MUSE Issue 14, June 2016
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Art. Culture. Issue 14 Antiquities. June 2016 Natural history. Alpha and Omega: tales of transformation encompasses the Greek diversity and interconnections of the University’s collections, using letters, the Greek alphabet as a device to link seemingly disparate items under a common theme of transformation. Chinese It’s a fascinating exhibition with an prints accompanying book. Also in April we launched Dušan A word from the Director Marek: art/film post 1960 at the University Art Gallery. The David Ellis, photograph by Martin Ho Two of our most important Egyptian extraordinary world of the surrealist and visionary Czech artist and sculptures are back in the Nicholson A warm welcome to the Macleay teacher is presented in moving, Museum, having been on loan to Miklouho-Maclay Fellow, Dr Harry still and 3D works – the first survey the Houston Museum of Natural Parnaby, who is documenting of his work since his death in 1993. Science for the past three years. the mammal-type specimens The exhibition, curated by Stephen The portraits of Horemheb and of the Macleay Museum along Mould, reveals Marek the painter, Ramesses II were seen by more than with specialist work on the early the filmmaker, and the artist whose 1.7 million visitors to the museum’s collection of micro-bats. The creativity embraced many media. The Hall of Ancient Egypt. bats were of particular interest to exhibition continues until 22 July. WJ Macleay, a member of the family In April we opened what is likely to after whom the museum was named. be the last temporary exhibition Opening at the University Art Gallery in August is Floating Time: Chinese in the space occupied by the Written in Stone closes in the prints 1954–2002, a selection of Nicholson Museum. Macleay Museum in August to modern Chinese prints from the be replaced with a selection of University Art Collection, many of It was, fittingly, officially opened by collection items. Suzanne Kelly, long-time supporter which have been purchased through the University’s Morrissey Bequest. of the Nicholson Museum and Finally, to keep in touch with what’s council member of the Friends of happening with the Chau Chak Wing The exhibition offers insights into the Nicholson Museum. Suzanne Museum development, please visit: the multifaceted nature of modern reflected on her 60-year association sydney.edu.au/museums with the museum, which began when and contemporary printmaking in China, and is co-curated by Dr she was an undergraduate student David Ellis Stephen Whiteman, Bingqing Wei and studying archaeology. Director, Museums and Minerva Inwald. See story, page 2. Cultural Engagement Sydney University Museums Macleay Museum Muse edited by Candace Richards. Comprising the Macleay Museum, Macleay Building, Gosper Lane Produced by Marketing and Communications, Nicholson Museum and University Art Gallery (off Science Road) the University of Sydney, June 2016. 16/5702 +61 2 9036 5253 ISSN 1449-0420 ABN 15 211 513 464 Open Monday to Friday, 10am to 4.30pm and +61 2 9351 5646 (fax) CRICOS 00026A the first Saturday of every month 12 to 4pm [email protected] Closed on public holidays. General admission is free. Nicholson Museum Forest Stewardship Council In the southern entrance to the Quadrangle (FSC®) is a globally recognised Become a fan on Facebook and +61 2 9351 2812 certification overseeing all fibre follow us on Twitter. +61 2 9351 7305 (fax) sourcing standards. This provides [email protected] guarantees for the consumer that products are made of woodchips Sydney University Museums Administration from well-managed forests and +61 2 9351 2274 University Art Gallery other controlled sources with +61 2 9351 2881 (fax) War Memorial Arch, the Quadrangle strict environmental, economical [email protected] +61 2 9351 6883 and social standards. +61 2 9351 7785 (fax) Education and Public Programs [email protected] To book a school excursion, an adult education tour or a University heritage tour sydney.edu.au/museums +61 2 9351 8746 [email protected] In this issue 02 Floating Time 16 Tax collection An exhibition of prints from Our series of 92 ostraca from 1954 to 2002 reflects an Graeco-Roman Egypt has important shift in direction been described by the SMH as for artists in post-Mao China. “simply priceless”. Here’s why. 06 Motoring along 19 Hongi Hika’s self-portrait An amateur photographer’s Is the Macleay’s Hika bust the images from the 1920s capture original, carved from a fence the stylish and speedy new post by the Māori warrior chief world of the car. around 1800, or a derivative? 08 Sunsets and sacred spaces 22 Written on the reverse 30 Made in China Artists have long sought to The markings on the back of A collection of ancient capture the pyramids in their a painting can sometimes tell ceramics reflects China’s work – they’ve also captured as intriguing a tale as the work people, society, food, and the imagination of the West. on the front. interactions with the world. 