osenquist r imants tillers • michael riley • James artonview issue no.46 winter 2006 artonview ISSUE No.46 WINTER 2006 NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA 14 14 July – 16 October 2006 9 – 30 August Wednesdays 6pm SPECIAL MEMBERS’ VIEWING This annual lecture series showcases the latest work of renowned Australian architects. 9 August Andrew Andersons from Peddle, Thorpe and Walker, Sydney 16 August Luigi Rosselli, Sydney 23 August Tim Jackson from Jackson Clements Burrows, Melbourne 30 August Shaun Lockyer from Arkhefield, Brisbane $60 Series; $50 members/RAIA/concession $20 Single; $15 members/RAIA/concession Presented in association with the ACT Chapter RAIA Sponsored by BCA Solutions Bookings essential James O Fairfax Theatre National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Mr Ron Radford AM, Director National Gallery of Australia requests the pleasure of your company at a Members Viewing of Saturday 15 July 2006 6pm The evening will commence with an introduction to the exhibitions in the James O Fairfax Theatre by Dr Deborah Hart, Senior Curator, Australian Paintings and Sculpture and Brenda L Croft, Senior Curator, Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Followed by a viewing of the exhibitions Members /guests $40 Light refreshments Limited tickets – bookings essential RSVP 5 July 2006 (acceptances only) Phone 02 6240 6528 Imants Tillers The hyperborean and the speluncar 1986 oilstick, oil and synthetic polymer paint on 130 canvasboards Cruthers collection, Perth Michael Riley Untitled, from the series Cloud [feather] taken 2000 printed 2005 pigment prints, ultrachrome chromogenic inks on Ilford Gallery Pearl photographic paper Purchased 2005 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Reproduced courtesy of the Michael Riley Foundation and VISCOPY, Australia Photo: John Gollings Richmond House, Jackson Clements Burrows contents artonview Publisher 2 Director’s foreword National Gallery of Australia nga.gov.au 4 Interview with Rupert Myer, Chairman of the National Gallery Editor of Australia Council Alistair McGhie Designer 6 Imants Tillers: one world many visions Sarah Robinson Photography 14 Imants Tillers discusses Terra incognita & Terra negata Eleni Kypridis Barry Le Lievre Brenton McGeachie 16 Michael Riley: sights unseen Steve Nebauer Designed and produced 21 Michael Riley Kristina 1986 in Australia by the National Gallery of Australia 24 Rosenquist: Welcome to the water planet Printed in Australia by Pirion Printers, Canberra 32 Right here right now: Recent Aboriginal and Torres Strait artonview ISSN 1323-4552 Islander acquisitions Published quarterly: Issue no. 46, Winter 2006 38 New acquisitions © National Gallery of Australia Print Post Approved 46 The Anton Bruehl Gift pp255003/00078 All rights reserved. Reproduction without 50 Come rain or shine permission is strictly prohibited. The opinions expressed in artonview are not necessarily those of the editor or 52 Indian art: New acquisitions, directions and display publisher. Submissions and correspondence 56 Conservation: The Mermaid’s Tale should be addressed to: The editor, artonview 58 Faces in view National Gallery of Australia GPO Box 1150 Canberra ACT 2601 60 Collection study room [email protected] Advertising (02) 6240 6587 facsimile (02) 6240 6427 [email protected] RRP: $8.60 includes GST Free to members of the National Gallery of Australia For further information on National Gallery of Australia Membership contact: Coordinator, Membership GPO Box 1150 Canberra ACT 2601 (02) 6240 6504 [email protected] front cover: Michael Riley Darrell (detail) 1989 gelatin silver photograph National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Reproduced courtesy of the Michael Riley Foundation and VISCOPY, Australia back cover: Imants Tillers installing Terra incognita 2005 at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 2005 director’s foreword Following on from the success of Crescent Moon and Constable, for the winter season at the Gallery we present three significant single-artist shows: Imants Tillers: One world many visions; Michael Riley: Sights unseen; and the paper works by American artist James Rosenquist, Welcome to the water planet. Again, it is felicitous to present the work of Riley and Tillers concurrently as these two Australian artists have made such significant contributions to the landscape and dialogue of art in this country. Michael Riley (1960–2004) through photography, film and video has challenged our perceptions of Indigenous Australia, and Imants Tillers in his continuing, numbered canvasboard panel works investigates the themes of identity and displacement, origins and originality, and language and landscape. I commend these two highly interesting exhibitions of contemporary Australian art to you. Ron Radford