Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2021 Love, sex and death: The constant companions of art

Love, Sex and Death in the Gallery Steven Miller Wednesday 21st April and Thursday 22nd April 2021

Lecture summary:

In 2010 Michael Gross, author and journalist, published an unauthorised history of the Metropolitan Museum of New York. It was titled Rogues’ gallery: the secret story of lust, lies, greed and betrayals that made the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Needless to say, the book became a best seller. Gallery archivist, Steven Miller, takes us on a romp through the less-sensational, but equally entertaining, history of the Art Gallery of , with an emphasis on the persistent themes of love, sex and death, with perhaps a little more sex than the other two.

Slide list

*1. Title slide: Louis Priou (1845-1917), The satyr’s family c.1876, oil on canvas, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Gifted 1893.

*2 John Lane Mullins (1857-1939), Mechanics School of Arts c1872, gelatin silver photograph, collection of the State Library of New South Wales.

*3 Imaginary seal of the New South Wales Academy of Art published in Sydney Punch, 25 June 1875.

*4 Memento of the First Conversazione of the New South Wales Academy of Art, 7 August 1871 and catalogue to the Third Annual Exhibition of Colonial Works of Art, 1874.

*5 ‘Trying situation for a critic’, Sydney Punch, 26 August 1871; ‘Smoko at the Academy’, Sydney Illustrated News, 30 June 1874.

*6 Martin Sharp (1942-2013), Sex 1967, screenprint, Art Gallery of New South Wales, acquired 2014; Unknown Heart-shaped box c1940s, Art Gallery of New South Wales, gifted 2010 Rupert Bunny (1864-1947) Descent from the Cross c.1898, oil on canvas, Art Gallery of New South Wales, purchased 1969.

*7 (1906–94) cover of his memoirs They kill you in the end (1973) [see bibliography] and Unknown photographer Hal Missingham, Bowen Island, Jervis Bay 1947, gelatin silver photograph, Art Gallery of New South Wales Archive; Max Dupain, Hal Missingham, gelatin silver photograph, Art Gallery of New South Wales Archive.

Proudly sponsored by:

*8 Noel Counihan (1913-86), At the start of the march 1932 1944, oil on harboard. Art Gallery of New South Wales; Roderick Shaw (1915-92), The cable layers 1946, oil on hardboard. Art Gallery of New South Wales.

*9 Hall Missingham, A wild party 1949, oil on canvas. Private collection.

*10 Hal Missingham (1906-94), Sylvia: never a nicer Nereid! c1963, gelatin silver photographs Art Gallery of New South Wales archive, gift of Sylvia McGeachy’s estate 2010.

*11 Unknown photographer Sir Kenneth Clark c.1933, gelatin silver photograph. National Portrait Gallery, ; Axel Poignant, Sidney Nolan 1946, gelatin silver photograph. Art Gallery of New South Wales Archive

*12 Eric Thake, Gallery Director or This way to Phar Lap 1954, linocut. Art Gallery of New South Wales.

*13 Charles Joseph Watelet (1867-1954),The cats 1923, oil on canvas. Art Gallery of New South Wales, purchased 1923.

*14 Frank Hinder (1906-92), Nothing more sensual than a nude with a lap full of kittensc.1965, charcoal on paper, Art Gallery of New South Wales Archive.

*15 Bas-relief panels on the façade of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

*16 Percival Ball, Phryne before Praxiteles 1900, bronze relief panel. Art Gallery of New South Wales; photograph of original plaster cast of the work.

*17 Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807), Nymphs adorning a statue of Pan c1878, ceramic plate with design based on work by Kauffman, Art Gallery of New South Wales, gift of the German government 1879.

*18 Catalogue to the First International Exhibition of Erotic Art held in Sweden and Denmark in 1968 and an application to the federal government of to import a prohibited publication.

*19 Unknown photographer, Entrance court of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales c1900, gelatin silver photograph, Art Gallery of New South Wales Archive, showing Herman Richir’s Salon painting Après le bain

*20 Image of the statue of Archbishop Kelly 1931 by Bertram Mackennal, gelatin silver photograph. Art Gallery of New South Wales Archive; Herman Richir (1866-1942), Après le bain, oil on canvas Private collection.

