artonview art o n v i ew ISSUE No.51 ISS ue SPRING n o.51 spring 2007 2007 NATIONAL GALLERY OF GALLERY AUSTRALIA Richard Bell Australian art it’s an Aboriginal thing 2006 synthetic polymer paint on canvas Acquired 2006 TarraWarra Museum of Art collection courtesy the artist and Bellas Milani Gallery 13 October 2007 – 10 February 2008 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra CELEBRATING¬¬YEARS A National Gallery of Australia Travelling Exhibition The National Gallery of Australia is an Australian Government agency nga.gov.au/NIAT07 Sculpture Gallery • rOBERT rauSchenBerG • Ocean tO OutBack OC E A N to OUTBACK Australian landscape painting 1850 –1950 The National Gallery of Australia’s 25th Anniversary Travelling Exhibition 1 September 2007 – 27 January 2008 Proudly supported by the National Gallery of Australia Council Exhibition Fund National Gallery of Australia, Canberra This exhibition is supported by the CELEBRATING¬¬YEARS nga.gov.au/Rauschenberg Embassy of the United States of America Russell Drysdale Emus in a landscape 1950 (detail) oil on canvas National Gallery of Australia, Canberra © Estate of Russell Drysdale Robert Rauschenberg Publicon – Station I from the Publicons series enamel on wood, collaged laminated silk and cotton, gold leafed paddle, light bulb, perspex, enamel on polished aluminium National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1979 © Robert Rauschenberg Licensed by VAGA and VISCOPY, Australia, 2007 The National Gallery of Australia is an Australian Government agency artonview contents 2 Director’s foreword Publisher National Gallery of Australia 6 Development office nga.gov.au Editor Jeanie Watson 8 A new gallery for sculpture: wood, stone, metal, glass Designer MA@D Communication 14 Pacific arts in the Gallery Photography Eleni Kypridis 20 The ‘big guns’ of Culture Warriors Barry Le Lievre Brenton McGeachie 26 Robert Rauschenberg 1967–1978 Steve Nebauer John Tassie Designed and produced 34 Black robe, white mist: art of the Japanese Buddhist nun Rengetsu in Australia by the National Gallery of Australia 40 Ocean to Outback: Australian landscape painting 1850–1950 Printed in Australia by Pirion Printers, Canberra 48 Collection focus: Ricketts photography collection artonview issn 1323-4552 Published quarterly: Issue no. 51, Spring 2007 54 New acquisitions © National Gallery of Australia Print Post Approved 66 Drawn in pp255003/00078 All rights reserved. Reproduction without 68 Faces in view permission is strictly prohibited. The opinions expressed in artonview are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. 70 Travelling exhibitions Submissions and correspondence should be addressed to: The editor, artonview National Gallery of Australia GPO Box 1150 Canberra ACT 2601 [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: Giorgio de Chirico La Mort d’un esprit [Death of a spirit] 1916 oil on canvas 36.0 x 33.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased with the assistance of Harold and Bevelly Mitchell, Rupert and Annabel Myer and the NGA Foundation © Giorgio de Chirico Licensed by VISCOPY, Australia, 2007 director’s foreword Foundation for this major acquisition. It is featured on the cover of this issue of artonview. The second important acquisition, mentioned briefly in the last issue of the magazine, is Max Ernst’s Habakuk 1934/1970. The giant black creature presides over the National Australia Bank Sculpture Gallery, its four-and-a- half-metre form appearing to change as you approach it. The knife-thin head, the eyes on stalks and the flowerpot- like body seem to rotate in a cylinder. The Gallery holds Ernst’s private collection of Indigenous art, which was so influential on Surrealism. Habakuk is a significant example of his work as a Surrealist artist and by far his largest work. The National Australia Bank generously helped us purchase the sculpture for the collection. The third major acquisition is from India and is the Gallery’s earliest image of the Buddha. The superb and imposing early Indian sculpture is a cornerstone for the Gallery’s ability to introduce visitors to the development of Buddhist art in India and beyond. The bold red sandstone seated Buddha from the second century Kushan centre of Mathura sits marvellously – physically and art historically – between the aniconic symbolism of our rare Amaravati marble panel depicting the life of the Buddha and the Director Ron Radford Activity around the Gallery this year has been recently purchased large Gandharan Head of a bodhisattva with Senator the Hon. George Brandis SC, building up towards the twenty-fifth anniversary on with its strong Hellenic influence. We are enormously Minister for the Arts and Sport, 12, 13 and 14 October. It will culminate in a gala weekend grateful for the generous assistance of Council member who opened the successful George W Lambert exhibition of celebrations, including