artonview art o n v i ew ISSUE No.50 ISSUE No.50 winter 2007 W IN T E R 2007 NA T IONAL GALLE R Y OF AUS TR ALIA 6%29¬ )-0/24!.4 0(/4/'2!0(3 ; 6)0S¬4/¬S = National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 26 May – 19 August 2007 Athol Shmith Vivien Leigh 1948 gelatin silver photograph 50.0 x 39.3 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra GEORGE W LAMBERT • Very IMportanT photographs George Lambert The squatter’s daughter 1923–24 A brushstroke into Michelago / New South Wales / Australia Oil on canvas National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased with the generous assistance of our past James Fairfax AO and Philip Bacon AM, 1991 ActewAGL is delighted to be major sponsor of the George Lambert Retrospective: Heroes and Icons exhibition. Lambert’s painting The squatter’s daughter, depicting Michelago in 1923, is symbolic to ActewAGL as it refl ects on a time when ActewAGL was building the foundations to provide essential services to Canberra and the region. Recognising the importance of Australian art – always. 29 June – 9 September 2007 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra George Lambert The white glove 1921 (detail) Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney purchased 1922 photograph: Jenni Carter for AGNSW CCA 407/10 CCA nga.gov.au ActewAGL Retail ABN 46 221 314 841. artonview contents 2 Director’s foreword Publisher National Gallery of Australia 5 Development office nga.gov.au Editor Jeanie Watson 6 George W Lambert retrospective: heroes and icons Designer MA@D Communication 16 Conservation: restoring Lambert Photography Eleni Kypridis 18 VIP: very important photographs 1840s–1940s Barry Le Lievre Brenton McGeachie 28 The Southeast Asian Gallery Steve Nebauer John Tassie Designed and produced 34 Culture Warriors: National Indigenous Art Triennial in Australia by the National Gallery of Australia 36 New acquisitions Printed in Australia by Pirion Printers, Canberra 50 Ocean to outback: Australian landscape painting 1850–1950 artonview issn 1323-4552 Published quarterly: Issue no. 50, Winter 2007 54 Colin McCahon: writing and imagining a journey © National Gallery of Australia Print Post Approved 57 Travelling exhibitions pp255003/00078 All rights reserved. Reproduction without 58 Faces in view permission is strictly prohibited. The opinions expressed in artonview are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. 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: George W Lambert The convex mirror c. 1916 oil on wood panel 50.0 x 50.0 cm Private collection director’s foreword Daniel Boyd, Arthur Welcome to the fiftieth issue of the magazine! Caro’s Duccio variations no. 7, and Stella’s Mersin XVI to be Pambegan Jnr, Jean Baptiste Apuatimi and This month is marked by much excitement as the National donated in honour of the late Harry Seidler by Ken Tyler. Philip Gudthaykudthay at Australia Bank Sculpture Gallery has just opened to the Other Australian artists represented in the display include the announcement of the National Indigenous Art public, with two of the greatest works in the collection Indigenous artist Glen Farmer Illortaminni and Bronwyn Triennial returned to their original home – Brancusi’s black and Oliver, who unfortunately died last year. white marble Birds in space have been reinstated on their I would also like to take this opportunity to thank sandstone bases into their calm pool in the only gallery Margaret Olley AC for her very generous donation towards within an Australian museum dedicated to sculpture. the Mughal arcade in the Asian Gallery, a stunning work When the National Gallery of Australia opened proving to be very popular with visitors. twenty-five years ago, the Sculpture Gallery was a unique, Another satisfying development in our permanent contemplative space. Closed as a sculpture gallery in 1990 displays will be the opening of a dedicated Pacific Arts in the quest for more room for exhibitions and other uses, Gallery, overseen by the newly appointed curator for the it now seems time to try to do justice to some of our three- collection, Crispin Howarth. The small Pacific Arts Gallery dimensional masterpieces in this grand space. Donald exhibits more than thirty of the finest works revealing the Judd’s brass boxes, Jannis Kounellis’ Senza titolo, Louise diversity and depth of the art of our Pacific neighbours. Bourgeois’ pink wooden C.O.Y.O.T.E. and Anselm Kiefer’s Since 1969 the Pacific Arts collection has been magisterial Abendland and The secret life of plates are growing, however, apart from the acquisition of prints, joined by works from renowned Australian artists Rosalie we stopped adding to the collection from 1985 until the Gascoigne, Robert Klippel and Ken Unsworth. acquisition of the