*21 Anne MacDonald (1960--), Love I & Love II 1985, gelatin silver photo collage. Private collection.

*22 Installation view of the Art Clothes exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1981

*23 Religious Cavalier c.1980 by Katie Pye (1952-) exhibited at the Art Gallery of New South Wales during the Art Clothes exhibition. The costume is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

*24 Cover of the catalogue to the exhibition Recent Australian Art held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1973.

For access to all past lecture notes visit: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/members/events/love-sex-and-death-2021/

*25 Modified catalogue for the Recent Australian Art exhibition, showing it stamped with ‘A change of plan’.

*26 Viewers looking at the tv monitor for Tim Burns’ work A change of plan, included in the Recent Australian Art exhibition.

*27 Viewers looking at the tv monitor for Tim Burns’ work A change of plan, included in the Recent Australian Art exhibition.

*28 Tim Burns, Fuck Laverty and the trustees c.1972, screenprint. Art Gallery of New South Wales Archive.

*29 Photograph of Vernon’s 1898–99 Court 9 and Norman Hardy (1863–1914), Historical interior view of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales, 21 January 1893, lithograph. Art Gallery of New South Wales Archive.

*30 Unknown photographer, Margaret Casey and her four sons c.1905, gelatin silver photograph. Art Gallery of New South Wales Archive.

*31 The caretaker’s cottage at the rear of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

*32 Alfred James Philpot, Weaver Hawkins upon enlisting 1914, gelatin silver photograph. Art Gallery of New South Wales Archive.

*33 Weaver Hawkins, extracts from letters to his mother from the front, 1915. Art Gallery of New South Wales Archive.

*34–35 Weaver Hawkins (1893–1977), A young sub’s baptism January 1916, pencil on paper, six works. Art Gallery of New South Wales Archive.

*36 Weaver Hawkins, first letter to his father, 14 July 1916 and Unknown photographer, Weaver Hawkins in hospital after being wounded, April 1917, gelatin silver photograph, Art Gallery of New South Wales Archive.

*37 Weaver Hawkins, Halloy May 1916, watercolour on paper. Art Gallery of New South Wales Archive.

Reference:

Alfonso, Cecilia. The Art Gallery of New South Wales: changing shape, changing function 1871 1978, BA Thesis, University of New South Wales, 1988. Benjamin, Rodney. ‘Eliezer Montefiore (1820–94): artist, gallery director and insurance pioneer; the first significant Australian Jewish artist’, Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal, vol XVII, part 3, November 2004, pp 311–40 Capon, Edmund. I blame Duchamp: My life’s adventures in art, Lantern published by Penguin, , 2009 Clark, Kenneth. Another part of the wood: A self-portrait, Murray, London, 1974. Proudly sponsored by:

Draffin, Nicholas. ‘An enthusiastic amateur of the arts: Eliezer Levi Montefiore in Melbourne 1853–71, Art Bulletin of Victoria, no 28, 1987, pp 92–108 Du Faur, Eccleston. Notes respecting the origin and the progressive development of the building of the National Art Gallery of NSW, National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1909. Hutchison, Noel. The establishment of the Art Gallery of New South Wales: politics and taste, BA Thesis, University of Sydney, 1968. James, Bruce. Art Gallery of New South Wales Handbook, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1999. Klepac, Lou. Hal Missingham: Artist, author, photographer, Beagle Press, Sydney, 2017. Missingham, Hal. They kill you in the end, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1973. Taylor, George A. “Those were the days”: being reminiscences of Australian artists and writers, Tyrrell’s Ltd, Sydney, 1918 Thomas, Daniel. Recent past: Writing Australian art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2020. White, Judith. Art lovers: The story of the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales 1953–2013. Art Gallery Society of New South Wales, Sydney, 2013.

For access to all past lecture notes visit: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/members/events/love-sex-and-death-2021/