Art Gallery of New South Wales Annual Report 2001
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES ANNUAL REPORT 2001 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES HIGHLIGHTS PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2 NEW ATTENDANCE RECORD SET FOR THE POPULAR ARCHIBALD, WYNNE AND SULMAN PRIZES, WHICH HAD MORE THAN 98,000 VISITORS. DIRECTOR’S REPORT 4 1 YEAR IN REVIEW 8 TWO NEW MAJOR AGNSW PUBLICATIONS, AUSTRALIAN ART IN THE ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES AND PAPUNYA TULA: GENESIS AIMS/OBJECTIVES/PERFORMANCE INDICATORS 26 2 AND GENIUS. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE 32 DEDICATION OF THE MARGARET OLLEY TWENTIETH CENTURY EUROPEAN LIFE GOVERNORS 34 3 GALLERIES IN RECOGNITION OF HER CONTINUING AND SUBSTANTIAL SENIOR MANAGEMENT PROFILE 34 ROLE AS A GALLERY BENEFACTOR. ORGANISATION CHART 36 COLLECTION ACQUISITIONS AMOUNTED TO $7.8 MILLION WITH 946 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 41 4 PURCHASED AND GIFTED WORKS ACCESSIONED INTO THE PERMANENT COLLECTION.TOTAL ACQUISITIONS HAVE GROWN BY MORE THAN $83.4 APPENDICES 62 MILLION IN THE PAST 10 YEARS. INDEX 92 MORE THAN 1.04 MILLION VISITORS TO OVER 40 TEMPORARY, TOURING GENERAL INFORMATION 93 5 AND PERMANENT COLLECTION EXHIBITIONS STAGED IN SYDNEY, REGIONAL NSW AND INTERSTATE. COMMENCED A THREE-YEAR, $2.3 MILLION, NSW GOVERNMENT 6 FUNDED PROGRAMME TO DIGITISE IMAGES OF ALL WORKS IN THE GALLERY’S PERMANENT COLLECTION. Bob Carr MP Premier, Minister for the Arts, and Minister for Citizenship DEVELOPED GALLERY WEBSITE TO ALLOW ONLINE USERS ACCESS TO Level 40 7 DATABASE INFORMATION ON THE GALLERY’S COLLECTION, INCLUDING Governor Macquarie Tower AVAILABLE IMAGES AND SPECIALIST RESEARCH LIBRARY CATALOGUE. 1 Farrer Place SYDNEY NSW 2000 CREATED A MAJOR NEW FAMILY PROGRAMME, FUNDAYS AT THE 8 GALLERY, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH A FIVE-YEAR SPONSORSHIP FROM THE Dear Premier, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH. In accordance with the requirements of the Annual Report (Statutory Bodies) VISASIA, THE INSTITUTE OF ASIAN CULTURE AND VISUAL ARTS, Act 1984, we have pleasure in submitting to you the Annual Report for the 9 LAUNCHED BY FORMER PRIME MINISTER HON. PAUL KEATING, AND ITS Art Gallery of New South Wales for the year ended 30th June, 2001, for BUSINESS COUNCIL ESTABLISHED. presentation to Parliament. IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE EXHIBITION PAPUNYA TULA: GENESIS AND The annual report of the Gallery, in our opinion, has been prepared in full GENIUS, THE GALLERY HOSTED A SOTHEBY’S AUCTION OF ABORIGINAL compliance with the requirements of the Annual Reports (Statutory Bodies) 10 Top: Paul Newton AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER ART AND RAISED $1 MILLION FOR THE Act and the Annual Reports (Statutory Bodies) Regulations. Roy and H.G. (John Doyle and Greig Pickhaver) WESTERN DESERT DIALYSIS APPEAL. People’s choice Award 2001 Archibald Prize © Paul Newton Yours sincerely, Middle: David Gonski, President Art Gallery Trust, Edmund Capon, Director and artist Margaret Olley Bottom: Fundays at the Gallery launch featuring Monica Trapaga David Gonski Edmund Capon Cover: Tjuntupulnga 2000 (detail) President Director Bobby West Tjupurrula, Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa, Charlie Tjapangati, Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri sand and wamulu, 3.6 x 4 metres © Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd 2 PRESIDENT’S FOREWORD A year of outstanding artistic achievements by the Art Gallery of New South Wales has been consolidated by major steps towards extending and upgrading the building as a means of offering even greater opportunities to the public for enjoying art and activities connected with it. The first project to be undertaken by the Centenary Fund has Roger Wilkins, the newly appointed Director General of the been under construction in the year under review and will Ministry for the Arts, has also visited us on numerous open before the end of 2001. This is the 100-seat auditorium, occasions. We welcome him and thank him for the help he which is located directly below the Gallery Shop and beside has already given us. the main gallery for temporary exhibitions. We also acknowledge with thanks the assistance we received The new auditorium will provide a first-class venue for the over many years from Roger’s predecessor, Evan Williams. Art Gallery to undertake its role as a centre for discussion and education. This would not have been possible without The Art Gallery has, as in previous years, received enormous the generosity of the Centenary Fund patrons and we thank assistance from so many people. These include the members ASIAN GALLERY AND ASSOCIATED WORKS them most sincerely. of the President’s Council, the Art Gallery Foundation, the Asian gallery Art Gallery Society and their excellent voluntary guides. Restaurant & café (below) After a delay while funding was confirmed, the new Asian Without the involvement and commitment of these groups Temporary exhibition gallery gallery project is moving ahead. Designs have been prepared and their members, the Art Gallery would not be the place it for the additional gallery above and connected to the present is