your search for property. Radar lets you tailor your property search to match your lifestyle using expanded criteria, including proximity to relevant points of interest and property features. Radar displays your matches on an interactive map and gives each property a star rating based on how well matched it is to your criteria, making the entire search process simple. You’ll never look at property the same way again. Just what you’re looking for Proud supporters of creativity and excellence in performance, arts and design. enjoy responsibly. enjoy [ dinner out ] [ dinner in ]

yellowtailwine.com

TASTE THE DIFFERENCE [yellow tail] is a proud supporter of the National Gallery of Australia Contact: Joseph Antosz - 0417 655 016 | Glyn Thwaites - 0409 567 992 | Sydney Office - 02 9330 4700 PanoramaThe New

New look New size New columns

Canberra’s best arts, books, life and culture magazine IN SATURDAY’S

10-04518/3 J A MES DA VIS EXHIBITION JULY 24–AUGUST 16

Paintbox FINE ART 32 Lonsdale Street CANBERRA ACT 2612 T. 02 6162 1717 Hours: 11am - 5pm daily www.paintboxfineart.com C•A•N•B•E•R•R•A

BARTON

Set in two and a half acres of lawns and gardens on the fringe of the parliamentary triangle and within walking distance of Parliament House, the National Gallery of Australia, Lake Burley Griffi n and Canberra’s most elite residences, embassies, cosmopolitan restaurants, nightclubs and Manuka & Kingston shopping villages.

Belmore Gardens and Macquarie Street, Barton ACT 2600 Telephone: 02 6273 3766 Facsimile: 02 6273 2791 Toll Free Telephone: Email: [email protected] Web: http: //www.brassey.net.au

Canberran Owned and Operated

Brassey Artonview 4-09.indd 1 23/04/09 11:28 AM C•A•N•B•E•R•R•A

BARTON

Set in two and a half acres of lawns and gardens on the fringe of the parliamentary triangle and within walking distance of Parliament House, the National Gallery of Australia, Lake Burley Griffi n and Canberra’s most elite residences, embassies, cosmopolitan restaurants, nightclubs and Manuka & Kingston shopping villages.

Belmore Gardens and Macquarie Street, Barton ACT 2600 Telephone: 02 6273 3766 Facsimile: 02 6273 2791 Toll Free Telephone: Email: [email protected] Web: http: //www.brassey.net.au

Canberran Owned and Operated

Brassey Artonview 4-09.indd 1 23/04/09 11:28 AM Today_Karl & Lisa_FP_297x233.indd 1 2/02/2010 10:19:49 AM