Anthony Forge memorial gift and the Some exciting new acquisitions are also on show – purchase of the very significant late nineteenth-century above all Max Ernst’s giant black bronze Habakuk, a Solomon Islands house post last year. Our Pacific Arts striking and menacing work purchased with the assistance collection comprises close to 2000 works and we will of the National Australia Bank. Others include Cy be adding major works in the future. The collection Twombly’s elegant pale bronze purchased last year with encompasses Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia with the assistance of Ros Packer and other donors, Anthony myriad island cultures stretching from Papua New Guinea 2 national gallery of australia to New Zealand and the Bismarck archipelago to Easter Another interesting temporary exhibition on show at Island. During the past quarter of a century, the Gallery the moment is VIP: very important photographs 1840s– has only displayed a handful of works from this intriguing 1940s. The exhibition showcases more than 200 works collection. Formed from the arts of preliterate cultures from the Gallery’s extensive photography collection – from from 1500 BC to around 1950, these works hold a visual pioneers of mid 19th-century photography such as William force intended to convey the will of ancestors and their Henry Talbot Fox and Julia Margaret Cameron to the years mastery over the world of man in a way that words alone after the Second World War with works by Henri Cartier- could never express. The names of the Pacific artists were Bresson, Man Ray, Olive Cotton and Walker Evans. While unfortunately very rarely recorded, although there are some photographs have become national icons such as many famous names associated with the collection: Max Max Dupain’s Sunbaker, there are many hidden gems not Ernst, Andre Breton, Jacob Epstein, Sir William Dargie, as widely recognised in the public realm. The collection Douglas Newton, Lady Drysdale, King Kalakaua of Hawaii demonstrates the power and history of photography and to name a few. portrays significant developments of the art medium I am also pleased to announce the Gallery’s new during its first century of existence. The exhibition, curated major art initiative, the National Indigenous Art Triennial. by Gael Newton, Senior Curator, Photography, and Anne Generously sponsored by BHP Billiton, the Triennial O’Hehir, Curator, Photography, is on display across the comprises works created by artists from every state and Orde Poynton and Project galleries. It is sponsored by EMC territory within the past three years, resulting in a highly Australia and Infront Systems. considered snapshot of Aboriginal and Torres Strait We will be launching in August the special twenty- Islander contemporary art practice. The inaugural National fifth anniversary exhibition Ocean to outback: Australian Indigenous Art Triennial exhibition, Culture Warriors, landscape painting 1850–1950 which I have curated and is curated by Brenda L Croft, Senior Curator Aboriginal selected to tour nine of the smaller galleries throughout and Torres Strait Islander Art at the National Gallery of Australia. Australia. Culture Warriors will be on display at the Gallery As we focus on an exceptionally busy and exciting from 13 October 2007 to 10 February 2008. The opening exhibition program and other events for our twenty- will coincide with our twenty-fifth anniversary party. fifth anniversary, we are also in the stages of formal George W Lambert retrospective: heroes and icons is planning approvals for the proposed building additions so the first major retrospective of the work of George Lambert construction can start later in the year. since his death in 1930. He is Australia’s preeminent war artist, an outstanding draughtsman, an occasional painter of delightful landscapes and flowerpieces, and the finest Australian painter of his time for figure compositions and portraits. In the 1920s he also became an excellent sculptor, second only to Rayner Hoff in Australia. During that last Ron Radford AM decade of his life Lambert was by far our most famous artist. It is very appropriate that this one-venue exhibition has been staged in Canberra by the National Gallery of Australia. We own a fine collection of Lambert’s paintings and drawings, but more particularly there are the iconic Great War paintings, commissioned for the Australian War Memorial, that cannot travel from Canberra, and need to be seen for the first time in the full context of his oeuvre. Other works are borrowed from public and private collections from all over Australia. The exhibition, curated by Dr Anne Gray, Head of Australian Art at the Gallery and the foremost authority on the subject, is generously supported by ActewWAGL.