with From my office window, Lake Burley Griffin is looking On display in the Orde Poynton Gallery is the internationally renowned American artist James Turrell more like Constable’s Stormy sea, Brighton 20 July 1828 monumental paper work series Welcome to the water which puts me in no doubt that three frosty yet clear-skied planet and two related works by James Rosenquist months of winter lie ahead of us and that there are only produced with printer publisher Ken Tyler from September two weeks left to see Constable: Impressions of land, sea 1988 to December 1989. When you see this exhibition I’m and sky here in Canberra before it heads across the pond to sure Rosenquist’s journey from billboard painter in the 50s the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in – dare I to key figure in America’s Pop Art movement in the 60s will say it – windy Wellington. be apparent in the scale and subject of the works. Massive, Often, once exhibitions are up and have been on display impressive and a further demonstration of the depth of the for a while, connections between them become more National Gallery’s premier American print collection. apparent than may have been anticipated at their inception Our other current collection-based exhibition in the or planning. The concurrent displays over the past months Project Gallery, Right here right now, displays for the of Crescent Moon: Islamic art and civilisation in Southeast first time more than 80 new acquisitions to the Gallery’s Asia and Constable: Impressions of land, sea and sky Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Collection purchased – although from historically and culturally disparate sources over the past two years. These largely contemporary works, – had indisputable connections. Constable showed not only including canvas paintings, bark painting, fibre works, the work of the master of the English landscape tradition, prints, drawings, and sculpture covering themes ranging but also reminded us of many Australian landscapes and from the ancestral and ancient to politics and contemporary his influence on so many Australian artists from the 19th Australian society, fully demonstrate the great diversity and century to today, as demonstrated by the accompanying vitality of Indigenous Australian art and culture. exhibition Constable and Australia. In Crescent Moon we The lower level Asian Galleries will be closed over the witnessed the influence not of a single artist but of Islam in winter months for re-slating and de-cladding in order to Southeast Asia from the 14th through to the 19th century restore this very large space to its original function as a and its effect on the development of the cultural history of sculpture gallery featuring the iconic Brancusi Birds in Space. our region and our nearest neighbours. Both exhibitions By the end of August, we will have opened our new Indian have been extremely popular, well exceeding targets. I’d like and South Asian Gallery on the entrance level. This special to express my thanks to the Gallery’s Voluntary Guides for Indian Gallery will be the first of its kind in Australia. By their preparation and hard work and for being available to the end of September we will also have opened a larger show the many thousands of visitors through these highly Southeast Asian Gallery adjoining the Indian Gallery. popular exhibitions over the past three months. We are acquiring many major works for these new Asian displays, which will be revealed at the opening. The new 2 national gallery of australia credit lines complex and integrated displays in these Asian Galleries on Donations the principal level of the Gallery will be a significant step Belinda Barrett towards our stated aim of helping to place the art of our Sheila Bignell region centre stage in the National Gallery of Australia. Peter Farrell AM Major new Australian acquisitions, both 19th and 20th Andrew Gwinnett century, will also be revealed this winter. For instance, we Robyn Jenkins take great pleasure in presenting Sydney Long’s Flamingoes Judith Roach c. 1906 as the Masterpieces for the Nation acquisition. Rotary Belconnen This is a strikingly decorative oil painting by the leading John Schaeffer AO proponent of the art nouveau movement in Australia at Gene Sherman the turn of the 19th century. Further information on both Kerry Stokes AO Long’s work and the appeal is enclosed in this edition of Bruce and Daphne Topfer artonview. Masterpieces for the Nation is the National Foundations Gallery of Australia Foundation’s annual appeal to raise Gordon Darling Foundation funds to acquire a major work that will become part of Wolfensohn Foundation our permanent display. Over the past two years this appeal has been extraordinarily successful and has enabled the Gifts Gallery to acquire two significant Australian