11 On a wing 26 Beyond the walls of Jericho 32 Life of Kendall Broadbent A researcher devises a unique Students at the Nicholson The Australian naturalist and way to uncover the natural Museum are cataloguing collector was a tough and history of the Kākāpō, a rare remains from a city inhabited tenacious character who led bird native to New Zealand. in the 10th millennium BC. an adventurous frontier life. 14 Talk to me 28 Isopod of adventure 34 Making history Artist Vicki Varvaressos is An unidentified isopod in the All the news on University renowned for her dramatic, Macleay reveals the Antarctic of Sydney museums: talks, socially critical forms. A gift to adventures and unfortunate acquisitions, VIP visits, new the University is no exception. losses of Captain Ross. staff, comings and goings. 36 Find your muse For your diary: everything that’s coming up at Sydney University Museums over the next few months. From the cover: Cranking the starter, Above: Vicki Varvaressos, Dong Lianbao, Wish Fulfilling photographer GA Druce, Talk to me, 1984, acrylic on Symbols - Fish, woodcut, Macleay Museum masonite, 128x97.2cm, donated 1999, UA2001.43 HP89.29.623 by Emeritus Professor Virginia (see story, page 2) (see story, page 6) Spate, 2016 (see story, page 14) 1 1 Floating Time – The University’s collection of Chinese prints reflects urban and social change in post‑Mao China, writes Stephen Whiteman. In the years following Mao Zedong’s “broad prospects opening before” Floating Time: Chinese prints death in 1976 and the end of the artists. Although the breadth of 1954‑2002, opening in August at the Great Cultural Revolution, the permitted artistic expression has University Art Gallery, introduces political and cultural landscape for ebbed and flowed widely since that art from this period through a artists shifted dramatically. time, new exhibition environments selection of several dozen pieces and educational opportunities, and from the University’s collection After three decades of a strict far greater access to art and ideas of about 95 contemporary expectation that art should reflect from abroad have all helped foster Chinese prints across a range of and serve the people, in 1979, the a multitude of fresh directions in techniques. The collection reflects new Chairman of the Communist contemporary Chinese art. the efforts of Emeritus Professor Party, Deng Xiaoping, spoke of John Clark who, with support from 2 2 3 Even in urban scenes, a sense of nostalgia 3 runs through many of the prints. 5 4 6 the MJ Morrissey Bequest which Although largely urban-based, Even returns to familiar subjects, provides the University Museum’s printmakers also looked outside such as depictions of rural life, took acquisition fund for Asian art, cities for inspiration: for some, on new valences of meaning beyond purchased the prints directly from romanticised images of the the idealised image of peasant artists on several trips to China in countryside seem to evoke an existence that was long a staple of the early 2000s. idyllic, non-specific alternative to the Communist-era artist (Fig 10). modernisation (Fig 2), while others The exhibition focuses primarily look directly to their own family Such re-engagements with older, on the 1980s and 1990s in works pasts (Fig 6) for alternatives to the established themes and subjects that explore a range of themes changes occurring around them. often leave the viewer uncertain of around the extraordinary social where image and artist stand. and cultural transformations Even in urban scenes, however, a brought about by Deng Xiaoping’s strong sense of nostalgia runs In Bright Future (Fig 8), printmaker economic reforms. During these through many of the prints, the Lao Si depicts a group of rosy- years, China underwent a massive past floating just out of reach, like cheeked little boys against a wave of urbanisation, as hundreds of a memory of childhood (Fig 4). backdrop of a quiet rural village. millions of people moved from the The bright colors and clichéd countryside to the cities in search Central to the disruptions of the subject matter give the image an of work. 1980s and ’90s were changes almost kitschy flavour, suggesting in social roles and identities it was made with the market very Printmakers responded in a variety connected to mass migration and much in mind. of ways to changes in the urban and increased economic mobility. The social fabric, conveying a sense of boundaries of established roles, Yet technically, it is a work of brilliant progress (Fig 3) as well as whether in rural masculinity (Fig 7) significant skill and intention, the what has been tossed aside in order or urban femininity (Fig 9), shifted product of careful registration to achieve it (Fig 5).