today. Conservation Asian area, for the extension of conservation studio and display space for contemporary art gallery, the relocation of I take this opportunity of thanking all Trustees and welcome, the restaurant and café with a new functions area. The as a new Trustee, the well-known and respected Australian budget for this project has increased by over $1 million to a artist Imants Tillers. Particular thanks to Mary Turner, who new total of $16 million left the Trust this year. Her assistance, especially on regional New Asian gallery and associated works by Johnson, Pilton, Walker. Colour highlights show planned new works zones. matters, is much appreciated. Clearly, as we go into the rebuilding phase, the Trustees understand that is going to be difficult for everybody – those Above all, I thank the Director and staff of the Art Gallery. who work at the Art Gallery and our visitors. We know that Their commitment and expertise are the keys to the vibrancy all at the Art Gallery will do their utmost to minimise and relevance of the Art Gallery, its exhibitions and its many disruptions and we are sure that the reward is undoubtedly related activities. going to be enormous. During the year, we have received encouraging support from David Gonski the NSW Government with numerous visits from the Premier, President Bob Carr, and also the Treasurer, Michael Egan. We thank Art Gallery of New South Wales them for their interest and assistance in our activities. 2 3 DIRECTOR’S REPORT This reporting year has included many highlights including the Art Gallery’s participation in the 2000 Sydney Olympics Arts Festival with two fantastic Australian and Aboriginal art shows plus the Dead Sea Scrolls presented in Australia for the very first time. The first show being the Australian Icons exhibition featuring three-dimensional mandala, or cosmic diagram, of Hevajra. 20 key Australian artists and their works all sourced from The base is in the shape of an eight-petalled lotus with our permanent Collection – this free exhibition was extended Hevajra in the centre, originally surrounded by seven dakini for an additional two months due to it popularity with the or yogini, minor female divinities in Tantric Buddhism, and visiting public. It’s curator Barry Pearce was also responsible one erect figure. Typically this Hevajra figure has sixteen for the Australia Art in the Art Gallery of New South Wales arms fanned out like wings and eight heads arranged on three book published this year. levels in the order of three, four and one head at the top. The hands each hold the correct attributes as ascribed to Hevajra The second exhibition was the major temporary exhibition by the Tantric texts. Hevajra’s dance posture symbolises the Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, curated by Hetti Perkins, dynamics of the process of enlightenment, which includes which for the first time traced the phenomena of the Papunya trampling underfoot the four chief evils, personified here by a Tula art movement out of the small remote community of the four headed prostrate figure. The deity Hevajra is the chief same name in the Northern Territory. The other major deity of the Tantric Buddhist path to enlightenment. The cult publication this year was this exhibition’s catalogue featuring of Hevajra flourished in Cambodia between the tenth and more than 150 paintings. This book was awarded the Art thirteenth centuries, only to disappear with the collapse of the Exhibitions Australia Inaugural Award for best catalogue Angkor Empire. issued through the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand. In 1972, the Art Gallery purchased Self Portrait c.1940 by Pierre Bonnard. This painting is one of the most important In additional, the continuing support of two of our most paintings in the Art Gallery’s Modern European Collection generous benefactors have added two major works to the and has been extensively exhibited and reproduced. Bust in Collection. A very beautiful painting by the French artist, profile, red background, c. 1920 is an fine complement to the Pierre Bonnard Bust in profile, red background c.1920 was Self Portrait as it is an example of the artist’s most recurrent purchased with funds provided by the Art Gallery of New theme depicting candid images of his wife, Marthe, having a South Wales Foundation and the Margaret Hannah Olley Art bath or in an unposed naked state. These uncontrived poses, Trust and an exceptionally rare Khmer bronze, Hevajra lying down, reaching for something, looking in the mirror, mandala, from the Bayon period (12th/13th century) was etc. give these painting a sensuous voyeuristic feel as if the purchased with funds provided by the Edward and Goldie subject was unaware of the artist’s adoring scrutiny. This Sternberg Southeast Asian Art Purchase Fund with a special painting is essentially a study in form and colour – on one extra contribution provided by Mrs Goldie Sternberg. side the distinctive profile of Marthe is silhouetted against an almost abstract background of red and yellow while the Hevajra mandala The Khmer bronze, Hevajra mandala, is the most important illusion of depth is created by the receding sofa on the right 12th – 13th century bronze 39 x 23.5 cm work from ancient Cambodia to enter the collection.