the launch of the National Roslyn Packer in this purchase. (closes 16 September 2007) Indigenous Art Triennial and an open day welcoming The fourth important acquisition is Clifford Possum people to help recognise a quarter of a century of art and Tjapaltjarri’s Warlugulong 1977, a seminal work by this inspiration. The Gallery’s twenty-fifth anniversary year is a pioneer of Papunya Tula painting of Central Australia. celebration of our magnificent past and more recent Although the Gallery holds the largest Aboriginal art acquisitions, our excellent exhibitions and programs, the collection, we have lacked a significant work by Clifford recent refurbishment and radical refocusing of our Possum. Warlugulong will be on permanent display in our collection displays and, of course, the commencement of main Central Desert room of the new Aboriginal and Torres our building redevelopment. Stage one has recently begun. Strait Islander wing. A more detailed essay about this work I am pleased to announce four very significant new will appear in the next issue of artonview along with the acquisitions in celebration of our twenty-fifth anniversary. announcement of other significant twenty-fifth anniversary La Mort d’un esprit [Death of a spirit] 1916 is an early acquisitions. work by Giorgio de Chirico, an important Metaphysical The new Pacific Arts Gallery is now open to the public artist who had a profound effect on Surrealism. This is the and features a number of spectacular works collected in Gallery’s first early European modernist painting acquired the late 1960s and early 1970s alongside some recent in fifteen years. We have been searching for a work of this acquisitions. Highlights include an imposing carved house kind for some time and it is especially valuable for us to post figure from the Sawos people, near the Sepik River, find one produced in Europe at a crucial period during the New Guinea, purchased in 1969. Conservation has recently First World War. It is one of only two de Chirico works held removed a layer of dirt to reveal an orange, yellow and in the country and the only early one. We acknowledge black painted face design. All too often the names of the the financial assistance of Harold and Bevelly Mitchell spirits associated with traditional art from the Pacific were and Rupert and Annabel Myer along with the Gallery’s 2 national gallery of australia neglected. However, this is a very rare instance when created within the past three years and provide a highly Rupert Myer AM, Chairman of the National Gallery of a work can be re-associated with its identity. We have considered snapshot of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia Council, been fortunate to learn more about this particular piece contemporary art practice. The exhibition features the Steven Münchenberg, National Australia Bank, through an original photograph held at the Metropolitan work of thirty-one artists and encompasses a wide range and Director Ron Radford Museum of Art which has the personal name of the figure of media including painting on canvas and bark, sculpture, contemplate the new acquisition, Max Ernst’s written on the reverse: ‘Mogulapan’. Another particularly textiles, weaving, new media, photo-media, printmaking, Habakuk, purchased with noteworthy work in the Pacific Arts Gallery is the figure of and installation work. the assistance of the National Australia Bank a man wearing a distinctly western hat yet also wearing Spring sees the opening of Robert Rauschenberg, our Indigenous adornments. This figure, a recent acquisition latest temporary exhibition in the Orde Poynton Gallery. from the Anthony Forge collection, is the only known Robert Rauschenberg entered the New York art world in portrait of an Australian undertaken by a New Guinean 1950 at a time when Abstract Expressionism was at its artist during the early twentieth century. Also featured is peak. Working outside the restrictions imposed by media, a refined and masterful stone pestle that exhibits a rare style and convention, he adopted a unique experimental clarity of form for a daily utensil from any culture in the methodology that paved the way for a number of world. It comes from a little known prehistoric culture subsequent movements, including Pop Art. His invention of in New Guinea and is very likely to be 3500 years old, ‘combines’ and unique photo-collage and image transfer produced during the same era as the Gallery’s iconic practices made him one of the most influential figures of Ambum stone which is also on display. Both stoneworks the postwar period. This exhibition is supported by the from New Guinea are the most ancient works in the Embassy of the United States of America. Gallery’s large collection. Another new exhibition is Black robe, white mist: art The inaugural National Indigenous Art Triennial opens of the Japanese Buddhist nun Rengetsu.